Portal:Energy/Energy news/Archive/2011

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• 28 December 2011: On of the generators in the Intermountain Power Plant, one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the United States, fails causing the major breakdown.
• 21 December 2011: Solar energy company BP Solar closes after 38 years of operations while Solar Millennium files for insolvency, following module maker Solon SE.
• 16 December 2011:Fenno–Skan 2, the second submarine power cable between Finland and Sweden, becomes fully operational.
• 2 December 2011: The FAA awards $7.7 million to eight companies to advance the development of drop-in commercial aviation biofuels, with a special focus on ATJ (alcohol to jet) fuel.
• 23 November 2011: The IEA said renewable energy technology is becoming increasingly cost competitive and growth rates are in line to meet levels required of a sustainable energy future.
• 13 November 2011: Oman joins the Gas Exporting Countries Forum as a full member.
• 8 November 2011: Inauguration of the controversial Nord Stream pipeline.
• 11 October 2011: Solyndra, a once-promising solar energy venture in California that received $535 million in federal loans, went bankrupt.
• 28 September 2011: The Atucha II Nuclear Power Plant in Argentina is inaugurated.
• 18 September 2011: German engineering giant Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry, as a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
• 12 September 2011: The European Union Foreign Affairs Council mandates the European Commission to negotiate with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline.
• 12 September 2011: The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran is inaugurated.
• 9 September 2011: Significant natural gas reserves are discovered at the Absheron gas field in the Caspian Sea.
• 8 September 2011: First part of the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok pipeline is opened.
• 1 September 2011: Former Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven, takes office as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
• 30 August 2011: Rosneft announces that its partner for developing the Arctic East-Prinovozemelsky field is ExxonMobil.
• 26 August 2011: The final environmental impact report of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is released.
• 26 August 2011: Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Japanese Government passed a bill to subsidize electricity from renewable energy sources.
• 25 August 2011: 24 U.S. governors ask President Obama to promote wind power deployment.
• 24 August 2011: A giant Pazflor oil development offshore Angola starts production.
• 19 July 2011: In 2010, renewable energy supplied 16 percent of global final energy consumption and delivered 20 percent of global electricity production.
• 19 July 2011: 2010 renewable energy investment reached a record $211 billion, with China attracting $48 billion.
• 1 July 2011: Oil exploration and production company Marathon Oil spins-off refining and marketing company Marathon Petroleum.
• 3 June 2011: AES Corporation opens a new 600 MW coal-fired power station at the Maritsa Iztok Complex.
• 2 June 2011: Explosion occurs at the Pembroke Refinery in Wales.
• 1 June 2011: Genesis Power acquires Tekapo A and B hydroelectric power stations from Meridian Energy.
• 31 May 2011: Ras Qartas Energy Plant, one of the largest integrated power and desalination plant in the Middle East, becomes operational.
• 30 May 2011: Government permanently closes eight nuclear plants and announces plans to abandon nuclear power in Germany by 2022.
• 17 May 2011: Denali, a joint venture of BP and ConocoPhillips, cancels its project to build the Alaska gas pipeline.
• 6 May 2011: Start of construction of the Nabucco pipeline is delayed to 2013.
• 2 May 2011: Baltic 1 Offshore Wind Farm, the first commercial offshore wind farm of Germany in the Baltic Sea, is commissioned.
• 29 April 2011: Total S.A. buys 60% of solar panels producer SunPower for US$1.38 billion.
• 28 April 2011: Solar power in the United Kingdom tripled in one year.
• 28 April 2011: U.S. power generator Exelon purchases renewable energy producer Constellation Energy.
• 27 April 2011: Explosion of the Arab Gas Pipeline in Egypt's North Sinai Governorate suspends natural gas supplies to Israel and Jordan.
• 15 April 2011 Lukoil acquires 25.1% stake in the Arctic Trebs and Titov oil fields.
• 13 April 2011: Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring California's utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.
• 12 April 2011: Japan's nuclear crisis is pushing wind power to the forefront as a safer and more reliable alternative to meet the country's future energy requirements.
• 10 April 2011: The Japan Atomic Energy Agency raises the severity of the Fukushima I nuclear accidents to level 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
• 8 April 2011: After 28 years at Shell, Chairman James Smith is retiring – predicting that Shell will become "more of a gas company than an oil company".
• 4 April 2011: Adnan Amin has sworn in as the first Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
• 1 April 2011: BritNed, an electricity cable link between UK and the Netherlands, becomes operational.
• 29 March 2011: Global investment in clean energy increased 30 percent last year to $243 billion.
• 21 March 2011: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that the 2011 Japanese nuclear crisis did not warrant any immediate changes at American nuclear plants.
• 21 March 2011: Operations at Germany's seven oldest nuclear reactors have been halted for three months, pending safety checks.
• 19 March 2011: Japan has shut down 11 nuclear reactors in four different power plants, following an earthquake and tsunami.
• 19 March 2011: Radioactive iodine beyond limit detected in tap water in Fukushima, reports Kyodo News with reference to government.
• 17 March 2011: SAPEI, the world deepest submarine cable between Sardinia and the Italian mainland, is anaugurated.
• 16 March 2011: There have been evacuations around Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant following a nuclear accident there.
• 16 March 2011: American officials say that the Fukushima I nuclear accident is the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
• 15 March 2011: A third explosion at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, forces the evacuation of workers and increases the risk of a meltdown.
• 12 March 2011: An explosion occurs at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after damages caused by an 9-magnitude earthquake.
• 11 March 2011: Former Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven, is selected as the next Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
• 11 March 2011: The Federal Cabinet of Canada approves the Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
• 10 March 2011: The US solar power market grew by two-thirds in 2010 to $6 billion, while installations of solar-power projects doubled to about 1000 megawatts.
• 9 March 2011: The Jordanian government signs a concession agreement with Karak International Oil to develop oil shale in Jordan.
• 9 March 2011: Estonian energy company Eesti Energia acquires Oil Shale Exploration Company, which was awarded an oil shale research, development and demonstration lease in Utah.
• 8 March 2011: First foundations are laid for the London Array, a planned 1,000 MW offshore wind farm under construction in the Thames Estuary in the UK.
• 7 March 2011: Canadian renewable energy companies Magma Energy and Plutonic Power merge under name Alterra Power Corp.
• 2 March 2011: Total S.A. acquires a stake in the Russia's second larges gas producer Novatek.
• 2 March 2011: E.ON sells its UK-based electricity distribution company Central Networks to PPL for £3.5 billion.
• 1 March 2011: Medgaz natural gas pipeline between Algeria and Spain becomes officially operational.
• 1 March 2011: Gazprom acquires the giant Kovykta gas field.
• 15 February 2011: Prices of wind turbines have fallen by a fifth and solar panels by a half since 2007; new markets are emerging.
• 5 February 2011: Explosion of the Arab Gas Pipeline in Egypt's North Sinai Governorate suspends natural gas supplies to Israel and Jordan.
• 3 February 2011: President Obama supports clean energy technologies and aims to double the share of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.
• 3 February 2011: USDOE offers a Texas company a loan guarantee for a $1 billion project that would turn wood chips into an oil substitute.
• 19 January 2011: Greater Gabbard, a 500 MW offshore wind farm under construction, has created 100 jobs and generated its first electricity.
• 18 January 2011: Mohammed Saleh Al Sada replaces Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah as a minister of industry and energy of Qatar.
• 15 January 2011: BP announces plan to swap 5% of its share for 9.5% of shares in the Russian oil company Rosneft.
• 14 January 2011: Narva Power Plants builds a new 600 MW oil shale-fired power plant.
• 14 January 2011: 110 advanced biofuels projects are now in development worldwide with biofuels capacity expected to reach 4.0 billion US gallons (15,000,000 m³) by 2015.
• 11 January 2011: China is now the world's largest wind power market, with 16,000 megawatts of capacity installed in 2010.
• 7 January 2011: The first turbine of the Sơn La hydrolectric power station, the largest hydroelectric power station in Southeast Asia, was put to operation.