POWER

Ashcroft A2, A2X, and A4 pressure transmitters answer the call for an accurate, rugged, and reliable heavy-duty sensor. Available in accuracies up to +/-0.25% full scale, the A2 is offered with a wide variety of electrical connections, analog output signals, and pressure ports to meet the requirements of most any industrial application. The A2X (explosion/flame proof) […]

The current largest photovoltaic plant in the U.S., the 48-MW Copper Mountain Solar 1, utilizes approximately 775,000 solar panels to generate emission-free electricity for about 14,000 homes without the use of water. The facility was constructed in less than a year—an unprecedented achievement for a project of this size.

Advanced graphical interface technology provider DiSTI Corp. unveiled Replic8, a new software tool to effortlessly create interactive virtual training content from Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max. Replic8 allows users to easily produce compelling 3-D interactive training content through a simplified development process. (The image is a Relic8-generated 3-D Cummins 855 Diesel Engine.) The software tool works […]

The EPA’s proposed rules on limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new, modified, and existing power plants has taken another step forward.

Owner/operator: EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG/EnBW Renewables GmbH Germany’s first commercial offshore wind farm—the 48.3-MW EnBW Baltic 1—consists of 21 Siemens wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3 MW and a rotor diameter of 93 meters. Siemens constructed the facility in an area covering about 7 square kilometers in the Baltic Sea.

The wind power industry has exploded over the past decade. In the U.S. alone, almost 40,000 MW of wind power have come online since 2000. As more wind generation has been added, grid operators have been challenged to integrate a large amount of intermittent generation. As the state with by far the most installed wind power capacity, Texas has had to face this problem head on.

After three years of development, dozens of public workshops, and hundreds of meetings with stakeholders, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) on Oct. 20 adopted a final rule to cap California’s greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon. The cap-and-trade program starts in 2013 for electric utilities and large industrial facilities.

The 5-MW Kimberlina Solar Thermal Energy Station is the first to use compact linear Fresnel reflector technology developed to generate continuous superheated steam, a key element for higher-efficiency power generation and integration with new and existing plants. The facility’s innovative technology helps deliver power even during periods of transient cloud cover.

ICF International, a consultancy group that earlier this year had predicted 68 GW of coal-fired power plants could retire by 2030 as a result of finalized and proposed regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), downgraded its retirement projections to 50 GW this fall.

The 75-MW Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center is the first hybrid solar facility in the world to combine a solar thermal array with a combined cycle natural gas power plant. Because the facility uses a steam turbine, transmission lines, and other infrastructure from an existing combined cycle unit, financial savings of approximately 20% were achieved compared to what a similar stand-alone solar plant would have cost.

Although the burning of natural gas emits far less carbon dioxide than coal, a new study concludes that a greater reliance on natural gas would fail to significantly slow down climate change.

Germany’s government has decided to shutter all 17 of its nuclear plants (23 reactors); eight plants are now closed for business, six more will be closed by 2021, and the final three will close by 2022. What is lacking is an honest discussion of the rising cost Germans will pay for electricity for what The Economist describes as “the greatest change of political course since unification.”

In December 2009, construction of an underwater tower and fish collection structure was successfully completed at the 465-MW Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project. The first-of-its-kind fish bypass and intake structure returns temperatures in the lower Deschutes River to historic patterns and restores downstream passage of Chinook, steelhead, and sockeye salmon while maintaining existing generating capacity.

As China’s economy continues to soar, its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will keep on soaring as well—or so goes the conventional wisdom. A new analysis by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory now is challenging that notion, one widely held in both the United States and China.

The world’s biomass power facilities, not counting those in the pulp and paper industry, average just 18 MWe to 20 MWe. In the U.S., passage of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 ignited development of many existing biomass plants. Greenhouse gas rules and renewable policies around the world have kindled a new generation of much larger biomass facilities. New announcements routinely are for plants 50 MW or larger, presumably to leverage economies of scale.

The 80-MW Sarnia Solar Project is the world’s largest operational photovoltaic plant, with 1.3 million solar modules. The facility utilizes First Solar’s proven thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technology, which has the lowest environmental footprint and the fastest energy payback of current PV technologies.

A Romanian lignite-fired power station wanted to minimize the operating cost of the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system by placing the booster fans in the "wet position," between the wet FGD scrubber and the wet stack, where they would consume significantly less power. A number of combined environmental effects must be considered in this design.

Competition among gas turbine makers heated up this September as Alstom unveiled its upgraded GT24 gas turbine and corresponding 60 Hz KA24 combined cycle power plant, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) introduced the M701F5 gas turbine—a 50 Hz F-class gas turbine upgrade. An Upgraded GT24 Alstom’s upgraded product launches came on the heels of its […]

Stable grid operation is challenging, especially when intermittent and unpredictable renewable generation is added to the generation mix. For NorthWestern Energy, the best solution was adding fast-acting gas-fired generation to its Montana electricity grid to meet required reliability standards while replacing expensive third-party contracts for ancillary services.

Illinois’ Senate on Tuesday revived Tenaska’s plan to build its $3.5 billion Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), a 602-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant designed to capture more than 50% of its carbon emissions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier this month issued a proposal to revise the methodology for calculating rental rates for the use of government lands by hydropower projects. Under the proposal, FERC-regulated hydropower licensees must compensate the federal government for the use of federal lands, significantly increasing annual charges for many hydropower projects occupying federal lands.

Google, the Internet search giant that has invested millions in solar power technology, last week quietly abandoned a four-year-old project to make renewable power cheaper than coal-fired power. The company, which cited the recent dramatic decline of photovoltaic panel prices and design limitations, said other institutions were “better positioned” to take research to the “next level.”

SolarCity Corp., a solar power company that lost a $344 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) in the political rumpus following the Solyndra’s failure, today announced it would move ahead with an ambitious five-year plan to build more than $1 billion in solar power projects for privatized U.S. military housing communities across the country.

The cumulative impact of rules proposed and finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could, over the next six years, stress the nation’s power grid "in ways never before experienced," the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warns in a new report.

The FutureGen Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of coal producers, coal users, and coal equipment suppliers, on Monday said it was negotiating an option to buy portions of the Meredosia Energy Center in Illinois from Ameren Corp. to continue development of the FutureGen 2.0 carbon capture and storage project, an initiative begun in 2003.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., November 17, 2011 — Let’s stipulate: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a doofus. I’ve elsewhere characterized him as “a stuffed shirt, in an empty suit, talkin’ through his hat.” I was being kind. In his recent debate “Oops!” moment, Perry was able to name only two of the three federal […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday blocked two key bills proposed by Republicans that would have thwarted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating rules they say are unrealistic and would harm the economy. One measure was Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) resolution to disapprove the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), and the other was Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) bill that would have required agencies to get congressional approval for federal rules that cost more than $100 million.

A Minnesota administrative judge on Thursday backed a $489 million plan to retrofit the 36-year-old coal-fired Big Stone power plant in South Dakota with an air quality control system (AQCS) rather than scrap the plant.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) approval on Thursday of Abengoa Solar’s 250-MW Mojave Solar concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough facility in San Bernardino County—the second “overpriced renewable contract” approved by the CPUC in recent weeks—was disappointing, the regulatory commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) said in a statement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday issued the first greenhouse gas (GHG) permit in Texas. The move comes nearly a year after Texas refused to implement federal GHG regulations that require air permits for high-emission projects and the EPA seized the state’s authority to grant permits.