POWER

Following a 26-month environmental and safety review, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week approved a 20-year license extension for the NextEra Energy Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC) near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

One of the key updates in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s early release reference case for its 2011 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) was an update of anticipated power plant capital costs that is good news for solar power and bad news for nuclear power.

On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted 9-1 to adopt a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that is scheduled to start in 2012. The program will affect power plants and other industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide.

On Dec. 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is proposing actions under the greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting program to address issues about the public availability of certain data that some businesses may consider to be confidential. The total emissions for each facility is still required to be reported to the EPA and released to the public.

It appears as if owners of industrial boilers, heaters, and solid waste incinerators may get a reprieve from new, more stringent emissions rules, which were  expected to be put into effect in January.

On Dec. 8, Exelon COO Chris Crane announced that the company will operate the Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey until 2019, after which the plant will retire. That makes it an early retirement, as the plant is federally licensed to operate until 2029.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) expressed disappointment on Monday at the dismissal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of the association’s suit against the Department of Energy’s continued assessment of nuclear waste fees. However, it noted that the court did leave a window open for future action.

On Thursday,  Duke Energy Indiana, the Indiana Utility Consumer Counselor, the Duke Energy Indiana Industrial Group, and Nucor Steel jointly notified the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) that they are withdrawing their Sept. 17 settlement on cost increases associated with Duke Energy’s Edwardsport coal gasification power plant near Vincennes, Ind. The parties agreed to enter into new settlement negotiations.

On Saturday, Nissan North America Inc. delivered the first Nissan LEAF all-electric vehicle to a California resident who was the first person in the U.S. to place an order for the car.

The Commissioners of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) voted unanimously on Tuesday to grant the air quality permits necessary for the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center under development near Sweetwater, Texas, to begin construction. Trailblazer will be the first new-build carbon-capturing coal plant in Texas to receive an air quality permit—a critical approval that opens the door for future construction of the energy center.

ACME Tele Power Ltd. and First Solar Inc. announced on Dec. 8 that they have signed an agreement covering the supply of First Solar’s advanced, thin film modules to ACME for a 15 MW (DC) solar power plant in the state of Gujarat, India. Delivery is expected to take place by March 2011 to fulfill the Gujarat government’s expectations.

Delegates from more than 190 nations concluded the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, on Friday. For the second year in a row, the gathering concluded with a set of nonbinding agreements.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., December 8, 2010 — Rebuffing the Tea Party contingent and right wing gas bags such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, House Republicans have picked Michigander Fred Upton to chair the all-important House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 112th Congress. Upton, who has represented the southwestern corner of Michigan […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear challenges from five major power companies on a federal appeals court decision that ruled they could be sued, under a federal “public nuisance” law, to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which allegedly cause entity-harming climate changes. Industry experts say the case will likely be heard by the high court next April, and a decision could be made as early as June.

More than 52 GW—16%—of the existing U.S. coal-fired generation fleet will be retired rather than face the cost of compliance with pending air quality regulations between 2015 and 2020, engineering and consulting firm Black & Veatch predicted in its end-of-year Energy Market Forecast.

India’s Atomic Energy Commission and its state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India Limited (NPCIL) on Monday signed major agreements with France’s AREVA for the construction of two EPR reactors—the first of a series of 6—at Jaitapur in the western state of Maharashtra.

Dominion Virginia Power last week struck a deal with the National Park Service and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to close a 74-MW West Virginia coal-fired plant as part of plans to build a new 1,300-MW natural gas–fired power station in northwestern Virginia.

Ten European Union (EU) countries last week signed a memorandum of understanding  to develop an offshore energy grid linking renewable wind energy sources in the North Sea and put it into operation by 2020. The nations also committed to working together to overcome the regulatory, legal, market, planning, and technical issues involved in creating a North Sea grid.

PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that ensures the reliability of eastern U.S. high-voltage grids, last week approved $1.25 billion in transmission improvements, including a capacity improvement project to rebuild one of the most heavily used transmission lines in PJM.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., December 1, 2010 – At this point, probably only one person in America believes that Lisa Murkowski did not win Alaska’s November election to the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, that one person is defeated Republican nominee Joe Miller, who refuses to drop what has become an entirely quixotic effort to stave […]

Energy efficient and environmentally responsible dry bottom ash technologies will soon be required by regulation. Progressive companies will bring their plants into compliance early because it’s a good business strategy. Here are your compliance options.

Renewable energy advocates hailed recent poll results as unquestionably demonstrating the public’s support of renewable energy resources. However, answers to follow-up questions showed that the public’s willingness to pay for increased renewable energy is lukewarm at best.

The forecast is looking sunny for the 25-MW DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, which has more than 90,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels and is the largest solar PV plant in the U.S. Completed in October 2009, it is a sustainable energy solution with minimal maintenance costs. The site uses no fuel, consumes no cooling water, has no air emissions, and creates no waste products.

German company MWM introduced the new MWM container, which it says is a highly efficient and economic distributed generation system designed for natural gas and biogas applications. The package, which includes a biogas genset, a standard container, and biogas processing, are aligned with special requirements of biogas operation. For example, it uses specially designed exhaust […]

Denmark put into operation its 12th offshore wind farm this October. The €440 million Rødsand 2 wind farm, a 90-turbine installation with a nameplate capacity of 207 MW, was erected for owner E.ON by Siemens Energy—both German firms—over a mere 122 days. The wind farm joins Rødsand I, a 72-turbine installation that began operating nearby in the Baltic Sea in 2003.

At Malaysia’s first waste-to-energy plant, municipal solid waste (MSW) is converted into refuse-derived fuel for use in an integrated steam power plant. This facility was designed to achieve the twin objectives of environmentally friendly MSW disposal and generating renewable power.

Energy is the most regulated sector of the American economy, making public-private partnerships essential to scaling the solar industry. Such partnerships have helped other energy sectors to reach scale over the past hundred years.

A 14-MW pilot plant built by energy firm ELCOGAS at its 335-MW integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) facility at Puertollano in Spain in September captured its first metric ton of carbon dioxide. Now the company plans to begin tests to procure more technical and economic information about carbon capture and storage (CCS), including how efficient it is to co-produce hydrogen and power with carbon capture processes.

Located in the heavily forested country of Finland, the Kaukaan Voima biomass-fueled power plant produces process steam and electricity for UPM’s Kaukas pulp and paper mill as well as electricity and district heating for Lappeenrannan Energia, a city-owned power company. Launched in 2009, the plant can provide 125 MW of electricity, 110 MWth of district heat, and 150 MWth of process steam thanks to one of the world’s largest wood-fired fluidized bed boilers.

Economic and environmental developments markedly affected electricity markets in 2009, driving generation down 4.1% to 3,950 million MWh from 4,119 million MWh in 2008—the lowest level since 2003 and the largest decline in six decades, the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) said in its recently released “Electric Power Annual” report.