Bloomberg Business: Citigroup Sets $100 Billion Funding Goal for Green Projects

Citigroup Inc. plans to lend, invest and facilitate deals worth $100 billion by 2025 to support projects that will fight climate change and protect the environment.

Citigroup expects the effort to lead to deals supporting renewable power, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation opportunities, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said in a speech in New York Wednesday.

PV Tech: Decentralized Renewables Set for 70% Annual Growth in India

The market for decentralized renewable energy in India could be worth more than $150 million by 2018, while around 5 million residential solar systems are predicted to be sold in the country between last year and 2018, according to a new report.

The report, The Business Case for Off-Grid Energy in India, authored by nonprofit organization The Climate Group and investment bank Goldman Sachs, argues that using low-carbon, off-grid renewable electricity and therefore being nearer the generation source can reduce transmission losses, as well as providing price stability and energy security. Its writers attempted to “identify promising off-grid energy business models with the greatest potential for scale-up."

Associated Press: Train Carrying 3 Million Gallons of Crude Still Burning

Oil cars were still burning more than a day after a train carrying 3 million gallons of North Dakota crude derailed in a West Virginia snowstorm, shooting fireballs into the sky.

Hundreds of families were evacuated after losing their drinking water and electricity when 19 tank cars slammed into each other and caught fire, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning a nearby house down to its foundation.

"There's nothing there," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who toured the scene. "All you can see is a couple of blocks sticking out of the ground. There's some pickup trucks out front completely burned to the ground."

Scientific American: Old Battery Type Gets an Energy Boost

Almost every automaker interested in producing electric cars is betting on improvements to lithium-ion batteries to make the cars cheaper and extend their driving range.

But scientists at BASF are exploring the possibilities of an older type of battery, nickel-metal hydride, now used in hybrids. They recently doubled the amount of energy that these batteries can store, making them comparable to lithium-ion batteries. And they have a plan to improve them far more, potentially increasing energy storage by an additional eight times.

Reuters: Bangladesh Aims to Be the World's First Solar Nation

The Bangladeshi government aims to provide electricity to all of the country’s households by 2021. With financial assistance from the World Bank and other development partners, it plans to generate 220 megawatts of electricity for around 6 million households by 2017 through the solar home system program. Each solar home system uses a solar panel installed on the roof of an individual home.