Business
How Energy Prices Are Driving Demand for Solar Panels and Heat Pumps
Across Europe, the lesson from an old proverb just might be taking hold: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
For the second time in under five years, Europe is contending with an energy crisis set off by a war. Europeans have responded to the price shock by rushing to line up heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicles. They are hoping to lower their bills and reduce their reliance on imported fossil fuels.
In March, the first month of the war in the Middle East, more than 344,000 electric vehicles were registered across Europe, over 40 percent more than a year earlier, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Solar panel sales for Britain’s biggest power company, Octopus Energy, jumped 50 percent. And in Germany, inquiries about residential solar systems doubled compared with recent months, according to E.ON, an energy company.
Over the first three months of the year, about 575,000 heat pumps were sold in 11 large European countries, up 17 percent from a year earlier, the European Heat Pump Association said. The increases were particularly large in France, Germany and Poland.
For Heizma, an Austrian company that installs heat pumps, solar panels and other residential electrification services, sales in March and April broke records.
Since the war stopped a vast majority of fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the price of European natural gas, which is relied on to heat homes and power factories, has risen about 40 percent.
As prices spiked, interest in alternative energy supplies kept rising. Michael Kowatschew, a founder of Heizma, said customer inquiries were up 20 percent. Many of them invoked the importance of “resilience” and “European sovereignty.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a jolt for Europe, which had been dependent on Russia for critical supplies of energy. European governments turned to other gas and oil exporters, including the United States.
Europeans are noticing “more and more how dependent we are not only on fossil fuels but, through fossil fuels, on other countries and other regions,” Mr. Kowatschew said.
The European Union has spent an additional 24 billion euros on energy imports in under two months, said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
“Households are now seeing that they are only one Trump-ignited war away from very expensive tank refueling or heating bills,” said Elisabetta Cornago, an energy and climate policy expert at the Center for European Reform.
This “shock-awareness factor” means that demand for electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels is likely to keep rising, she said.
Demand has increased even as European governments have started to cut taxes on energy bills and diesel and gasoline at the pump to shield households. The costs of solar panels and electric vehicles, still out of reach for some households, are becoming more affordable. Last week, Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, revealed a new electric vehicle model with a starting price under €25,000 (about $29,000), more than 25 percent below a comparable VW popular model.
In Britain, the government said it would allow the sale of plug-in solar panels within the next few months. These devices, which can be attached to a balcony, can help curb energy bills and don’t require the more expensive installation of rooftop panels. They will be widely available in supermarkets and online.
In the meantime, rooftop solar has become more popular. Danny Hirst, the managing director at the Green Way Solar, which installs solar panels in England, has noticed a sharp increase in interest. Last fall, his company was receiving about 10 inquiries a week. Now, it sometimes gets 20 in a single day, he said.
“The general feeling that we’re hearing from clients now is that they’re just getting fed up with the uncertainty of energy prices,” Mr. Hirst said.
But will the interest be sustained? Companies and business groups said it was too soon to know.
For customers, there’s red tape. It can take weeks or months, partly because of regulatory approvals, for a customer to go from deciding to buy a heat pump or solar panels to installing them.
Then there is the push-pull issue of government policies over financial incentives or subsidies, which can drive consumer demand but cause it to taper if they are not designed properly.
Since the war started, countries across Europe have already put in place short-term measures to lower energy costs — more than €10 billion worth, according to an estimate by Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels.
The measures, such as tax cuts on gas at the pump and electricity bills, are predominately aimed at large parts of the population. Experts said governments should target their assistance to the most vulnerable households, while spending more to subsidize low-carbon energy.
This has echoes of the crisis from 2022. At the time, Europe had suddenly shifted away from Russian gas imported via pipelines, a prominent source of fuel. Energy prices rose sharply. Demand for electric vehicles, solar panels and heat pumps jumped.
But when Europe found other sources of natural gas and prices dropped from their peak, interest in renewable technologies waned. Meanwhile, governments had spent hundreds of billions of dollars to shield households and businesses from high energy costs, further reducing the urgency for households to switch to renewables, some analysts said.
Simone Tagliapietra, an energy and climate policy expert at Bruegel, said the lesson for policymakers from 2022 was that they should increase their support for low-carbon technologies, not broad based-measures that cheapen energy from oil and gas. The moment, he said, presents an opportunity for governments.
“We are facing a full-fledged oil and gas crisis,” Mr. Tagliapietra said.
At the same time, history shows that financial incentives needed to sustain consumer interest in technologies like solar panels must be consistent.
Mr. Hirst of the Green Way Solar has been in the solar industry for nearly a dozen years and has experienced the market’s ups and downs. There was a boom right after the 2022 crisis, he said, but then sales dropped. The promise of subsidies drove up interest in renewable technologies, but consumers then waited to make sure they received a subsidy before deciding to install solar panels or heat pumps.
There is a risk that this could happen again.
In Austria, demand for heat pumps dropped in the first three months of this year when some government funds for subsidies ran out.
Mr. Kowatschew at Heizma, the Austrian installation firm, said he was cautious about expanding too quickly. The company was established only two years ago. Its focus is on finding ways to make the installation process faster and more efficient so that workers can outfit two heat pumps a week instead of one, he said.
Still, business is good. Heizma made about €2 million in revenue in April, he said.
“Everyone now knows electrification makes sense,” he said. “It makes a lot of sense to switch to heat pumps, to solar and green electricity.”
Business
Dark Horse Comics to close all Things From Another World storefronts
After nearly 50 years of selling all things comics, Dark Horse is closing its Things From Another World retail locations.
The publishing house, well known for series such as “Hellboy” and “The Umbrella Academy,” operated two storefronts in Oregon and maintained a flagship store at L.A.’s Universal Citywalk. The Oregon shops will close in June, and the L.A. location will close in September. The company said in a statement that these closures are a part of its efforts to “modernize.”
“This was not an easy decision, and we do not take lightly the impact it has on the people directly affected,” Dark Horse said in a statement.
As the company moves away from the retail business, the Oregon-based publisher said it plans to focus more on its creators and writers, “ensuring they have the development support, creative partnerships, and resources to bring their visions to life across film and television.” Over the years, Dark Horse has become one of the largest comics publishers in the country.
The company also recently launched a games division focused on providing creators with development opportunities in interactive entertainment.
Dark Horse added, “We believe these changes further focus Dark Horse on its successful core publishing and collectibles business and on deepening our relationship with our fans and the retail community alike.”
The structural changes came a week after Dark Horse Media, which oversees Dark Horse Comics, was rolled into a new parent company, Fellowship Entertainment. The Stockholm-listed entertainment business was formed through a company split at Embracer Group. Under this separation, Fellowship Entertainment is now home to companies such as Dark Horse Media and Crystal Dynamics, as well as IPs such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Tomb Raider.”
Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson. He had initially opened Pegasus Books in Bend, Ore., in 1980, with plans to become an author. But as the retail business expanded, he instead decided to get into the publishing industry with Dark Horse. In the first few years of the company, he popularized comic series based on movies such as “Star Wars,” “Aliens” and “Predator.” Today, the company represents over 350 properties across comics, books, films, television, electronic games, toys and collectibles.
The closing of Things From Another World at Universal Citywalk marks the loss of another legacy comic store in the city. In recent years, many storied shops such as Geoffrey’s Comics in Torrance, Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks and Hi De-Ho Comics in Santa Monica have all been forced to close due in part to a struggling retail market.
Business
Angry Ferrari fans say the Italian company’s new EV is too Californian
Ferrari’s first-ever fully electric vehicle triggered some fans who said it looks more like an iPhone than an Italian supercar.
The $640,000 Ferrari Luce, which was unveiled on Wednesday, looks like a distant relative of many Apple products. It was built with the help of Jony Ive, the person who designed the look and feel of the Cupertino company’s iPhone, iPod and Macintosh through 2019.
“Legend has it that if you pull the Ferrari badge off the side of the new Luce you see an Apple logo underneath,” one user wrote on X.
A meme circulated portraying the Luce with iPhone applications photo-shopped onto the top, and another showing the car upside down and plugged into an iPhone charger.
To accommodate more batteries and seats, the new EV is bigger and boxier than most classic Ferraris. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, which he started in San-Francisco after leaving Apple, was brought in to try to meld the traditions of Ferrari with the new functionality and form allowed by a battery-powered engine.
In a marketing video, Ferrari’s chief design officer, Flavio Manzoni, said he sees the Luce “acting as a bridge between San Francisco and Maranello,” the northern Italian city where Ferrari is headquartered.
The four-door, five-seat car comes onto the scene at a difficult moment for electric vehicles, an industry that has been battered by President Trump’s policies.
Trump has cut EV incentives for manufacturers and customers, prompting several major automakers to move away from EV efforts and focus on gas-powered options.
A luxury EV effort from Sony and Honda, a high-tech vehicle dubbed Afeela, was shut down before it ever hit the road due to Honda paring back its EV offerings.
Legacy automakers such as Ferrari face a particularly difficult landscape for launching an EV, as die-hard fans are attached to traditional, gas-powered models.
Ferraris are known for roaring engines and bold, angular designs, a far cry from the smooth, rounded exterior of the Luce.
To be sure, aggressive redesigns often attract ridicule. The early electric Mustang models were shunned by some but have become popular.
One X user posted a meme with a photo of fictional Italian gangster Tony Soprano saying, “I don’t want any California bulls—.”
The online launch page for the car emphasizes that the Luce is “100% Ferrari.”
Still, Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s former chairman, told reporters on Tuesday that the automaker is “risking the destruction of a legend.”
Ferrari shares have fallen about 8% since the launch of the Luce, signaling investors’ concerns that the car won’t resonate with customers.
Business
Donald E. Newhouse, newspaper publisher and heir to media empire, dies at 96
NEW YORK — Donald E. Newhouse, president of one of the largest family-controlled publishing companies in the nation and a former board chairman of the Associated Press, died Tuesday. He was 96 and died at his home in New Jersey, his family said.
During his career, Newhouse served as president of the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., and head of Advance Publications’ newspaper group, which he navigated into the internet age.
“You reveled in his company. He filled you with energy and humor when you felt doubtful and weak,” said Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue and Conde Nast’s chief content officer.
“He was scrupulous about not interfering in editorial business, but if you turned to him for counsel, he invariably offered judicious advice,” she said in an obituary released Tuesday night by the Newhouse family.
Newhouse, who lived in New York, spent nearly 50 years overseeing the 35 newspapers of Advance Publications, the media business started by his late father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., in 1922. His older brother, S.I. Newhouse Jr., was chairman of the company and oversaw Conde Nast magazines. He died in 2017.
Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and chief executive of the AP, said Newhouse was an extraordinary chairman for the cooperative.
“His voice was never the loudest in the room, but it was often the wisest,” Boccardi said. Newhouse was instinctively private, but behind that, Boccardi said, was a generous man, at home anywhere and curious about everything.
“He could come across as self-effacing and deferential, but in Don’s skilled hands those were qualities that made him an enormously strong and effective leader,” Boccardi said. “You don’t often see the adjective ‘warm’ attached to a titan of industry, but it applied to him.”
A man who didn’t chase the spotlight
Newhouse, born in 1929, was known for staying out of the public eye. A reporter once asked him to list the biggest chances he took in his career. The answer: “Inviting your questions.”
The usually reserved Newhouse did step into the spotlight when he took on the role of chairman of the Newspaper Assn. of America from 1993 to 1994 and then chairman of the AP board of directors from 1997 to 2002. He had served on the AP board for nine years before becoming its chairman.
“He was a smart and shrewd businessman but as thoughtful and kind a man as you’ll find. Being in his presence was always a joy,” said Doug Clifton, editor of one of Newhouse’s papers, the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, from 1999 to 2007.
Newhouse attended Syracuse University but never graduated, heading into the family’s newspaper business instead. He would regularly visit his newspapers but left the ultimate authority of running them to his publishers.
“Each of our newspapers operates independently, with publishers who are strong, who set policy for their individual organizations and who have the authority and responsibility of carrying out the policies they set,” he said in 1993 when taking over as chairman of the newspaper association.
Newhouse was known for spending money to make sure that papers got the best stories. Jim Willse, editor of the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., from 1995 until 2010, said he would give “us all the resources we needed to make the Ledger really special.” Willse said Newhouse loved newspapers and newspaper people.
“He especially enjoyed it when we’d have a story about some politician caught with his hand in the cookie jar, or a spicy feature about stuffed shirts behaving badly,” Willse said.
Newhouse’s philosophy of spending money to produce quality coverage and a hands-off approach toward his editors led to many successes, including multiple Pulitzers.
Many of those newspapers were able to thrive and remain profitable because they dominated their market, but Newhouse said he was very much aware of what he called the “dramatically changing media landscape” and how people get their news.
“The 15th-century revolution was epitomized by the printing of the Gutenberg Bible; ours by Ted Turner’s cable news network and by web-based news sites — news in real time from anywhere to everywhere,” he said in 2004 at the rededication of a communications school named after his father at Syracuse University.
Three years later, he told one of his papers, the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y., that newspapers can survive “by producing content that is relevant, interesting, accurate and entertaining for newspapers and the internet.”
He steered through financial struggles
Yet the papers did ultimately struggle financially.
Advance was known in the industry for a pledge that employees who weren’t in a union would have jobs regardless of economic downturns or technological advances. In 2009, the company announced that the pledge would be withdrawn.
The company also moved away from daily publishing of several papers. In 2012, it announced that the Post-Standard; the Times-Picayune in New Orleans; the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Penn.; and the Birmingham News, the Press-Register of Mobile and the Huntsville Times, all in Alabama, would cease daily publication and would only offer print editions on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Those changes were accompanied by hundreds of layoffs.
“His conservative approach left both the papers and its employees somewhat unprepared for the realities of the internet,” said Thomas Maier, who wrote a 1994 biography of the family.
Newhouse’s eldest son, Steven, spearheaded the company’s growth on the internet and on mobile devices. Steven Newhouse is currently co-president of Advance Publications.
“My dad spent his life in the newspaper business and was devoted to it, built it up and enjoyed many good years. When it became more challenging, he was first in line to work through, finding solutions to keep the local journalism franchise going,” he said.
Newhouse is also survived by another son, Michael, daughter Katherine Mele and grandchildren. His wife, Susan, died in 2015.
Mayerowitz writes for the Associated Press.
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