Climate & Energy News: 4 November 2026

Storms linked to El Niño have killed dozens and disrupted airports, crops and infrastructure across East Asia. In October, Typhoon Champi, equivalent to a category five hurricane, forced shutdowns across nearly all of Taiwan and cancelled hundreds of flights in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. The UK Met Office forecasts this El Niño to be the strongest in living memory, with typhoon energy forecast near double the 30-year average.

Georgia voters gave Democrats control of the state's Public Service Commission for the first time in 30 years, ending a Republican grip that began in 2006. Peter Hubbard was reelected and Sheila Edwards won a seat. The commission regulates Georgia Power and approves rates, resource plans and major infrastructure investments, amid frustration over rising bills, the data center buildout and accountability.

Voters in Corpus Christi, an industrial port city that leads the nation in crude oil exports, approved a citizen led petition to impose steep fees for water use on refineries and chemical plants during future droughts. The measure passed by a two to one margin despite heavy spending by industry groups in opposition. The vote came amid historic political upsets across Texas, where Democratic challengers won every statewide office on the ballot.

Battery electric cars took a record 37% of Germany's new car market in October, with 94,086 registrations, up 79.5% from a year earlier. For the second month in a row, BEVs outsold gasoline and diesel cars combined, while total registrations rose 1.7% to 254,492. Through October, Germany has registered 698,230 BEVs, already passing the auto industry's forecast of about 693,000 for all of 2026.

Sunrun's virtual power plant in Puerto Rico now includes more than 60,000 customers and nearly 70,000 batteries, which the grid used for 18 straight days in October. The network frequently delivers 45 megawatts for four hours and has been dispatched more than 60 times since April. LUMA calls on the Customer Battery Energy Sharing program when demand or reserve needs exceed available generation, while homeowners are paid for sharing stored energy.

The program helps address reliability problems in Puerto Rico.

Türkiye's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources awarded 785 MW of solar capacity across 11 projects in the YEKA GES 2026 tender. The tender received 44 applications from 19 companies, with winners committing about €37.9 million in contribution payments including value added tax. Developers can sell electricity on the open market for the first 60 months, followed by a 20 year purchase period at €0.0325 per kWh.

The round is part of Türkiye's YEKA program, which aims to accelerate renewable deployment and attract investment.

Singapore has revealed a five-year energy plan. It is intended to feed data center and semicon progress.

IOI Corporation, with Tenaga Nasional Berhad and a consortium of small and medium sized enterprises, will develop a 500 MWac solar project and a 250 MW, 1,000 MWh battery storage system on about 1,300 acres in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan. The project is supported by TNB's long term renewable energy offtake agreement with DayOne Data Centres, which is expected to procure up to 500 MWac over 21 years.

It is IOI's first large scale renewable investment under Malaysia's Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme.

A UN report says adaptation finance for poorer countries has been flat or falling since 2022, reaching at most $32bn in 2024. Developing nations need $305bn annually by 2035, while rich countries agreed at Cop30 to triple adaptation finance by 2035, which would still meet only 20-29% of needs.

Vietnam's Dak Lak province has approved a $355 million, 452 MW floating solar project on the Ea Sup Thuong reservoir. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2028 and would rank among the world's larger inland floating PV installations. It will include a battery energy storage system, although capacity has not been disclosed.

Lithuania's Parliament adopted reforms to stimulate renewable investment and cut regulatory barriers. Developers with valid permits can extend timelines by up to 48 months and change project type, with one year to decide and an extra bank guarantee. The performance guarantee to network operators is halved to €25/kW, and up to 100 kW community projects under the prosumer park model no longer need permits from 1 November 2026.

Poland's Energy Regulatory Office has published the schedule for 2026 renewable energy auctions, with a budget of about PLN 24.9 billion covering over 76 TWh. Solar and onshore wind auctions will run on November 9-10, open only to new installations and judged solely on price. The 2025 round awarded 1.67 GW of solar and 82.7 MW of wind, with solar taking 178 of 181 successful bids.

Kazakhstan's energy minister said the country's large-scale solar project pipeline stands at 900 MW. Solar capacity reached 1.37 GW as of April, with renewables over 3.7 GW and 8.5% of the electricity mix. The government targets at least 8.4 GW of new renewables by 2035, including about 1.8 GW of solar, and plans to commission 13.3 GW of new generation by end 2029.

France connected 4,185 MW of new solar capacity in the first nine months of 2026, down 3.5% from a year earlier, according to Enedis data. The number of new installations fell 36.1%, with capacity below 36 kW down 31.7% as residential and small commercial demand contracted after VAT and feed-in tariff changes. Commercial and public-sector connections rose 19.1% to 2,123 MW, while small-scale storage paired with solar grew from 33 MW to 88 MW.

Colombia's operational solar capacity reached 2,590.26 MW at the end of September 2026, or 11.7% of the net effective capacity of its National Interconnected System. Solar capacity rose by 996.18 MW, or 62.5%, in the first nine months, with 39 projects totaling 607.32 MW entering commercial operations in the third quarter. The Puerta de Oro plant, with 360 MW, accounted for nearly half of the solar capacity added in the quarter.

Delhi's air quality index crossed 300, entering the very poor category, as winter weather and crop residue burning worsened pollution ahead of Diwali. Authorities invoked Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan, adding road cleaning, higher parking charges, more metro trips and staggered government office hours. The deterioration followed an unusually clean October, when Delhi recorded its lowest average AQI for the month in eight years.

China's western Inner Mongolia grid has surpassed 20 GW of operational new-type energy storage, reaching 20.23 GW and 70.47 GWh as of October 27. Wind and solar account for nearly 60% of its installed generation capacity, and renewable generation set a record 720 GWh on October 22. New storage installations in the first ten months rose 47.9% year on year, while cumulative charging and discharging volumes increased by more than 400%.

The UK will introduce an energy independence bill giving Ofgem powers to fine suppliers and brokers, order compensation and ban rogue operators. Brokers and price comparison services will be brought under Ofgem, expected to save businesses more than 100 million pounds a year. Ofgem can also curtail executive bonuses when companies fail customers, and local authorities gain stronger powers to fine landlords over energy efficiency.

Electric heavy trucks reached 50.3% of China's September truck market, with sales up 34% from a year earlier and long-haul big-rig share at 64.5%. The gains came after subsidies ended, suggesting a more stable adoption path and putting China on track to exceed 40% EV market share for the year. Diesel's share of heavy trucks has fallen to roughly 40%, and the country's diesel demand is expected to fall by about 230,000 barrels per day this year.