POWER

Along with several funding announcements for renewable energy projects, the Department of Energy (DOE) last week said it would back six projects that could lower the cost of producing power in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants using carbon capture. The $14 million in total funding will seek to improve the economics of IGCC plants and promote the use of the nation’s abundant coal resources, the DOE said.

Shifting from coal to natural gas would have limited impacts on climate—and it could even slightly accelerate global warming at least through 2050—suggests a new study from the federally funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Dallas-based Luminant, Texas’ largest power generator, on Friday filed a legal challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) but said the newly finalized rule that will require generators to dramatically reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants had forced it to idle two coal-fired units and reduce capacity at three other units. The decision follows talks between the company and the EPA, in which the agency suggested the closures are not the “only path forward.”

A worker was killed and four people were injured at EDF’s Centraco site near the Marcoule nuclear research center in Codolet, Southeast France, on Monday when a furnace dedicated to melting scrap metal from nuclear plants exploded and triggered a fire.

Dominion Virginia Power last week told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that hundreds of tests and inspections have revealed no damage to safety-related equipment at the company’s North Anna Power Station from the Aug. 23 5.8-magnitude quake whose epicenter was only five miles away from the twin-reactor station in Mineral, Va.

Pennsylvania has reportedly withdrawn from five federal environmental lawsuits filed during former Gov. Ed Randell’s (D) administration, including four cases the state joined last year supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) “endangerment” rule and a 2008 federal suit challenging the EPA’s 2008 smog rules as too lenient.

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week said it was considering transferring to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) its authority to conduct congestion studies and establish a process for designating “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors” (NIETCs). But the move, which has been touted as a means to remove transmission-development barriers, could inhibit new power lines by creating uncertainty, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has countered.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday split 2–2, neither upholding nor rejecting a decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) last year that had ruled the Energy Department could not withdraw its license application for the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada. In a written decision, however, the NRC directed its licensing board to close out work on the project by Sept. 30, citing funding constraints.

New Hampshire’s State Senate last week fell one vote short of overriding Gov. John Lynch’s veto of a bill that would have withdrawn the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program whose participants include 10 states and provinces in the northeastern U.S. and Canada.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 12, 2011, 9:30 a.m. — There are multiple reports this morning of an explosion at the French nuclear site at Marcoule. According to the BBC, one person has been killed and four injured. Few details are available. This morning’s New York Times said French nuclear regulators had confirmed the […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington D.C., September 9, 2011 — Pondering the collapse of solar PV manufacturer Solyndra and the earlier business failures of Evergreen Solar and SpectraWatt, all recipients of Department of Energy loan guarantees, several points seem clear to me. The first is that the Obama administration has made a mistake by investing economic […]

President Obama on Friday scuttled the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) smog rule, saying that he had underscored the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and uncertainty. The decision has dealt a blow to environmental groups—which are contemplating legal action—and won the Democratic president praise from Republicans and industry groups.

Solyndra, the manufacturer of cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels, which had been granted the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first ever loan guarantee funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy protection. The move follows the California company’s decision last week to shut down its Fremont factory and lay off 1,100 employees and contractors because it could not compete with low-cost manufacturers from other countries.

Louisiana-based engineering firm the Shaw Group on Tuesday said it would sell its 20% stake in nuclear plant company Westinghouse back to partner Toshiba—forcing the Japanese company to raise its holding to 87%. Shaw said it would continue to work as a consortium team member with Westinghouse in the deployment and commercialization of the third-generation AP1000 reactor currently under construction in China and the state of Georgia.

Analysis from research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan shows that the steam and gas turbines market in Europe—which has seen an all-time low in the past two years—is expected to pick up in the medium-to-long term, even though the sector has been hard-hit by uncertainties concerning carbon trading, power industry legislation, and commodity price surges.

All nuclear plants in the U.S. continued to operate safely, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said as it announced it had issued mid-cycle assessment letters to the nation’s 104 operating commercial nuclear plants.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday awarded more than $145 million for 69 projects in 24 states to help shape the next generation of solar energy technologies as part of its SunShot Initiative. That announcement was followed yesterday by one concerning funding for a more established renewable power generation technology. The DOE and Department of the Interior announced nearly $17 million in funding over the next three years for research and development projects to advance hydropower technology.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) last week signed into law a bill that extends an expedited permitting process previously limited to large-scale solar projects to wind and geothermal projects planned for installation in California’s Mojave and Colorado Deserts.

By John Egan Lafayette, Colo., September 5, 2011 — “A live electric wire just fell on a bus full of senior citizens—what do you do?” No, that wasn’t a line from Dennis Hopper in the movie Speed. In fact, it was an interview question I was asked when I was being interviewed to become a […]

When adding, modifying, or upgrading a system, many critical infrastructures conduct a factory acceptance test (FAT). A FAT includes a customized testing procedure for systems and is completed before the final installation at the critical facility. Because it is difficult to predict the correct operation of the safety instrumented system or consequences due to failures in some parts of the system, a FAT provides a valuable check of these safety issues. Similarly, because cyber security can also impact the safety of critical systems if a system is compromised, it makes sense to integrate cyber security with the FAT.

Uncertainty about China’s role in world trade and its current monopoly over critical rare earth minerals continues to roil supply chains in energy technology markets. Will the World Trade Organization bring China into the fold, or will China ignore the international forum that it lobbied hard to join several years ago?

From the East Coast to the Lone Star State, a number of elected officials and power industry representatives are bashing the new aggressive regulation aimed at controlling specific power plant emissions. Complying with a federal court mandate, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) on July 6. The new […]

The process of handling employee complaints of workplace discrimination or harassment is filled with potentially disastrous pitfalls. Here are some things to avoid.

In 2010, the 2,310-MW Adapazari Power Plant achieved 99.8% availability, which is nearly 7% higher than the industry average and a global record in F-class gas turbine technology. The new turbine upgrade is helping ENKA Power bolster Turkey’s evolving economy by improving its energy sector’s efficiency and productivity.

Employee training is one of the most important human resource functions, and one of the most difficult to manage. But there are some proven ideas to help guide training programs in the work environment.

Known for its progressive, pro-sustainability policies, the City of Tallahassee recently repowered a 30-year-old conventional steam plant unit, turning it into a new 300-MW facility. The utility redesigned the Arvah B. Hopkins Generating Station, Unit 2 as a 1 × 1 combined cycle plant in order to improve efficiency, switched the primary fuel from oil to natural gas, and thereby reduced fuel costs and emissions. The plant’s flexible design even will enable expansion to a 2 × 1 configuration when additional capacity is needed in the future.

"Asset health" offers a conceptual path to integrating information technology with operations technology, thereby overcoming the common management problem of "siloed data," according to a recent study by The McDonnell Group.

Managing construction of the 550-MW Astoria II Combined Cycle Plant in the midst of Queens, a densely packed New York City borough, required extensive off-site modular construction and a high level of logistical organization. Now the new Astoria II plant is operating successfully in conjunction with the Astoria Energy I plant as the largest natural gas–fired power plant in the Big Apple.

The rise of shale gas in U.S. energy markets has profound economic implications. It has the potential to transform the existing market and bring opportunities for new markets. But shale gas also raises regulatory challenges and the likelihood of litigation. Here’s an introduction to the issue and a primer on the regulatory and legal ramifications of the shale revolution.

The new 2,100-MW Phase 1 EMAL combined cycle power plant provides dedicated power with a high level of reliability to the Emirates Aluminum Smelter Complex, which is designed to be the world’s largest aluminum smelter upon completion. Located on the Persian Gulf, the gas-fired combined cycle plant uses seawater cooling towers to eliminate thermal stress on local marine life.