Gas and Oil giant still able to Invest
ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest publicly listed oil and gas company, has announced that it invested $19 billion through the first three quarters to develop new energy supplies – at the same time the company unveiled a 65% year-on-year reduction in quarterly earnings which has been caused by falling commodity prices. Based in Irving, Texas, the company has reported $4.7 billion in earnings, down 65% compared to the year-earlier quarter, caused by the fall in commodity prices from last year’s record ... More
BP Breaks More H&S Rules And Gets Massive U.S. Fine
BP has been fined a massive $87m (£53m) for not implementing the correct safety standards at its refinery in Texas City, reports BBC News Online. In 2005 an explosion killed 15 people at the US plant and over 180 were injured. There were 270 violations at the refinery according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). BP said it believed it was in compliance with a 2005 settlement agreement with the OSHA but agreed to work with them to sort out ... More
Welsh Assembles Better energy-Efficiency
The Senedd building in Cardiff which houses the Welsh Assembly has had its energy-efficiency rating upgraded in a move that is believed could inspire other firms to pursue lower business energy bills, reports energyhelpline.com. According to News Wales, the building's Display Energy Certificate has been improved from a C rating to a B rating following various efficient measures that have been taken, such as its geothermal heat pump and biomass boiler installation. In addition, the Welsh Assembly Government is using natural heat ... More
Deal or no Deal
EU leaders today are going to try and agree on funding for a global deal to combat climate change – following the first day of talks which ended in deadlock. Reaching an agreement on the last day of the EU summit in Brussels this week, would greatly improve efforts to reach a deal at the global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, when the world will come together to hopefully agree on a new international agreement to tackle climate change, ... More
GB Wind Projects get EIB Backing
According to an issued Ofgem press release - the EIB and Ofgem E-Serve have today announced that the EIB is considering the provision of over £300 million of funding to investors in high voltage transmission links to offshore windfarms in Great Britain - This funding will be made available to six projects, forming the start of an important expansion of offshore generation to help meet the Government’s emissions reduction targets. Ofgem, the UK’s Office for the Gas and Electricity Markets, promotes ... More
American Electric Trials Carbon Capture
It is hoped that an American Electric Power Co. plant in New Haven, West Virginia, will determine whether the nation’s 1,500 coal-burning power generators shall become relics of the dirtier coal-age or if they can flourish in a low-carbon world - American Electric’s 29-year-old facility will this month became the U.S.’s first coal-fired power plant to capture a portion of its carbon dioxide emissions then inject them underground. The project utilising experimental technology from France’s Alstom SA - part of ... More
Chop And Change To Electric
A project in Pennsylvania aims to convert used cars into electric ones, reports The New Scientist. The Charge Car project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has designed technology to cheaply convert and old second hand car into an electric one. They have done this with a Toyota Scion to show how it can be done. They removed the cars petrol engine, fuel tank and Exhaust and replaced them with a set of lead acid batteries, four motors and a supercapacitor. ... More
Small charge for green charge
A leading laptop charger supplier in Taiwan has suggested that laptop users could feasibly pay an additional two dollars (About £1.20) to receive a simple upgrade to their chargers which would help save up to 200 million tonnes of carbon per year. Delta Electronics, which builds and assembles over half of the world’s laptop chargers, wants to educate consumers on carbon and energy efficiency that can be enhanced by using their products, that way consumers can decide whether or ... More
North South Digital Divide
Research which has been carried out by Point Topic into broadband penetration across the country, has found that - only three of the UK’s 68 cities that are classified as having high penetration were actually in the north or west of the country – Furthermore, of the 60 cities having low broadband penetration, only six were in the south. Point Topic, who specialise in detailed profiles of broadband DSL and ADSL services worldwide, also revealed that the four regions which make ... More
Willington Power Plans up for public consultation
RWE npower is a leading integrated UK energy supplier, forming part of the RWE Group, and will be inviting local people to view updated plans for a proposed new Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station at Willington. RWE npower operates and manages flexible, low-cost coal, oil and gas-fired power stations and develops innovative energy-related technologies. In November RWE npower will be holding a series of public consultation events after conducting similar sessions in June this year - The purpose of ... More