Raphael Stevens

In this articleENR-DEORSTED-DKThis picture taken on March 4, 2021 shows wind turbines at an offshore wind farm in waters off South Korea.JUNG YEON-JE | AFP | Getty ImagesEnergy firm Orsted has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korean conglomerate POSCO that will focus on offshore wind and renewable hydrogen. In an announcement Thursday, Denmark-headquartered Orsted said major steel producer POSCO and its affiliates would “support the development” of its offshore wind projects planned for waters off Incheon, in the northwest of South Korea.Orsted wants to develop as much as 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind in the area, with the company saying commissioning of these facilities could take place in 2026 or 2027.This timeline is subject to a number of conditions, including permits, an off-take agreement and a final investment decision.Looking at the bigger picture, authorities in South Korea want to develop 12 GW of offshore wind capacity by the year 2030.The MoU announced Thursday builds upon an existing relationship between the two companies, with POSCO having already supplied more than 100,000 tons of steel to Orsted.In addition, POSCO and Orsted will undertake “feasibility studies” on a prospective renewable hydrogen collaboration.In a statement Jung-son Chon, senior executive vice president at the POSCO Group, said his company was “working to discover renewable hydrogen business opportunities.”Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile energy carrier,” hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be deployed in sectors such as industry and transport.It can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.If the electricity used in the process comes from a renewable source, such as wind or solar, then some call it “green” or “renewable” hydrogen. Currently, the vast majority of hydrogen generation is based on fossil fuels, and green hydrogen is expensive to produce.In recent times, a number of major firms have revealed plans to develop renewable hydrogen facilities. Just last week, a Dubai-based project described as the “first industrial scale, solar-driven green hydrogen facility in the Middle East and North Africa” was inaugurated.In a statement at the time, Siemens Energy said power for the pilot project — a collaboration with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and Expo 2020 Dubai — would come from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, a vast solar facility slated to have a production capacity of 5,000 megawatts by 2030. More

If you are suffering from post-pandemic sticker shock, you are not alone.From gas and groceries to computers and clothing, everyday items are suddenly more expensive.  As the country recovers in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and Americans put their stimulus checks and stashed cash to work, some of these higher costs are simply the price consumers must pay for an economic rebound. (In other words, as the economy picks up, so will inflation.)In other cases, supply chain setbacks have put a strain on certain goods, which is also driving prices higher, but only temporarily.More from Personal Finance:Prices are going up — here’s what inflation means to youFighting inflation with a reverse mortgageInflation worries? Consider this investment”It’s sort of like the consumer version of musical chairs; there’s a bit of a rush for a limited supply of things,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.  But not everything is going to be more expensive forever, Hamrick said. And, if you are weighing a major purchase, it may pay to wait it out.Here are a few examples:Home renovationsAnyone that’s considering a bathroom remodel or kitchen renovation will see dramatically higher prices for raw materials.Sky-high demand for home improvements coupled with supply-chain slowdowns have caused some building supplies, including lumber, steel, gypsum and copper, to hit record highs this year.A broad mix of residential construction materials is up 12.4% over the previous 12 months, according to the producer price index.As a result, nearly half of all builders say they are adding escalation clauses to their sale prices because of rising material costs, according to a recent survey from the National Association of Home Builders.”It’s an unusual period created by the pandemic,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation. “I think people are recognizing that we should wait a little bit until things get back to a better situation.”TravelBut if you are thinking of getting away instead of redoing your house, you’re out of luck.A sudden surge in post-pandemic wanderlust is also making vacations more expensive.Domestic airfares are up 9% since April 1 while international fares are up 17%, according to recent research from Bernstein. And a rise in bookings is driving up prices even more.Hotel rates are also higher and have even surpassed pre-pandemic prices in some popular destinations, according to travel booking technology company Koddi.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsConsumers with vouchers from last year’s canceled plans could catch a break if they can put those credits to use.”A lot of us probably have some stored value in services that we didn’t take advantage of during the pandemic,” Hamrick said. “At the very least, it pays to ask.”Although, in that case, act sooner rather than later to score a reservation before flights and hotels are fully booked for the summer — or worse, those vouchers expire.CarsThose planning to hit the open road now that pandemic-related restrictions have lifted may stall out at the dealership.High consumer demand along with a manufacturing shortage of microchips — key parts needed for today’s autos to operate — have squeezed new-car inventory at dealerships across the country. And the used-car market isn’t much better.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsNew cars cost an average of about $40,000 in April, according to Kelley Blue Book, up about 2.2% from last year. At the same time, the typical cost of a used car is now up to roughly $23,000, according to Edmunds. “New vehicles — particularly new trucks and SUVs — are basically the 2021 equivalent of toilet paper and hand sanitizer a year ago,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights, said in a statement.However, the chip shortage is only expected to impact production through the end of the summer or early fall and prices generally come down toward the end of the year and into January when sellers look to unload last year’s models.  Most of these price increases are temporary.Anand Talwarexecutive for Ally Bank”Most of these price increases are temporary, so think carefully about whether it’s worth dipping into your savings and paying a premium,” said Anand Talwar, deposits and consumer strategy executive for Ally Bank.”Instead, wait until inventories build up again and prices drop,” he advised.If you must buy something that suddenly costs more, any extra savings will shield you from having to rely on credit cards or other types of high-interest debt.”If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that your emergency fund isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have,” Talwar said.  To get there, consider setting up an automated deposit to your rainy-day fund, Talwar advised.”You’ll build and maintain your financial breathing room and keep the past year’s hard-won savings from walking out the reopening door.”Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. More

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at military aircrafts flying over the Kremlin and Red Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, Moscow, May 9, 2020.Alexey Druzhinin | AFP | Getty ImagesRussia will not make Covid vaccines compulsory for its citizens, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, adding that people should see the necessity of immunization on their own.Some officials in Russia had proposed making vaccination mandatory, but Putin said Wednesday that the controversial measure would be “counterproductive.”Speaking during a video conference on the economy, Putin said officials had analyzed options including mandatory vaccination for the entire population, or for workers in certain sectors who come into contact with large numbers of people, Russian news agency TASS reported.This could have seen Covid shots made compulsory for people working in the retail, education or transportation, for example. However, Putin said he did not agree with such a move.”In my opinion, it is counterproductive and unnecessary to introduce mandatory vaccinations,” he said, adding that “people should realize this necessity on their own” and understand that without a vaccine they “may face a very serious and even deadly danger,” particularly elderly people.Putin urged the public to get immunized and emphasized that the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, was safe.”I would like to emphasize once again and to appeal to all our citizens: think carefully, keep in mind that the Russian vaccine – the practice has already shown that millions (of people) have used it – is currently the most reliable and the safest,” Putin said. “All conditions for vaccination have been created in our country.”Vaccine hesitancyDespite pleas from the President and other high-profile officials, and the installation of walk-in vaccination centers in shopping malls in big cities, Russia has found that much of its population is reluctant to receive a Covid shot.Some officials have tried more unusual means to coax the hesitant, with Moscow offering free ice cream in Red Square to anyone who got vaccinated, and shopping coupons or gift cards worth 1000 rubles (around $13.60) for pensioners. There have also been reports of some Russian regions offering cash incentives to get the shot.Moscow’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has openly vented his frustration at the slow uptake of vaccinations in his blog.”It is remarkable…People are getting sick, they continue to get sick, they continue to die. And yet they still don’t want to get vaccinated,” Sobyanin said in comments published in a video blog post on Friday and reported by Reuters.”We were the first major city in the world to announce the start of mass vaccination. And what?” Sobyanin said. “The percentage of vaccinated people in Moscow is less than in any European city. In some cases, several times over.”He highlighted that only 1.3 million people in Moscow had received a shot so far, out of 12 million residents.As of May 26, just over 11% of Russia’s population had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to data compiled by Our World In Data. This is similar a similar rate to in India — which has also struggled to get its immunization program off the ground due to production issues — but lags other major economies. The U.K. for instance, has both given over 70% its populations at least one jab.The home of Sputnik VThat frustration is more palpable in Russia as it was one of the first countries in the world to approve a Covid vaccine — its own, Sputnik V — last August. At first there were concerns over Sputnik V’s safety and efficacy credentials, particularly as Russia authorized the shot before clinical trials had been completed, a move that raised suspicions in the international scientific community.However, the Sputnik V vaccine was found to be 91.6% effective in preventing people from developing Covid-19, according to peer-reviewed results from its late-stage clinical trial that published in The Lancet medical journal in February.Despite this, a poll conducted by Russia’s Levada polling center published in March found that 62% of people did not want to get the vaccine, with the highest level of reluctance found among 18 to 24-year-olds. More

Electric vehicle manufacturing currently faces an “embedded carbon” challenge, says Jefferies’ Simon Powell.”To gain the environmental dividend that governments are looking for, users are going to have to keep them longer, drive them further than they may have done with a conventional internal combustion energy vehicle,” Powell, head of global thematic research at the firm, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.He explained that a “huge amount” of carbon is emitted when materials such as steel, aluminum and glass are created and put together to manufacture vehicles. He said the problem is compounded for electric vehicles, which currently tend to be heavier on average than their gasoline-powered counterparts.”When they leave the factory, these (electric vehicles) are at a disadvantage,” he said. “They contain more steel. The brakes are bigger. The battery packs are certainly heavier.”The relatively higher weight of electric vehicles today is a result of manufacturers’ focus on the range for these cars, Powell said. Unlike cars which run on internal combustion engines that have been around for decades, the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is considerably less developed globally.Importance of ‘green steel’Powell predicted, however, the “embedded carbon” in electric vehicles is expected to eventually come down to levels that compare with conventional vehicles.”The way this whole thing gets solved is greener steel,” he said. “The use of hydrogen in the manufacturing process for steel, as well, is something to look at.””I don’t think many people are talking about the greening of the steel industry,” the analyst said, admitting that it will be “very challenging” to decarbonize the sector globally.Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC ProThe battery market is booming. One company believes it’s made a key change to how they’re madeBank of America cuts Tesla price target by over 20%, says more stock sales could be comingMissed the electric car boom? Analysts say these battery stocks are set to soarThe metal today is largely produced from coking coal, while the making of lower carbon steel tends to be both more resource intensive and costlier.”I think it’s going to take a long time. We’re talking about large investments with … long paybacks, long time horizons,” Powell said.Meanwhile, investors should also monitor the development of battery technology as more energy-dense cells will aid in bringing down the weight and potentially the embedded carbon of electric vehicles, Powell said. More

In this articleHCAPrivacy laws in the U.S. need to be updated, especially after Google struck a deal with a major hospital chain, medical ethics expert Arthur Kaplan said Wednesday. “Now we’ve got electronic medical records, huge volumes of data, and this is like asking a navigation system from a World War I airplane to navigate us up to the space shuttle,” Kaplan, a professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, told “The News with Shepard Smith.” “We’ve got to update our privacy protection and our informed consent requirements.”On Wednesday, Google’s cloud unit and hospital chain HCA Healthcare announced a deal that — according to The Wall Street Journal — gives Google access to patient records. The tech giant said it will use that to make algorithms to monitor patients and help doctors make better decisions. HCA chief medical officer Jonathan Perlin told the Journal that the company will remove all identifying information before giving the data to Google, so they won’t know who you are. HCA collects data from 32 million patient visits every year and has more than 2,000 sites in 20 states. But Kaplan told host Shepard Smith that he was concerned that a company like Google, which does a lot of commercial advertising, could correlate the information coming out of the healthcare system and potentially sell it. “Maybe they don’t have your name, but they sure enough can figure out what sub-group, sub-population might do best by getting advertised to you,” Kaplan said.  Neither Google nor HCA responded to CNBC’s request for comment. More