World:
¶ The world’s 48 leading fossil fuel companies will be asked to run a ‘climate stress test’ at a summit hosted at UN Headquarters in New York. US low-carbon business group CERES, with a network of investors worth $12 trillion, is organizing the event. [Responding to Climate Change]
¶ The Nepali government’s Alternative Energy Promotion Center has called private entrepreneurs to submit innovative business ideas that focuses on use of electricity generated from micro-hydro projects. [E Kantipur]
¶ A record 11,700 people were working full-time in the Scottish renewable energy sector, and more than half of companies working in the sector are looking to hire staff this year, according to a survey. [BBC News]
¶ A pattern is emerging in which Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott chooses to ignore the prominent signs that climate change is severely impacting Australia and instead focus on rapidly extracting more fossil fuels from the ground. [ThinkProgress]
¶ Turkey’s energy minister, Taner Yildiz, has announced that the country is on course to achieve its target of sourcing one-third of its power needs from renewable energy by 2023. Turkey has 25 GW of renewable capacity currently installed. [Climate Action Programme]
¶ Former Prime Minister Hosokawa, who is aiming to make Japan a nuclear-free country, says he has the backing of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, another anti-nuclear advocate, as he runs in next month’s Tokyo gubernatorial election. [Asahi Shimbun]
¶ In April 2011, one month after the onset of the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, demonstrators staged a sit-in outside the head office of Kyushu Electric Power Co. On Jan. 14, the activists marked the 1,000th day of their sit-down protest. [Asahi Shimbun]
¶ In the race to fix the widening shortfall of power in India, experts say that alternative sources like solar and even wind are becoming cheaper by the day, especially when measured up against the prime minister’s pet project, nuclear plants. [ZDNet]
¶ South Korea said on Tuesday it has revised down its future reliance on nuclear power to 29% of the country’s total power supply by 2035, from a planned 41% by 2030. The country’s nuclear power reliance stood at 26% as of the end of 2012. [Straits Times]
US:
¶ There are early signs of a consensus, as discussions are under way in Vermont’s House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. The committee is considering lifting limits on the amount of power connected consumers may contribute to the grid. [BurlingtonFreePress.com]
¶ First Wind and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company have signed an agreement that will bring clean energy from First Wind’s planned Hancock Wind project near Ellsworth, Maine to 17 Massachusetts municipal utilities. [Marblehead Reporter]
¶ Under New York Governor Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative, Signal Transformer, a division of Bel Fuse Inc., completed the installation of a 129-kW rooftop solar PV system at their Inwood, NY facility. [RenewablesBiz]
¶ Governor Cuomo is now set to launch K-Solar, a new scheme aimed at helping schools tackle the “soft costs” of installing solar, such as securing planning consent and grid connection agreements. [Business Green]
¶ ConEdison Solutions has secured a $56 million contract with the US Army Reserve’s 99th Regional Support Command to provide energy efficiency services and operations and maintenance support at 90 sites in 11 states. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
¶ Independence Power and Light, in Independence, Missouri, unveiled its plan Saturday to move from coal to a more diversified power supply due to EPA regulations and the age of its two coal plants. [Blue Springs Examiner]
¶ Alstom Power is to supply Tri Global Energy with 29 turbines for the 80-MW Fiber Winds Energy project near Lorenzo and Ralls in Texas. Alstom will also provide 10 years of service and maintenance for the wind farm. [reNews]
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