http://www.powermag.com POWER Mag en-us 2010 Thu, 9 Sep 2010 19:18:39 EDT The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) in July put into operation the world’s first ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) superhighway when it commissioned the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai link. The ±800 kV project, completed in 30 months—a year ahead of schedule—has the capacity to transmit up to 7,200 MW from the Xiangjiaba hydropower plant in southwest China to Shanghai, the country’s leading industrial and commercial center, about 2,000 kilometers (km) away.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2940.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT At the end of June, Xcel Energy fired up a demonstration project that integrates a 4-MW parabolic trough solar technology with an existing 44-MW coal-fired power plant.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2941.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT Renewable energy information services provider 3TIER in July confirmed with its publication of wind performance maps what U.S. wind developers with poor generation numbers had been suggesting earlier this year: A long-lasting El Niño event paired with a North Atlantic Oscillation event caused wind speeds to slump abnormally from the fall of 2009 through spring 2010.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2942.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT Spain in July inaugurated another major concentrated solar power (CSP) power station. The 50-MW La Florida parabolic solar trough plant in Alvarado Badajoz (in the west of the country), increases Spain’s solar nameplate capacity to 432 MW—beating out the U.S., which produces 422 MW from solar installations.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2943.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT A £42 million marine power infrastructure project that will function as an “electrical socket” in waters 50 meters (m) deep and nearly 16 kilometers (km) off the coast of Cornwall in South West England set sail toward its proposed location this July.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2944.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT GE launched what it is calling the world’s first two-stage turbocharged gas engine this June.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2945.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT MHI, Foster Wheeler to Support FEED for UK CCS Project. A consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. on August 5 announced that it had received an order from E.ON UK to support the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2946.html Wed, 1 Sep 2010 0:00:00 EDT This May, following two years of construction, Siemens Energy put into operation Irsching 5, an 847-MW advanced combined-cycle power plant near Ingolstadt, Germany. The plant’s owner, Gemeinschaftskraftwerke Irsching GmbH—a joint venture of E.ON, Mainova, and HEAG Südhessische Energie—features two SGT5-4000F gas turbines, one SST5-5000 steam turbine, three hydrogen-cooled generators, electrical systems, and Siemens’ SPPA-T3000 instrumentation and control system.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2866.html Sun, 1 Aug 2010 0:00:00 EDT Nearly a quarter-century after the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster in Soviet Ukraine, Russia has been making deals with energy-starved nations all over the globe to help them build new nuclear power plants using Russian second-generation reactor technology.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2867.html Sun, 1 Aug 2010 0:00:00 EDT While the U.S. awaits congressional action on a cap-and-trade program that could possibly be limited to just the utility sector, Canada is moving, starting in 2011, to phase out older coal power plants and replace them with natural gas–fired plants. The announcement, made this June by Environment Minister Jim Prentice prior to the G8 and G20 summits, could have serious implications for coal-fired generators in the country.... http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/2868.html Sun, 1 Aug 2010 0:00:00 EDT