POWER

It’s not just hard finding good help these days. It’s hard finding honest help, too.

Competition among offshore wind turbine vendors vying for market share went into overdrive in the first three months of 2011 as several key players announced gigantic new turbine models.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently dealt another setback to the use of Section 216 of the Federal Power Act, which gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) “backstop” authority to site electric transmission lines. Although enacted in 2005, this authority has never been used by FERC, and it can be questioned whether it ever will be used.

A major technical advance in hydroelectric dam safety was achieved this March as Alstom’s Chinese arm, the Tianjin Alstom Hydro Co. (TAH), delivered what it called “the world’s first self-closing electronic ring gate control system” to the Ahai hydropower project in China.

If coal is to be a viable long-term fuel for a significant percentage of electricity generation, research and development is needed to increase thermal efficiency, demonstrate cost-effective and secure carbon dioxide capture and storage, further improve emission controls, and reduce water demands.

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan on Tuesday approved construction of a C$1.24 billion project that will integrate and demonstrate carbon capture and storage (CCS) at an aging Boundary Dam Power Station unit near Estevan.

The nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi could increase costs for existing and future nuclear power plants, increase scrutiny on relicensing procedures, and cause a reevaluation of the entire spent fuel management system, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said as they released a comprehensive report on the future of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Last week, lawmakers from Indiana approved a bill that could allow utilities to charge consumers costs incurred to extend the lives of nuclear reactors, and on Tuesday, Iowa legislators voted to begin the process of developing a new nuclear plant.

As much as 55% of Unit 1’s reactor core at the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is thought to be damaged; Unit 2’s core is estimated to be 35% damaged, as is 30% of Unit 3’s core, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said today. Seven weeks after the crisis began, the utility—which has also admitted damage of the spent fuel rods at Unit 4—continues all efforts to cool the affected reactors.

A Georgia administrative law judge has remanded an air permit for LS Power’s proposed 1,200-MW Longleaf coal-fired power plant to the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD). The judge found that the permit did not sufficiently limit pollution and ordered the regulatory body to amend the permit to include federally approved tests for five air pollutants.

Entergy Corp.’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant hit another hurdle on Tuesday as the Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) rejected a 20-year power purchase contract at below market prices.

An annual report released on Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that assesses energy and technology market trends forecasts that if current laws and regulations remain unchanged, natural gas and renewables will see strong growth in the electricity sector. The report also suggests that expected regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will have an impact on the U.S. power sector, most notably on its fleet of coal-fired power plants.

NRG Energy, the majority owner and operator of the South Texas Project, on Tuesday said it was pulling its financial support for a multibillion-dollar project to build two new advanced boiler water reactors (ABWRs) at its nuclear plant in Matagorda County, Texas, because the  Japanese nuclear crisis had “diminished prospects” for that project.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Thursday said it would retire 18 older coal-fired units at three power plants starting next year as part of plans to idle or retire 2,700 MW of its 17,000 MW of coal-fired capacity by the end of 2017. The federally owned utility plans to replace the capacity with nuclear—proceeding with plans for Watts Bar Unit 2 and Bellefonte—as well as renewables, natural gas, and energy efficiency.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) unveiled a two-stage plan to put units at its quake and tsunami–crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into cold shutdown within six to nine months, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that if efforts go as planned, the amount of radiation may not increase.

Entergy Corp. on Monday asked a federal court to stop Vermont from closing its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant next year. Federal nuclear regulators last month extended the plant’s operating license by 20 years, but Entergy still requires a state permit.

Liberal and conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday skeptically met arguments that power plant owners that emit global warming–causing greenhouse gases (GHGs) can be sued for damages. Justices questioned the court’s jurisdiction to decide on emissions standards, the vast scope of the case, and factors to assess the best available technologies to curb GHG emissions.

An internal investigation has shown that hydrogen gas, which had not been fully purged from the generator during unit maintenance at the coal-fired L.V. Sutton Steam Electric Plant in New Hanover County, N.C., ignited and caused an explosion that killed one worker on March 15, Progress Energy said in a statement.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday announced a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support Units 1 and 2 of Solar Trust of America’s Blythe Solar Power Project. The two-unit 484-MW concentrating solar thermal plant will be built near Blythe, in Riverside County, Calif.

Plans to build and operate the Cape Wind project nearly 5 miles offshore in Nantucket Sound, Mass., were approved on Tuesday by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE). Cape Wind Associates now says that construction of what could be the first U.S. offshore wind farm could begin as early as this fall, but the controversial project must still overcome several hurdles.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Charleston District, have completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Combined Licenses (COL) for the proposed V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3 reactors, concluding that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude issuing the COLs for construction and operation of the proposed reactors at the site, near Jenkinsville, S.C.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 19, 2011 – An article in the Washington Post last week highlights why it is folly for government to try to pick winners in complex, technological markets. In this case, it is the market for cars, where the Obama administration is betting – with your money and mine – […]

On Tuesday, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) 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 in on par with the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. And today the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) confirmed damage to spent nuclear fuel rods stored in the Unit 4 building.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday told Unistar Nuclear Energy it could not issue the company an operating license for its planned reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland because it was fully owned by France’s Électricité de France (EDF)—a foreign entity.

Progress Energy Florida last week told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state regulators that Crystal River Nuclear plant has been shut down indefinitely while the company conducts a “thorough engineering analysis and review” of a new gap in the reactor’s containment building wall that resulted from tendon retensioning work.

California’s Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law SBX1-2, a law that increases the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) target from 20% in 2010 to 33% by 2020—the most aggressive goal in the nation. In his signing message, Brown said he would pursue even more far-reaching targets, pushing the RPS to 40% in the “near future.”

A report released last week by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) that broadly assesses the costs and benefits to modernize the U.S. power system suggests that investments needed to deploy a fully functional smart grid range between $338 billion and $476 billion—but could result in benefits of $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion.

In 2010, only 5,116 MW of nameplate wind capacity was added in the U.S.—a nearly 50% drop from the record 10,000 MW installed in 2009, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said in its newly released annual report. The industry group said, however, that wind power capacity added in 2010 made up 26% of all new generating capacity added in the U.S.—second only to natural gas.

Solar power in the U.S. received multiple boosts in the past week as the Department of Energy (DOE) finalized $2.7 billion in loan guarantees for solar projects in California while making available $170 million in funding for solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, and GE Energy announced plans for what it said will be the biggest solar PV panel factory in the U.S.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 11, 2011 – Now that the children of all ages have stopped holding their breath until the government turns blue, we can get back to more important subjects, such as what the federal government should look like, how it should relate to the states, how much should it spend, […]