ENERGY
AppGuard | January 20, 2021
It has been reported that the highly sophisticated breach of SolarWinds and the cyberattack that was spread through its Orion platform has impacted an estimated 18,000 customers and went undetected for months.
"We must come together to defend against an attack of this magnitude" says Brody Ehrlich, AppGuard Chief Operating Officer. "The damage done to governmental agencies and enterprises is not fully recoverable and this type of threat is repeatable for the next group to emulate, whether it uses SolarWinds or another widely used application. AppGuard's software is uniquely positioned to assist cyber defense solutions providers because we can implement specific protections designed to mitigate threats of this type, even in cases where it goes undetected for a period of time."
AppGuard is pleased to announce a rapid response offering developed to be deployed by our trusted partners and incident response teams, to assist in mitigating this threat and others like it. We expect that governmental agencies, healthcare providers, and enterprises within the government supply chains are at highest risk and will bear the brunt of future attacks of this nature.
"Traditional cyber technologies and solutions such as EDRs, Next Generation AV (NGAV), White Listing/Application controls could neither identify nor contain the compromise. This is common of tools that seek to diagnose the threat instead of defending the risk points. AppGuard's zero-trust defense prevents and contains compromises to systems and infrastructure," adds Fatih Comlekoglu, the Chief Technology Officer and inventor of the AppGuard technology.
"This SolarWinds exploit and breach shows us why having a Zero Trust solution in place to protect your endpoints and servers is more critical than ever before. AppGuard's patented controls give organizations a way to adopt zero trust policies faster than any other solution" said Kristen McFadden Gandhi, Global SVP of Product at AppGuard. "With AppGuard's autonomous policy engine in place, customers can make use of SolarWinds functions while protecting themselves from the dangerous processes spawned by the malicious code. We already have some customers doing so now."
Read More
ENERGY
Trina Solar | January 19, 2021
Trina Solar Co., Ltd. (“Trina Solar” or “Company”), the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels and integrated solutions for smart energy, has received Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certifications according to UL and EPD Italy, two of the leading independent certification bodies in the field of safety research ... This is the first approved certification in the field of photovoltaics, confirming the environmental friendliness of the Company's products. The ceremony took place on January 13th in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. It was attended by Deputy Director of Trina Solar Bo Cao ( Bo Cao) And CEO of UL-CCIC Company Limited Shi Jun ( Jun Shi ).
EPD certification to industry standards ISO 14025 and EN 15804 confirms the environmental friendliness of products. During the EPD certification, the environmental impact of products is assessed taking into account the origin of raw materials, production, transportation, processing, as well as the energy efficiency of the enterprise. EPD certification provides investors and photovoltaic system owners with reliable information on the environmental performance of solar products and services, making it easy to select. The EPD certificate is valid for five years and is recognized in Europe, North America and the world market. This demonstrates that Trina Solar products meet global sustainability standards.
Trina Solar supplies photovoltaic solutions to a significant number of international utility companies in the European market. Concerns about global climate change are growing, while expectations for sustainable development are rising. In the future, EPD certification may become a prerequisite for bidding in Europe and other markets. In terms of end users, according to recent studies, over 60% of European consumers are concerned about the environment. Independent third-party EPD certification provides customers with reliable product sustainability information and underpins Trina Solar 's ongoing commitment to environmental protection.
Read More
GRID ENVIRONMENT
TC Energy | January 18, 2021
Media Advisory - TC Energy Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) (TC Energy or the company) today announced a new sustainable energy initiative for the Keystone XL Project. The company will achieve net zero emissions across the project operations when it is placed into service in 2023 and has committed the operations will be fully powered by renewable energy sources no later than 2030. This announcement comes after an extensive period of study and analysis, and as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, thoughtfully finding innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while providing communities with reliable energy needed today.
“Since it was initially proposed more than 10 years ago, the Keystone XL project has evolved with the needs of North America, our communities and the environment,” said Richard Prior, President of Keystone XL. “We are confident that Keystone XL is not only the safest and most reliable method to transport oil to markets, but the initiatives announced today also ensures it will have the lowest environmental impact of an oil pipeline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Canada and the United States are among the most environmentally responsible countries in the world with some of the strictest standards for fossil fuel production.”
Following the successful implementation of this initiative, TC Energy expects to be among the top 10 corporate renewable sponsors in North America. Additionally, this is expected to eliminate more than three million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted every year in GHG emissions – the equivalent of approximately 650,000 cars taken off the road.
As part of this announcement, TC Energy is expected to spur an investment of over US$1.7 billion in communities along the Keystone XL footprint creating approximately 1.6 gigawatts of renewable electric capacity, and thousands of construction jobs in rural and Indigenous communities.
As part of its continued commitment to working with union labor in the U.S. and Canada, Keystone XL has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to work together on the construction of TC Energy owned or sourced renewable energy projects.
“With our continued commitment to safety, creating family-sustaining, middle class jobs, NABTU is pleased to announce our agreement with TC Energy to ensure building trades labor constructs renewable energy projects along the entire Keystone XL route,” said NABTU President Sean McGarvey. “This will help to meet KXL’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2023, create the power capacity required to operate the pipeline from renewable energy sources and create thousands of jobs between now and 2030 – jobs for the highly skilled women and men of the building trades.”
By implementing this initiative, Keystone XL will eliminate the impact of GHG emissions from the project’s operations. Additionally, Keystone XL will allow responsibly produced Canadian oil to be safely transported into the United States from many producers who have set their own net zero emissions goals. Canadian Oil Sands producers have cut emissions intensity by 21 percent in recent years and they are expected to fall another 27 percent by 2030.
Read More