Latest news with #sustainableenergy
Globe and Mail
12 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
AgriFORCE (NASDAQ: AGRI )Emerges from Bitcoin 2025 with Expanded Industry Relationships and Clear Path to Infrastructure Leadership
Three Days of Collaboration Reinforce AgriFORCE's Role in Grid-Efficient Mining and Digital Energy Futures Vancouver, British Columbia and West Palm Beach, FL, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Following an impactful presence at Bitcoin 2025, AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd. ('AgriFORCE' or the 'Company') (NASDAQ: AGRI) is pleased to share key takeaways, strategic insights, and next steps in its mission to accelerate sustainable digital infrastructure development. Key Takeaways from Bitcoin 2025 Strengthened Ecosystem Relationships AgriFORCE leveraged the Las Vegas conference to deepen relationships with leading utility operators, modular data center OEMs, and energy-integrated hosting platforms. Notably, the Company initiated co-development dialogues with North American natural gas aggregators and advanced load-balancing software providers focused on dynamic mining-to-grid orchestration. These new synergies are expected to streamline future deployment of TerraHash Digital ™ sites across underutilized energy corridors. Investor and Analyst Interest Institutional engagement was a standout theme. The AgriFORCE team met with multiple hedge funds and digital asset infrastructure allocators, receiving positive feedback on its hybrid infrastructure-token model. Several follow-up discussions are already scheduled with investors seeking access to sustainable compute yields and inflation-hedged hard asset exposure. Media & Thought Leadership Coverage AgriFORCE and CEO Jolie Kahn were featured in multiple media segments during the event, including a panel highlight in Mining Disrupted Weekly and an interview with The Hashcast, focusing on AgriFORCE's dual-role in regenerative energy systems and high-efficiency compute. Community influencers on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) amplified the Company's message around the convergence of agricultural innovation and decentralized infrastructure. Reaffirmed Commitment to Sustainability & Inclusion As part of the 'Women in Bitcoin' initiative at the conference, Ms. Kahn participated in roundtable sessions promoting inclusive leadership in digital infrastructure. AgriFORCE reaffirmed its commitment to advancing diversity in energy tech, while scaling initiatives that tie grid optimization to sustainable land and food systems. Next Steps Roadmap Execution Based on insights and partnerships from Bitcoin 2025, AgriFORCE is fast-tracking two pilot deployments in Q3 2025—one in a legacy agricultural zone with stranded power in Alberta, and another in the U.S. Southeast focused on dual-output (mining + agtech) capacity. The Company is also finalizing its token economics upgrade, aligning with Solana for scalable validator integration. Q2/Q3 Engagements AgriFORCE will continue momentum through a series of strategic engagements including its June participation in the North American Blockchain Summit and a targeted investor roadshow spanning New York, Toronto, and Dubai. These efforts aim to broaden global awareness and attract aligned capital to its infrastructure pipeline. Follow-Up Availability AgriFORCE invites stakeholders, utilities, tech partners, and investors to schedule one-on-one briefings to explore partnership opportunities, joint ventures, or site-specific development alignments. Quote from CEO Jolie Kahn: 'Our time at Bitcoin 2025 confirmed that the future of mining lies at the intersection of grid intelligence, sustainability, and global collaboration. AgriFORCE is proud to be at the center of that movement,' said Ms. Kahn. 'We are energized by the relationships we've formed and the work ahead.' About AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd. AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: AGRI) is a mission-driven technology company pioneering innovation at the intersection of agriculture, clean energy, and digital infrastructure. Through its TerraHash Digital ™ division, the Company is building high-performance Bitcoin mining campuses with dual-purpose utility—supporting decentralized compute networks while enabling clean energy reuse and sustainable food production. Follow AgriFORCE on Social Media: IG: @agriforcegs X: @agriforcegs FB: @agriforcegs LinkedIn: @agriforcegs TruthSocial: @agriforcegs Follow TerraHash Digital™ on Social Media: IG: @terrahashdigital X: @THashDGTL FB: TerraHash Digital™ LinkedIn: @TerraHash-Digital TruthSocial: @THashDGTL Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected operational capabilities, project development, and financial or environmental impacts. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those beyond the Company's control, and may cause actual results to differ materially. Readers are advised to review the Company's filings with the SEC under the heading 'Risk Factors' in Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K. AgriFORCE undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements due to new information or future developments.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Billionaire hedge fund manager's solar farm plan for his 100-room stately home hits opposition from angry neighbours
A billionaire hedge fund manager has come under fire from neighbours after lodging plans to build a solar farm to power his 100-room stately home. Chris Rokos is seeking permission to turn North Park near Marlborough, Wiltshire into 40 acres of energy panels amid his efforts to 'decarbonise' Tottenham House. He hopes to create a 'sustainable form of power and water to enable its future operation'. But angry locals have said they are concerned about the potential 'lowering of water pressure' in the area. In a strongly worded objection, Great Bedwyn Parish council said: 'We object to the current proposal over concerns of the installation of the new water mains connection and creation of a drainage lagoon and soakaway. 'We ask that Wiltshire Council seek reassurances from Thames Water that the installation of the new mains will not be to the detriment of residents within our parish with regards to the lowering of water pressure or indeed no suitable mains water supply.' A document submitted on behalf of Esturmy Construction limited, the applicant, says planning permission is required for a proposed photovoltaic array (PV array), drainage lagoon, and water mains connection with North Park. North Park is located at the northern part of the registered park and garden created in the 18th century and is currently used for grazing dairy cattle and silage. A planning statement added it was proposing the 'installation of a ground mounter PV array of approximately 688kwp to reduce the C02 emissions generated by the estate'. It said this would 'help contribute towards the decarbonisation of Tottenham House' and contribute to around 28 per cent of the estate's future electric requirements. The council is expected to give its verdict on the proposal later in the summer.
Zawya
2 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
IPPs spearhead over 16,000MW power projects in Zimbabwe
This comes as the country's power utility firm, Zesa Holdings, has capital requirements of US$2 billion, which is limiting its ability to provide steady power. Independent power producers (IPPs), primarily from the mining and industrial sectors, are investing in solar, coal and hydroelectric projects to secure consistent power amid persistent blackouts and rising tariffs. The IEUG represents Zimbabwe's largest electricity consumers across the mining, manufacturing and agriculture sectors. The group champions sustainable energy solutions, particularly through IPPs, to reduce the reliance on the strained national grid and improve industrial competitiveness. 'We've accepted the challenge from President Emmerson Mnangagwa,' Cross said during last week's Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe's annual conference held in Victoria Falls. 'At this moment, we have around 16,000MW of new power production under development: 2,000MW (solar), 2,000MW (coal) and 12,000MW (hydro). If we can deliver this at competitive rates, we will solve our problems as the private sector.' Zimbabwe's peak electricity demand exceeds 2,000MW, yet generation remains unstable, fluctuating between 1,000MW and 1,400MW due to capacity limitations at the Kariba South Hydro and Hwange thermal power stations. These limitations have left most sectors of the economy vulnerable to loadshedding and erratic supply, despite the government's efforts to stabilise the sector. © Copyright The Zimbabwean. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
The Techno-Futuristic Philosophy Behind Elon Musk's Mania
As Elon Musk prepared to make a less than triumphant exit from Washington, he told the Fox News host Jesse Watters earlier this month that his rampage through the bureaucracy had made 'significant progress' in cutting waste and fraud. But there was no hiding that the man whose rockets can gracefully return to earth standing tall on their launchpads had made a bit of a crash landing. His projected cut of $2 trillion from the federal budget had shrunk on paper, at that point, to $165 billion. Tesla stock took a nosedive along with his personal wealth and popularity. And, as he rewrote Silicon Valley's mantra into 'move fast, break things and get out of town,' no one was urging him to stay. Prompted by Watters, Musk shifted the interview seamlessly from eradicating waste to another obsession: the looming eradication of life on earth. 'The sun is gradually expanding, so we do at some point need to be a multiplanetary civilization because earth will be incinerated,' Musk said. 'I'm hearing this for the first time,' Watters said, bemused. 'We have several hundred million years, so don't hold your breath,' Musk assured him. Say what you will about Elon Musk, the man thinks ahead. Over the past couple of decades, Musk has devoted himself to three grand engineering projects, all with the long-term mission of sustaining humanity far into the future. The goal of his rocket company SpaceX is to establish a city on Mars. Tesla is accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. Neuralink aims to eventually wire artificial intelligence into human brains so people can keep pace with machines. 'The guy is our Einstein,' Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase chief executive, said two days after President Trump's inauguration. That was before Musk etched a new image for himself — a hyped-up man all in black with dark sunglasses, strutting before a roaring crowd, punching the air with a chain saw, declaring it 'the chain saw for bureaucracy.' Musk embraced Trump after a MAGA conversion, motivated by his fear that regulation was choking innovation and his vow to 'destroy the woke mind virus' after one his children underwent a gender transition. But Musk split with the president on tariffs and the budget bill and the billionaire buddies formally fissured on Wednesday night. Musk took to X to thank the president for allowing him to serve and indicated that he was permanently moving on. Musk's tumultuous four-month adventure shifted his gaze from the long term to the ultimate short-term arena — politics. The wild ride through the halls of official power perhaps fed his taste for drama, celebrity and the adolescent heroism of comic-books and sci-fi. But there is another strand that runs strong in Musk, a techno-futuristic philosophy that might help explain how the man who has fancied himself Batman on a mission to save humanity could also play the dark jokester — the world's richest man who gleefully proclaimed the demise of aid for the world's poorest with a callous quip about how he and his DOGE troops had 'spent the weekend feeding U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper.' That philosophy emerged from the world Musk now returns to full time, a world of engineers and utilitarian thinkers and tech billionaires, who seem to have designs on everything — past, present and, especially, future. Existential Threats, Technological Solutions In 2022, Musk reposted a link to a 2003 paper by Nick Bostrom, a philosopher who was then at Oxford, with the line, 'Likely the most important paper ever written.' In the paper, titled 'Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development,' Bostrom took a stab at calculating the potential lives lost by delaying the development of technology needed to survive 'in the accessible region of the universe' for millions of years. 'The potential for over 10 trillion potential human beings is lost for every second of postponement of colonization of our supercluster,' he wrote. Such pie in the sky calculations urging the colonizing of space might seem like unusual territory for a philosophy professor — even one with advanced degrees in physics and computational neuroscience. But Bostrom is among a group of philosophers and technologists that promotes a strain of thinking clunkily labeled longtermism. It's a worldview that aligns with — and supports — Musk's futurist, sometimes fantastical, vision. Longtermism is deeply entwined with effective altruism, a more widely known movement. Effective altruism, which developed from ideas put forth by the philosopher Peter Singer in the early 1970s, argues that well-off people and societies are morally obligated to combat poverty, even far from home. It encourages a strict, utilitarian process for calculating how philanthropy can do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Insecticide-treated bed nets that protect against mosquito-borne malaria in remote regions on the other side of the world, for example, are far more 'effective' when it comes saving lives than donations to a local food bank. The longtermists radically changed the equation by asserting that we have a similar moral obligation to the well-being of our brethren yet to come, those thousands or even millions of years in the future. Of course, there are potentially many, many, many more future people than there are current ones, particularly when you throw in the possibility of nonhuman sentient beings, which some longtermists do. So, simply by the numbers, the case can be made that ensuring the existence of future human civilization by preparing for species-ending risks like a massive asteroid strike or global nuclear annihilation outweighs addressing poverty or starvation for a few hundred million current people. For longtermists, the most pressing threats are often existential, and technology is almost always the cure. This is Musk's sweet spot. The focus of so much of his technology — rocketry, humanoid robotics, even his tunneling company — is intended to converge on making 'human consciousness' multiplanetary, an urgent mission he complains is frustrated by rules and regulators. He calls colonizing Mars 'life insurance of life collectively.' Like an insurance salesman, he has his pitch down. 'For the first time in the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of earth, it is possible to extend consciousness beyond our home planet,' he said on Joe Rogan's podcast in February. 'We have to see this as a race against time,' he said. 'Can we make Mars self-sufficient before civilization has some sort of future fork in the road where there is either like a nuclear war or something, or we get hit by a meteor or simply civilization might just die with a whimper in adult diapers instead of with a bang?' Musk took his first step toward Mars in 2001 when he donated $5,000 to the Mars Society, which was started by Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer who had written the book 'The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must.' The next year, Musk started SpaceX. Coincidently or not, this was around the same time Bostrom published a paper titled 'Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards.' It looked at a range of threats: a meteor strike; global disease; runaway artificial intelligence; even the admittedly slim possibility that a future society created a simulated reality that we were now unknowingly living in and which could be turned off. Musk has occasionally invoked this 'simulation theory,' which hearkens back to 'The Matrix,' one of his favorite movies. 'The balance of evidence is such that it would appear unreasonable not to assign a substantial probability to the hypothesis that an existential disaster will do us in,' Bostrom wrote, adding later in the paper, 'With technology, we have some chance, although the greatest risks now turn out to be those generated by technology itself.' Whether or not Musk read the paper, he has echoed Bostrom and other proponents of longtermism, including the philosopher William MacAskill. MacAskill became something of a celebrity intellectual among technologists and financiers, to whom he preached an 'earning-to-give' approach to philanthropy. Sam Bankman-Fried, the now disgraced crypto magnate, was one of his biggest acolytes. Musk touted MacAskill's 2022 book, 'What We Owe the Future,' saying on X — the social media network that he owns — that the explication of longtermist thinking is 'a close match to my philosophy.' Not surprisingly, Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, does not explicitly identify himself with any movement defined by anyone else — or didn't before falling in with MAGA. Bostrom takes no credit for Musk's long view, saying in an email, 'My impression is that Musk is not a follower of any one particular school of thought but is rather inclined to do his own thinking and to reach his own conclusions.' But it is unmistakable how frequently Musk warns of existential threats, usually arrived at via a 'fork in the road.' In 2023, he said artificial intelligence becoming 'far smarter than the smartest human' was 'one of the existential risks that we face, and it's potentially the most pressing one.' In February, referring 'the woke mind virus,' he said in a post on X 'the biggest existential danger to humanity is having it programmed into the A.I.' He claimed that some A.I. platforms (although not the one he owns) will answer that misgendering someone is worse than thermonuclear war. 'The existential problem with that extrapolation is that a super powerful A.I. could decide that the only 100 percent certain way to stop misgendering is to kill all humans,' he said. In 2022, he posted that 'population collapse due to low birthrates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.' Earlier this year, wielding his celebrity and money unsuccessfully to swing a Wisconsin Supreme Court election, he told a crowd of supporters: 'I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it's going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.' And last August, in a conversation with Trump on X, he said he was endorsing him for president because 'I think we are at the fork in the road of destiny of civilization.' 'Civilizational Suicidal Empathy' There appears to be a tautology to Musk's longtermism: If Musk is battling a threat, it is, by definition, existential. 'Musk is a hero in the Homeric sense, in his mind and in his action,' said Zubrin, of the Mars Society. 'He is someone who is striving to do great deeds to earn eternal glory. He has done some. Just as in Homer, this sort of motivation also has a pathological side.' For Musk, countering existential risks gives him broad license. Fathering 13 children by several women is Musk combating the societal risk of falling birthrates worldwide. 'If you don't make new humans, there's no humanity,' he said in a live interview last fall with Peter Diamandis, an entrepreneur and a Musk associate. 'I do have a lot of kids, and I encourage others to have lots of kids.' In a long-running legal battle between Musk and Tesla shareholders over his projected $55.8 billion compensation package, an email emerged that he wrote to a company lawyer in 2017, explaining that: 'The added comp is just so I can put as much as possible toward minimizing existential risk by putting the money toward Mars if I am successful in leading Tesla to be one of the world's most valuable companies. This is kinda crazy, but it is true.' From that perspective, one can see why it makes sense for Musk to feed tens of billions worth of government programs for the global poor into the 'wood chipper' while, two months later, $5.9 billion in government contracts was fed into Musk's space company. Like many donors to Trump, Musk has gotten a return on his investment in the election. Trump promoted a Mars mission in his inaugural address. A close Musk associate is now the head of NASA. Before the election Musk complained that because of the profusion of regulations, it would 'eventually become illegal to do very large projects, and we won't be able to get to Mars.' Now many of Musk's governmental annoyances are melting away. Critics of longtermism say it appeals to wealthy tech moguls precisely because it adds a sheen of morality to their masters-of-the-universe projects. They also say that the moguls' ultimate goal is a utopian civilization of humans, biological and robotic, all A.I. enhanced. Mollie Gleiberman, an anthropologist at the University of Antwerp who has studied the rise of effective altruism, highlights a paradox of the futuristic tech moguls: Some of the same people warning of the dangers of superintelligent A.I. are also developing A.I., like Musk himself. It's another tautology — technological risk necessitates a technological response. 'The vivid articulation of a fear conjures the thing to be feared into existence,' she wrote in a 2023 paper. Take humanoid robots, for example. During an interview with Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, earlier this year, Musk was asked how real the prospect was of killer robots annihilating humanity. 'Twenty percent likely,' he shot back. But given his belief that robots will unleash never-before-seen levels of productivity, Musk reassured Cruz that, barring human annihilation, it is '80 percent likely we will have extreme prosperity for all.' At a Tesla promotional event last year captured on video, Musk's robots were on the move, serving drinks, posing for pictures and dancing. 'It can do anything you want, so it can be a teacher, babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks,' Musk told guests. 'I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind.' Max Tegmark, an M.I.T. physicist and A.I. researcher, said he bonded with Musk a decade ago over a shared belief that 'A.I. was going to hit us like a tsunami.' Tegmark said Musk distinguishes himself among business leaders by his devotion to not just thinking long term, but acting on it. 'He makes money now and spends it on making the long-term future good,' Tegmark said. Regardless of whether his ultimate goal is reached, the ambition births breakthrough creations along the way for the here and now — reusable rockets, electric cars, a satellite-based internet service, a human-computer link aiding people with neurological damage. Tegmark is president of the Future of Life Institute, which is devoted to the safety of technology, bioengineering and nuclear weapons. Musk, an adviser to the group, donated about $10 million to the institute, which used some of the money to help fund a now-shuttered center at Oxford founded by Bostrom called Future of Humanity Institute. 'People can quibble about his methods and politics,' Tegmark said. But he said Musk's focus on the long-term future and protecting against threats has remained longtermists aren't convinced that Musk has it right, though. 'Longtermism isn't about ignoring present-day suffering in favor of speculative futures,' MacAskill, the philosopher, wrote in an email, adding that the best way to safeguard the future is by 'maintaining the international cooperation needed to address global risks — not dismantling the very institutions that make such cooperation possible.' Singer, the retired Princeton professor whose 1972 essay 'Famine, Affluence and Morality' was the initial spur for the effective altruism movement, is similarly skeptical. 'If you were altruistic at all, you would have paid more attention to the impact that you are having on hundreds of millions of people by the cutback in U.S.A.I.D., or the freeze in U.S.A.I.D., plus the many other things that are happening as well,' he said. Musk is now headed back to the future. Days ago, SpaceX launched another test flight of its supersize Starship. The spacecraft spun out of control and wound up as a debris field in the Indian Ocean. But Musk claims he still plans to shoot for Mars next year. Even Zubrin, the Mars Society president, thinks Musk's Mars colonization plan is 'nuts.' He wants the United States to pursue Mars for the challenge and for science. And he worries that Musk's short-term dive into politics has hurt the long-term goal, since the Mars mission might now be seen as a Musk project and become prone to political turbulence. In February, still deep in the turbulence of Washington, Musk regaled Rogan, the podcast host, with tales of waste from the federal budget. Like the U.S. Agency for International Development, the care and feeding of migrants was a particular DOGE target. It's plausible a tough, careful audit could find money poorly spent, but Musk also came to a more ominous and more predictable conclusion: He had found a new existential threat. 'We've got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,' he told Rogan. 'The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They are exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. And I think empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.'
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
How TNB is transforming rural communities
Tenaga Nasional Berhad is in the process of providing electricity supply to 25 villages located in Perak, Pahang and Johor. (TNB pic) PETALING JAYA : For many Malaysians living in cities, electricity is simply a given. But for thousands in remote and underserved areas, reliable access to power remains a challenge. To bridge this gap, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), in collaboration with the rural and regional development ministry, is driving the country's Rural Electrification Programme, aiming to bring sustainable, reliable electricity to every corner of Malaysia. Bringing power to remote villages TNB's initiative is currently focused on 25 villages across Perak, Pahang and Johor, with five villages already connected to the grid. A standout project is a micro-hydro system in Lenjang, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, which will soon provide electricity to 210 houses and 10 community centres in 10 indigenous villages. This is part of a broader strategy to use a mix of grid extensions, off-grid solar technology, micro-hydro solutions, as well as hybrid energy systems to overcome the challenges of difficult terrain and dispersed populations. TNB's Rural Electrification Programme focuses on long-term sustainability and engagement with rural communities. (TNB pic) TNB employs modern technologies such as satellite mapping and drones to efficiently plan infrastructure deployment. By combining renewable energy options with community-based initiatives that involve training local residents, the programme aims to ensure long-term system maintenance and sustainability. Improving lives through reliable electricity Access to electricity transforms daily life – it enables children to study after dark, healthcare facilities can operate advanced equipment longer and businesses gain the tools to thrive. A micro-hydro powered village, for example, can sustain clinics, schools and small enterprises, opening doors to opportunities once beyond reach. In many parts of rural Malaysia, electricity also means better communication and connection to the wider world. With power, villagers access the internet, online education and digital marketplaces, narrowing the gap between urban and rural communities. A focus on sustainability and inclusivity Equipping rural communities with reliable electricity supply will provide residents with better access to helpful amenities and services. (TNB pic) In addition to immediate benefits, the programme is aligned with national goals to promote social equity and environmental responsibility. By integrating cleaner energy sources like solar and micro-hydro power, TNB is reducing reliance on fossil fuels and contributing to Malaysia's climate targets. To address the high costs and geographic challenges of rural electrification, the programme adopts cost-effective renewable solutions tailored to each community's needs. Building a future powered by community Beyond infrastructure installation, TNB focuses on empowering communities through training and local engagement. This helps develop the capacity for system upkeep and repair, creating ownership and ensuring the long-term success of electrification projects. TNB's Rural Electrification Programme is an important driver for inclusive growth and sustainable development in Malaysia. By extending reliable and clean electricity to remote areas, the programme is empowering rural communities and supporting the nation's vision for equitable progress. To learn more about TNB's initiatives in rural Malaysia, visit the official website.
