Wanderer

"China could be on its way to becoming the world’s first major “electrostate”, with its electrification rate climbing to 30 per cent, ahead of the EU and US where electricity as a final share of energy has plateaued at about 22 per cent in recent years."

"The Texas Senate passed a bill Thursday that leading business interests fear would lead to an age of expensive power and rolling blackouts.

If passed by the House, state S.B. 715 would require all renewable projects — even existing ones — to buy backup power, largely from coal or gas plants.

This would require solar plants in particular to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway,” consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in an April analysis"

"Crude oil futures settled lower on the week as the market eyed a potential for rising global supply amid signs of internal OPEC+ tensions.

Prompt-dated June WTI settled at $63.02/b April 25, a gain of 23 cents on the day but down $1.66/b from the April 17 close. Front-month ICE Brent ended the April 25 session up 32 cents at $66.87/b but still down $1.09/b from its week-ago level.

Selling pressure emerged midweek after Kazakh Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov on April 23 roiled crude markets when he said Kazakhstan would pursue its own "national interests" when determining production levels, raising doubts about the country's commitment to fulfilling output cuts as part of the OPEC+ producer group"

"Key Points

• Alphabet reported Thursday that Waymo, its autonomous vehicle unit, is now delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S.
• That figure is up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March.
• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo is building partnerships with ride-hailing app Uber, automakers and operations and maintenance businesses that tend to its vehicle fleets."

"Pakistan isn’t the first country you’d expect to crash the global solar party. But by the end of 2024, it quietly rocketed into the top tier of solar adopters, importing a jaw-dropping 22 gigawatts worth of solar panels in a single year. That’s not a typo or a spreadsheet rounding error. That’s the kind of number that turns heads at IEA meetings and makes policy analysts double-check their databases. It certainly made me sit up and take notice when I first heard about what was happening in mid-2024.

It’s more solar than Canada has installed in total. It’s more than the UK added in the past five years. And yet it didn’t make a blip in most Western media."

"Norway is the world leader when it comes to the take up of electric cars, which last year accounted for nine out of 10 new vehicles sold in the country."

Figure AI, a robotics innovator, and BMW, the German automobile giant, have revealed remarkable advancements in the Figure 02 humanoid robot’s capabilities. 

Operating on a production line, the Figure 02 robot has made a significant leap, achieving a 400% increase in speed and a sevenfold improvement in success rate.

"The UK’s era of coal-free power begins on the 1st October 2024, following a rapid decline over the last 12 years which has seen power sector emissions plummet by three quarters."

"This report provides an overview of the UK coal power phase-out, looking at changes in electricity generation since 2012 when coal began to rapidly decline. It provides context on how phase-out was achieved through a mix of initiatives and policy frameworks, and considers how this can inform the next chapter of UK power sector decarbonisation."

"Coal power provided almost 40% of UK generation in 2012, shrinking to 2% by 2019, and finally falling to zero by October 2024. In 2012, coal generated 143 TWh of electricity, equivalent to Sweden’s total power demand in 2023."