海角大神

From oil prices to solar innovation to gas wars, each weekend Recharge examines the big ideas in global energy. .

Heating season: Russia's retaliatory sanctions against the West this week don't target energy, but听. Winter heating season begins in October, and it looks increasingly unlikely that Moscow, Kiev, and Brussels can come to an agreement to restore gas flows to Ukraine 鈥撎齛nd ensure transit of Russian gas to Europe. As the situation gets increasingly desperate,听.

Leapfrog:听. It's an opportunity to build from scratch 21st-century energy systems that are smarter and cleaner than the industrialized world's carbon-heavy grid. But this week's US-Africa summit demonstrated听it will not be easy to pursue African prosperity while also reining in runaway global emissions.

Petr贸leos internacionales: The overhaul of Mexico's energy industry is a bet that the shale boom can spread south of the Rio Grande.听, following Iran, Iraq, and other oil states looking to revive lagging output with outside support. The move ends 75 years of monopoly and national pride for Petr贸leos Mexicanos, but it could be a boon for Mexico's economy and听.

In the pipeline

• Sunday, August 10: TELEVISION and THE INTERNET 鈥� President Obama鈥檚 Power Africa coordinator Andrew Herscowitz听听on Platts Energy Week. Also, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow John Banks will explain how Millennials are changing how utilities operate.
• Monday, August 11 to Tuesday, August 12: SANTA FE, N.M. and CARLSBAD, N.M. 鈥撎�, making a stop at DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. WIPP is听.
• Ongoing: IRAQ 鈥� So far,听oil prices have responded relatively quietly to US airstrikes on Iraqi insurgents, but any kind of prolonged intervention, or a spread of violence to the oil-rich south, will put upward pressure on oil prices.

听

Drill deeper

听[Reuters]
In an era of fracking, seismic exploration, and horizontal drilling, oil producers are returning to the Gulf of Mexico. "We are re-shooting all of our large fields to make sure that we haven't missed anything," one oil executive told Reuters.

听[The Wall Street Journal]
Farmers in Kenya have banded together against a proposed wind farm, which is part of Obama's "Power Africa" program. In the wake of Obama's high-level US-Africa summit, local objections in Kenya and elsewhere demonstrate the difficulty of implementing energy programs on the ground.

Setting rivers free: As dams are torn down, nature is quickly recovering[海角大神]
Nearly 900 dams, erected to power the country鈥檚 machinery, store water, irrigate fields, or generate hydroelectric power, have come down in the past 25 years, writes Doug Struck. The trend toward river restoration is a far cry from the early 20th century lionization of dams as modern triumphs over nature.

Energy sources

• : "Natural gas production in the Marcellus Region exceeded 15 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) through July, the first time ever recorded"
• : "[Pennsylvania] left approximately 58,000 active wells (89%) uninspected in 2008; in 2013, ... [the state] inspected thousands more wells 鈥� but the growth in drilling and production meant that more than 66,000 active wells (83%) weren鈥檛 inspected."
• China's National Energy Administration, via听: "China added 3.3 gigawatts of solar capacity in the six months ending June 30, double last year鈥檚 additions ... China now has 23 gigawatts of solar power supply, almost seven times as much as Australia."

Unplug

Amid record drought, Californians "go green."

鈥撎�听/听