Dominion’s North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia shut down on Tuesday following a loss of offsite power as 10 other nuclear stations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Michigan reported “unusual events” to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after a 5.8-magnitude temblor rattled the East Coast.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board on Thursday gave the federally owned corporation much-anticipated authorization to complete a nuclear unit at the federally owned corporation’s Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Ala. However, the TVA may reportedly finance the $4.9 billion completion by selling and leasing its Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor—a project expected to be completed in 2013—as well as its John Sevier combined cycle gas plant.

Regulations proposed by Canada’s Ministry of Environment on Friday could force utilities, starting in July 2015, to shutter new coal-fired plants not outfitted with carbon capture and storage systems and plants reaching the end of "economic” lifespans to shut down—unless the plants’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels could be reduced to those of natural gas combined-cycle plants. The federal government said the new rules could gradually phase out traditional coal units, which would have a significant impact on reducing emissions from the coal-fired generation sector.

Solar Trust of America will convert the first 500-MW phase of its massive concentrating solar power (CSP) project under construction near Blythe, in Riverside County, Calif., to photovoltaic (PV) technology because market conditions currently favor PV, the company announced on Thursday.

The Department of Energy on Friday finalized a $197 million loan guarantee to SoloPower Inc. for the construction and operation of thin-film solar module manufacturing facilities at sites in Portland, Oregon, and at an existing site in San Jose, California.

A recently finalized rule by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on regional and interregional electric transmission planning and cost allocation exceeds its authority under the Federal Power Act and “must be revised,” a coalition of seven utilities have told the commission.

The Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) last week invited offshore wind developers to identify locations on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts for the development of wind projects.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)—the grid operator that manages 85% of Texas’ electric load and which has been grappling with surging power demand as the state battles a long heat wave and devastating drought—on Tuesday said it had asked two generation owners to activate four mothballed units to address critical power shortages.

For the first time in a decade, the Alberta Utilities Commission on Friday gave its final approval for building a coal-fired power plant. Maxim Power received approval to build and operate a new 500-MW coal-fired plant at the existing 150-MW H.R. Milner Generating Station in the Grande Cache area. The company had provided "credible evidence" that air emission issues have been addressed through plant design and other mitigation measures, the commission said.

Four research projects that could further carbon capture technologies—helping them achieve at least 90% carbon dioxide removal with no more than a 35% increase in power costs—were on Monday selected for further development by the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday finalized a $102 million loan guarantee to a 50.6-MW power plant and an 8-mile transmission line, right on the heels of Department of the Interior (DOI) approval for a massive 550-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in California last week.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is reportedly floating legislation that could require Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background checks for workers at all power plants and critical infrastructure plants with access to restricted areas.

The Tomari 3, a 912-MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari plant in northern Japan’s Hokkaido region, has resumed full commercial operation. It is the first reactor in the country to be restarted after a periodic inspection following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The rolling blackouts that affected nearly 4.4 million electric customers in the Southwest during the bitter cold snap from Feb. 2 to Feb. 4 this year could have been prevented by measures such as winterizing power plants and increasing natural gas storage capacity, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said after concluding a six-month inquiry into the outages.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 15, 2011 — It’s about those polar bears. You know, the ones endangered by global warming turning the Arctic into Florida, the poster predators of man’s inhumanity to the Earth. Those cute figures who have graced Coca-Cola ads and memorabilia for decades. Well, maybe they aren’t that endangered after […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 14, 2011 — I don’t often agree with former CIA director James Woolsey. In fact, I can’t think of a time that I have ever agreed with him. Until this week, that is, when Woolsey offered a short, sharp elbow to the policy ribs of the smart grid during […]

Two new AP1000 reactors proposed for the expansion of Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Ga., on Tuesday received a Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In a major milestone for the project—the first two reactors that will be built in the U.S. in 25 years—the federal regulatory agency concluded there are no safety aspects that would preclude it from issuing a limited work authorization and combined construction and operating license (COL) for the project.

Five U.S. grid operators last week jointly urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider strict compliance deadlines proposed for a suite of rules because they feared "accelerated" generation retirements as owners assessed the costs of complying with them. The grid operators also asked the EPA to consider keeping some plants online if they met certain conditions, because taking them out of service would affect system reliability.

Power demand for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) control area hit three consecutive records in the past week—reaching 68,294 MW on Aug. 3—forcing the grid operator to cut power to large industrial users to avoid rolling blackouts. It was the second time this year and only the fourth in more than two decades that the grid operator has been forced to implement such measures.

Eight days ahead of schedule, China on Sunday put into commercial operation Ling Ao Unit 4, the second facility of the Ling Ao Phase II nuclear power plant. Unit 4, owned by the state-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co. (CGNPC), brings the number of reactors at the Ling Ao/Daya Bay Nuclear Power Base to six—making it China’s largest nuclear complex to date.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Monday said it would delay construction at Watts Bar Unit 2 and delay commercial operation of the facility from the previously anticipated late 2012 timeframe into 2013, owing to a licensing delay, safety and environmental issues, and a transition in the leadership of its nuclear generation development and construction (NGDC) group.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday finalized a $967 million loan guarantee for a solar photovoltaic facility in Arizona. On Tuesday, it also awarded $7 million for independent cost analyses supporting research and development for fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems.

Dynegy has restructured to create separate coal-fired and gas-fired power generation units.

The city of Chicago on Thursday reintroduced an ordinance that could shut down two coal-burning power plants in the city owned by Midwest Generation, an Edison International subsidiary.

The UK plans to shutter its Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant (SMP) as soon as it is practically feasible because the March 2011 Japanese quake and subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima have changed the facility’s commercial risk profile, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said today.

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP)—a consensus-based group of more than 675 public and private organizations created by the National Institute of Standards (NIST)—has made the first six entries into its new Catalog of Standards, a technical document that is expected to serve as a guide for smart grid–related technology.

The Yucca Mountain fracas last week became more intense as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) joined a coalition of state and local governments in a suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The petitioners claim the agency is “unreasonably delaying” a decision on the proposed—and now-defunct—permanent spent nuclear fuel repository in Nevada.

The share of electricity generated from coal in the U.S. during the first three months of this year was at its lowest first-quarter level in more than three decades—even though the overall total level of generation in the U.S. increased by a little less than 1%, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last week.

Alberta’s provincial government last week signed a final funding agreement for a unique carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that seeks to tap a deep unmineable coalbed and turn the coal into power-generating synthetic gas—or “syngas”—while underground.

Plans have been delayed to build a small-scale coal gasification facility that would have enabled researchers from the University of Wyoming (UW) and GE Energy to understand the conversion of feedstock by gasification into syngas for use in power generation. The delay of at least 18 to 24 months stems from a lack of federal energy policy, Wyoming’s Governor Matt Mead said on Friday.