2026-02-10 07:44
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Britain secured a record amount of solar power in an auction offering guaranteed electricity price contracts to renewable projects, the government said on Tuesday, as it seeks to meet its clean energy targets and drive down costs. The country has a target to largely decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030, which will require a huge scale-up of renewable power, including wind and solar. Sign up here. A total of 6.2 gigawatts of onshore wind, solar and tidal power projects won contracts with the bulk, some 4.9 GW, going to solar. "By backing solar and onshore wind at scale, we’re driving bills down for good and protecting families, businesses, and our country from the fossil fuel roller coaster," Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/britain-secures-record-amount-solar-renewable-power-auction-2026-02-10/
2026-02-10 07:32
BEIJING, Feb 10 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Tuesday said there had been no reports of its citizens being stranded in Cuba due to airlines suspending flights to the country because of a jet fuel shortage, following the U.S. blocking of shipments from Venezuela. "China firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding its national sovereignty and security, and opposes foreign interference," Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference. "We will always provide support and help to the Cuban side to the best of our ability." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-willing-help-cuba-amid-jet-fuel-shortage-foreign-ministry-says-2026-02-10/
2026-02-10 07:10
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) , opens new tab posted a fourth-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, or adjusted net income, of $1.54 billion on Tuesday, up around 32% on last year and in line with expectations. BP, whose new CEO Meg O'Neill will start in April, said it would suspend its share buyback programme so it can allocate excess cash to invest in oil and gas opportunities. It repurchased shares worth $750 million over the last three months. Sign up here. BP booked diverse impairments of $4.2 billion in the fourth quarter, according to a Reuters calculation of company-provided data, primarily on its solar energy unit Lightsource BP and its U.S. biogas business Archaea. BP also said it sold a minority stake in its U.S. onshore oil fields for $1.5 billion. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bp-reports-fourth-quarter-2025-profits-line-with-expectations-2026-02-10/
2026-02-10 06:45
NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - India is in talks with Brazil, Canada, France and the Netherlands over deals to jointly explore, extract, process and recycle critical minerals, sources said, as it broadens its global outreach to secure supplies of key raw materials. The focus would be on lithium and rare earths, and India would also seek access to mineral-processing technologies, the sources said, declining to be identified because the discussions are confidential. Sign up here. Heavy reliance on arch rival China, which dominates global supplies of many minerals and has advanced mining and processing technology, underscores the need for India to reach out to a range of countries as it accelerates its energy transition to cut emissions, mining experts said. However, from discovery to production, mining can take years, as exploration alone runs five to seven years and often ends without a viable mine. India aims to replicate elements of a critical minerals agreement it signed with Germany in January, which covers exploration, processing and recycling, as well as the acquisition and development of mineral assets in both countries and in third countries, one of the sources said. "There are requests and we are talking to France, Netherlands and Brazil while the agreement with Canada is under active consideration," the source said. The Ministry of Mines is leading the effort, the sources said. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is likely to visit India in early March and sign deals on uranium, energy, minerals and artificial intelligence. Asked for comment, Canada's Natural Resources Department referred to a January statement saying both sides had agreed to formalise cooperation on critical minerals in the coming weeks. Brazil's embassy in New Delhi, India's Ministry of Mines and the foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The embassy of the Netherlands did not comment while the embassy of France declined to comment. India has been scouting globally for critical minerals and has signed pacts with Argentina, Australia, and Japan, and is in talks with Peru and Chile on broader bilateral agreements that also cover critical minerals. India's expanding international engagement comes at a time when finance ministers from the G7 and other major economies met in Washington last month to discuss ways to cut dependence on rare earths from China. In 2023, India identified more than 20 minerals, including lithium, as "critical" for its energy transition and to meet rising demand from industry and the infrastructure sector. ($1 = 90.15 rupees) https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-talks-over-critical-minerals-deals-with-brazil-canada-france-netherlands-2026-02-10/
2026-02-10 06:16
EU leaders to hold summit at Belgian castle on Thursday Macron warns of tensions to come over digital regulation French leader says Trump administration 'openly anti-European' PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Europe should brace for more moments of U.S. hostility, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned, and should treat what he called the "Greenland moment" as a wake‑up call to push through long‑delayed reforms to strengthen the bloc’s global power. In an interview with several European newspapers, the French leader said the European Union should not mistake a lull in tensions with Washington for a lasting shift despite a pause in U.S. threats over Greenland, trade and technology. Sign up here. Macron urged EU leaders to use a summit in a Belgian castle this week to inject fresh energy into economic reforms to bolster the bloc's competitiveness and strengthen its ability to stand up to China and the United States on the world stage. “When there’s a clear act of aggression, I think what we should do isn’t bow down or try to reach a settlement," Macron told Le Monde, the Financial Times and other newspapers in comments published on Tuesday. "We’ve tried that strategy for months. It’s not working,” Macron said the Trump administration was being "openly anti‑European" and seeking the EU’s "dismemberment". He said he anticipated further tensions with the Trump administration, including over Europe's regulation of digital technology. "The U.S. will, in the coming months — that’s certain — attack us over digital regulation," Macron added, warning of potential U.S. import tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump should the EU use its Digital Services Act to control tech companies. 'EUROPE NEEDS PROTECTION, NOT PROTECTIONISM' Europe needed to be more resilient in the face of a double challenge from the United States and China, Macron said. "We have the Chinese tsunami on the trade front, and we have minute-by-minute instability on the American side. These two crises amount to a profound shock — a rupture for Europeans," he continued. Macron, whose second term finishes in spring 2027, renewed his call for the EU to embark on more common borrowing to help the bloc of 27 nations invest at scale and challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar. "World markets are increasingly wary of the U.S. dollar. They're looking at alternatives. Let's offer them European debt," Macron said, adding that Europe's democratic institutions were a major asset for investors at a time when the U.S. was "drifting away from the rule of law". The EU used joint debt in 2020 to re-boot the European economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, but French attempts to make such tools permanent have faced stiff resistance from Germany and other more frugal northern member states. Thursday's summit will include discussions around French-led plans for a “Made in Europe” strategy that would set minimum requirements for European content in locally manufactured goods. The approach has split EU countries and alarmed automakers. "For me, the economic strategy to make our Europe a power lies in what I call protection, which is not protectionism, but rather European preference," Macron said. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/time-eu-launch-joint-borrowing-challenge-us-dollar-says-macron-2026-02-10/
2026-02-10 06:03
LITTLETON, Colorado, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Australia's wholesale electricity prices fell to the lowest in four years in 2025, bucking the rising price trends seen elsewhere and validating claims that renewables-heavy power system overhauls can help lower consumer power costs. Increased battery storage capacity and solar farms should allow utilities to limit operating costs, with those savings potentially passing through to households and businesses as soon as this year. Sign up here. Australia's electricity system has undergone one of the world's most aggressive revamps over the past decade, with clean electricity output more than doubling since 2019, according to data from energy think tank Ember. That growth rate far exceeds the 39% rise in global clean electricity supplies over that period. Europe saw a 12% rise in clean output, while North America saw a 16% rise. Australia's power generators also cut fossil fuel electricity supplies by more than that seen at the global, European and North American levels since 2019, earning its status as a global stand-out in energy transition momentum. RISING CLEAN SHARE, FALLING PRICES Australia's rapid build-out of clean power capacity resulted in a critical power mix milestone being reached in 2025, when more utility electricity supplies came from clean power sources than fossil fuels for the first time. Considering that fossil fuels still accounted for more than 70% of Australia's electricity mix through most of 2021, the pace of clean power growth since then underscores the extent of Australia's utility sector retooling. Such speedy overhauls of national energy systems have generally been accompanied by steep increases in consumer electricity bills as utilities passed on the costs from new generation capacity and network upgrades. And Australians have certainly faced their fair share of energy inflation in recent years: average national electricity prices surged by more than 200% in 2022 alone, and since then have averaged 60% more than the levels seen in 2020 and 2021. However, price dynamics across Australia's largest wholesale electricity markets over the past year or so suggest that the trend may now be shifting the other way. DOUBLE-DIGIT DECLINES Wholesale electricity prices across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia declined by an average of 11% in 2025 from 2024's totals, data from LSEG and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) shows. Queensland prices recorded the largest year-over-year fall at 15%, followed by New South Wales' 13% drop. Prices in New South Wales - Australia's largest state with the highest energy costs - averaged just under $109 per megawatt hour (MWh) in 2025, compared to nearly $125/MWh in 2024. Prices in Queensland averaged around $95/MWh last year, which was the first annual reading below $100 since 2021. The state of Victoria saw prices average around $75, while in South Australia prices averaged around $89/MWh. PROTRACTED PASS-THROUGH There can be a long lead time between shifts in wholesale markets and consumer bills, and Australian households have yet to see much benefit from 2025's broad declines in wholesale electricity prices. That said, thanks to record deployment of battery energy storage capacity in recent years, utilities are well placed to meet rising electricity demand through battery systems and solar farms that can help further cut output from fossil-fuel power plants. That in turn should allow them to limit overall operating costs and potentially pass on electricity generation savings to households and businesses. Following an overall inflation rate of nearly 4% in 2025, Australians will be grateful for any reductions in key household bills going forward. But the future trend in Australian electricity costs will be tracked well beyond the country's borders, as utilities in Europe, North America and elsewhere weigh whether the clean power paths taken Down Under can be replicated in other markets. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn , opens new tab and X , opens new tab. And listen to the Morning Bid daily podcast on Apple , opens new tab, Spotify , opens new tab, or the Reuters app , opens new tab. Subscribe to hear Reuters journalists discuss the biggest news in markets and finance 7 days a week. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/australias-renewables-boom-delivers-coveted-power-price-payoff-2026-02-10/
