KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 9): The government will launch the National Energy Policy 2021-2040 later this month to boost investment flows and advance Malaysia's sustainable development goals, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

Heatwaves are good for generating solar energy – right? Well, yes and no. Recent hot weather has generated record amounts of solar power. Germany broke a new record for solar power generation, and, in the United Kingdom, solar power met up to a quarter of the nation’s power needs, according to the news site Energy Live News.

As Ethereum takes its final step towards The Merge, it will change the cryptocurrency consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). With the swich, the Ethereum network is all set to be 99 per cent less energy-intensive, shifting the power from the hands of crypto miners to a completely decentralised mechanism, where nobody controls the Ethereum network.

French giant TotalEnergies SE and Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate plan to invest $5 billion to produce green hydrogen and related products in India as the world’s third-largest polluter seeks to decarbonize.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is exploring the viability of retiring its coal plants, especially the one at Kapar Energy Ventures (KEV) in 2028-2029, a year before the expiration of its power purchase agreement (PPA), in order to hasten the transition process to clean energy as it eyes a "significant share” of the RM80 billion market by 2050.

As Europe braces for energy shortages from Russian gas cuts, Japan's own energy crisis a decade ago offers survival lessons to households and businesses - such as dimming the lights and taking the stairs. EU energy ministers on Tuesday approved a proposal for member countries to cut gas use voluntarily by 15% from August to March amid uncertain supplies from Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp plans to invest 27.1 trillion rupiah (US$1.80 billion) in Indonesia in the next five years to produce electric vehicles (EVs). Indonesia aims to become a global hub for producing and exporting EVs through processing its rich supplies of nickel laterite ore for use in lithium batteries.

The car manufacturer Ford is currently testing a fully automated electric charging station solution, allowing drivers to recharge their vehicles hands-free. This is mainly aimed at drivers with disabilities or reduced mobility.

German engineering company Mahle Powertrain is heading an innovative project to replace air-polluting diesel with ammonia in heavy duty combustion engines. Ammonia as a fuel has not played a major role in the scramble to decarbonise engines so far but Mahle says it is ideal to replace diesel fuel in large marine engines and in off-highway sectors such as mining, quarrying and construction.

German energy firm RWE is to invest in a pilot project centered around the deployment of floating solar technology in the North Sea, as part of a wider collaboration focused on the development of “floating solar parks.”

Northvolt will partner with Stora Enso to develop batteries that incorporate components produced using wood sourced from forests in the Nordic region. The attempt to develop battery materials from a range of sources comes as major European economies lay out plans to move away from road-based vehicles that use diesel and gasoline.

Shops in France will be ordered to close doors when using air conditioning and limit neon lighting in a bid to cut energy waste, a minister has said. Energy costs in Europe have spiralled since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.