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California Assembly (United States) has approved the Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) regulation, which was previously adopted by the Californian Senate, the Californian Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee in 2017. The bill still requires to be approved by the state governor in order to become a law.

SB 100 plans to increase the current Californian renewable energies share in the power mix up to 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2045. If the bill becomes a law, California would join Hawaii as the second American state which has a legally binding target of generating 100% of all electricity from clean and renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar.

The European Union (EU) will ban the use of halogen light bulbs across the European territory starting from September 2018. Halogen bulbs will be replaced with more energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), helping to reduce European CO2 emissions and energy bills. Remaining stocks will be sold but no new products will be offered for sale.

Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas company Naftogaz believes that the unbundling of its gas transmission services will not be technically possible before December 2019, when the current contracts with Russia’s state-held company Gazprom expire. The singling out of its gas transmission assets will be impossible due to Gazprom’s refusal to change the transit contract.

Iranian crude oil sales plummeted by 600,000 bbl/d to 1.68 mb/d in the first half of August 2018, which represents a 20% decrease compared with the volumes recorded from the same time in July 2018. Besides, Iranian exports have dropped by 62% since May 2018, when they reached a record of 2.7 mb/d. August 2018 marks the fourth month of declining exports in a row for the country,…

Chinese utility Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation is mulling over the construction of a 1,100 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line which would connect Chinese offshore wind parks to the mainland. The company has contracted the certification body DNV GL to provide technical advisory support on feasibility studies for the power transmission project,…

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the commissioning of the first liquefaction train of the Freeport LNG project in Texas (United States), which is currently under construction and expected to enter in service between September 2019 and May 2020.

The Lithuanian Governmental Commission on the Economic Infrastructure Development has approved the acquisition of an LNG storage vessel in 2024, believing this is the most economic and strategically sustainable choice for the country. It expects this measure to ensure more competitive gas prices and the lowest LNG infrastructure maintenance costs in the short and the long term.

US-based energy company NTE Energy has commissioned the 475 MW Kings Mountain Energy Center (KMEC) CCGT in Cleveland County (North Carolina, United States). The power plant includes a 501GAC air-cooled combustion turbine, a Vogt HRSG and a Toshiba steam turbine. The project broke ground in March 2016 and its total cost is estimated at US$500m.