Blog

Producción y mercados energéticos 27/02/19

Latest Energy News

27 February 2019

TOP STORY: GWEC reports global wind capacity additions reached 51.3 GW in 2018 According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), 51.3 GW of additional wind capacity was commissioned in 2018, of which 46.8 GW onshore and 4.5 GW offshore. The top five onshore markets that led the growth were namely China (+21.2 GW), the United States (+7.6 GW), Germany (+2.4 GW), India (+2.2 GW) and Brazil (1.9 GW).. Promising regions such as Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa also contributed to this figure and were responsible for 4.8 GW (10%) of new wind onshore installations in 2018. As for offshore wind, the main contributions were recorded in China (+1.8 GW), the United Kingdom (+1.3 GW), Germany (+0.9 GW) and Belgium (+0.3 GW).. The GWEC predicts that this momentum is likely to continue over the next four years and expects new capacity additions to reach at least 55 GW per year until 2023. The future growth will be driven by developing markets in South East Asia, while mature regions such as Europe and the United States will continue to commission stable volumes by then.

Companies EU clears RWE’s acquisition of E.ON power generation assets (Germany) The European Commission has approved the acquisition of E.ON’s renewable and nuclear power generation assets by RWE under the EU Merger Regulation. Read more Iberdrola (Spain) will invest €34bn by the end of 2022 Spanish energy company Iberdrola has unveiled plans to increase its investments through 2022 and will spend a total of €34bn over the 2018-2022 period, of which 86% will be in regulated or long-term contracted activities: €16bn (47%) will be dedicated to power networks and €13.3bn (39%) for the development of renewable energy assets. Read more Sempra Energy starts sale of power distributors in Peru and Chile US-based gas and power utility Sempra Energy has launched a formal process for the divestment of its equity interests in its South American businesses and in particular in the Peruvian and Chilean distributors of electricity Luz del Sur and Chilquinta Energía. Sempra Energy expects the planned sales to be completed by the end of 2019. Read more Policy & Regulatory ACWA Power wins Bahrain’s 100 MW PV tender with US$3.9c/kWh bid Bahrain’s state-run power utility Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) has awarded a contract to a consortium comprising the Saudi Arabian energy company ACWA Power, the Japanese firm Mitsui and the Bahraini industrial conglomerate AlMoayyed for the construction and operation of a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the Askar landfill site. Read more Infrastructure & Investments ScottishPower will invest £2bn (€2.3bn) in the United Kingdom in 2019 Iberdrola’s British subsidiary ScottishPower has outlined plans to invest up to £2bn (€2.3bn) in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019. This is the company’s single largest investment amount in a single year and it comes at a time when it updates its investment plans following the sale of its thermal power generation business. Read more Saudi Aramco acquires stake in 800,000 bbl/d Zhejiang refinery (China) Saudi Arabia state-run oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has signed an agreement to acquire a 9% stake in the Zhejiang Zhoushan greenfield refinery and petrochemical complex project in the city of Zhoushan, in Zhejiang (China) for an undisclosed price. The refinery is currently being built and will have a processing capacity of 800,000 bbl/d. Read more Australian government approves Snowy Hydro 2.0 expansion project The Australian government has cleared the early work phase of the Snowy 2.0 hydropower expansion project and has committed to investing up to AUD1.38bn (US$989m) to support the project. The remainder will be funded by the project operator and owner Snowy Hydro, which is set to begin early works shortly. Read more Dominion’s Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project loses permit appeal (US) The 15.5 bcm/year Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project in North Carolina (United States) has suffered another setback as the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals has denied requests to reconsider its previous ruling, which rejected a federal permit allowing the project to pass through a major hiking trail and two national forests. Read more