Author: Anela Dokso

The strategic recalibration underway at Korea’s leading battery manufacturers reflects a hard data point confronting the North American market. After years of capacity expansion tied to electric vehicle growth forecasts, US automakers are now pulling back.

As hydrogen projects face rising costs and a growing list of cancellations globally, new data from DNV’s Oil and Gas Decarbonisation in the Gulf Region report underscores why the technology remains strategically central in the Middle East.

By early 2026, Europe’s hydrogen sector had reached an inflection point. Project pipelines remained large on paper, but financing constraints, demand uncertainty, and delayed offtake agreements were forcing a reckoning across the value chain. Hyvolution 2026 in Paris offered a clearer signal of where the market is actually heading.

Wärtsilä and Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy have signed a five-year memorandum of understanding aimed at addressing structural barriers to sustainable maritime operations across the UAE and potentially the wider GCC.

Samsung SDI and Korea East-West Power have signed a memorandum of understanding at the StarPlus Energy facility in Indiana, marking a strategic collaboration aimed at accelerating energy storage system (ESS) deployment and renewable energy initiatives globally.

Tesla closed at $411.11 on February 6, gaining 3.5%, before extending modest overnight gains to $414.13. The company’s market capitalization hovers around $1.37 trillion, yet investor sentiment is increasingly influenced by Tesla’s pivot from a pure electric vehicle manufacturer to a vertically integrated energy and physical AI infrastructure platform.

Brazil’s biofuels sector has long been anchored in ethanol, but mounting pressure to decarbonize aviation and diversify feedstocks is shifting attention toward less conventional pathways.

Vema Hydrogen has drilled its first two pilot wells in Quebec, launching what it describes as the world’s first field test of Engineered Mineral Hydrogen, a method designed to produce hydrogen directly from subsurface rock formations.

Germany’s green hydrogen pipeline continues to move selectively from strategy papers to steel in the ground, with bp confirming a 100 megawatt electrolyzer project that, once commissioned in 2027, is expected to produce up to 11,000 metric tons of green hydrogen annually. The contract awarded to Bilfinger, as part of a consortium responsible for prefabrication, assembly, and installation of key plant components, provides a window into how large energy companies are now prioritizing execution capacity over headline ambition.

Brazil’s push to integrate energy storage into its power system is moving from pilot deployments toward industrial scale, with WEG confirming plans to build a dedicated battery energy storage systems manufacturing plant in Itajaí, Santa Catarina, backed by 280 million reais in financing from Brazil’s development bank BNDES.