A report released on Friday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that power plant smokestacks of 500 feet or higher disperse pollutants over greater distances—and that stack height is one of several factors that contribute to the interstate transport of air pollution. The congressional investigative arm also finds that several boilers remain uncontrolled for certain pollutants, including several connected to tall stacks.

Italy on Monday overwhelmingly voted to abandon nuclear power after Germany’s cabinet last week backed a controversial policy to shutter that country’s nuclear plants by 2022.

The body of a contract worker trapped when a large boiler structure at the Paul L. Bartow Power Plant on Weedon Island near St. Petersburg, Fla., unexpectedly collapsed was recovered late Monday night, four days after the accident occurred, Progress Energy said.

The Department of Energy in the past week made three more conditional loan guarantee offers: $2 billion to support two concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in California—the Mojave Solar Project in San Bernardino County and the Genesis Solar Project in Riverside County—and a $350 million partial loan guarantee for an Ormat-owned Nevada geothermal project.

Through a combination of actions that encourage the development of untapped geothermal resources and new technologies, geothermal energy could account for around 3.5% of annual global electricity production by 2050 (a considerable increase from current levels of 0.3%) the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a report released on Tuesday.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 12, 2011 – Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla appears to relish the role of contrarian, something the world of “green” and “smart” energy, whatever those terms mean, lacks in abundance. So it was that Khosla recently appeared at the annual Energy Storage Association meeting and made a presentation that led […]

China has formally revoked grants to Chinese wind turbine manufacturers that agreed to use key parts and components made in China rather than purchasing imports after the U.S. filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying the subsidies were prohibited under international trade rules. The U.S. took action after the United Steelworkers (USW) last September filed a trade case alleging that China used “protectionist and predatory” practices to develop its renewable sector at the expense of production and job creation in the U.S.

American Electric Power (AEP) and Duke Energy on Thursday said they would jointly develop a 55-mile, extra-high-voltage transmission project with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Indiana and Kentucky.

The U.S. House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday passed a bill that restores $35 million to the development of the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada, including $10 million that goes to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to continue its license application.

The latest recipient of a conditional commitment for a $45.6 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) is Fotowatio Renewable Venture’s 20-MW alternating current (AC) photovoltaic (PV) solar generating facility.

GenOn has reportedly reached a settlement agreement with environmental groups PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club in a case that alleges the Houston-based company continuously violated its Clean Water Act discharge permit and discharged more than three million gallons of wastewater a day from its 1,700-MW coal-fired Conemaugh Generating Station in Western Pennsylvania into the Conemaugh River.

The Department of Energy has commissioned a testing facility as part of its National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) to enable research and development of post-combustion carbon dioxide capture technologies for coal-based power plants and to speed up their deployment.

A day after Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) doubled estimates of the total amount of radiation released into the atmosphere after an earthquake and tsunami ravaged Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the government nuclear watchdog released a 750-page report in which it admits, for the first time, that nuclear fuel may have possibly melted through reactor pressure vessels and accumulated at the bottom of outer containment vessels.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 1, 2011 – Maybe no electric utility in the country has a worse reputation for reliability that Pepco, which serves the nation’s capital and much of its Maryland suburbs. The company is under fire from District of Columbia and Maryland utility regulators for a record of storm-related blackouts over […]

Modern distributed control system platforms can provide many tools to capture best operating practices and automate them. This case study shows the steps taken to automate a hypothetical simplified feedwater pump system for a combined-cycle power plant. It describes a combination of controls automation strategies and human-machine interface techniques designed to increase the overall level of automation while improving ease of use.

Meggitt Sensing Systems introduced the Endevco model 7251A series, a family of small, lightweight, hermetically sealed piezoelectric accelerometers with integral electronics. The centrally located thru-bolt mounting hole of this series provides both 360-degree cable and connector orientation, allowing the sensor to offer a flat mounting surface, even when not fully perpendicular, for ease of use […]

In a wide-ranging speech on U.S. electricity policy, Southern Co. Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning said that coal is "under attack" by the federal government, that natural gas may not be the panacea seen by some utilities facing environmental constraints on their coal plants, and that federal proposals to sharply reduce utility hazardous air pollution have unreasonable compliance deadlines that should be extended.

Despite California’s deep economic wounds, Governor Jerry Brown (D) last month signed a bill (SB 2X) that increased the state’s already ambitious renewables portfolio standard (RPS) goal from 20% to 33% by 2020. Together with the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which requires caps on greenhouse gas emissions starting next year, the new law will push up the price of electricity and further delay the Golden State’s economic recovery by permanently driving away irreplaceable businesses and manufacturing jobs.

Mott says its new 7710 Series filters are designed to accommodate lower-pressure liquid and gas filtration applications at a value price point. Porous metal elements for this model are 10-inch long, 316L stainless steel cartridges in either a double open ended or 1-inch NPT connection configuration. The 316 stainless steel housing comes standard with a […]

Even as Senate energy leaders gear up to re-introduce widely supported legislation to create the Clean Energy Deployment Administration, they have acknowledged that the bill faces a heightened problem this term: the need to find nearly $10 billion in offsets to pay for the new green energy financing authority at a time of overwhelming concern about the federal debt.

The Russian Investigative Committee has completed a probe into the August 2009 accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro Power Plant in Siberia that killed 75 people. The committee has charged seven people—including the plant’s former head, Nikolai Nevolko, his deputies, and the plant’s former chief engineer, Andrei Mitrofanov—for violating safety rules. If found guilty, the officials could face five years in jail.

Perhaps more than for any other industry, a nuclear accident in any part of the world affects nuclear operations elsewhere. Such an incident necessarily and inevitably results in industry self-examination, heightened regulatory oversight, and third-party scrutiny.

New research challenges the commonly held view that cap and trade legislation failed because of the spending advantages of opponents and false balance in news coverage. The report, "Climate Shift: Clear Vision for the Next Decade of Public Debate," released by American University Professor Matthew Nisbet on April 25, also shows how well funded both sides of the debate were.

In April, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency provisionally raised the accident rating for three reactors at the crippled six-unit Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture to Level 7—making it a “major accident” and putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. Recovery efforts continue at the nuclear plant with workers […]

When it comes to energy, the new Congress has a whole host of challenges and opportunities. But there is at least one complex challenge that has a straightforward solution. If we want a secure, reliable, and affordable energy mix, we must modernize our nation’s energy grid.

In the wake of the devastating nuclear crisis afflicting the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, Germany has embarked on an abrupt shift away from nuclear power, shutting down eight reactors for safety checks and ditching concerted efforts to keep nuclear power plants open in the long term. In mid-April, Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that leaders of Germany’s 16 states all want to “exit nuclear energy as soon as possible and make the switch to supplying via renewable energy.” The policy reversal has incited ardent opposition from the energy sector and industry.

Stricken by the economic crisis and forced to implement austerity measures, several countries around the world have been forced to abandon or slash subsidies for renewable power producers.

A rechargeable battery developed by researchers from Stanford University employs the difference in salinity between freshwater and saltwater to generate a current.

Italian Firm Wins Contract to Build Massive African Hydropower Plant. Italian construction firm Salini Costruttori said on March 31 it has signed a €3.35 billion contract with Ethiopia state-owned Ethiopia Electric Power Corp. to build a 5,250-MW hydropower plant on the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River. The project, slated to be completed […]

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) Reliability Standards are under constant revision even while new requirements are under active development. Three important regulatory definitions are currently being contested.