Events

Wenzhou – September 07, 2026 -- EVB's BUDC ultra-slim dual-connector DC EV charger has won both the iF DESIGN AWARD 2026 and the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026, recognizing a 150 kW unit built to fit into space-constrained European fast-charging sites.

BUDC delivers 150 kW output in a body roughly 100 mm thick

The charger's flat architecture targets a persistent constraint in European DC fast-charging deployment: installing high-power equipment where physical space is limited. Its design supports wall-mounted and embedded installation across urban streets, parking facilities, bus depots, truck depots and fleet sites.

Antwerp – September 07, 2026 -- Skyven Technologies said its Arcturus industrial heat pump demonstration center in Texas has achieved a sustained coefficient of performance (COP) of 8.0, a gain of more than 20% over the 6.5 COP recorded at commissioning and above the target set in the company's original roadmap.

Arcturus surpasses its own commissioning benchmark through design and control upgrades

Skyven attributed the jump to improvements in system design, control algorithms and integration engineering at the Texas facility. The result confirms the ceiling performance of the Arcturus product line, which the company tailors to individual client sites, balancing COP against required temperature lift. Across its range, Arcturus delivers temperature increases of 38°C to 185°C, with corresponding COPs from 8.0 down to 2.0.

Berlin – September 07, 2026 -- European grid operators, regulators and digital infrastructure executives convened for an Economist Enterprise panel warning that AI data center and electric vehicle demand is pushing power grids toward capacity limits, forcing energy resilience into boardroom decision-making across the continent.

EcoFlow leverages 10 million deployed devices to enter commercial energy market

The panel, titled "Flexible by Design: Energy Resilience for Business," was released ahead of IFA Berlin 2026, running Sept. 4-8 at Messe Berlin Hall 3.2. EcoFlow, drawing on a global footprint of over 10 million deployed devices and 5 million users, is extending its consumer battery and solar architecture into small business and enterprise segments, citing modular hardware, dynamic tariff optimization and AI-driven software as core commercial offerings.

Bled, Slovenia – September 07, 2026 -- A new data-driven selection model has identified 100 high-growth Slovenian companies that doubled their combined revenue to 2.1 billion euros, marking the first full rollout of a methodology designed to close Europe's competitiveness gap with the United States and China.

Future 100 Slovenia becomes the pilot for a pan-European scale-up strategy

The Future 100 Slovenia initiative, unveiled at the Future 500 Forum in Bled, is the first national application of the Future 500 Initiative's methodology, which its backers intend to extend across Europe. The forum ran alongside the Bled Strategic Forum under the theme 'Powering Europe's Scale-Up Engine: From Selection to Acceleration.'

Paris – September 07, 2026 -- Annual global investment in electricity grids must rise roughly 50%, from about USD 400 billion today to nearly USD 600 billion by 2030, according to International Energy Agency figures cited at the CIGRE 2026 Paris Session, which drew more than 15,000 experts from 100 countries and 330 exhibitors.

Grid investment must jump 50% as electrification accelerates

The IEA attributes the surge to transport, industry and building electrification, renewable-energy integration, and rising data-center power demand. Power systems are approaching operational limits as these forces converge, according to the IEA data presented at the session.

Mühlhausen – September 07, 2026 -- LichtBlick has commissioned its largest solar park to date in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, a facility spanning approximately 37 hectares with roughly 71,000 solar modules that will generate around 45 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to supply more than 13,000 households.

New substation enables grid connection for record-scale facility

A dedicated substation was built specifically to feed the generated power into the electricity grid, supporting the scale of the installation. The project marks the second photovoltaic development LichtBlick has completed in the current fiscal year, part of an accelerated buildout of its own generation capacity.

Gröningen – September 07, 2026 -- The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) is funding a roughly €300,000 renovation of the 17th-century Rittergut Edelhof manor in Gröningen, Saxony-Anhalt, installing one of Germany's first water-ice thermal storage systems in a historic building. The project, underway since late last year, is scheduled for completion by April 2028 and aims to return residential use to a building vacant since the 1990s.

Water-ice storage cuts heating energy demand by up to 50 percent

A heat pump extracts energy from water until it freezes, supplying heat during sub-zero temperatures without large battery storage. Scientific project lead Prof. Dr. Harald Garrecht said this system works alongside a roof-integrated heat-recovery unit that draws warmth from the environment above freezing, together cutting required heating energy by up to 50 percent.

Shenzhen – September 07, 2026 -- Fibocom Wireless Inc. has launched the RU311 5G RedCap module series, targeting mid-tier IoT devices such as industrial gateways, security cameras, aftermarket automotive systems, energy applications and MiFi devices that require a lower-cost path from 4G to 5G.

RU311 delivers dual-mode 5G RedCap and LTE Cat.4 connectivity

Built on the UNISOC V527 platform, the RU311 supports 5G RedCap with peak downlink speeds up to 226 Mbps and uplink speeds up to 120 Mbps. In LTE Cat.4 mode, it reaches 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink, giving manufacturers a single module capable of serving both legacy and next-generation deployments.

Hamburg – September 07, 2026 -- Artificial intelligence infrastructure is poised to become the most significant growth driver for Europe's energy sector, according to a new industry report from credit insurer Allianz Trade titled "Energie & Solar."

Renewables covered 58% of German electricity consumption in first-half 2026

Germany's net electricity imports fell more than 85% year-on-year to just over 1 terawatt-hour (TWh), driven by strong domestic renewable generation. Allianz Trade CEO for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Milo Bogaerts, said the limited impact of recent Middle East tensions on European gas prices compared to the 2022 energy crisis demonstrates that each additional kilowatt-hour of wind and solar power increases Europe's resilience to price shocks.

Irvine, Calif. – September 07, 2026 -- Blue Compass RV has acquired Brown's RV Superstore in McBee, South Carolina, expanding its Carolinas footprint to 13 dealerships in a deal brokered by Performance Brokerage Services.

Family-owned dealership changes hands after nearly four decades

Founded in 1986, Brown's RV Superstore operated as a family business for close to 40 years on a 12-acre site with 31,000 square feet of retail and service space, including 20 enclosed service bays. The dealership carried new and pre-owned RVs from Jayco, Grand Design, and Brinkley. Barry Brown of the Brown family confirmed the sale, crediting Jesse Stopnitzky of Performance Brokerage Services as exclusive sell-side advisor.

Shanghai – September 07, 2026 -- Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (ZPMC) named the first two vessels in a four-ship series of 38,000 DWT multipurpose heavy-lift carriers built for Chipolbrok, marking the shipbuilder's entry into the multipurpose heavy-lift vessel segment.

Each vessel carries three 350-ton cranes for combined 700-ton lifts

The naming ceremony took place on Aug. 28. Each vessel measures 182 meters in length, 30 meters in beam and 17 meters in depth, with a design draft of 9.8 meters and a service speed of 14.5 knots. Classed by DNV, the ships feature a full-length open deck, two extra-long cargo holds with a maximum length of 76.8 meters, and adjustable tweendecks for cargo flexibility. Three in-house-developed 350-ton cranes are fitted on each vessel, with two capable of tandem lifts totaling up to 700 tons.

Gislaved, Sweden – September 07, 2026 -- Axjo Group, a Swedish provider of recycled polymer packaging solutions, has acquired French company Eco-Tourets, converting the firm's Villeneuve-sur-Yonne site into a logistics and sales hub for the French market.

Villeneuve-sur-Yonne site becomes Axjo's local hub near Paris

The site, located south-east of Paris, will initially support faster deliveries and closer customer collaboration for Axjo Group in France. The move follows Axjo's earlier establishment of Axjo GmbH in Cologne, Germany, this year, as the Group pursues stronger local presence across Europe.

Paris – September 07, 2026 -- The International Energy Agency estimates annual global grid investment must rise roughly 50%, from about $400 billion today to nearly $600 billion by 2030, to keep pace with surging electricity demand. The figures were central to discussions at the CIGRE Session 2026 in Paris, which drew more than 15,000 experts from 100 countries and 330 exhibitors.

Electrification of transport, industry and data centers strains existing grids

Rising demand from electric transport, industrial electrification, building conversion, renewable integration and data-center growth is pushing power systems toward their operational limits, according to CIGRE.

Paris – September 07, 2026 -- Annual investment in electricity grids must rise roughly 50% to approximately $600 billion by 2030, up from about $400 billion currently, according to the International Energy Agency, as global demand from electrified transport, industry, buildings and data centers pushes power systems toward their limits.

The figures were presented at the CIGRE 2026 Paris Session, which drew more than 15,000 experts from 100 countries and 330 exhibitors to address the buildout of next-generation power grids.

Permitting delays in Europe and the US lag China and India by years

Permitting a very-high-voltage transmission line takes approximately 1.5 years in China and around three years in India, according to IEA data cited at the event. Comparable projects in Europe and the United States typically require eight to ten years or more, creating a bottleneck for grid expansion at the pace the energy transition demands.

Singapore – September 07, 2026 -- Haier Biomedical (SHA: 688139) reported that revenue from pharmaceutical clients rose 23% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, while laboratory solutions revenue grew 19%, as the company unveiled new automated bio-storage and connected pharmaceutical technologies at the ISPE Singapore Conference & Exhibition 2026.

Automated -80°C storage system makes international exhibition debut

Held August 20-21 at Suntec Singapore, the event served as the venue for the first international showing of Haier Biomedical's automated ultra-low-temperature storage solution. The system combines automated -80°C storage with intelligent sample management to improve workflow efficiency and traceability for pharmaceutical companies and research organizations handling high-value samples.

Frankfurt – September 07, 2026 -- BYD has climbed to fifth place among the most attractive electric vehicle brands for German consumers actively planning a purchase within the next three years, up from 11th place in the general population, according to a new BearingPoint study.

BYD outperforms among active buyers while legacy brands hold overall lead

Across the full sample, Volkswagen leads brand attractiveness at 31%, followed by Audi at 29% and BMW at 28%. Among the subset of consumers with concrete purchase intent, BMW tops the ranking at 44%, ahead of Audi at 31% and Volkswagen at 30%. BYD scores 20% in this group, surpassing Kia, Hyundai, Ford, Tesla and Skoda.

Turnhout, Belgium – September 07, 2026 -- STANLEY® has entered the global flooring market for the first time through a strategic partnership with Istanbul-based manufacturer Area Floors, launching SPC flooring collections built entirely on i4F Drop-Lock installation technology. The products are already in production and will roll out across the EMEA region during 2026.

STANLEY® debuts first-ever flooring line under licensing deal with Area Floors

The collections mark STANLEY®'s expansion into floating SPC (Stone Polymer Core) flooring, targeting the residential and renovation segments. Area Floors, which operates automated manufacturing facilities and has international export experience, is responsible for product development and manufacturing under the agreement.

Del Mar – September 07, 2026 -- Skanska has signed a USD 57 million (about SEK 530 million) contract with the City of San Diego to expand the El Camino Real corridor between Half Mile and Via De La Valle in Del Mar, California. The contract will be booked in Skanska USA's third-quarter 2026 order intake.

Contract widens El Camino Real to four lanes and replaces an 84-year-old bridge

The project will widen El Camino Real to four lanes and replace the existing San Dieguito River Bridge, which has stood for 84 years. Construction will upgrade drainage infrastructure to cut flooding risk and add riverbank stabilization to protect the corridor from erosion along the San Dieguito River.

Xiamen – September 07, 2026 -- HiTHIUM has secured the second-largest share of global energy storage battery shipments for the second consecutive year, according to rankings released by InfoLink Consulting, Shanghai Metals Market, ICCSINO and NECI for the first half of 2026.

Global storage battery shipments surge 94.76% to 467.84 GWh in H1 2026

InfoLink's global energy storage supply chain database recorded worldwide shipments of 467.84 GWh in the first six months of 2026, nearly double the volume from the same period a year earlier. The industry-wide expansion coincides with shifting demand toward higher-capacity systems, longer storage duration, and stricter safety and reliability standards.

Bucharest, Romania – September 07, 2026 -- Temu has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Poșta Română, Romania's national postal operator, to streamline logistics for Romanian businesses selling on the e-commerce platform.

Poșta Română will handle full parcel lifecycle for Temu sellers

Under the agreement, Poșta Română will provide an integrated parcel service covering collection from sellers, sorting at logistics facilities, and last-mile delivery. Fulfillment options include home delivery, pickup points, automated lockers, and post offices nationwide, with the postal operator's network processing more than 500,000 parcels a day.

Companies to hold joint events and regular reviews

Temu and Poșta Română will organize joint events to help Romanian sellers grow their reach and will meet regularly to review progress and improve delivery services.