In 2016, nuclear power accounted for about 20% of U.S. power generation, but that share is expected to fall to just 11% in 2050, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) 2017 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO2017). According to the EIA, 25% of the nation’s nuclear capacity, excluding plants that have already announced retirement, is […]

Still trying to figure out exactly what Westinghouse’s bankruptcy is going to mean for the project, SCANA Corp. subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G), announced in its first quarter progress report that the two-unit expansion of Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station is more than 64% complete. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy on March 29, […]

Sitting on a panel during the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in New York City on April 24, Michael Bloomberg proclaimed that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is “total bullshit.” That statement was not received well by Trude Sundset, CEO of Gassnova, Norway’s state enterprise for the development of CCS. “There’s a whole new world […]

President Donald Trump is getting a lot of advice about the Paris Agreement on climate change lately, though it remains uncertain what he’ll do with it. A group of more than a dozen companies, including some power industry big hitters, sent a letter April 26 to the president calling for continued involvement in the agreement. […]

The impact of Westinghouse Electric Co.’s March 29 bankruptcy filing will be felt throughout the U.S. nuclear power industry, accord to an April 19 report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “The bankruptcy filing raised fundamental questions about the future of the U.S. nuclear power industry, and particularly whether four new reactors that Westinghouse […]

The Barack Obama administration waged war on the coal industry, but that’s all over now, recently confirmed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told the National Coal Council (NCC) during its annual spring meeting. The NCC is an advisory board to the secretary of energy tasked with providing expert advice on matters of the coal industry. […]

Global new renewable power capacity grew in 2016 even as global new investment in renewables dropped, according to a report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program out April 6. The Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2017 report found that global investment in renewables—excluding large hydro—fell in 2016 by 23% to $241.6 billion. That […]

The James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant officially belongs to Exelon Generation. The sale of the Scriba, NY plant, finalized on March 31, has been long-expected. “We look forward to bringing FitzPatrick’s highly skilled team of professionals into the Exelon Generation nuclear program, and to continue delivering to New York the environmental, economic and grid […]

In a somewhat combative hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee on March 29, scientists with varied views on the subject of climate change debated how the research of climate change skeptics should be handled by the scientific community. The hearing frequently descended into personal attacks between the four witnesses […]

Surrounded by coal miners, industry leaders, the secretaries of Energy and the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, and the vice president, President Donald Trump on March 28 signed an executive order rescinding or reviewing key provisions of the previous administration’s climate agenda. “The action I’m taking today will eliminate federal overreach, restore economic […]

A long-planned expansion of Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s Holcomb Station is a little closer to fruition as of March 17 with a favorable ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court. The state’s high court ruled to uphold a 2010 construction permit, which was amended in 2013, for the plant. The Sierra Club argued that the permit […]

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 31%, will not be received favorably by the American people, former EPA Administrators Gina McCarthy and Carol Browner said March 17 during a call with the press. “This is clear what’s happening. The White House has made a decision that […]

The Kemper County Energy Facility will not reach full operation by its latest mid-March deadline, project owner Southern Company subsidiary, Mississippi Power announced March 16 in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “On March 9, 2017, Mississippi Power experienced certain tube leaks in one of the syngas coolers for gasifier ‘A’ […]

If President Donald Trump truly wants to revitalize the coal industry, he should continue to support the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy’s research efforts, representatives of the coal industry said in a March 10 letter. “In light of recent calls for dramatic cuts to the federal budget, we want to stress that […]

With a vote of 62–37, the Senate on March 2 confirmed former Texas governor Rick Perry as the new secretary of energy. Perry received the support of 10 Democratic senators: Mark Warner (Va.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), […]

Regardless of recent federal support for a revitalization of coal in the U.S., “the economics are challenged,” Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy, said March 1 during a presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “I think coal continues to be an important part of a […]

The U.S. is in around “100th place” worldwide when it comes to efforts to automate the grid, Thomas Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT, said March 1 during a keynote presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “They’re not even in the game, and I […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the next four years is going to be a very different beast than the EPA under the presidency of Barack Obama, newly confirmed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said on February 25 while addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “We’re going to restore power back to the people. We’re […]

Full operation of CGN Power’s Taishan nuclear power plant, an $8.7 billion effort to construct two EPR reactors in Guangdong province, China, has been pushed back six months, the company said in an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange February 20. Completion of Taishan Unit 1 had been expected in the first half of […]

The Donald Trump administration can look to the energy sector to increase federal revenue and offset the national debt in numerous ways, but there are pros and cons to everything, according to a panel presenting at the Cato Institute February 22. Carbon pricing has long been the preferred economic means of mitigating carbon emissions. A […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy has awarded a total of $5.9 million to seven projects focused on novel uses of carbon dioxide (CO2). The projects were selected under the DOE’s carbon storage program. “This portfolio will develop and test novel approaches that convert CO2 captured from coal-fired power plants to […]

Security issues are second only to cost concerns when energy generators consider the risks related to implementing connected technology at their power plants, according to a February 15 poll of the audience at POWER’s Connected Plant Conference. However, continued improvements in available cybersecurity systems are quickly reducing those risks, Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations, […]

Former President Barack Obama’s regulation-heavy Climate Action Plan was inefficient and should be replaced with a carbon tax, a group of senior Republican statesmen told White House officials during a February 8 meeting. The new pitch is laid out in a paper by the Climate Leadership Council — whose membership includes former GOP Treasury Secretaries […]

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in North America is about to have its year, Julio Friedmann, senior adviser for energy innovation at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said during the February 8 Global CCS Institute’s annual Americas Forum. “We are just now like fully deployed and hopefully that will finally quash […]

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are digging their heels in, refusing to allow a vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Pruitt’s nomination was due to come to a vote February 1, but when it came time to gavel […]

Heads of some of the nation’s energy trade groups are looking forward to a rollback of regulations under the Trump administration, they said January 31 during a panel discussion at the United States Energy Association’s annual State of the Energy Industry Forum. President and CEO of the National Mining Association, Hal Quinn, perhaps the most […]