New regulations that will force the shipping industry to switch to cleaner fuel could snuff out nearly a quarter of European demand for fuel oil by 2015.

The package of measures will add to the woes of the dirtiest and least profitable oil product: sludgy, bottom of the barrel fuel oil left behind from refining more profitable motor fuels.

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's No.5 automaker, said on Wednesday it would invest $3.3 billion in green projects to meet the government's stricter fuel efficiency and emission requirements, joining a recent series of eco-friendly investments by South Korean firms.

Weak prices and sagging demand could see gas supply most of Britain's electricity well into winter, sidelining coal plants and cutting Britain's carbon emissions as a welcome side effect.

Gas is usually favored for round-the-clock power generation in summer when low demand for heating keeps the fuel price low, swelling gas-fired power plant profits, known as spark spreads.

- A project linking solar power from the Sahara to energy users in Europe and North Africa could create 240,000 German jobs and generate 2 trillion euros ($2,822 billion) worth of power by 2050, a study published on Thursday found.

A global shift toward nuclear power is prompting countries to rush to lock in long-term access to tight supplies of uranium, and China and India look to be the next players to get in on the action.

Germany's lower house of parliament on Thursday gave final approval to government proposals to cut the target amount of biofuels to be blended into fossil fuels this year.

The lower house approved a plan to cut the 2009 blending target to 5.25 percent biofuel content in fossil fuel in 2009 from the 6.25 percent originally intended.

The possibility of component replacement and extending the lifetimes of existing plants are very attractive to utilities, especially given lingering public opposition to constructing new nuclear plants, while some governments see them as a way of limiting carbon emissions and power price rises.

Russia, already a large supplier of nuclear-reactor fuel to Europe and Asia, is expected on Tuesday to sign its first purely commercial contract to supply low-enriched uranium to United States utilities.