October 25, 2026 · Energy & Climate Daily Digest
A roundup of energy and climate developments for October 25, 2026, with summaries, links, and commentary.
I. Policy and Supply
1. Sri Lanka's energy minister says renewables may have to exceed 70% after the oil shock (policy)
Summary:
AFP published an interview on October 25 with Sri Lanka's energy minister, Anura Karunathilaka: the country imports all of its oil and gas, the ministry says the government has at times spent up to 30% of foreign-exchange reserves in a single month on fossil fuels, and the 2030 renewable share of 70% (about 60% now, including about 40% hydropower) will probably have to be exceeded, with 90% to 95% possible in 10 to 15 years even though coal and naphtha cannot yet be fully replaced. Transmission and grid control remain binding: a six-hour nationwide blackout this month may have followed solar output exceeding demand, solar capacity is hoped to reach nearly 4,400 MW by 2029, up 388% from 2024, and the minister will propose ending the rule that lets producers export by day and withdraw the same energy free at night, a cost now borne by the state. Wind potential is estimated at 30 GW, only projects already approved or under construction will proceed at Mannar, and five major transmission lines are planned from next year.
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Commentary:
An importing country is raising its renewable share, and the binding constraints are transmission, midday surplus, and how power taken back at night is priced.
2. South Korea plans renewable targets for public agencies that are not utilities (policy)
Summary:
The Seoul Economic Daily reported on October 25 that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment opened for comment a partial amendment to the enforcement decree of the renewable-energy promotion act, extending capacity targets from next year to public agencies as well as generators, including agencies whose main business is not power, in support of 100 GW by 2030. The change follows the full replacement of the Renewable Portfolio Standard by fixed-price contracts. The old standard required generators of at least 500 MW, including KEPCO and its generation subsidiaries, to build renewable plants or buy certificates. The new targets cover capacity an agency installs itself and idle land it provides to developers, which brings in bodies such as the Korea Expressway Corporation and KORAIL.
Links:
Commentary:
After the portfolio standard ends, idle land becomes part of the scorecard, so highway and rail agencies are pulled into the 100 GW goal for 2030.
3. India's revised transmission compensation: tower bases at 200% of market value (transmission)
Summary:
Mint on October 25 explained the power ministry's October 6 guidelines for inter-state transmission compensation: where circle rates sit below market value, a local committee prices land from three valuers within 21 days, normalizing the high and low figures to within 20% of the median if needed; tower bases are paid once at 200% of market value, corridors at 30% in rural areas, 45% in municipal planning areas and 60% in municipal corporations, and an appeal within 30 days must still allow work to start. Citing Ember, the paper said transmission constraints cost 300 GWh of clean electricity in the first quarter of 2026, including 34 GWh on March 30, while Central Electricity Authority data show 4,301 circuit kilometres built from April through August of fiscal 2027 against a target of 7,403. The cabinet last month approved Green Energy Corridor phase III, able to evacuate up to 135 GW and including 50 GWh of batteries through fiscal 2033, at 1.86 trillion rupees, including 54,082 crore rupees of central support, about 540.8 billion rupees.
Links:
Commentary:
The formula addresses circle rates that sit below market value, while slow line construction still leaves renewable power stuck on the plant side of the grid.
4. US Energy Department expands tribal energy selections from $50 million to more than $125 million (funding)
Summary:
Tribal Business News reported on October 25 that the Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy expanded a $50 million opportunity to more than $125 million and selected 63 tribe-led projects in 16 states for award negotiations, which it called the office's largest single investment; demand was about ten times the original pool, Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy chief executive Cheri Smith put requests on the original notice at about $500 million, and selection does not guarantee funding. Director Eric Mahroum said the office looked for electrification of homes without power, affordability, and alignment with administration priorities in geothermal, nuclear, and transmission. Alaska has 20 projects requesting nearly $50 million, including $4.4 million sought by the Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor toward a $5.4 million hydro project, while the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority requested $7.5 million to connect unelectrified homes and Navajo Transitional Energy Company requested $2.5 million to study a 500-kilovolt line. Smith noted that none of the project titles mentions solar or wind.
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Commentary:
Requests were about ten times the original pool, and the published project titles do not mention solar or wind.
5. Williams files the 88-mile Silver Spur gas pipeline with FERC (natural gas)
Summary:
Planetizen reported on October 25 that Williams last month filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for Silver Spur, an 88-mile gas line between existing pipes in Idaho and Nevada that, if approved, would carry up to 275 million additional standard cubic feet a day into the Northwest, with completion planned for 2030. It sits inside a larger Rockies Columbia Connector that also includes a nearly 160-mile expansion along the Washington side of the Columbia River and a 137-mile Valley Trail line through Grant County and the Quincy data-center hub; those two segments are not yet filed, the combined buildout could add nearly 1 billion cubic feet a day by late 2030, and the existing Northwest Pipeline system is about 4,000 miles long. Environmental groups say the new electricity demand is coming almost entirely from data centers, and an ECOnorthwest analysis puts data centers at nearly a quarter of Oregon's power use. A Williams spokesperson said on Thursday that the company does not disclose customers and that gas remains critical to reliability as renewables and demand grow.
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Commentary:
The Northwest addition on the table is gas supply, and environmental groups say the new load is coming almost entirely from data centers.
II. Renewables, Storage and Manufacturing
6. Economic Observer: standalone storage leaves mandatory pairing, and dispatch rates start to set capacity payments (storage)
Summary:
The Economic Observer reported on October 25 that Document 136, published in February 2025, bars authorities from making storage a precondition for approving, connecting, or exporting power from new renewable projects, so storage can be registered on its own. The China Energy Storage Alliance's October 14 count, described as incomplete, put new novel storage in the first three quarters at 35.30 GW and 102.31 GWh, with grid-side standalone storage at 85.3% of September's new power capacity. Shaanxi's first grid-side list, published in late June, has 15 projects totaling 2.02 million kilowatts and 6.08 million kilowatt-hours; a construction list is not a settlement list, six hours is the baseline for capacity payments, shorter systems are prorated, and new filings are moving toward four and six hours. A provincial dispatcher at China Southern Power Grid said some connected projects have had capacity payments discounted for missing utilization targets, though the share is still low, and integrated stations enter a 96-point schedule with output sampled every five minutes.
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Commentary:
Standalone storage can be permitted on its own, and the capacity payment still depends on the project list, the grid connection, and the dispatch score.
7. NEA chief Wang Hongzhi reviews new grids and storage in Guangdong (grid)
Summary:
Xinhua Finance reported on October 25, citing the National Energy Administration's official account, that Administrator Wang Hongzhi led a visit to Guangdong on October 24. He met the provincial government and China Southern Power Grid on the new power system and toured the utility's technology exchange center, the national novel-storage innovation center, and the Tangxia power operations center. Wang called for faster construction of new grids, coordination among transmission, distribution, and microgrids, and a continued rise in effective energy investment, alongside secure power supply and use of the southern regional power market for supply, transition, and resource allocation. He also called for linking energy technology with industrial innovation, two-way use of artificial intelligence and energy, market applications that pair computing load with electricity, and work on key storage technologies and more use cases.
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Commentary:
The visit put supply security, storage research, and computing-load power use on the same agenda, and described grid investment as the part that should keep expanding.
8. Seatrium builds a 2 GW offshore converter platform in Singapore for the North Sea in 2028 (offshore wind)
Summary:
The Business Times reported on October 25, citing Bloomberg, that a high-voltage direct-current converter platform of about 30,000 tonnes at Seatrium's Singapore yard is due to leave for the North Sea in 2028, about 60 kilometres offshore, with about 2 GW of design capacity for Dutch grid operator TenneT; construction takes about five years, the design life is 40 years, and GE Vernova supplies the equipment. TenneT ordered four platforms, about 7,000 workers will build them in Singapore and on Indonesia's Batam, and each platform with its connections costs as much as 5 billion euros, or 5.6 billion dollars. BloombergNEF said global offshore-wind investment fell 72% year on year in the first half of 2026, to about 12 billion dollars, while Ember analyst Lam Pham said Singapore and nearby islands now hold up to 20% of converter-platform capacity outside China. As of July, Seatrium was chasing about 9 billion Singapore dollars of HVDC and HVAC work, clean-energy contracts are about 40% of the order book, and Britain's latest subsidy auction awarded a record 8.2 GW.
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Commentary:
Turbine investment is shrinking, and the converter platforms that move power from far offshore are the orders with the long yard schedules.
III. Climate and Disasters
9. India's weather service: Bay of Bengal depression may land in Andhra Pradesh on October 28 as a very severe cyclone (cyclone)
Summary:
The India Meteorological Department's 14:00 bulletin on October 25 said the well-marked low over the east-central Bay of Bengal became a depression at 17:30 on October 24, and at 08:30 on October 25 the center was near 15.3°N, 91.2°E, about 880 kilometres east-southeast of Visakhapatnam. It expects a cyclonic storm on the morning of October 26, a severe cyclonic storm on the morning of October 27, and a crossing of the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam before noon on October 28, with sustained winds of 115 to 125 kilometres per hour and gusts to 140. Extremely heavy rain is likely on the Andhra coast on October 27 and 28, in Odisha and Telangana on October 28, and in Chhattisgarh on October 28 and 29, and the 24 hours to 08:30 already brought 12 to 20 centimetres in south interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The Hindu's evening live coverage said the system had become a deep depression and could exceed last year's Cyclone Montha.
Links:
- India Meteorological Department — Bulletin issued at 14:00 on October 25
- The Hindu — Bay of Bengal depression forecast to cross the Andhra coast as a very severe cyclone on October 28
Commentary:
Wind speed and the landfall stretch are now in the bulletin, and the preparation window for the Andhra coast runs to the morning of October 28.
10. Typhoon Champi is downgraded to a tropical storm, with more than 600 injured in Taiwan and evacuations in Shanghai (typhoon)
Summary:
AFP reported on October 25 that the Joint Typhoon Warning Center downgraded Typhoon Champi to a tropical storm at 102 kilometres per hour, after it had briefly been a super typhoon with reported sustained winds near 300 kilometres per hour. Taiwan evacuated more than 5,000 people; since Thursday's warnings one person has been killed and more than 600 injured, power is back for more than 90% of over 340,000 affected households, and Yilan has had at least 65 centimetres of rain since Thursday. CCTV said parts of Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang face heavy to torrential rain, some trains are suspended, and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated in Shanghai. Two people were injured in Okinawa, and hundreds of flights in the region were cancelled.
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Commentary:
The downgrade did not stop the running toll of injuries and outages, and train cancellations and evacuations have already started on China's east coast.
11. An unusually large multi-state storm hits eastern Australia, with eight flood warnings in southern Queensland (extreme weather)
Summary:
The Guardian reported on October 25 that the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning on Sunday afternoon for Sydney, greater Wollongong, and areas including the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury, after a storm line crossed western New South Wales, with eight flood warnings in southern Queensland and a risk of hail, damaging winds, flash flooding, and outages across southern Queensland, western New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and eastern Victoria. Gusts reached 100 kilometres per hour in central-western New South Wales around midday. Meteorologist David Crock called the system unusually large: high pressure had sat over the Tasman Sea for about ten days before a cold front drew tropical moisture south, the Mary River downstream of Gympie was forecast to reach major flood level at Tiaro from Sunday evening into Monday, and parts of the Sunshine Coast received 200 to 400 millimetres in the past week. The bureau's long-term record shows Australia has warmed by about 1.5°C since 1910.
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Commentary:
After high pressure blocked fronts over the Tasman Sea for about ten days, a cold front pulled tropical moisture across a storm line from the Snowy Mountains to the Queensland border.
12. El Niño lifts the Paraná, and about 1,790 people leave their homes in Chaco (flooding)
Summary:
The Associated Press updated its report on October 25: El Niño-linked rises on the Paraná and Uruguay rivers have forced nearly 2,000 people to leave home in three littoral provinces of Argentina. Infobae the same day cited Carolina Meiriño of Chaco's emergency committee, who put the count at about 1,290 official evacuees and about 500 who left on their own, roughly 1,790, up within hours from 913 and 281; police in Misiones counted 141 evacuees, 117 damaged homes, and five bridges cut, with ten river border crossings closed. The National Water Institute's October 24 report put Barranqueras at 7.23 metres, above the 6.50-metre evacuation line, Corrientes at 7.37 metres, above 7 metres, and the Iguazú station at 28.20 metres, above 28 metres, with 31,753 cubic metres per second at the confluence and 35,900 leaving Yacyretá. Santa Fe's port was at 4 metres on Saturday, and the institute projected 4.56 metres on October 27 and 4.92 metres on November 3, still below the local alert of 5.30 metres and evacuation line of 5.70 metres.
Links:
- Associated Press — El Niño river rises force nearly 2,000 evacuations in Argentina
- Infobae — Nearly 1,800 evacuated in Chaco, 141 in Misiones, with another Paraná rise expected
Commentary:
Upstream gauges are already above evacuation lines, and the National Water Institute still expects the port of Santa Fe to keep rising through November 3.
Today's Summary
- Sri Lanka's energy minister said the renewable share of electricity may have to exceed 70% by 2030, and he plans to change the rule that lets producers bank daytime exports and take the same energy back free at night. South Korea is extending renewable targets to public agencies that are not generators, aimed at 100 GW by 2030. India's transmission-corridor compensation is set at 200% of market value for tower bases and 30% in rural rights of way.
- The US Energy Department expanded tribal energy selections to more than $125 million, and the 63 projects still require award negotiations. If Williams's Silver Spur line is approved, it could add 275 million standard cubic feet of gas a day. Seatrium is building a 2 GW converter platform due to sail for the North Sea in 2028.
- The China Energy Storage Alliance counted 35.30 GW and 102.31 GWh of new novel storage in the first three quarters, and grid-side standalone storage was 85.3% of September's new power capacity. National Energy Administration chief Wang Hongzhi called on October 24 in Guangdong for faster work on new grids and storage technology.
- India's weather service expects the Bay of Bengal system to cross the Andhra Pradesh coast before noon on October 28 with winds of 115 to 125 kilometres per hour. Champi has been downgraded to a tropical storm, with more than 600 people injured in Taiwan. Eastern Australia is under a multi-state thunderstorm outbreak, and about 1,790 people in Chaco have left home as the Paraná rises.
Daily Framing:
October 25 was a grid-constraint day in the energy and climate cycle: renewable targets and standalone storage moved forward, while transmission, pricing, and dispatch scores decided how much of that power can be used, and a Bay of Bengal cyclone plus South American floods pushed the weather risk into next week.
This digest is compiled from real-time search results and is for reference only.