Samsung Renewable Energy – a unit of Samsung C&T Corp. plans to build $ 673 million in solar power plants in Texas, with the goal of selling the generated electricity from December 2023.

700 megawatts production capacity
The company will begin work on the new stations in June 2022, when it will produce about 700 megawatts, to be located specifically in Milam County – near Austin, where the subsidiary of Samsung Electronics owns a chip factory and is considering building another plant at a cost of 17 billion dollars, according to Reuters

The new solar power plants produce a combined total of about 700 megawatts, and an official in the company said, Sunday, that “Samsung Renewable Energy” is “proceeding with the approval procedures with the state,” explaining that “there are no current discussions with Samsung Electronics about the project.”

Chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, Intel Corp, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing pledged to promote the use of renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions, while Samsung said in October it would halt new investments and projects related to coal.

Research by Harvard University, Arizona State University, and Facebook has shown that “chip-making requires large amounts of energy as well as gases and chemicals,” and it accounts for “most of the carbon output” attributed to data centers and mobile phones.
Global emissions fell by about two billion tons in 2020, the largest drop in history, after global aviation stopped and global oil use decreased due to the spread of Covid-19 and the restrictions it imposed.

Confronting climate change
Demand for “clean investments” in solar and wind energy is growing rapidly, as producing countries around the world try to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy sources to help slow global warming.
The new US administration aspires that “all the country’s power will come from sources other than carbon emissions such as nuclear and renewable energy by 2035,” and this was an essential part of President Joe Biden’s election campaign, who returned the United States to the Paris climate agreement soon after his inauguration after Former President Donald Trump withdrew from it.

South Korean President Moon Jae, in turn, recently pledged to “end new financing for overseas coal projects”, stressing that “he will soon establish an ambitious timetable for reducing carbon emissions.”

Yesterday, Saturday, the Saudi Ministry of Energy announced that the Kingdom has joined the United States, Canada, Norway, and Qatar, to establish the “Zero Neutrality Producers Forum”. It is a platform through which oil and gas producing countries discuss how to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, as bringing emissions to the level of zero neutrality are one of its main goals.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, announced in 2019 the launch of a carbon trading plan, with the aim of diversifying its energy resources and reducing its carbon emissions.

Ever given: Claims $ 900 million in compensation
The “Ever given” ship stranded in the Suez Canal caused disruption of navigation for six days until it was finally floated. Egypt seized the ship, demanding the owner company pay 900 million dollars in compensation, amid continuing talks between the two sides. The Suez Canal Authority had said that it lost between 12 and 15 million dollars a day as a result of the accident. The cost of disrupting navigation on global trade ranges from 6 to 10 billion dollars, according to “Allianz” Insurance.

CSCL Indian Ocean: Tens of millions
CSCL Indian Ocean is one of the largest container ships in the world, with the capacity to transport nearly twenty thousand containers. In 2016, it was stuck at the bottom of the Elbe River in the German city of Hamburg, despite the appropriate height of the river due to the flood, and rescue ships were unable to liberate it until several days later. The ship’s operator’s insurance company has paid for the re-liberation costs of tens of millions of euros.

MSC Chitra: Controversy over $ 66M
After colliding with another ship, the MSC Chitra on August 8, 2010, seriously tilted off the coast of Mumbai, causing the loss of about 300 cargo containers. But the ship did not sink, and months later it was sunk in international waters. The port management authorities demanded the owner company to pay compensation amounting to about 5 billion rupees (about 66 million dollars) due to the pollution it caused, as tons of oil products leaked from it. The dispute over compensation continues until now.

Rena: In compensation, $ 38 million
Not much was left of the cargo ship “RINA” in October 2011 after colliding with coral reefs off the coast of New Zealand, as it quickly split into two and separated from each other. Nothing was left of the ship except its bow after the rest of the parts were sunk with the containers it was carrying. In 2012, the ship’s owner agreed to pay compensation of $ 38 million to the company that removed the ship’s waste from the water.

MSC Naples: approximately $ 165 million
In 2007 the cargo ship MSC Naples lost part of its cargo after it ran aground off the coast of southern England. This resulted in the beautiful “Sidmouth” beach in Devon becoming a landfill. The beach cleaning and disposal work took more than two and a half years, and the damage amounted to 120 million pounds (about $ 165 million) paid by the owner company and the insurance company.