2024-11-13 22:54
HOUSTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Onshore wind industry investment is struggling despite the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, Geoffrey Hebertson, lead renewables analyst at Rystad Energy, told attendees at an energy conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Kansas City on Wednesday. Despite the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which enabled production tax credits and investment tax credits for the next 10 years, the onshore wind industry is struggling to maintain investment levels, Hebertson said. "We do expect 2024 to be a historically low year for wind and we do not see over the next few years any implications going forward for that to change," he added. Current installed wind generation capacity in the U.S. is roughly 152 gigawatts (GW), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Shortages of parts, jumps in labor costs and drawn-out development timelines have slowed the pace of wind-farm construction in the last couple of years. A 300 megawatt wind farm used to cost around $400 million, but that same wind farm today would cost between $600 million and $670 million, Erik Haug, vice president of energy marketing at Apex Clean Energy, said at the same conference in Dallas. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/global-oil-demand-seen-80-100-million-bpd-by-2035-net-zero-environment-says-bps-2024-11-13/
2024-11-13 22:53
Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. power consumption will rise to record highs in 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday. EIA projected power demand will rise to 4,086 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024 and 4,165 billion kWh in 2025. That compares with 4,012 billion kWh in 2023 and a record 4,067 billion kWh in 2022. With growing demand from artificial intelligence and data centers and as homes and businesses use more electricity for heat and transportation, EIA forecast 2024 power sales will rise to 1,494 billion kWh for residential consumers, 1,420 billion kWh for commercial customers and 1,026 billion kWh for industrial customers. Those forecasts compare to all-time highs of 1,509 billion kWh for residential consumers in 2022, 1,408 billion kWh in 2023 for commercial customers and 1,064 billion kWh in 2000 for industrial customers. EIA said natural gas' share of power generation would rise from 42% in 2023 to 43% in 2024 before sliding to 40% in 2025. Coal's share will ease from 17% in 2023 to 15% in 2024 and 2025, as renewable output rises. The percentage of renewable generation will rise from 22% in 2023 to 23% in 2024 and 25% in 2025, while nuclear power's share will hold at 19% in 2024 and 2025, the same as 2023, according to the energy outlook. EIA projected 2024 gas sales would ease to 12.1 billion cubic feet per day for residential consumers and 23.3 bcfd for industrial customers, hold at 9.1 bcfd for commercial customers and rise to 37.0 bcfd for power generation. That compares with all-time highs of 14.3 bcfd in 1996 for residential consumers, 9.6 bcfd in 2019 for commercial customers, 23.8 bcfd in 1973 for industrial customers and 35.5 bcfd in 2023 for power generation. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-power-use-reach-record-highs-2024-2025-eia-forecast-says-2024-12-10/
2024-11-13 22:53
Nov 13 (Reuters) - California's only remaining nuclear power plant plans to use artificial intelligence tools to help it comply with new licensing requirements to keep the decades-old facility running. Atomic Canyon, a startup based in San Luis Obispo, California, said on Wednesday it has signed a deal with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) (PCG_pa.A) , opens new tab to install an AI software system called Neutron Enterprise at PG&E's Diablo Canyon facility. The deal, whose value was not disclosed, will help PG&E sift through decades of documents to create plans to manage the plant's aging concrete and systems. Commissioned in 1985 and located about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on California's coast, Diablo Canyon was once slated to shut down. California officials reversed course in 2022 in an effort to stay on track with the state's carbon-reduction goals. Maureen Zawalick, vice president of business and technical services at Diablo Canyon, told Reuters the facility has about 9,000 procedures in place and 9 million documents stored in its systems, many of them scanned from paper or microfiche. As part of the PG&E's federal license keep the facility running for up to 20 more years, the company must create plans to manage it as it ages, with much of the information drawn from decades-old documents. Atomic Canyon's software, which will run on computers supplied by Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab, will read the documents and make them searchable in natural language. The startup worked with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to develop an AI model trained to understand the specialized terms used in nuclear regulatory documents. Most nuclear plants "have this huge corpus of data, but it can be really challenging to find documents when you have so much data that's available," Trey Lauderdale, Atomic Canyon's founder, told Reuters. "A lot of this data is microfiche. It's not like they went and labeled what all this data was." PG&E's Zawalick said the AI system could eventually help with more complex tasks, like scheduling maintenance on the plant, which must take into account how all its systems work together. Maintenance scheduling is "labor intensive," Zawalick said. "That's where we're going to gain a lot of efficiencies." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/californias-only-nuclear-plant-use-ai-help-comply-with-new-licensing-challenges-2024-11-13/
2024-11-13 22:46
BRASILIA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Brazil's incoming central bank chief Gabriel Galipolo said on Wednesday that pursuing its 3% inflation target is non-negotiable for policymakers, but that there are various paths to achieve that goal. Speaking at an event hosted by Bradesco Asset Management, Galipolo, who is currently the central bank's director of monetary policy, but who will take over as governor in January, noted that recent data has shown the Brazilian economy's resilience. He emphasized that the central bank will continue to assess data on a meeting-by-meeting basis, without providing guidance or reacting mechanically to variables. The central bank accelerated its monetary tightening with a 50-basis-point interest rate hike last week, pushing rates to 11.25%. In the minutes of the decision, policymakers stressed that further deterioration in inflation expectations could prolong the monetary tightening cycle. Annual inflation in Latin America's largest economy reached 4.76% in October. Even with the central bank hiking rates, economists have raised their inflation forecasts through 2026 due to stronger-than-expected economic activity, a tight labor market and a weaker currency. The recent depreciation of the Brazilian real has been driven by a combination of local fiscal concerns and a stronger U.S. dollar after the nation's presidential election. With the market awaiting new fiscal measures to support the real and reduce long-term interest rates, Galipolo acknowledged that changes often take longer than the market would prefer, but said he favors the "pains of democracy." After the central bank sold all $4 billion offered in two dollar-denominated auctions with repurchase agreements on Wednesday, Galipolo said the intervention was related to year-end seasonality, when there is usually "additional demand that tends to cause a bit of stress on the exchange-rate coupon." "I think the action was well understood, well received, and served its purpose," he added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-incoming-central-bank-chief-stresses-various-paths-achieve-inflation-2024-11-13/
2024-11-13 22:36
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Greenlight Capital President David Einhorn said on Wednesday he has added some inflationary protection to his hedge fund portfolio as he believes that inflation will go up under the government of President-elect Donald Trump. Speaking at the CNBC Delivering Alpha conference, Einhorn said inflation is likely to be between 3.5% and 4.5% next year. In the 12 months through September, the consumer price index rose 2.6%, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday. Government spending in the new administration will be higher, he said, while it is not clear how Trump's economic team will offset it. Still, the hedge fund investor said he is not bearish about stocks, as U.S. economy is likely to continue growing. Einhorn added that it is possible to find some bargains in the markets. He has added a long position in CNH Industrial (CNH.N) , opens new tab, which is down 17.5% year to date, as he expects the share price to rise. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/greenlights-einhorn-expects-inflation-pick-up-under-trump-2024-11-13/
2024-11-13 22:30
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. bank CEOs expressed confidence in the dealmaking outlook and the financial health of U.S. consumers at an industry conference in New York on Wednesday. Bank of America's buildup of advisory work on upcoming mergers and acquisitions is strong, while its pipelines for initial public offerings "are full and ready to go," CEO Brian Moynihan told attendees. KeyCorp CEO Christopher Gorman noted consumers have 30% more money in their bank accounts today than they did before the pandemic, signaling "the economy is in good shape." U.S. banks expect demand from borrowers to rise as the incoming Trump administration prepares to take office while interest rates fall. The resurgence could come after several quarters of anemic loan growth. "We haven't seen a lot of loan demand, and I think we're going to now see the beginning of that," Gorman told the Clearing House conference. Demand for commercial and industrial loans was flat in the second quarter, stabilizing after two years of declines, according to a Fed survey in August. "We expect a pro-business and onshoring stance to lead to increase lending activity, which should help support a revival of loan growth across the industry," Anthony Elian, an analyst at JPMorgan, wrote in a report last week. Banks tightened lending standards last year as the commercial real estate market deteriorated and investors became broadly concerned about the potential for a U.S. recession. The Federal Reserve started to reduce borrowing costs in September and is expected to continue to ease monetary policy. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/bank-ceos-express-confidence-deals-consumer-finances-2024-11-13/
