Daily Shorts: Indonesia rolls out red carpet for EV makers, Brazil's Eletrobras to buy 15 RE companies
Indonesia is in talks with Tesla and BYD and preparing a fresh set of incentives to attract the EV manufacturers, a government minister said. The incentives will be benchmarked against regional rivals such as Thailand and Vietnam, which have bagged several EV-related projects of late. Indonesia has the world's largest reserves of nickel, which can be processed to make EV batteries. The country has been using the metal to woo manufacturers, especially Tesla, for an Asian production hub. But Tesla might opt for India instead.
Indonesia has started blending biofuels into its petrol. State-owned energy company Pertamina said it had launched petrol with five percent bioethanol blend in two cities, including capital Jakarta. The government has set a target of 15 percent bioethanol content in petrol by 2031. The country, which is the world's largest producer of palm oil, has already implemented a 35 percent palm oil blend in biodiesel.
Brazilian power generation and transmission company Eletrobras said it will invest $17 billion over the next five years on generation and transmission projects, and said it was evaluating 15 merger and acquisition deals in the renewable energy and transmission space. Eletrobras, privatized by the government last year, is Latin America's largest utility company, owing 23 percent of Brazil's installed power capacity and just under 40 percent of the country's transmission lines.
US charging company EVCS plans to raise $125 million by selling a minority stake in the business, which it will use to finance an eight-fold increase in its EV fast-charging network. The company is eyeing 2,100 fast chargers by 2025, up from 260 at present, mainly in the states of California, Washington and Oregon. The US government wants EVs to account for half of new vehicle sales by 2030, and has approved plans to enable a country-wide charging network.
The US government is offering up to $1.55 billion for oil companies to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the plan, companies with low-producing oil wells will receive funding and technical assistance to permanently reduce emissions from leaks and routine operations. Officials say the proposal could reduce around 15 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions between 2022 and 2055.
