The latest crop of utility participants includes NRG Energy, Cleco Corp., Entergy, Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities, AEP’s distributed energy ventures group AEP OnSite Partners and Hindustan Power from India.

The electric utility industry has been buffeted by two recent trends that threaten to upend the profitability, and in some cases the future viability of, those companies that are slow to adapt to a new, rapidly changing landscape. Specifically, in the past decade, the industry has had to grapple with both waning demand and the growth of distributed energy generation.

California’s energy storage incentive program has been a great success, with more than 11,000 battery storage systems installed to-date. The problem is, it’s not reaching the state’s most vulnerable communities. A new proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) aims to fix some of the barriers preventing disadvantaged communities from participating in the program, and it allocates $100 million to a new program designed to offset the cost of battery storage systems for populations threatened by wildfires and related utility power shutoffs.

Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc., a leader in advanced compressed-air energy storage (A-CAES), has announced a A$30 million technology demonstration project at the former Angas Zinc mine in Strathalbyn, Adelaide.

Aged care in Australia is set for a digital boost after a Japan–Australia IT group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australian universities to solve social challenges common to both countries.

There are few countries better placed than Australia to meet the growing global demand for foods that enhance health and wellness.

Chinese genome sequencing company, BGI Genomics (BGI), and Australian health-data expert, Pryzm Health (Pryzm) have announced a collaboration designed to bring genome-related precision health services to Australia.

Seoul-based genome specialist, Macrogen, has agreed a A$4.1 million investment in the Queensland microbiome testing and bioinformatics company, Microba.

New York-based artificial intelligence (AI) specialist, Dataiku, is expanding in the Asia-Pacific region with a major new office in Sydney. The company will be hiring dozens of local employees, from customer-facing staff to data scientists.

Warren Buffett wants to tell you the best time to wash your clothes. Or at least his energy company in the U.K does. Buffett’s Northern Powergrid Holdings Co. is working with Siemens AG to test a so-called smart grid that has the ability to control when consumer appliances will be used in the home.

The addition of hydropower generating capacity to an irrigation network in northern Japan is one step closer to completion. Several sites have been identified for the installation of VLH turbines, with a total capacity of 1.433 MW.

The 130-MW Les Cedres generating station in Canada is a landmark in the history of Quebec hydropower. Hydro-Quebec recently celebrated the station's 100th year of operation, as well as its induction into the Hydro Hall of Fame.

Learn how Canadian utility SaskPower integrated its hydro and non-hydro generating assets under one management system using Hatch's Vista Decision Support System.

Visitor centers at large hydro projects in the U.S. nearly became an endangered species after 9/11. Fears about additional attacks on critical infrastructure led to restricting public access to many hydro projects, putting visitor centers in jeopardy.

Germany’s utilities, battered by the country’s shift to wind turbines and solar panels, would be glad to sell you a power plant on the cheap. They’ll even pack it up and ship it to another country.

New power-generating units at Kenya’s Olkaria I plant are saving East Africa’s biggest economy about 2.2 billion shillings ($24 million) a month on fuel costs, according to the country’s biggest electricity producer.

Actress Natalie Portman, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other high-profile Harvard University alumni are calling for demonstrations to urge divestment from fossil fuels.

Policies favoring clean energy and increased competition would normally dim prospects for existing producers. Not in Chile, where foreign investors are driving a renewable boom at a time of surging returns by local utilities.

Sweden and Norway agreed to boost their target for renewable energy production amid concerns the additional capacity will exacerbate a power glut and strain the region’s electricity grid.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels over the next 10 years by shifting to renewable energy sources such as solar power.

Mexico has become the first developing nation to formally promise to cut its global-warming pollution, a potential milestone in efforts to reach a worldwide agreement on tackling climate change.

Australia’s largest electricity producer committed to close its coal-fired power plants within 35 years as part of an effort to cut the nation’s dependence on the fossil fuel.

Japan anticipates that by 2030 clean energy such as solar and hydro will generate slightly more of the nation’s electricity than nuclear power plants.

Sweden and Norway will probably exceed a joint target for renewable energy production by the end of the decade, industry consultant Nena AS said.

RWE AG, the German utility whose coal-fired plants make it Europe’s largest carbon emitter, officially started the company’s largest renewables project on Thursday: a wind farm in Liverpool Bay off Britain’s coast.

Trillions of dollars will be invested in renewable energy over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That's according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040. 

Stanford, Oxford and Georgetown universities have won praise for promising to purge their endowments of direct investments in coal, embracing the fight against climate change.

The secretary general of the United Nations is frustrated with the pace of negotiations for what’s intended to be a crucial agreement limiting global warming.

Climate change pledges submitted so far from the world’s leading economies won’t be enough to keep the planet from warming dangerously, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in New York.

Proposals to reduce heat-trapping emissions need to be “a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.

The global increase in temperatures will exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) under the national pledges already submitted to UN, Ban said. That’s the goal scientists and the UN have set to avoid the worst effects due to global warming.

The proposals submitted to date “will not be enough to place us on a 2-degree pathway,” Ban said.

Without any changes to global emissions, the world is on track to warm by 4 degrees Celsius or more, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change Janos Pasztor said earlier this month.

World leaders have five months to go before a meeting of almost 200 nations in Paris that’s intended to seal a new global pact to cut planet-warming carbon emissions. If successful, the agreement would be the first ever to require both developed nations like the US and growing economies like China to address climate change.

“The pace of UN negotiations are far too slow,” Ban said. “It’s like a snail’s pace.”

The U.S., the world’s biggest historic source of greenhouse gases, pledged earlier this year to cut its emissions by as much as 28 percent by 2025. The European Union has promised a 40 percent cut by 2030. Several other major economies, including Australia and Japan, have yet to submit climate plans to the UN.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said 13 percent of power stations burning lignite, a cheap form of coal, would be phased out by 2021 under a program to cut power industry pollution. The government abandoned talks on proposals to impose a climate-change fee that the industry said would have forced mines and plants to close, threatening jobs.

Coal is having a hard time lately. U.S. power plants are switching to natural gas, environmental restrictions are kicking in, and the industry is being derided as the world's No. 1 climate criminal. Prices have crashed, sure, but for a real sense of coal's diminishing prospects, check out what's happening in the bond market.

Executives from 13 major U.S. corporations are announcing at least $140 billion in new investments to decrease their carbon footprints as part of a White House initiative to recruit private commitments ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit later this year in Paris.

Companies including Apple Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will join Secretary of State John Kerry and top administration officials at the White House for the announcement. In addition to pledges to cut emissions, provide financing to environmentally-focused companies, and reduce water consumption, the companies have said they will procure at least 1,600 MW of new, renewable energy. The White House said in a statement that it expects to announce a second round of similar pledges later this fall from additional companies.

The commitments are being announced as President Barack Obama is looking to build momentum toward a legacy-defining global climate accord in Paris. In addition to company-specific commitments, the corporate leaders on Monday will signal their support for a strong climate agreement out of the United Nations talks. They administration is using the pledges to set an example for companies to find ways to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Climate Talks

“As the world looks toward global climate negotiations in Paris this December, American leadership at all levels will be essential,” the White House said in a fact sheet detailing the announcement.

The administration’s actions are pushing the issue into the 2016 presidential debate. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, released an energy strategy saying she would both defend and go beyond Obama’s efforts. Republican candidates have criticized the administration’s initiatives as costly to the economy and unnecessary.

Among the pledges, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa Inc. has agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from its 2005 levels, while agricultural giant Cargill Inc. says 18 percent of its total energy use will come from renewable sources.

Coca-Cola Co. said it would drive down the carbon footprint of its beverage production by 25 percent over the next five years, while Google says it plans to triple its purchases of renewable energy over the next decade. Berkshire Hathaway says it plans to invest up to an additional $15 billion in the construction and operation of renewable energy generators, while Bank of America Corp says it will increase its environmental business initiative by $75 billion over the next decade, according to the White House

Other participating firms include Wal-Mart, United Parcel Service Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Microsoft Corp., General Motors Inc.

The corporate commitments won’t be the administration’s only major climate announcement in the next few weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to present final regulations that aim to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 later this week.

While visiting Kenya over the weekend, Obama repeatedly praised the country for its efforts to address climate change, saying its efforts tor educe emissions “has put it in the position of being a leader on the continent.” And next month, the president will travel to Alaska for an international summit on Arctic climate issues.

©2015 Bloomberg News

For more, see Big Companies, Big Renewable Investments.

Engineering firm Lahmeyer International GmbH and sub-consultant Manitoba Hydro International have been awarded a contract by Tanahu Hydropower Ltd. to provide a number of services associated with the development of the 140-MW Tanahu pumped-storage project in Nepal.

German utility E.ON has agreed to sell its 527 MW Terni hydroelectric power complex to Genoa-based ERG Power Generation S.p.A.

Power to Sardauna, Taraba, Nigeria has increased with the Aug. 14 commissioning of the 400-kW Tunga hydroelectric project on the Donga River.  

Changes to the United Kingdom's Feed-In Tariff program could have a negative impact on a number of generation sectors -- including small hydroelectric power -- according to a number of industry groups.

Lignum Vitae North America LLC will donate bearings to any of the 20 teams advancing to the next phase in the Wave Energy Prize Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Program.  

Project owner Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower LLC (BSMH) is drawing down Chilhowee Reservoir, part of the 44-MW Chilhowee hydroelectric facility, to investigate seepage at the Chilhowee Dam on the Little Tennessee River in Blount and Monroe counties, Tenn.  

The European Commission's Climate Change Committee has approved a transfer of US$19.3 million in funding for tidal energy developer Atlantis Resources from the Kyle Rhea project to its 398-MW MeyGen project.

The government of Argentinian province San Juan signed an agreement with PowerChina earlier this week for financing of the 75-MW El Tambolar hydropower project.

On Nov. 11, Germany-based Aquila Capital announced it has signed an agreement with four Norwegian utility companies -- Statkraft AS, Agder Energi, BKK and Skagerak Energi -- to acquire all shares of Smakraft AS, Norway's largest small-hydro company.  

As the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) of Zambia and Zimbabwe seeks to secure funding for the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge hydroelectric facility, the region is experiencing rolling blackouts based on reduced inflow to existing hydroelectric generating facilities. 

Tidal energy developer Atlantis Resources remains on track to deliver power to the Scottish power grid from the MeyGen site in the coming year, according to an end-of-year statement issued by the company earlier this week.

A significant step to develop the first megawatt from the marine hydrokinetic (MHK) Sotenas Wave Energy Plant off of Sweden’s west coast took place earlier this month when a 120-ton subsea generator switchgear was deployed and connected to the Swedish national power grid via a 10-km-long subsea cable.
 

The Cascade Generation Station on the Seguin River in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada, is being upgraded from 1.2 MW to 3.4 MW, according to the project’s owner, Parry Sound PowerGen Corp.
 

Development-ready sites, with existing reservoirs for new pumped hydro energy storage plants, offer generation potential of 2,291 GWh, according to a newly released report from the eStorage Project.

Hydroelectric power developer Snowdonia Pumped Hydro has withdrawn its application for environmental permits for the 99.9-MW Glyn Rhonwy pumped-storage plant from Natural Resources Wales.

It was a gamble that went spectacularly wrong for Tory Prime Minister David Cameron: Allow the UK to decide through a national referendum on their future participation in the EU and hope that they choose to remain.

On Sept. 3, U.S. President Barack Obama and China's President, Xi Jinping, formally agreed to participation in the negotiated 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change.
 

Electricite du Laos and General Electric have signed a memorandum of understanding to launch joint research and training programs designed to support the development of Laos' hydroelectric power sector and electric grid.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have appointed the African Development Bank (AfDB) as lead financial adviser for the construction of the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge hydropower project, according to Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) Chief Executive Officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa.