At the end of a winding, tree-lined country road in western Finland, four young engineers believe they have a possible answer to one of green energy's biggest challenges. The challenge is how to provide a year-round, steady power supply from renewable energy during changing seasons and variable weather conditions. The answer nestling in Vatajankoski power plant, 270 km (168 miles) north-west of Finland's capital, Helsinki, is remarkably simple, abundant and cheap: sand.

Singapore and Vietnam have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) to collaborate on energy and carbon credits, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Monday (Oct 17). The MOU on Carbon Credits Collaboration is the first to be signed between Singapore and an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member state.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) will begin repowering its power plants to green technology options starting 2035, partially relying on gas as transitional fuel when it scales up the new green technologies. The 2030s will also see the coal plants, which have been operating for decades, being retired. Concurrently, TNB will establish and grow initiatives in green hydrogen production and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February, global prices of crude oil and natural gas have risen to their highest in more than a decade, and the price of coal has hit an all-time high. These soaring energy prices are pushing up inflation rates across the United States, Europe and many emerging economies.

Gas emissions from the European Union's energy sector have ended more than a year of post-pandemic rises thanks to cleaner power supplies and energy-saving efforts, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said on Thursday.

 The World Bank on Wednesday said it expects energy prices to decline by 11% in 2023 after this year's 60% surge following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, although slower global growth and COVID restrictions in China could lead to a deeper fall. The bank in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook projected a Brent crude average price of $92 a barrel in 2023, easing to $80 in 2024 but well above the five-year average of $60.

European power tariffs have been declining thanks to mild weather and natural gas prices falling to multi-month lows. Last week, the UK saw the largest decrease in electricity prices since the peak in late August, with an 81 per cent fall, Norway-based consultancy Rystad Energy said on Monday. Prices in France fell by nearly 34 per cent, with rates in Germany “appreciably” down, said Rystad.

Malaysia’s oil and gas reserves have been a source of resilience in recent months, amid heightened concerns over energy security due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the decades ahead, though, the country needs to wean itself off fossil fuels and prepare for a low-carbon future. The transition away from oil and gas poses an enormous transition risk for Malaysia, which relies heavily on the sector for its revenues.

It sounds too good to be true: a plan to harvest solar energy from space and beam it down to Earth using microwaves. But it's something that could be happening as soon as 2035, according to Martin Soltau, the co-chairman at Space Energy Initiative (SEI) - a collaboration of industry and academics. SEI is working on a project called Cassiopeia, which plans to place a constellation of very large satellites in a high Earth orbit. Once deployed the satellites would harvest solar energy and beam it back down to Earth.

There is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place”, the UN’s environment agency has said, and the failure to reduce carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”. The UN environment report analysed the gap between the CO2 cuts pledged by countries and the cuts needed to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C, the internationally agreed target. Progress has been “woefully inadequate” it concluded.

Malaysia and Singapore have completed the upgrading of the electricity interconnector between both countries to enable mutual energy transfer in times of power outage, Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) said in a statement on Wednesday (Oct 26).

Far away from the news headlines, 770 million people across the globe cannot turn on a light switch and get power in their house. They cannot get a light to go on when the sun sets, or a fan to start despite unbearable heat, or oven to work when making a meal. Not just after a flood, or an earthquake, or a storm, or during times of conflict, but every single day. This is their daily reality. This impacts their lives, their incomes, their education, their food, their health and every single aspect of their lives.