Marcelo Eduardo Arze García, Bolivia’s vice minister of tourism, tells Sebastian Shehadi why tourists are turning their attention to one of South America's less explored destinations. 

Pedro Calado, vice-president of Madeira’s regional government, tells Sebastian Shehadi about the island's capacity for more upmarket tourism and its ongoing struggle to gain financial independence from Portugal. 

The minister of foreign affairs for Belarus tells fDi why the country is keen to join the WTO and strengthen economic relations with the CIS.

Antwerp’s vice-mayor, Claude Marinower, talks about the city's history as a diverse business location, and its plans to promote traditional industries alongside innovative concepts.

Lisbon’s mayor discusses the city’s tech strengths and its solutions to business challenges, such as affordable housing.

Moldova's wine industry has gained some international recognition but the country remains largely untroubled by tourists, a combination that is enticing some foreign investors.

Global FDI in the biotechnology sector has witnessed year-on-year increase since 2015.

The UAE remained the Middle East's most popular destination for foreign manufacturing investments in 2018.

The Scottish government has given utility Scottish Power the go-ahead to install Europe’s biggest industrial-scale battery to date to store energy generated at the 539MW Whitelee onshore wind farm.

Today, solar power has become cheaper than the production cost of any other existing conventional power generation technology. The arrival of grid parity heralds a milestone in the history of energy production. It means solar energy being commercially viable without any subsidies or state support; producing energy with the lowest possible environmental impact.

Natron Energy said that the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded it a $3 million grant for “Advanced Energy Storage for Electric Vehicle Charging Support.” Natron will use the money to manufacture and install a high powered, long cycle life energy storage system at an EV Fast Charging station.

Hydrogen, which has been touted as the fuel of the future much of the past five decades, may finally be on the verge of converting its potential to reality.

In early June, the UK enshrined into law a commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, making Britain the first major economy to do so. Meeting this target will require substantial reliance on renewable energy from solar, tidal, hydro, and wind sources, both onshore and offshore.

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Angus King (I-Maine), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), have reintroduced The Marine Energy Research and Development Act, intended to increase production of low-carbon, renewable energy from the natural power in ocean waves, tides and currents.

While the industry is welcoming more women leaders, its rank-and-file workforce is still a lot like those at fossil-fuel companies: white and dominated by men. The lack of gender diversity is being driven by manufacturing jobs, and that means women are now missing out on the biggest jobs boom America has to offer.

Yesterday, ENGIE Storage announced that San Diego International Airport (SAN) installed a 2 MW/4 MWh GridSynergy energy storage system. Paired with the airport’s existing 5.5 MW of solar capacity, the new energy storage system will reduce energy charges during peak demand, which according to ENGIE equate to approximately 40 percent of the airport’s monthly electricity costs. The system is expected to begin operation in early 2020.

A series of U.S. renewable energy incentives violated international trade rules, according to the World Trade Organization, threatening to stoke tensions between the two countries as President Donald Trump prepares to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

The vast majority of Americans have air conditioning but in Germany almost nobody does. At least not yet.

Given the diverse benefits that microgrids provide – reductions in energy costs, business risk, and carbon emissions, and increases in resiliency and power reliability – one wonders why discussion of microgrids has only started to take off recently.

The Clean Power Alliance (CPA) has signed three long-term power purchase agreements, including two new solar projects and one existing small hydro project.

According to a review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), within the past month, the agency has dramatically revised its three-year forecast for changes in the U.S. electrical generating capacity mix. Sharp declines are foreseen for fossil fuels and nuclear power while accompanied by even stronger growth in renewable energy (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) than earlier projected.

Community stakeholders and climate experts from the University of Arizona are helping Tucson Electric Power to build an energy portfolio that supports reliable, affordable and increasingly sustainable service over the next 15 years.

Arlington, VA based Summit Ridge Energy (SRE) announced that it will acquire 11 projects from Pivot Energy in Illinois totaling 29 MWs, increasing SRE’s portfolio of community solar projects in the state to more than 20.

Installed solar capacity in the United States exceeded 10 GW for the third year in a row in 2018, and the pace of growth is expected to continue. The first quarter of 2019 was the strongest in the history of the U.S. solar market, according to a recent report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. Yet inefficient and costly project financing inhibits many solar developers from tapping into the market’s true potential.

Global demand for air-conditioning is projected to triple over the next 30 years, as the planet warms and urban populations grow, particularly in emerging markets. Meeting that demand will call for significant investments in new cooling infrastructure and the electrical generating capacity necessary to power it. Although traditional cooling technologies are expected to become more efficient in coming years, countries will need to plan for these additional loads, which will be expensive. Emerging markets can also make use of district cooling, an approach that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which consists of six Middle Eastern countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman — have successfully adopted.

India’s ambitious plan to take the leadership position among nations as one of largest producers of renewable energy may have run into some unfavorable weather.

The HydroVision International event is now under way in the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, with more than 3,000 hydropower professionals from around the world coming together for four days of learning and networking.

Germany-based clean-energy fund Hep Kapitalverwaltung AG agreed to invest $50 million to $80 million annually in a partnership to develop small solar projects in the U.S.

On Monday, July 22, about 30 HydroVision attendees visited the beautiful Hood River Valley outside of Portland, Oregon to tour in-conduit hydropower projects and learn how modernizing irrigation districts is a sustainable solution to help combat a changing climate.

On Tuesday, July 23, about 30 HydroVision attendees had to privilege of touring the 136-MW Lewis River hydropower plant located at the Merwin Dam in Ariel, Washington. The dam was constructed in 1931 and has four penstocks, which today feed three turbines. The turbines were installed in 1931, 1949 and 1958, respectively. The fourth penstock, which was the focus of much of the tour, is for fish passage.

On Tuesday, July 23 at the HydroVision International keynote, Vice President Marla Barnes asked the audience to close their eyes and envision their next vacation. “Are you sitting on a beach? Are you packing your family into the car for a wild adventure? What do you see,” she asked.

Missouri’s smallest investor-owned utility is charting a dramatically different course two years after being acquired by new owners.

Last week, Corvias announced that it had entered the final phase of its geothermal installation and energy upgrades effort at the U.S. Army’s Fort Polk in West-Central Louisiana, a milestone that once complete will not only modernize the aging infrastructure but save the Army significant money and benefit military families.

Digitalisation is one of the biggest enablers of the global transition to clean energy. From intelligent asset management, to Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. Find out how digitalisation is transforming the management, operation and maintenance of renewable energy assets, and driving a more efficient renewable world.

A pale orange-and-gold sunset bathes the macadamia plantations and avocado orchards that sweep down to Australia’s Byron Bay. The coming dusk is a cue for two sleek Tesla battery packs in the garage at Amileka, a secluded holiday villa nearby. They stir silently into action—powering the appliances in the five-bedroom home’s twin kitchens, recharging a $100,000-plus Model X SUV, driving a filter pump for an 18-meter swimming pool sparkling in the shade of a century-old native black bean tree.

California, long a progressive leader on renewable energy and climate change mitigation, has neglected a key market segment for renewable energy: the “community-scale,” or “wholesale distributed generation” (DG), market. This market segment is defined as projects below 20 megawatts that connect to the distribution grid and export power to the grid for sale.

The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Equinor Energy Ventures and Evergy Ventures

Coming on the heels of Gap’s announced 90-MW PPA with Enel Green Power, BloombergNEF released its 2H 2019 corporate energy market outlook in which it said that corporations signed contracts to purchase 8.6 GW of clean energy in 2019 through July, up from 7.2 GW at the same time last year.

The national average price of wind power purchase agreements dropped to below 2 cents/kWh in 2018, according to the annual Wind Technologies Market Report released by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Many of us are somewhat familiar with what an electric utility does. Our house receives electricity, and we get a bill in the mail each month for it. Here in North Carolina, that bill is likely coming from Duke Energy. In other parts of the country it may be PG&E or Dominion Power. For at least a century, these utility monopolies have built power plants, installed transmission and distribution lines, billed customers for their electricity use, and the utility made a predictable margin for their work.

The UK’s North West Hydrogen Alliance (NWHA) is calling for government investment in hydrogen projects to meet ambitious carbon reductions targets in Britain.

The renewable energy transition promises to reduce carbon emissions, but it’s happening at different speeds around the world. Read on for some key insights from BloombergNEF’s New Energy Outlook 2019, which provides a detailed road map to the future.

Europe can potentially generate 100 times the current amount of energy generated, and produce enough power to power the world until 2050, if it were to maximize land use for onshore wind capacity.

Freyr AS, a startup planning to build one of Europe’s first battery gigafactories in Norway, has a bigger vision for the region: a “Nordic Battery Belt.”

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released a major new report on hydrogen, underscoring the remarkable political and business momentum surrounding the fossil fuel alternative, and touting its potential as a vital component of global efforts to build a “clean, secure, and affordable energy future.” The report takes a bold and prescient stance, and has rightfully inspired a torrent of press coverage about the future of hydrogen and its role in the renewable energy mix.

The Chinese government recently issued a whitepaper on the status and prospects of the hydrogen fuel and fuel cell sectors, indicating that energy derived from hydrogen will become an important part of the Chinese energy network.

Last week, the Hawaiian Electric Companies began Hawai‘i’s largest procurement effort for renewable energy resources to end the use of coal and reduce reliance on imported oil for power generation, moving the state closer to its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

President Donald Trump said he was not willing to sacrifice the abundant fossil energy wealth of the U.S. on “dreams” such as renewable power.

Renewable energy, particularly solar, is poised for significant growth in the southeastern United States. The Southeast has also mostly retained a vertically integrated utility model, and most utilities in the region have not joined a Regional Transmission Organization or Independent System Operator (collectively known as, RTO). Recent developments have led stakeholders and policymakers in the Southeast to rethink whether it is beneficial for some utilities to join RTOs – something that is generally seen as a positive development for renewable energy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the U.S. has issued an original operating license to Kenai Hydro LLC for its proposed 5-MW Grant Lake Hydroelectric Project in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska.