- Thailand Approves Measures to Bolster Clean Energy Markets: The National Energy Policy Council opened the electricity market to greater competition while cutting household tariffs.
- Indian Court Orders Maruti to Replace Car in First E20 Fuel Damage Ruling: A consumer commission held the automaker liable after ethanol-blended fuel allegedly damaged a customer’s vehicle.
- Reuse Gets Another Shot as Regulators Take Aim at Packaging Waste: New EU rules are pushing companies to retest reusable containers after decades of trials with weak consumer uptake.
- Member States Stalling Renewables, Says EDP: The Portuguese energy group’s CEO said slow national permitting, not EU policy, is holding back renewable investment.
Thailand approves measures to boost clean energy markets
The National Energy Policy Council in Thailand approved measures on Wednesday extending direct renewable-power purchase agreements beyond data centres, letting businesses buy clean electricity straight from producers via third-party grid access. Even so, the flagship community solar programme comes capped at 1,500 megawatts overall, with individual developers limited to just 30 megawatts each.
The reforms also redefine who pays what. Legacy renewable-energy contracts with smaller producers will be revised to reflect current generation costs, while household tariffs are set to fall. Data centres, by contrast, face separate tariffs and stricter requirements specifically designed to stop their costs from being passed onto ordinary households.
The push toward cleaner transport could matter most for smaller operators. Under a 200 billion baht ($6 billion) energy transition programme, the government is backing the shift of public transport and commercial vehicles; including electric motorcycles, tuk-tuks, delivery vehicles, vans and buses to cleaner energy, alongside support for pickup truck owners switching to biodiesel.
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Further reading: Thailand approves measures to bolster clean energy markets
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Indian court orders Maruti to replace car in first E20 fuel damage ruling
A consumer court in Raipur, India has ordered Maruti Suzuki to replace a customer’s car after ruling that mandatory E20 ethanol-blended fuel damaged the vehicle, which is the first ruling of its kind in India. The Commission directed Maruti to provide a new, E20-compatible vehicle within 45 days or refund the full purchase price, along with related fees, taking the total to over ₹20 lakh (approximately $20,000).
The case could expose automakers to wider liability over India’s ethanol policy, with legal experts saying it may encourage other owners with similar complaints to seek compensation through consumer courts. Maruti and the Indian government have defended the E20 rollout as safe for all vehicles, even as the policy, which was meant to cut oil imports and emissions, has drawn mounting criticism from motorists reporting mileage loss and engine issues.
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Further reading: Indian court orders Maruti to replace car in first E20 fuel damage ruling
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EU rules push companies to test reusable packaging again
New EU packaging laws set for 2030 will ban single-use plastic packaging for most fresh produce under 1.5kg and require 10% of most drinks to be sold in reusable containers, with takeaway businesses required to offer a reusable option from 2028. In response, companies are testing reuse and refill schemes across France, Canada, Germany and Denmark, including a six-month trial of shared reusable mushroom packaging across six rival supermarket chains in Belgium and an Ottawa pilot from Reposit involving L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble and Unilever selling 50 products in standardised containers.
Results vary by market and infrastructure. Germany, with its established bottle-deposit system, returns about 95% of refillable glass bottles and 99% of refillable PET, while a citywide reusable cup programme in Aarhus, Denmark is seeing a 92% return rate. France is directing roughly 50 million euros a year in producer fees toward reuse infrastructure through Citeo, though uptake there remains inconsistent. Industry executives have cautioned that reuse’s climate benefits depend on high return rates and short transport distances, and that in countries with strong recycling systems, single-use containers can sometimes perform better environmentally than reusable ones.
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Further reading: Reuse gets another shot as regulators take aim at packaging waste
EDP says EU member states, not Brussels, stalling renewables
Portuguese energy group EDP’s chief executive has said that EU member states, not Brussels, are responsible for the slow pace of renewable energy investment, as many countries, including Portugal, Poland and Italy have yet to fully implement the bloc’s post-2022 permitting reforms. CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade said lengthy environmental permitting processes are taking years to approve and delaying investment decisions across Europe, with the European Commission having launched infringement proceedings against 26 member states last August for failing to transpose its directives into law.
EDP, parent of the world’s fourth-largest wind energy producer EDP Renováveis, plans to invest €12 billion ($13.74 billion) between 2026 and 2028, mainly to expand renewable capacity with a focus on the U.S., including €3.6 billion for electricity networks, with two-thirds of it in Iberia. The company has said renewable projects in Europe can take four to six years to secure permits, despite typically taking only 12 to 18 months to build.
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Further reading: EDP chief says EU governments, not Brussels, slowing renewable energy investment
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Power plant in Thailand. Cover Photo Credit: Nopparuj Lamaikul
