Tag - energy

 
 

ENERGY

The Stratos Direct Air Capture Facility, a joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and asset manager BlackRock, in Ector County, Texas, last July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2025
Carbon capture industry tweaks message for the Trump era
The lobbying strategy is to frame CCS as "an economic competitiveness and American leadership issue."
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok in August 2023. Thaksin has vowed cheaper power in Thailand to allow the country to emerge as a data center hub.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025
Thaksin vows cheaper power to turn Thailand into data center hub
Thailand aims to slash electricity costs by more than 25% by next year to emerge as a hub for data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear plant in the town of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2025
Nagoya court upholds NRA approvals extending use of reactors in Fukui Prefecture
The district court decision clears the operation of reactors at Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear plant and Mihama plant for up to 20 more years, beyond the 40 year maximum.
Blue pipelines to transport seawater, part of the facility operated by Tepco where treated radioactive water is released from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant into the sea, are seen during a treated water dilution and discharge facility tour for foreign media in the town of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in August 2023.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025
Tepco releases treated water from Fukushima plant for last time in fiscal 2024
The operator of the nuclear plant plans to discharge 7,800 tons of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, into the Pacific during the current release.
Protesters demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Tuesday against court rulings acquitting two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives finalized
Lawyers acting as prosecutors did not file an appeal against the Supreme Court's decision last week that upheld the not-guilty verdicts against the executives.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who said he would do everything he could to reduce active nuclear reactors to close to zero, changed his stance once he became prime minister.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 12, 2025
Government does about-face on nuclear policy 14 years after triple meltdown
The government cited the need to ensure stable electricity supplies and secure carbon-free energy sources.
The law will require scrap metal dealers to verify the identity of sellers during transactions.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 11, 2025
Japan moves to curb metal theft with new identity check laws
Metal theft has surged in recent years, driven by rising copper prices.
A tank holds untreated waste from plutonium production at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a site that was integral to the nation’s nuclear arsenal after World War II, north of Richland, Washington, in March 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 11, 2025
Most contaminated U.S. nuclear site is set to be the largest solar farm
Plans to transform Hanford had just begun inching forward when U.S. President Donald Trump started his second term.
India, the world’s third-biggest emitter, wants to more than double clean-power capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030. That won't be easy.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 10, 2025
Eyeing short-term savings, India’s utilities put green energy boom at risk
A federal auction model that helped the country add more than 130 gigawatts of renewables projects over the past decade is under threat of circumvention.
A town hall meeting with residents of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, one of the municipalities evacuated in the aftermath of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. More dialogue is needed to foster truly participatory energy democracy in Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2025
Japan needs collective public support to reach its nuclear goals
Over a decade after 3/11, Japan has the chance to foster truly participatory energy democracy by engaging its civic environmental organizations in nuclear policymaking processes.
Iran's Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in the south of the country
WORLD
Mar 9, 2025
Trump administration ends Iraq's waiver to buy Iranian electricity
Trump restored "maximum pressure" on Iran in one of his first acts after returning to office in January.
Former Executive Vice President Ichiro Takekuro enters the Tokyo High Court for the appellate court ruling in January 2023 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives to be finalized
The Supreme Court supported the lower courts' decisions that the accident was unpredictable and decided to dismiss an appeal by lawyers acting as prosecutors.
Minister for Reconstruction Tadahiko Ito responding to a question at a group interview on Monday at the Reconstruction Agency
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025
Reconstruction minister vows to address Fukushima soil reuse
"It's natural that Futaba residents are concerned," Tadahiko Ito said of the envisaged plan to first consider reusing the decontaminated soil in the town.
After the ruling in the lawsuit seeking an injunction against the operation of the No. 3 reactor at Shikoku Electric Power's Ikata nuclear plant, the representatives of the legal team led by attorney Kan Ebisuda (center) hold a news conference on Wednesday in Naka Ward, Hiroshima City.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2025
Hiroshima court rejects request for Ikata reactor injunction
Presiding judge Kazumi Ohama said "It cannot be said that there is a specific danger that violates the lives of the plaintiffs."
Oil pipelines in Alaska. Although the Alaska LNG project has been planned for decades, it faces headwinds from its large price tag and mammoth scale.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Trump touts plans to spur mammoth Alaska gas export project
Japan, South Korea and other countries want to partner with the U.S. and invest in "a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska," the U.S. president said.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline along the Dalton Highway in Stevens Village, Alaska, on Sep. 19, 2024
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 5, 2025
Trump says Japan and South Korea want to partner in Alaska pipeline
Japan, South Korea and other countries want to partner with the United States in a "gigantic" natural gas pipeline in Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, claiming they would invest "trillions of dollars each."
Xiaobaodang Coal Mine, in Shaanxi province, China, in 2023. China, which mines and burns half the world’s coal, is facing swelling inventories of the fuel.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 3, 2025
Coal’s four-year lows hide a coming global supply squeeze
Demand for the fuel continues to rise in India and China, outpacing breakneck rates of expansion in solar and wind.
Hidetaka Ishii, an official at the Chiba Municipal Government, says close coordination with private-sector operators is key for regional decarbonization efforts.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Mar 2, 2025
Japan’s climate heroes show potential and limits of local initiatives
Chiba and others show the potential for local areas to accelerate the energy transition, as well as the challenges of building locally driven, carbon-free energy models.
The global electric vehicle boom has resulted in a lithium supply shortage since 2022 despite the 180% increase in production compared to 2017.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 1, 2025
Three novel approaches that can revolutionize batteries
The innovations aren’t yet available at a commercial scale, but they are part of an effort to prevent the global clean energy transition from stalling.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in the capital rose 2.2% in February from a year earlier, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 28, 2025
Tokyo inflation slows slightly more than expected on subsidy impact
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in the capital rose 2.2% in February from a year earlier, according to the internal affairs ministry.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.