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Brussels, 19 October 2011 - The European Commission has today tabled a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks. Targeted investments in key infrastructures will help to create jobs and boost Europe's competitiveness at a time when Europe needs this most. The "Connecting Europe Facility" will finance projects which fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone. It will also make Europe's economy greener by promoting cleaner transport modes, high speed broadband connections and facilitating the use of renewable energy in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy. In addition the funding for energy networks will further integrate the internal energy market, reduce the EU's energy dependency and bolster the security of supply. To assist with the financing of the Connecting Europe Facility, the Commission has also adopted the terms for the Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative which will be one of a number of risk-sharing instruments upon which the facility may draw in order to attract private finance in projects. The pilot phase will start already next year.

 

Energy storage technologies hold tremendous potential to help stabilize, regulate, and balance the flow of electricity through the power grid. While long-duration energy storage systems (ESS) for renewables integration and peak load shifting have been a topic of much discussion within the industry, a variety of short-duration applications for energy storage are also a critical factor in the development of the sector. Such short-duration energy storage systems may be utilized for ancillary services including frequency regulation, spinning reserves, voltage control, and load following, among others. According to a new report from Pike Research, the global market for ESS for ancillary services applications will see strong growth in the coming decade, with revenues in the sector rising from $412 million in 2011 to more than $3.2 billion by 2021.

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced 16 projects supporting activities in 24 states and the District of Columbia to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in communities across the nation, and seven additional projects in seven states to help prepare college students for careers designing and building advanced vehicle technologies.

"By developing the next generation of automotive engineers and preparing communities for plug-in electric vehicles, these projects will help reduce our nation's dependence on oil imports, create jobs, and help America capture the growing global market for advanced vehicles," said Secretary Chu.

U.S. announces historic investment to jump-start "drop-in" biofuels at commercial scale. Jet fuel, diesel in focus - USDA, DOE, USN to share tab and leverage private investment.

In Washington, President Obama today announced that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million during the next three years in partnership with the private sector to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels to power military and commercial transportation.

The initiative responds to a directive from President Obama issued in March as part of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, the framework for reducing dependence on foreign oil.

$510 million US investment - with a minimum of $510 million more from private industry.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- August 11, 2011 -- Not only should the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) slow down reactor licensing and relicensing in order to address a range of health and safety concerns raised by its own experts in the task force review of the Fukushima disaster, but the reality is that the NRC is required to apply the brakes in order to comply with existing federal law, according to 19 separate legal challenges filed today by a total of 25 public interest groups and several individuals.

The groups contend that under federal law, the NRC may not issue or renew a single reactor license until it has either strengthened regulations to protect the public from severe accident risks or until it has made a careful and detailed study of the environmental implications of not doing so. The groups are also pursuing a technical finding from high in the NRC that leads to upgraded safety standards.