Regulator expected to examine whether sustainability reports on sourcing of wood pellets meet renewables subsidy criteria Drax is facing an investigation by the energy regulator into the sustainability of the biomass it uses at its wood-burning power plant amid growing scepticism over its green credentials. The energy regulator, Ofgem, said it would investigate whether the owner of Britain’s biggest power plant, in North Yorkshire, was in breach of the reporting rules required for its renewable energy subsidy scheme ..read more

Low demand combined with sunny conditions and meltwater lifts hydro and solar production Over the last week, several European countries had power prices in the wholesale energy market dip into negative values during daylight hours. The decline in prices was mostly driven by the abundance of available energy generated by renewable sources, combined with the relatively low demand for energy for heating or cooling, caused by normal springtime temperatures. Negative prices often occur when there is an excess supply of electricity in the market. This can happen when renewable energy sources such as ..read more

Party says details of how UK can become ‘world leader’ in green energy transition will be announced soon Labour has confirmed it will block all new domestic oil and gas developments if it wins power, proposing instead to invest heavily in renewable sources such as wind and also in nuclear power. The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said details would be announced soon ..read more

Revelation about war-torn country is ‘terrible indictment’ of UK government, says Ed Miliband Ukraine has completed more onshore wind turbines than England since it was occupied by Russian soldiers – despite the UK government’s promise to relax restrictions on onshore windfarms. Only two onshore wind turbines have been installed in England since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, generating 1 megawatt (MW) of electricity in the Staffordshire village of Keele ..read more

Entrepreneur says plan to send renewable energy to Singapore from Northern Territory a ‘nation-building project for Australia’ Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Mike Cannon-Brookes has prevailed over Andrew Forrest in a billionaires’ battle for control of Sun Cable, an ambitious development promising to transmit solar-generated electricity from the Northern Territory outback to Singapore. Cannon-Brookes and Forrest had been involved in a bidding process for the $30bn-plus project after they fel ..read more

The state energy minister, Penny Sharpe, promises: ‘We are not going to allow the lights to go off’ Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast New South Wales’ two main renewable energy zones will be delayed for as long as two years and cost more to build with landholder opposition to new transmission lines partly to blame, the energy minister, Penny Sharpe, has said. The Minns government briefed journalists about its network infrastructure strategy on Wednesday, revealing that the central-west Orana zone would not hit its “energisation date” until 2027-28, com ..read more

Firm pledges record-breaking investment over next decade as earnings from gas-fired power plants surge near-fourfold SSE has set out plans to invest £40bn in clean energy over the next 10 years as it reported a near-doubling of its annual profits compared with the year before thanks in part to its fossil fuel power stations. The Perth-based FTSE 100 company said it would carry out its record-breaking green energy plan by investing “far in excess of its earnings” after making an adjusted pre-tax profit of £2.18bn for the 12 months to the end of March, up from almost £1.16bn the year before ..read more

Tech firm founded by Australians Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar says net zero must be achieved by cutting emissions by 90% and only offsetting the remainder Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast As corporate reports go, the title of Aussie tech firm Atlassian’s guide for other companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions is as direct and flavoursome as they come: “Don’t F&*! The Planet.” The firm, founded by Australians Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, says it is already runni ..read more

Transmission lines in the US need to be increased threefold, but faces pushback from fossil conservation and green groups America’s renewable energy drive needs more than a million miles of new transition lines but emerging resistance includes opponents worried about building them in one of the country’s richest areas of ice-age fossils. The Greenlink West project would build a 470-mile-long transmission line bringing clean electricity north of Las Vegas to Reno in Nevada, but it cuts through an area containing everything from woolly mammoth tusks to giant sloths to ancient camels ..read more

Residents feel trapped and choked by dust, while experts warn environmental damage is ‘solving one problem by creating others’ Deep in the Mojave desert, about halfway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, a sparkling blue sea shimmers on the horizon. Visible from the I-10 highway, amid the parched plains and sun-baked mountains, it is an improbable sight: a deep blue slick stretching for miles across the Chuckwalla Valley, forming an endless glistening mirror. But something’s not quite right. Closer up, the water’s edge appears blocky and pixelated, with the look of a low-res computer rendering ..read more