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Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind will resume construction after a federal judge on Friday temporarily lifted the Trump administration's suspension. View More

Employees of Dominion Energy gaze at one of two wind turbines located 27 miles off of Virginia Beach in the Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 2023. The two turbines are part of a pilot program for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Program.Kendall Warner | Virginian Pilot | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind will resume construction, after a federal judge Friday temporarily lifted the Trump administration's suspension of the project. It is the largest offshore wind project under construction in the U.S. Shares of Dominion Energy, the owner and developer, rose about 1% on the news.The Department of Interior in December halted construction of five wind farms off the East Coast, including Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, claiming national security concerns. Judge Jamar Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion's request for a preliminary injunction Friday. Dominion called the Trump suspension "arbitrary and illegal" in its lawsuit. "Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks," a Dominion spokesperson told CNBC in a statement Friday. "While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government," the spokesperson said. Dominion said in December that "stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation's most important war fighting, AI and civilian assets."Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a 176-turbine project that would provide enough power for more than 600,000 homes, according to Dominion. It is scheduled to start dispatching power by the end of the first quarter of 2026. The project will help meet power demand in in northern Virginia, the world's largest data center market. Data centers are increasingly straining the electric grid as they consume more power to train and run artificial intelligence applications. The Trump administration tried to halt four other offshore wind farms in December. They are Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island; Sunrise Wind off Long Island and New England; and Empire Wind 1 south of Long Island.Federal judges this week allowed Revolution Wind and Empire Wind to resume construction.

The rapidly increasing share of renewables in generation mix emphasises the need to prioritise strengthening grid resilience and storage capacities View More

Coal India is set for a major reform in 2026, aiming for increased coal output and better quality. The company is investing in technology and infrastructure to meet India's growing energy needs. Diversification into solar power and critical minerals is also underway. Coal will remain central to India's energy mix for decades, with Coal India playing a dominant role. View More

Kolkata: Coal India Ltd ( CIL ) has designated 2026 as the "year of reform and transformation" with the state-run miner focusing on higher coal output, improved quality, technology upgrades and diversification to strengthen its long-term role in India's energy landscape, Chairman-cum-Managing Director B Sairam said on Friday. Sairam said the miner is pursuing a 360-degree reform agenda that includes mechanised loading for precise quantity and quality, modernisation through digitalisation, improved safety standards and faster evacuation through dedicated rail infrastructure. "The twin priorities are increased output and improved supplies of quality coal," Sairam told PTI in an interview, adding that dry fuel will remain "at the top of the energy mix" in meeting the country's energy aspirations in the near-to-medium term. India's electricity demand continues to grow at a robust pace, with coal-based power generation accounting for around 70 per cent of total electricity output. Rising industrial activity and peak power requirements have kept coal supply and evacuation critical for energy security. Coal India has invested in major rail lines in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand, which together account for nearly two-thirds of its one billion tonne production programme, the CMD said. Live Events The company has also engaged mine developer-cum-operators (MDOs) to ramp up production and unlock coal from discontinued mines on a revenue-sharing basis, he said. On energy transition, Sairam said the shift towards cleaner sources does not pose a pressure on Coal India's role, as India's rapidly growing energy demand leaves "sufficient growth potential for all forms of energy". Considering that the country is on course to catch up the world's average on per capita energy consumption, coal is going to play an important role in this endeavour, Sairam noted. "With the bulk of the generation, at least for the next two decades, to be met by coal, CIL's future is strong and it would continue to dominate India's broader energy landscape," he said. The government policy has emphasised a calibrated and orderly energy transition, where coal continues to play a stabilising role alongside renewable sources to meet base-load power requirements. Sairam said CIL is also stepping up its non-coal initiatives to consolidate its position as a diversified energy player. These include the installation of 3,000 MW of solar power capacity by FY'28 to support the company's net-zero aspirations, and coal gasification projects in partnership with BHEL , GAIL and BPCL for the production of ammonium nitrate and synthetic natural gas. Public sector enterprises, including Coal India, are increasingly investing in renewable energy to offset operational emissions and reduce energy costs for mining activities, while aligning with long-term climate commitments. In a first, Coal India has emerged as the preferred bidder for three critical mineral blocks in India, including graphite and vanadium, and is also exploring overseas acquisitions in the segment, the CMD said. The company has also entered into a joint venture with Damodar Valley Corporation to set up a 1,600 MW coal-fired power plant as a brownfield expansion at DVC's Chandrapura thermal power station in Jharkhand, with commercial operations expected in 2031-32. "As energy leader, Coal India is fully geared up to play its assertive role in this mission," Sairam said. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)

China's artificial intelligence models may be just "months" behind U.S. and Western capabilities, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind told CNBC. View More

In this articleGOOGGOOGLNVDABABA9988-HKFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO52:3552:35The man behind Google's AI machine: Watch CNBC's interview with Demis HassabisThe Tech Download China's artificial intelligence models may be just "a matter of months" behind U.S. and Western capabilities, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind told CNBC.The assessment from the head of one of the world's leading AI labs and a key driver behind Google's Gemini assistant, runs counter to views that have suggested China remains far behind. Speaking on CNBC's new podcast, The Tech Download, which launched on Friday, Hassabis said Chinese AI models are closer to U.S. and Western capabilities "than maybe we thought one or two years ago.""Maybe they're only a matter of months behind at this point," Hassabis told The Tech Download. About a year ago, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek came out with a model that sent shockwaves through markets because of its strong performance that was built on less-advanced chips and at a lower cost than American alternatives. While DeepSeek has released new models since, and the shock factor has worn off, China's tech giants like Alibaba and startups such as Moonshot AI and Zhipu have also released very capable models. Still, Hassabis said that while China could play catch up, the country's companies are yet to prove their ability to create AI breakthroughs. CEO of DeepMind Demis Hassabis listens during a debate at an AI summit at Imperial College London, in central London on July 9, 2025. Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Images "The question is, can they innovate something new beyond the frontier? So I think they've shown they can catch up ... and be very close to the frontier ... But can they actually innovate something new, like a new transformer ... that gets beyond the frontier? I don't think that's been shown yet," Hassabis said.The transformer was a scientific breakthrough made by Google researchers in 2017 that underpins the large language models that have been developed by AI labs in recent years, including those powering products like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Other top technology figures have also given credit to China's progress. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last year that the U.S. is "not far ahead" in the AI race."China is well ahead of us on energy. We are way ahead on chips. They're right there on infrastructure. They're right there on AI models," Huang said. China chip challenges China's technology firms face a number of challenges, with access to critical technology among the biggest. There is a U.S. export ban in force on leading-edge semiconductors from Nvidia that are required to train more advanced AI models.The White House has indicated that it would approve sales of Nvidia's H200 chip to China, a more advanced semiconductor than the country recently had access to. However, it is not Nvidia's top-of-the-range product.Homegrown chip firms like Huawei have looked to fill the gap, but their performance still lags behind Nvidia's offering.Some analysts have suggested that over the longer term, the lack of access to Nvidia chips in China could mean the gap between U.S. and Chinese AI models widens."I do suspect, though that we will start seeing a divergence as that superior U.S. AI infrastructure starts iterating those models and starts making those models more capable over time in years to come," Richard Clode, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, told CNBC's "The China Connection" last week. "So I would expect from here we're probably at peak relative Chinese AI capability versus the U.S." watch nowVIDEO10:1510:15We are at the peak of relative Chinese AI capability vs U.S.: Portfolio managerThe China Connection Even Chinese companies have acknowledged their difficulties.Lin Junyang, technical lead of Alibaba's Qwen team, said during an AI conference in Beijing last week, that there was a less than 20% chance that a Chinese firm would surpass U.S. tech giants in the next three-to-five years when it comes to AI, the South China Morning Post reported. Lin reportedly said that U.S. computing infrastructure is "one to two orders of magnitude larger" than China's.Hassabis however, puts the lack of frontier breakthroughs down to "mentality" rather than tech restrictions. 'Modern day Bell Labs' The DeepMind CEO compared the company to a "modern day Bell Labs" which encourages "exploratory innovation" rather than just "scaling out what's known today. Bell Labs, founded in the early 1900s, was responsible for a number of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries. "And of course, that's already very difficult, because you need world-class engineering already to be able to do that. And China definitely has that," Hassabis said. "The scientific innovation part that's a lot harder," Hassabis added. "To invent something is about 100 times harder than it is to copy it. ... That's the next frontier really, and I haven't seen evidence of that yet, but it's very difficult." Hassabis is considered to be one of the leading figures in the world of AI. DeepMind, the company he founded more than 10 years ago, which was acquired by Google in 2014, has been a key driving force behind Alphabet-owned Google's recent success with its AI products, including Gemini. In November, Google introduced Gemini 3, its latest model, which has been well-received by users and the market as the tech giant looked to allay fears it was falling behind rivals like OpenAI.

Equinor, the Norwegian company developing the project, said it "will now focus on safely restarting construction activities." View More

The Marmac 306, a cable laying barge, in the New York Harbor in New York, US, on Thursday, July 17, 2025. The crew of an American-flagged barge will lay cable to connect the Empire Wind farm to New York City's grid a milestone for an embattled sector. Bryan Derballa | Bloomberg | Getty Images Empire Wind will resume construction off the coast of New York, after a federal judge on Thursday temporarily lifted the Trump administration's suspension of the project. The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the latest setback for President Donald Trump's efforts to stop offshore wind projects. Equinor, the Norwegian company developing Empire Wind, said it "will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period.""In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations," Equinor said in a statement Thursday. The Department of Interior halted five wind projects off the East Coast, including Empire Wind, on Dec. 22 claiming national security concerns. Equinor in its lawsuit called the suspension "the latest unlawful action" by the Trump administration to stop the development of offshore wind.Empire Wind is expected to generate electricity for more than 500,000 homes by 2027, according to Equinor. It will provide power to New York City through a substation in Brooklyn. The other projects targeted by Trump are Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, and Sunrise Wind off Long Island and New England. A federal judge on Monday allowed Revolution Wind to resume construction. A hearing on the suspension of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. ET at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, owned by Dominion Energy, is the largest project of its kind in the U.S.

Q3 Results Today Live Updates: Several companies, including Jio Financial Services, HDFC Life Insurance, 360 ONE WAM, LT Technology Services, Angel One and Emmvee Photovoltaic Power, are set to announce their FY26 Q3 earnings on January 15, 2026. View More

Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju said over 530 million Jan Dhan accounts have been opened, with women holding a majority. India now accounts for about half of global real-time payments. View More

Speaking at the global inclusive finance summit, V. Anantha Nageswaran urged banks to treat borrowers emerging from government credit support schemes as regular customers. He also asked investors in inclusive finance institutions to accept lower returns in exchange for social impact. View More

The ruling is a legal setback for the pro-fossil fuel Trump administration, which moved to block the $5 billion Revolution Wind project. View More

A turbine blade is lifted onto a rack near tower sections at the Revolution Wind project assembly site at State Pier in New London, Connecticut, US, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Shares of Danish renewables giant Orsted rose nearly 5% on Tuesday morning, shortly after a U.S. judge cleared the company to resume work on its nearly finished Revolution Wind project.In a statement, Orsted welcomed the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying the action would allow the company "to restart impacted activities immediately."The ruling is a legal setback for the pro-fossil fuel Trump administration, which moved to block the $5 billion Revolution Wind project.The White House halted five major offshore wind developments at the end of last year, including Orsted's project off the coast of Rhode Island. Officials cited national security concerns identified by the Pentagon as the reason for the suspension.Orsted filed a legal challenge to the Trump administration's decision earlier this month, saying that the lease suspension would cause "substantial harm" to the Revolution Wind project.In a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the Court should be "very skeptical of the government's true motives" for putting a stop to the project, according to Reuters news agency."You want to stop everything in place, costing them one-and-a-half million a day, while you decide what you want to do?" Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Peter Torstensen.A spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Read moreTrump halts largest offshore wind project in the U.S., Dominion stock drops nearly 4%Offshore wind has no future in the U.S. under Trump administration, Interior Secretary saysTrump administration cancels $679 million for offshore wind projects Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, said the U.S. judge's decision was clearly welcome news for the likes of Orsted and Danish wind turbine maker Vestas but warned of further industry uncertainty."It's certainly a win for these companies anyway — and they have had such a hard time over the last year or so that they could definitely use that," Field told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday."But … whether Trump will find a way around this or find some other way to maybe go at these companies is the question. So, I wouldn't be completely celebrating as of yet," he added.Revolution Wind is a 50/50 joint venture between Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners' Skyborn Renewables. In a filing last year, Orsted and Skyborn Renewables said they had already spent approximately $5 billion on the project.Shares of Orsted traded 4.5% higher at around 10 a.m. London time (5 a.m. ET). Vestas, meanwhile, was last seen up around 1.6%. Shares of Norway's Equinor, whose Empire Wind 1 project was also impacted, were last seen 2.7% higher. U.S.-listed Dominion Energy, the developer of the halted Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest of its kind in America, was flat in pre-market trade.

UNDER EMBARGO TILL 6.AM on TuesdayIt has a presence in all the windy States in India, along with 40 MWs of capacity in Sri Lanka View More