Thirty-six years after work first began at the 1,600-acre site housing the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Hollywood, Ala., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in August said it plans to invest $248 million to maintain the option to complete the 1,260-MW Unit 1 reactor. The announcement was made as the nation’s largest publically owned utility […]

Adding two 615-MW supercritical pulverized coal units to the 1,135-MW Oak Creek Power Plant is part of We Energies’ ongoing master plan to “Power the Future” of Wisconsin well into the 21st century. The new Elm Road Unit 1 went into service in February, and Unit 2 is expected to start operations during the fourth quarter of 2010. With operations marked by high efficiency and low emissions, these new units will provide large amounts of cleaner energy to the Great Lakes area.

Australian company Horizon Power opened the country’s first hybrid solar-diesel power station in August near Marble Bar, and it is readying another for operation in the neighboring town of Nullagine, Western Australia—a region infamous for extremely hot temperatures. The power stations are the first “high penetration, hybrid solar-diesel systems” in the world, claims Horizon, adding […]

Located in a semi-arid region, this “Texas tough” coal-fired power plant uses a number of smart practices to increase water-use efficiency. For example, a pipeline was constructed to send blowdown water from nearby Plant X for treatment and recycling at the 1,080-MW Tolk Station, making both plants “zero-discharge” facilities. For its environmental stewardship and superior plant operations, the Powder River Coal Users’ Group named Tolk Station its 2010 Plant of the Year.

Much opposition to large-scale renewable projects concerns aesthetics. U.S. federal regulators, for example, ordered the developer of the $1 billion Cape Wind project—a 468-MW offshore wind farm proposed to be built in a 25-square-mile section of Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast—to change the design and configuration of the project to reduce “visual impacts.” Among […]

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Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK and the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they may have found a solution to dealing with short-lived power demand spikes—and it could be more environmentally friendly and halve the fuel needed when compared with gas-fired generation. Noting that gas-fired generators typically used to feed peaking demand […]

The air preheater is a critical, yet often overlooked, component of the boiler combustion air system. Evaluating and optimizing a heater’s performance is difficult given how entwined it is with the entire combustion system and the lack of standardized calculation tools. Reducing leakage by using modern seal technology will improve combustion efficiency, maintain fan performance, and keep your downstream air quality control equipment operating within spec.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., Sept. 29, 2010 – I love Alaska. The beauty of the mountain ranges, rivers, islands, and glaciers is stunning. The diversity of habitat and wildlife inspires wonder. The summer days and winter nights are filled with mystery. The people, of all ethnicities and political persuasions, are endearing and quirky. My […]

A wave energy device was connected to the grid for the first time in the U.S. this week. Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) hooked up its PowerBuoy system, a device that had been deployed in December 2009 in waters 100 feet deep and nearly three-quarters of a mile off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

The Energy Department on Tuesday said it had signed a final cooperative agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance and Ameren Energy Resources, formally committing $1 billion in Recovery Act funding to build the revamped FutureGen project.

Computers at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor and around the country have reportedly been infected by the Stuxnet worm, a sophisticated malware that attacks supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems at power plants, factories, and military installations.

Electric grid cybersecurity in the U.S. was revved up in the past week as the Energy Department announced investments of more than $30 million in 10 solution-seeking projects. At the same time, the DOE selected an Electric Power Research Institute- (EPRI-) led collaborative to assess and develop technologies and standards to protect the nation against cyber attacks.

Regulators at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously voted to increase that state’s renewable electricity standard (RES) to 33% by 2020 last week. The regulation applies to all entities that deliver power, including publicly owned utilities and investor-owned utilities.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) last week approved BrightSource Energy’s 370-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System proposed for construction in the Mojave Desert. The project is the fourth solar thermal power plant approved in the past month despite presenting “significant environmental challenges,” the commission said.

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy last week said they filed a new application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to build the Virginia segment of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH).

Whether you are a customer (and we all are), a utility executive, a power plant manager, or a grid operator, the smart grid has the potential to provide benefits beyond electricity. That was one theme of the presentations on Tuesday, the first day of the GridWise Global Forum (GGF) in Washington, D.C.

South Africa’s government on Thursday announced it would no longer invest in the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project, despite providing nearly 80% of the R9.2 billion ($1.3 billion) that has been poured into development of the Generation-IV helium-cooled high temperature reactor design. The decision was reached with the “fiscal constraints in these hard economic times” in mind, the government said.

The week brought important news from Washington on energy- and climate change–related legislation. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) introduced a bill to create a federal renewable electricity standard, the White House said it had received permitting guidance on greenhouse gases from the Environmental Protection Agency, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) reportedly canceled a key vote on a bill that sought to curb power plant emissions.

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative (MITEI) concludes that uranium supplies will not limit growth of the nuclear industry, contrary to a view that has prevailed for decades.

Costs passed onto consumers associated with the construction of Duke Energy Indiana’s Edwardsport coal gasification plant near Vincennes, Ind., will be capped at $2.975 billion, according to a settlement agreement reached last week between the utility, the Indiana Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), and Nucor Steel Indiana.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) last week unanimously approved construction and operation of Solar Millennium’s 1,000-MW Blythe Solar Power Project. If built, the project, consisting of four parabolic trough units, could be the world’s largest concentrating solar power (CSP) facility and among the first commercial solar thermal plants permitted on federal land.

Xcel Energy shut down its 538-MW Black Dog Power Plant in Burnsville, Minn., on Tuesday after an explosion rocked the coal- and gas–fired plant, causing visible damage to the exterior of the building. No personnel were harmed, but three firefighters responding to a smoldering fire in a coal hopper received minor injuries, police said.

By Kennedy Maize Let us hope that the false hope of fast breeder reactors fueled with plutonium reprocessed from spent light water reactor fuel is finally properly interred. A new report from the same MIT crew that examined the future of nuclear power in 2003 buries the pipe dream of breeder reactors, or, at least, […]

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) last week said it would delay plans to obtain air permits necessary to begin construction of its proposed coal-fired Cypress Creek Power Station in southeastern Virginia, citing a slump in demand growth caused by the slackened economy.

As lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week, a bipartisan group of 26 governors on Monday urged Congress to pass a federal renewable energy standard (RES), saying that it could spur rapid growth of the nation’s renewable electricity sources.

Indiana and 11 other states filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, asking it to overturn a September 2009 decision by 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allows greenhouse gas emitters to be sued for contributing to a public nuisance—climate change and global warming.

The U.S. Department of Energy last week committed millions of dollars to accelerate the technical and commercial readiness of renewable and energy storage technologies. Commitments include the largest single federal award to date for emerging U.S. marine and hydrokinetic technologies.

Disputes concerning dominance of the world’s renewable energy sector heated up in the past week: The U.S.-based United Steelworkers (USW) filed a trade case alleging that “illegal” Chinese policies and practices threatened America’s industries, while Japan complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that Ontario’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) program violated rules and is protectionist.

A report issued by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) last week to the state’s General Assembly lambastes the proposed $3.5 billion Taylorville Energy Center (TEC) as too costly “with uncertain future benefits.” The commission also questioned the 716-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility’s construction timeline, concluding that uncertainties could “potentially add to already-significant costs.”