Kuwait's National Vision 2035 has economic diversification at its heart. This move from hydrocarbon reliance to other sectors is attracting investor attention, as Wendy Atkins reports.

Bangladesh minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak talks to Jacopo Dettoni about the government’s ambitious Digital Bangladesh programme designed to reach village level. 

Consulting firms in the Middle East are likely to take a hit in 2020 due to the coronavirus, after two strong years.

Frankfurt (Oder) is building on the strengths of its university to foster the development of successful start-ups through new co-working spaces and the promotion of sustainable practices and products. 

Tesla's decision part of broader trend of investment into Germany at UK's expense.

Passion Capital's Eileen Burbidge talks to fDi about what fintech companies should consider when expanding internationally, and why London will always be a key market in the sector.

Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Pakistan’s UK high commissioner, talks about his country’s potential for foreign investors.

Having experienced issues with security and bureaucracy for decades, Pakistan is making a comeback as a tourism destination. However, foreign investors have yet to make their presence felt in the sector.

Sardar Popalzai, president of the Balochistan Economic Forum, talks about the blue economy and the Pakistani province’s tourism potential.

Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of tourism, talks about key investment opportunities and the need for better international reporting when natural disasters strike.

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. 

The chairman of the board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus talks to fDi about preserving financial stability and diversifying the country’s export split.

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 boasts both Europe’s largest integrated chemical cluster and its second largest port, which forms the bedrock of the city’s economy. Now the authorities are collaborating to foster innovation and sustainability to build on these historic strengths.

Antwerp has long been an attractive retail location in Belgium, while also offering investors an efficient and transparent planning process. 

Successive annual increases of FDI inflows to Spain culminated in a record year in 2018. Alex Irwin-Hunt reports.

Mexico suffered a second year of dwindling manufacturing, with the US's trade policy taking its toll. However, Mexico remains an attractive location for US companies and their suppliers.

Dubai outstrips other Middle East cities as top destination for office openings.

The Egyptian capital Cairo led Africa in 2018, attracting 10 foreign business services investment projects, in its strongest performance since 2012. Joshua Crawford reports.

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.

New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed the Assembly early in the morning of June 20 and will now await the governor’s signature. Solar advocates praised the state legislature’s adoption of long anticipated legislation that will require at least 70 percent of electric generation come from renewable sources by 2030 and providing needed funding to low-income and environmental justice communities.

The Energy Web Foundation (EWF) this week announced that it has launched the world’s first public, open-source, enterprise-grade blockchain tailored to the energy sector: the Energy Web Chain (EW Chain). As a refresher, blockchain allows for peer-to-peer energy market transactions.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the twin forces of privatization and deregulation of public infrastructure services ascended to a global paradigm of progress and development. Government management of services such as telecommunications, transportation, water, and energy was deemed inefficient, underperforming, and monopolistic. Private industry – accountable to the profits and losses of an open market and, thus, believed more efficient than government – was proclaimed the better way for consumer choice and a more efficient use of taxpayers’ expenses.

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.

BlackRock Real Assets is aiming to boost its renewables power portfolio in Asia by as much as 10-fold as it seeks to keep pace with the world’s fastest-growing region for green energy.

Clearway Energy Group, one of the U.S.’s largest clean power developers, is launching a pilot electronic marketplace for renewable energy credits as more states push for solar and wind projects.

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.

This week artificial intelligence (AI)-driven energy storage services provider Stem said that it had formed a partnership with New York-based private equity company Syncarpha Capital to build 28.2 megawatt-hours (MWh) of large-scale storage projects co-sited with solar in Massachusetts.

Solar company Hanergy announced that its thin-film solar modules will cover the 150,000 square meter roof of the ‘Rafael Gallery’ located at a Tech City in Shanghai.

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.

Regulators in a number of states are ratcheting up investigations into competitive retailer behavior and proposing new consumer protection rules. Some states with aggressive carbon emission reduction goals implemented through regulated utility contracts are wondering whether retail competition has a place where a growing portion of energy supply is locked and loaded. 

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.

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

Bernie Sanders wants renewable energy to power U.S. homes and vehicles by 2030 -- and he wants to do it by enlisting the federal government in building and running new solar, wind and geothermal electricity projects.

In a statement, SolarEdge Technologies announced that the company's founder and co-chairman, Guy Sella has passed away.

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.

This week, Scottish software company Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) announced that it will be expanding into Europe after completing successful trials with a utility company in Germany.

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.

Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. announces that the 290-MW Nam Ngiep 1 hydropower plant has begun commercial operations.

The 2019 Sustainable Energy in America factbook was released this week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE). The factbook highlights a number of key trends in sustainable and renewable energy growth, emissions and jobs in the sector. Take a glance at the six charts below to learn more.

This week independent power producer Marubeni and LO3 Energy said they have started a pilot project in Japan where LO3 will administer an energy marketplace using blockchain to connect a number of Marubeni’s power production facilities, including renewables, with offices and factories around Japan in a virtual marketplace. The project will simulate energy transactions to test the viability of the concept with the ultimate goal of creating a full-scale commercially operational network in the future.

While solar roads have been criticized as impractical and inefficient, a Georgia foundation says they will continue to be part of its research lab for greener highways.

The Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LSBA) has granted €235,000 (US$267,500) to support development of an experimental floating solar photovoltaic power plant at the existing 900-MW Kruonis pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Lithuania.

Reaching the remote Havasupai community of Supai, Arizona is not a journey for the faint of heart. Surrounded entirely by the Grand Canyon, this remote Native American reservation is either an eight-mile hike or mule trek from the closest road, or a helicopter ride to the bottom.

In late February, Hawaiian Electric Companies announced that they have achieved a consolidated 27 percent renewable portfolio standard in 2018, even with the loss of Hawaii Island’s geothermal resource for most of the year following the Kilauea volcanic eruption. Hawaii has a goal of reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Thailand plans to build the world’s largest floating solar farms to power Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy and to boost the country’s share of clean energy.

On March 4, Hanwha Q CELLS filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against JinkoSolar, LONGi Solar, and REC Group. The company also filed related patent infringement complaints with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against the same companies. In Germany, Hanwha Q CELLS filed patent infringement complaints with the Regional Court of Düsseldorf against JinkoSolar and REC Group.

China’s plans to loosen its solar subsidy policy will keep growth of the world’s largest market intact, according to the head of JinkoSolar Holding Co., which is increasing production capacity by as much as 20 percent this year.