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The Department of Energy (DOE) of the Philippines will expedite the implementation of three key renewable energy policies, in order to reduce the country’s dependence on coal. Under the Renewable Portfolio Standards policy, power distribution utilities will be required to purchase a minimum share of renewable energy; the minimum requirement will be readjusted annually, without any timeline so far. The second policy is the Green Energy Option, which will enable power consumers to demand a level of renewables in their power supply. The DOE also initiated a proposal to establish a Green Energy Rate for 2 GW of new renewable energy generation capacity: new renewable projects will secure long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) under a base-line price.

The Philippines aims to reduce its dependence on coal but still consider LNG and coal as bridging fuels as the country is transitioning towards more renewable energies. The electricity capacity stood at 23.6 GW at the end of 2018, with coal accounting for 8.7 GW, oil for 4.2 GW, hydro for 3.7 GW, gas for 3.4 GW, geothermal for 1.9 GW, solar for 0.9 GW and wind for 0.4 GW. The Philippines seeks to double its generation capacity by 2030.

US power utility Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) has presented its Powering Progress vision in which it plans to shut down or sell all its coal-fired power plants fleet, while keeping operating only three gas-fired plants, namely the 1,060 MW Bridgeport, the 830 MW Keys and the 975 MW Sewaren power plants that will producing electricity until 2046.

Eni has made a significant discovery in the first appraisal well of the Agogo discovery in Block 15/06, offshore Angola. The well results confirmed the extension of the Agogo reservoir to the north of the discovery well and below the salt diapirs. The Agogo field would hold 650 mbl of oil in place and could producce more than 15,000 bbl/d of crude oil.

The European Commission has decided to refer Belgium to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to correctly implement EU electricity and gas market rules under the Third Energy Package (Electricity Directive 2009/72/EC and Gas Directive 2009/73/EC).

EDF has confirmed that its 1,650 MWe Flamanville-3 nuclear project in northwestern France could not be commmissioned before the end of 2022, due to the repairs on welds in the main steam transfer pipes required by the French nuclear regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN)..

Transnet, a South African state-owned freight logisitcs group, plans to launch a tender for the construction of the first LNG import terminal in South Africa in the third quarter of 2020. The LNG project would be located at Richards Bay port and would start to import LNG as of 2024. LNG could be imported from Angola and Mozambique, where a large liquefaction plant project was recently approved.

The Dutch power group Eneco has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for all of the power generation from the 383 MW Fryslân near-shore wind project, located off the Frisian coast near the Afsluitdijk dike in the Netherlands. The wind project will consist of 89 wind turbines with a total capacity of 383 MW and will generate around 1.5 TWh/year of renewable electricity as of 2021.

Namibia’s national power utility NamPower has annouced that it will build four new power plants with a combined capacity of 150 MW over the next five years. Investment is estimated at NAD4.7bn (US$338m) to be divided into biomass-fired, wind and solar projects. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2022..