By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
BEIJING, April 29 (Reuters) - The Chinese capital city of Beijing is conducting a check on data centres involved in cryptocurrency mining to better understand their impact on energy consumption, according to sources and a document seen by Reuters.
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology on Tuesday sent an “emergency notice” to the city’s data centre operators to report if they’re involved in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining businesses.
If so, they need to report the amount, and share, of power consumed by cryptocurrency mining, according to the notice.
An official of the bureau, who declined to be identified, said the probe was directed by city authorities, adding that recipients of the notice include China’s three biggest telecoms operators.
(Adds UCT professor, context)
JOHANNESBURG, April 23 (Reuters) - South Africa plans to lift the licensing threshold for small-scale power generation projects to 10 megawatts (MW) from 1 MW, a boost to firms anxious to curb their reliance on ailing state utility Eskom, but industry experts had hoped for more.
Africa’s most industrialised economy regularly suffers electricity outages because of faults at Eskom’s creaking coal-fired power stations.
But onerous regulations have prevented many companies, such as miners, from setting up their own generation facilities.
According to a notice published in the government gazette on Friday, “embedded generation” projects of up to 10 MW will be exempt from requiring a licence but will need to register with energy regulator Nersa.
First domestic bond tranche raised around $200 million Foreign investors welcome to invest in second tranche in Q3 Project planning $3.4 billion in investment over 2021-2025
ULAANBAATAR, April 21 (Reuters) - Mongolia’s giant Tavan Tolgoi coal mine is aiming to raise 2 trillion tugriks ($700 million) through a bond issue as it tries to build infrastructure needed to replace Australia as one of China’s top coal suppliers, the head of the project said.
Gankhuyag Battulga, chief executive of the state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC, said Mongolia needs to invest in railways to take advantage of simmering tensions between Beijing and Canberra, which have reduced coal shipments to zero since December.
2 Min Read
DHAKA (Reuters) -At least five people were killed and dozens injured in Bangladesh on Saturday after police opened fire on a crowd of workers protesting to demand unpaid wages and a pay rise at a Chinese-backed power plant, officials and police said.
Police opened fire after about 2,000 of the protesters began hurling bricks and stones at officers at the construction site of the coal-fired plant in the southeastern city of Chittagong, local police official Azizul Islam told Reuters.
Four protesters died at the scene and another died in hospital, he said.
“We’re trying to control the situation,” Islam said, adding that at least six police officers were among those injured.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
(Reuters) - Australia’s Boral Ltd said on Thursday it is exploring a potential sale, or a joint venture, as part of a review of its struggling North American fly ash business.
The move comes as the top Australian building materials maker is looking to exit the United States, in a retreat from its global expansion strategy that led to a hefty writedown in 2020.
Boral’s $1.8 billion acquisition of rival Headwaters in 2016 made the combined entity the largest supplier of fly ash in U.S. markets. However, since then, it has led to an impairment charge and earnings downgrades amid a soft housing market and a push towards cleaner forms of energy generation.