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☆ Review: After 55 Years, the Helsinki Philharmonic Returns to Carnegie Hall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Until Tuesday, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra hadn’t been to Carnegie Hall since 1968. Its chief conductor at the time was Jorma Panula, who was at the podium for that visit. Now, 55 years later, the group is led by one of his former students: Susanna Mälkki. Her tenure in Helsinki, where she has been the chief conductor since 2016, ends this season. In Los Angeles, Mälkki’s repertoire has been varied: a lot of well-shepherded contemporary music, but also insightfully transparent interpretations of the classics.

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Floating wind is viewed as the final frontier for offshore wind as turbines can be installed in deeper waters than fixed-bottom foundations, harnessing stronger and more continuous wind to generate more power. There are two main types of tender for traditional and floating wind projects. ITALYItaly is expected to hold an auction for up to 1 GW of offshore wind power, including floating technology, in 2023 or 2024. NORWAYNorway opened its first tenders to build offshore wind farms, including one area for floating wind, in a step to meet growing electricity demand at home and to build a new industry. TAIWANTaiwan is set to hold an auction for site licences and power offtake agreements for 3 GW, including offshore wind this year.

[1/2] Hywind Tampen floating wind farm structures are being assembled at the Wergeland Base in Gulen, Norway, June 7, 2022. But by 2035, the LCOE for floating wind is expected to fall to about 60 euros/MWh. It plans to set a specific target for floating wind this year. Britain aims to have 5 GW of floating wind installed by 2030 but a report by the UK Floating Wind Offshore Wind Taskforce, said 34 GW could be installed by 2040 if ports were upgraded. "South Korea will be commercial the quickest," said Cole at Corio Generation, which has 1.5 GW of floating wind under development there.

[1/4] A view of a computer-rendered image of Climeworks' Mammoth direct air capture plant is seen in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters, June 28, 2022. Leading the charge, the U.S. government has offered $3.5 billion in grants to build the factories that will capture and permanently store the gas - the largest such effort globally to help halt climate change through Direct Air Capture (DAC) and expanded a tax credit to $180/tonne to bolster the burgeoning technology. The sums involved dwarf funding available in other regions, such as Britain which has pledged up to 100 million pounds ($124 million) for DAC research and development. That compares with $12 billion in federal spending to drive demand for personal and commercial electric vehicles, Boston Consulting Group estimated. Occidental Petroleum has said it is well positioned for federal grants for what could be the biggest Direct Air Capture plants in the world.

☆ Energy firms lose UK legal challenge over sale of collapsed rival Bulb
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A British Gas sign is seen outside its offices in Staines in southern England, July 31, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File PhotoLONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Centrica's British Gas, Scottish Power and E.ON on Friday lost a court challenge over the British government’s handling of the sale of collapsed energy firm Bulb. The three other energy suppliers had argued the government had unlawfully committed billions of pounds of taxpayers' money to prop up Bulb, without considering the potential impact on the wider energy market. "It's clear that the case was a desperate attempt by those organisations to defend their waning market positions against a more efficient and customer-focused rival," Octopus Energy said in a statement. The addition of Bulb's customers catapulted Octopus to become the country's third largest domestic energy supplier behind British Gas and E.ON.

☆ Britain to announce energy security measures by month-end
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - British government measures to support energy security will be announced later in March, a budget document said on Wednesday without mention of any fresh incentives for oil and gas or renewable energy producers. "In addition to the measures in the spring budget, the government will set out further action later this month to ensure energy security in the UK and meet our net zero commitments," the government said in a budget document. "The Government has repeatedly ignored warnings from the renewable sector as it bulldozes through its tax raid on green electricity generators," said Rod Wood, managing director at wind energy developer Community Wind Power. "We are disappointed that it has not removed obstacles for offshore energy firms and the homegrown oil and gas producers." Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Susanna Twidale Editing by David Goodman, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. bank woes no threat to Swedish financial system, watchdog says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OSLO, March 13 (Reuters) - The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and some other U.S. banks is unlikely to impact Sweden's financial stability, Sweden's financial watchdog said on Monday. While the U.S. banking market was hit by a degree of turbulence, Swedish banks are regulated more tightly to ensure liquidity buffers are in place and balance sheets are protected, it added. "Our assessment is however that the stability of the Swedish financial system is not affected by this," acting FI Director-General Susanna Grufman said. Pensions group Alecta has around 12 billion Swedish crowns ($1.12 billion) in investments in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (SBNY.O), news agency TT reported. "Up to now we do not see any spread of the effects into the Swedish financial system," Wykman told Reuters.

Representatives of the renewable energy sector say those goals could be missed without policy changes, especially as other countries are doing more to attract investment in green power. Rod Wood, managing director at wind energy developer Community Wind Power, is among those seeking changes to the EGL in Britain's March 15 budget. OIL AND GAS SECTOR UNHAPPY TOOOil and gas producers, which have been subject to a windfall tax since May 2022, also want change. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, in a meeting in December, rebuffed calls from the oil and gas industry to amend the windfall tax. Meanwhile, Britain's biggest oil and gas producer Harbour , has announced job cuts and shunned the latest licensing round.

An ETS sets a cap on the amount of CO2 emissions that a sector, or group of sectors, can produce. The system creates CO2 permits, called EU Allowances (EUAs) for those emissions, which companies must buy for each tonne of CO2 they emit. CO2 permits are traded on the open market, meaning companies, traders and investors buying them pay the same price. Critics say by making it cheaper to pollute, free permits have reduced the incentive for industries to reduce their emissions. Companies that already pay CO2 costs in the country where the goods were produced can be exempted from the EU levy.

The more emitters have to pay for EU carbon permits to cover each tonne of C02 they produce, the greater the incentive to invest in low carbon technologies and switch to less polluting fuels. Still, rising carbon prices are a cause of political tensions in the EU and breaching the 100 euro threshold is likely to reignite debates over prices. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last year called for a CO2 price cap to help tackle soaring inflation. Other EU countries view a robust carbon price as vital to meeting climate goals. Years of weak prices followed until CO2 prices began to recover in 2018 when the EU agreed to remove surplus permits from the market.

Benchmark EU carbon permit prices hit 100 euros per tonne of CO2 on Tuesday, the highest since the scheme launched in 2005. The largest project being developed in the Netherlands secured national funding to bridge the gap between costs and the CO2 price. The United States does not have a nationwide carbon price, although states including California do. An EU carbon price of 100 euros adds 30-40 euros to the cost of a tonne of primary steel production, according to Eurofer. For example, blast furnace-based steelmakers were given around 80% of their CO2 permits, commodity industry analysis firm CRU said.

☆ EU carbon price hits record high nearing 100 euros/tonne
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Susanna Twidale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The benchmark European carbon contract hit a record high approaching 100 euros a tonne on Monday, with cooler weather forecasts and expectations of lower wind power output driving up demand. The benchmark EU Allowance (EUA) December 2023 contract closed at 98.30 euros a tonne, up 2.1% since Friday's close and having earlier touched a record high of 99.99 euros tonne. “Temperatures in Northern Europe are actually now forecasted to go below seasonal averages next week, which might instigate utilities to increase their hedging activities,” said Gregory Idil, a senior carbon emissions trader at Vertis. The benchmark contract has risen almost 20% since the beginning of the year, partly on expectations that Europe's economies could start to improve as energy prices fall from record highs. Although the carbon contract failed to break the 100 euro mark on Monday, traders and analysts said this level could soon be breached.

☆ Cost of EDF's new UK nuclear project rises to $40 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( America Hernandez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - EDF's (EDF.PA) new nuclear plant in southwest England is likely to cost about 2% more than its last budget estimate as inflation propels the price tag to almost 33 billion pounds ($40 billion), EDF documents show. EDF warned in a results presentation on Friday the cost of the Hinkley Point C project, Britain's first new nuclear plant in more than two decades, "could reach 32.7 billion pounds" based on inflation indexes as of June 30, 2022. Its previously published cost estimate in May 2022 was 31-32 billion euros when adjusted for inflation. The company last week reported a record net loss of 17.9 billion euros ($19.1 billion). The project is already a decade overdue, with EDF initially saying it would be powering British homes in 2017.

☆ Britain’s Drax says power plants would still run during strike action
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Drax Group PLC FollowLONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Power plants operated by British generator Drax (DRX.L) will still be able to operate if strike action by Unite union workers go ahead later this month, the company said on Wednesday. Drax’s power plants can make up around 7% of Britain’s electricity supply. “In the event of industrial action, Drax has robust plans in place to ensure the power station continues to safely generate renewable electricity for millions of homes and businesses,” a spokesperson for Drax said. The company dismissed claims made by the Unite union that the industrial action could lead to power cuts in the country. “The strike action at Drax will inevitably cause considerable strain on the national grid but this dispute is completely of the company’s own making,” Unite regional officer Shane Sweeting said.

☆ Sundance Movies: Brett Kavanaugh and Steph Curry Docs, "Cat Person"
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. Asked about the film's aspect ratio in an audience Q&A, Jalali said, "It was prettier that way." The bulk of the films I saw were more commercial, and four of them centered on relationships. And then there was "Cat Person," based on a 2017 New Yorker story about dating by Kristen Roupenian.

☆ The Sundance Film Festival stirs buzz, draws A-list stars, and screens movies that get you talking, but it can't hide the crisis facing independent filmmakers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. A-list stars like Anne Hathaway and Jason Momoa were present to promote their buzzy films. It was impossible not to feel optimistic about the state of independent film at the opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. At an event like Sundance, even amid some hand-wringing over the future, the excitement is contagious.

☆ King Charles to give back profit from $1 bln-a-year wind farm deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Britain's King Charles speaks during a visit at the Aboyne and Mid Deeside Community Shed in Aboyne, Scotland, Britain, January 12, 2023. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File PhotoLONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - King Charles told the British government he would like an expected surge in profit from a 900 million pound ($1.1 billion)-a-year wind farm deal for his Crown Estate to go to the "wider public good" rather than to the royal family. Under agreements announced on Thursday, the Crown Estate will lease sites for six new offshore wind projects that are capable of generating enough green electricity to power more than seven million homes by 2030. It is based on 15% of surplus revenue from the Crown Estate - a property portfolio belonging to the monarchy. Sharing the wind farm windfall would happen through "an appropriate reduction" in the proportion of the Crown Estate surplus that funds the Sovereign Grant.

☆ UK household energy subsidies could hit zero later this year -Cornwall Insight
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The government has guaranteed to keep average household energy bills below 2,500 pounds ($3,086) a year until the end of April and below 3,000 pounds until March 31, 2024. Following the wholesale price slump analysts at Cornwall Insight forecast average annual energy bills, under a cap set by regulator Ofgem, will fall to around 2,201 pounds a year in July and reach 2,241 pounds a year in October. Prices however remain historically high, meaning consumers are unlikely to feel much better off. "The cap predictions for April remain nearly three times what a typical household was paying pre-pandemic,” Craig Lowrey, Principal Consultant at Cornwall Insight said. ($1 = 0.8102 pounds)Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Britain produced record amount of wind power in 2022, National Grid says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies National Grid PLC FollowLONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Britain’s wind farms contributed a record 26.8% of the country’s electricity in 2022 although gas-fired power plants remained the biggest source of power, National Grid (NG.L) data showed on Friday. Britain has a target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 which will require a huge scale-up of renewable power generation such as wind and solar. The share of wind power in Britain’s electricity mix last year was up from 21.8% in 2021, the data showed, as more wind projects came online. Britain’s gas-fired power plants produced 38.5% of the country’s electricity last year, up from 37.8% in 2021, the data showed. Britain's electricity mix 2022The rise came as the country imported less electricity, with imports making up 5.5% of the total down from 10.3% in 2021.

☆ Britain produced record amount of wind power in 2022 –National Grid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"It always rains a lot here, it's very cold and it's January and it feels like summer," said Bilbao resident Eusebio Folgeira, 81. French tourist Joana Host said: "It's like nice weather for biking but we know it's like the planet is burning. Scientists have not yet analysed the specific ways in which climate change affected the recent high temperatures, but January's warm weather spell fits into the longer-term trend of rising temperatures due to human-caused climate change. "The record-breaking heat across Europe over the new year was made more likely to happen by human-caused climate change, just as climate change is now making every heatwave more likely and hotter," said Dr Friederike Otto, climate scientist at Imperial College London. French national weather agency Meteo France attributed the anomalous temperatures to a mass of warm air moving to Europe from subtropical zones.

Companies could also move their gas trading off energy exchanges, where the EU price cap will apply, and instead conduct private transactions. The EU cap will not initially cover these "over-the-counter" (OTC) trades, although the bloc will review next year if they should be included. The EU price cap applies to EU hubs, but not those outside the bloc, such as Britain's National Balancing Point (NBP) trading hub. Front-month TTF prices met the price level required to trigger the EU cap on about 40 days this year. EU gas demand dropped by 20% in August-November this year, compared with the five-year average for the same period, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

☆ UK government sets out detail of tax on electricity producers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Britain's finance ministry set out details on Tuesday of a temporary 45% tax on excess profits made by some electricity generating companies after Jan. 1. The tax is part of measures designed to help plug a major hole in public finances and comes after energy firms reported extraordinary profits, thanks to record energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The government said it had heard calls from companies concerned that the tax could reduce investments in new projects. Power firms have asked for investments in new production to help offset the tax in a similar way to how the windfall tax is levied on oil and gas companies. ($1 = 0.8231 pounds)Reporting by David Milliken and Susanna Twidale; editing by William James and Arun KoyyurOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The aim is to shield European households and businesses from the kind of gas price spikes experienced since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. WHY CAP GAS PRICES? Gas prices have eased in recent months as the EU agreed some emergency measures, including obligations to fill gas storage, but they remain high. The EU price cap would not drop below 180 eur/MWh, even if the LNG price fell to far lower levels. The EU price cap is designed to be a temporary fix that would apply for one year.

A large dent has also come from industrial sectors forced to curb output as high gas prices make production uneconomic with some firms shifting production to regions with cheaper energy. FIGHT FOR SUPPLIESThe obvious way to boost supplies is through liquefied natural gas (LNG). That may not happen next year, meaning Europe would face fierce competition for LNG that would drive up the cost. Record high prices in Europe, however painful, helped the region to secure record volumes of LNG imports this year. Benchmark European gas prices hit a peak in August of more than 300 euros/MWh.

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