Several nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy, the "superstorm" that devastated parts of the East Coast last week, endured the hurricane-force winds and storm surges without significant impact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has said.

Dominion Virginia Power on Friday asked the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to approve construction of a 1,358-MW combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant to replace power from aging coal plants that the company has deemed are not economically or environmentally sound to continue operating.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) on Wednesday unanimously determined that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China materially injured the U.S. industry, clearing the way for the Commerce Department to issue antidumping and countervailing duties on billions of dollars of products from China for the next five years. However, the ITC’s determination finds no critical circumstances were present, which means duties on Chinese solar module imports won’t apply retroactively.

By Kennedy Maize (@kennedymaize) Washington, D.C., 7 November, 2012 — With Barack Obama given another four-year lease on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the policy and regulatory landscape for the electricity business is largely unchanged. But the roadmap may be somewhat different. Obama’s reelection represents neither an endorsement nor a repudiation of his policy initiatives on such […]

A “who’s doing what” addendum to "THE BIG PICTURE: Advanced Fission" in our November 2012 issue.

A “who’s doing what” addendum to "THE BIG PICTURE: Advanced Fission" in our November 2012 issue.

When you’re building a natural gas pipeline, running pipe from Point A to Point B is only the final, most obvious step. You’ve got to jump through a lot of hoops to get there, in a process that can take years and that involves a lot of foresight.

Bigger isn’t always better, but when you’ve got big power needs in a remote location, your options are often limited. A new mobile gas-fired generator aims to change that, offering both big capacity and a small footprint.

The shale boom has run well ahead of the infrastructure needed to handle all the production. When there’s nowhere to put associated gas, much of it is being flared. But this common industry practice is starting to draw some uncommon attention.

This year’s healthy growth in global gas-fired power generation continued in the third quarter, with significant projects being planned in Turkey and Japan.

Renewable energy projects installed on potentially contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites have increased by 40% since 2008, a new list released last week by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems make up the bulk of about 184.7 MW installed at 60 sites in 25 U.S. states.

Surging supplies of natural gas have led to serious discussions of exporting this resource. The head of APGA explains how this threatens the U.S.’s long-term interests and energy security.

The power-hungry ERCOT region is getting an upgrade, as Siemens and Bechtel are building two advanced combined cycle plants in central Texas.

When the Albany area needed a new power plant, pulling water from the Hudson River would have been the easy choice. But the plant owners chose to get creative, drawing on a convenient but unconventional source for their cooling water.

The bill for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government’s knee-jerk decision to close all 17 of its nuclear plants by 2022 is coming due. Merkel’s energy plan is to radically expand the use of renewable energy to 35% of total power consumption by 2020 and to 80% by 2050. Currently, renewables represent 20% of the country’s energy mix.

With license extensions for its three units in hand, Duke Energy’s Oconee Nuclear Station began a digital controls upgrade program in 2006, and in January 2010, AREVA became the first supplier to receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a safety-related digital instrumentation and controls system.

Germany-based solar mirror maker Flabeg has developed an anti-soiling coating for solar mirrors used in solar thermal power plant applications, duraGLARE, which can repel dust and sand from the surface of mirrors. Dirt on mirrors can be reduced up to 50% compared with panels that are not coated, the company claims. As well as an […]

As the book title Too Dumb to Meter: Follies, Fiascoes, Dead Ends, and Duds on the U.S. Road to Atomic Energy implies, nuclear power has traveled a rough road. In this POWER exclusive, we present the sixth and seventh chapters, “The Bomber to Nowhere” and “The Road to Jackass Flats,” which begin the “Up in the Air: Flights of Radioactive Fancy” section.

No other country has been as frequently cited as an example of exploiting the virtues of a nuclear-heavy energy policy as France. Deriving more than 75% of its electricity from 58 operational nuclear reactors with a total capacity of about 63 GW, France has one of the lowest costs of generation and is the world’s largest net exporter of power, earning €3 billion ($3.9 billion) a year from sales of surplus power to buyers beyond its borders. But that is all about to change.

On August 23, 2011, at 1:51 p.m., a magnitude 5.8 earthquake knocked both units at Dominion’s North Anna Power Station off-line—the first time such an event has occurred in the U.S. After 80 days of extensive evaluation and inspection by plant staff and representatives from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, both units were back online. What occurred during those days is a remarkable story.

Measurement technology specialist Testo announced the new Testo 875i thermal imager, a professional quality and versatile thermal imager with very high thermal sensitivity, outstanding image quality, and simplified ease of use. With the device’s high thermal sensitivity of less than 50 mK, and the outstanding image quality of 160 x 120 pixels (which can be […]

The back-to-back collapse at the end of July of India’s Northern, Eastern, and Northeastern grids that slashed power to more than 60% of India’s population of 1.24 billion has impelled the country into a spending frenzy to upgrade its rickety power network, which, a government inquiry revealed, was one cause of the unprecedented blackouts.

Data detailing plans for new nuclear reactors worldwide show few effects of the March 2011 Fukushima accident. China and Russia in particular continue to be hot spots for nuclear development, but cost overruns, construction glitches, and ongoing safety reviews are slowing construction projects elsewhere.

ESAB introduced a new, improved line of combination cutting torches as part of the new Purox Elite Series of gas apparatus products. The Purox Elite Series Combination Torch includes the WH-4200 welding handle and the CA-4200 cutting attachment. The torch welds material up to 1 inch thick and cuts up to 8 inches in thickness. […]

Germany’s E.ON this August began construction of a new pilot plant in Falkenhagen in northeast Germany that will convert excess wind energy into synthetic natural gas that can then be fed into the regional gas grid, where it can be used to produce heat and power.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has opened a formal investigation into the extended outages of Units 2 and 3 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The investigation will determine whether to remove all costs related to SONGS from the rates of Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) going forward, and whether to refund SONGS-related costs already collected in rates back to Jan. 1, 2012.

A massive blackout spanning 11 states in northeastern Brazil plunged nearly 53 million residents into the dark early on Friday morning. The event, caused by a "total collapse" of the northeastern grid, has raised concerns about electric reliability in South America’s largest economy, which is gearing up to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games.

The Electric Power Research Institute and several partners—including the Southern Research Institute, Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power, and Southern Research—are testing a new technology that could reduce the amount of water needed for power plant cooling.

On Tuesday morning, half a day after Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, the enormous storm, now being called a superstorm or a post-tropical cyclone, was still causing destruction far inland while as many as 6 million electric customers from Maine to North Carolina and west to Pennsylvania and West Virginia were without power.