Author: EnergyNews.biz Newsroom

The European Union imported 49.7 million tonnes of recyclable raw materials in 2025 while exporting 36.2 million tonnes to non-EU countries, widening the bloc’s net import position to 13.5 million tonnes, according to data released by Eurostat.

A projected €6.7 billion investment is now central to Europe’s emerging hydrogen transmission strategy, as Spanish infrastructure operator Enagás outlines plans for a cross border hydrogen backbone that would connect Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany through a dedicated energy corridor.

The efficiency limitations of water electrolysis remain one of the largest technical and economic barriers to scaling green hydrogen production. While renewable electricity costs have declined sharply over the past decade, the oxygen evolution reaction inside electrolyzers continues to require high energy input, slowing system efficiency and sustaining dependence on expensive precious metal catalysts such as iridium and ruthenium.

The United States installed 9.7 GWh of new energy storage capacity during the first quarter of 2026, setting a record for the period and reinforcing how rapidly battery deployment is becoming tied to grid reliability concerns, electricity price volatility, and the accelerating power requirements of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

South Korea’s Hanwha Power is attempting to position supercritical carbon dioxide power systems as a commercially viable decarbonization tool for pipeline infrastructure operators in Canada.

The latest ASEAN-European Union workshop in Brunei Darussalam signals a broader geopolitical and economic shift: carbon markets are no longer being treated solely as climate instruments, but increasingly as industrial policy and investment mechanisms tied to trade competitiveness, energy transition financing, and regional economic integration.

The WAL project “Hydrogen from Lubmin” has secured entry capacity into the national hydrogen core network through a reservation agreement with transmission system operator GASCADE Gastransport GmbH, marking a shift from infrastructure preparation to commercially structured allocation of transport rights.

Fortum has inaugurated the €20 million Kalla Test Center in Loviisa, Finland, marking the launch of a 2 MW pilot hydrogen facility designed to generate long term operational data and real world testing experience as the hydrogen sector shifts focus from project announcements toward commercial and technical validation.

At a time when the United States is scaling grid storage capacity beyond 25 GW of operational battery systems and adding hundreds of megawatts of new installations each year, POET and Antora Energy’s deployment of a 5 gigawatt hour thermal energy storage facility in Big Stone City, South Dakota signals a parallel but less conventional trajectory: industrial heat decarbonization anchored in high temperature carbon based storage rather than electrochemical batteries.

Cork County Council has allocated more than €50,000 under its 2026 Circular Economy Fund to support 29 community level projects aimed at reducing single use plastics and accelerating reuse based consumption models across schools, sports clubs, festivals, and community organizations.