European Union countries are split over whether to allow nuclear energy to contribute to meeting their renewable energy targets, a dispute threatening to delay one of the EU’s main climate policies. Negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament hold their final scheduled round of negotiations on Wednesday, to set more ambitious EU goals to expand renewable energy this decade. The goals are key to Europe’s efforts to slash CO2 emissions by 2030 and quit Russian fossil fuels.

The Economy Ministry will launch the National Energy Transition Roadmap by June 30 this year at the latest in a bid to speed up projects involving transition to renewable energy as well as restructure the economy. Its minister Rafizi Ramli said accelerating the transition to renewable energy is in line with the requirements of the global economy and would also ensure the country’s future energy supply position.

European startup Sun-Ways has devised a mechanical device to deploy removable solar panels along railway tracks. This innovation could be implemented on half of the railway lines across the globe, according to the Swizerland-based energy startup.  The area between railroad lines is broad enough to accommodate standard-sized solar panels without impeding train passage, claims co-founder Sun-Ways, Baptiste Danichert.

Indonesia’s presidency at the next ASEAN Chairmanship may hold the key to unlocking the region’s most ambitious and promising energy project, the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) project. This year, Indonesia will chair a multilateral meeting (again) called the 2023 ASEAN Chairmanship, with the theme of “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.” This meeting will hone in on enhancing ASEAN’s institutional capacity and effectiveness to be a fast-growing, inclusive, and sustainable economic region.

Sunway Group will create cooperative projects with Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and look into new possibilities in the fields of clean energy enterprises, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) capabilities, and energy transition solutions. Both parties inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 17.

A scheme that was launched to help commercial electricity consumers purchase electricity at fixed prices to cushion them against the volatility of wholesale electricity prices will be suspended from May 1. The Energy Market Authority (EMA) said in a statement on Monday that it will be discontinuing the Temporary Electricity Contracting Support Scheme (Trecs) in the light of global energy prices being less volatile in recent months, adding that the Government’s “emergency measures” have stabilised the electricity market.  

The European Commission presented the centrepieces of a strategy on Thursday to ensure its industry can compete with the United States and China in making clean tech products and accessing raw materials required for the green transition. The EU executive's Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act, part of its Green Deal Industrial Plan, are designed to ensure the bloc is not just a frontrunner in cutting carbon emissions, but also ahead on the technology required to do so. There are signs it is lagging.

Years ago, Japanese officials waltzed into our countries – the Philippines and Indonesia – and cut deals to develop dirty coal power plants that would enrich Japanese corporate interests. After years of resistance, people’s movements from the Philippines to Bangladesh and Indonesia succeeded in pressuring the Japanese government last year to stop exporting its dirty coal technologies to our vibrant, rich and extremely climate vulnerable countries. We won. But now Japan is at it again.

Worldwide Holdings Bhd signed four memorandums of understanding (MoUs) today to establish cooperation in the development of solar energy projects to promote smart and renewable energy use in Selangor.

The Economy Ministry plans to finalise and present the Energy Transition Roadmap, which translates the National Energy Policy into energy transition projects to be led by large, medium-sized and small companies, within three months. Its minister, Rafizi Ramli (pic), said Malaysia’s aim to transition to green energy is a strategic agenda that can create new high-value jobs, as well as fulfilling its global responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG).

Berlin is planning to introduce a special industrial electricity tariff ranging between €0.05 and €0.09 per kilowatt-hour in order to boost the country’s competitiveness and push back against US and Chinese subsidies. Electricity has always been pricey in Germany – a 2015 study by the Fraunhofer Institute found that the power bill of German companies is on average more than double that of their competitors in the US and China.

After making them free since late January, TNB has now begun to impose charging fees on EV owners that want to utilize the TNB Electron DC fast chargers (DCFC). Available in several locations within North-South Expressway (PLUS) and East Coast Expressway Phase 2 (LPT2), the charging fee depends on the specific charger that they choose.