Energy

Sales of electric vehicles are booming and are expected to account for nearly one in five cars sold this year, according to a report released yesterday.

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is working on projects aimed at utilizing geothermal energy resources, particularly in urban agriculture, while officials are looking into ways to boost biomass production in rural areas.

The ministry favors the specialized greenhouse-organized industrial zones based on geothermal heating (TDİOSB) as the more appropriate model.

The issue of storing electricity from renewable energy sources in Cyprus has become a problem due to extensive production rejections of both large and small photovoltaic parks by the Transmission and Distribution Operators on Easter Sunday and Monday. This has resulted in economic losses as excess energy cannot be stored and is rejected.

Electricity suppliers announced on Friday lower bills for May, with prices very close to the target set by the government for final charges to consumers. 

More specifically, Public Power Corporation reported a charge of 15.9 cents per kilowatt-hour for energy consumption up to 500 KWh, down from 16.5 cents in April). 

Western Balkan nations are seeing a boom in solar energy investment, which could help ease a power crisis that had threatened a shift away from coal, but industry officials say transmission systems are not prepared for new energy feeds.

Public Power Corporation (PPC) on Thursday announced it has reached a deal to increase its equity stake in electricity power distribution and supply companies in Romania, following an agreement reached on March 9 to acquire all of Enel's activities in the country. 

Renewable Energy Source producers are turning to the market and to bilateral contracts with industry, looking for increased returns from the high prices of the current situation.

South Africa, the continent's most industrialized country, is in the grip of an energy crisis that critics say is much deeper
than the authorities openly acknowledge.

The periodic electricity blackouts are expected to reach a critical stage as winter arrives in the Southern Hemisphere and sends energy demand soaring, experts warn.

Oil prices continued to fall during trading on Thursday, hitting three-week lows on concerns that rising interest rates policies by leading central banks could limit global economic growth and fuel consumption going forward.

At the same time, the dollar has appreciated in the foreign exchange market, with its strengthening making oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies.

The negative assessment of the Environment Ministry's Directorate of Natural Environment and Biodiversity has essentially pulled the plug on plans for the construction of six wind farms in the pristine southern part of the central Aegean island of Skyros.