Today’s coal-fired power plants face the twin challenges of improving their wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems’ emission control capabilities in order to comply with environmental regulations while at the same time cutting their operational and maintenance costs. Smart strategies for retrofitting existing FGD systems can help plant personnel meet both of these objectives.

Clipper Windpower didn’t have the luxury of a decade or more of product development. Instead, it started big—with a 2.5-MW wind turbine. Here’s the story of how they did it.

Abengoa Solar in early May began commercial operation of Solnova 1, the company’s first 50-MW parabolic trough plant. Covering 980,000 square feet with mirrors requiring an area totaling 280 acres (Figure 2), it is one of five planned concentrating solar power (CSP) plants to be built at the Solúcar Platform in Spain. All will use a technology developed by Abengoa with experience gained from a trough pilot built in 2007. Solnova 1 will also be equipped to burn natural gas if sunlight is weak.

At the opening ELECTRIC POWER 2010 plenary session, both the keynote speaker’s address and discussion among the Power Industry Executive Roundtable participants pointed to the renewed appeal of natural gas and proposed cap-and-trade legislation as being potential game-changers for the U.S. power industry.

With some industries reeling in today’s economy, future revenue growth is still uncertain in certain markets. The bright exception is the "new energy" arena of renewables and sustainables. But that’s a tough market, with lots of competitors for the business and lots of opportunities to misfire and miss the boat. A key to success is bidding smartly on contract opportunities. Otherwise, don’t bid at all.

An Australian sewage plant this April began using treated wastewater falling down a 60-meter (m) shaft to produce its own power.

There is a certain tentativeness about new nuclear power in the U.S. these days, a low-grade anxiety, as demonstrated by the comments made by electric utility representatives at May’s ELECTRIC POWER Conference in Baltimore.

The recently unveiled Kerry-Lieberman global climate warming bill is an exercise in triviality. By century’s end, reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 83% will only result in global temperatures being one-fifth of one degree Fahrenheit less than they would otherwise be. That is a scientifically meaningless reduction.

The gas-rich emirate of Qatar, holder the world’s third-largest gas reserves, inaugurated another massive 2,000-MW gas power plant in the industrial city of Mesaieed, south of the capital Doha this May.

The 2010 Powder River Basin Users’ Group (PRBCUG) commemorated its 10th anniversary with 354 registered members (210 of whom were from operating companies) for its three-and-a-half-day annual meeting in Baltimore this May. The meeting’s Grand Sponsor was Benetech and its Plant Professionals group.

Cape Wind was a momentous clean energy victory, but if climate change advocates truly take the immense scale of the energy and climate challenge seriously, we must ensure that this is the last time that a new zero-carbon energy source faces such prolonged NIMBY opposition

While Europe’s offshore wind sector has taken off, interest is resurging in marine energy. The UK’s Crown Estate took the major step this March, for example, of awarding leasing rights to 10 wave power projects to develop generation in Scotland’s Pentland Firth and Orkney waters of the North Sea.

As U.S. utilities increase the percentage of renewable energy in their generation portfolio, they must deal with a number of key issues related to selecting specific technologies. Additionally, they must figure out what it will take to make renewables emerge as a mainstream generating option in the future.

A three-judge panel at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday unanimously denied a motion by the U.S Department of Energy to withdraw its 17-volume, 8,600-page license application to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The withdrawal is illegal because it supersedes the Energy Department’s authority under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, the judges said.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday declined to reconsider a ruling that voided a permit to build the John W. Turk., Jr. power plant—the nation’s first ultrasupercritical pulverized coal power plant. Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) now says it will continue construction of the plant that is 28% complete under an option to sell power in other markets.

President Obama’s meeting with 23 senators of both parties at the White House on Tuesday appears not to have moved either side on comprehensive energy and climate legislation. But from various reports, a new bill being drafted by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), which seeks to limit a cap-and-trade program to just the utility sector, seems to gaining traction in Washington.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last week introduced legislation to promote the domestic production of rare earth elements—metals and their compounds that are used in high-temperature superconducting technologies, windmills, and battery technologies. China currently controls a majority of that market.

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that examines the future of natural gas through 2050 from the perspectives of technology, economics, and politics concludes that natural gas will play a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the next few decade if older, inefficient coal plants are replaced with modern combined-cycle gas generation.

China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC) plans to start commercial operation of a nuclear reactor at the Ling Ao II nuclear power plant this October. The reactor will be the 12th to supply power to China. A second unit is set to begin operation in 2011.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced final disapproval of the flexible permit program that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) had submitted for inclusion in its clean-air implementation plan, saying that the program “does not meet several national Clean Air Act requirements.” The move is the latest in an escalating dispute between the federal agency and the state over air pollution rules.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 28, 2010 — Sen. Robert Byrd — the most important coal-state legislator in the country — had barely checked into the hospital last week before speculation began about who might succeed the 92-year-old Democratic legend if he were to die. When Byrd died on Sunday, the rumor mill kicked […]

The past week brought varied reports from Washington on the status of comprehensive climate change and energy bills. Unable to gain votes to pass the much-publicized American Power Act, Senate Democrats are considering scaling back the economy-wide bill to just the utility sector. Meanwhile, individual senators are stepping up efforts to push one bill that restrains the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources and another that establishes a so-called “cap-and-dividend” program.

The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) on Monday issued an order denying Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.’s (BGE’s) application to deploy smart meters to all its customers because ratepayers would be saddled with financial and technological risks. The move “deeply disappointed, frustrated, and frankly surprised” the utility, because the smart grid project had received a $200 million federal stimulus grant from the Department of Energy last October—the largest amount awarded to a utility.

Southern Co. on Friday said it had agreed to terms with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build two AP1000 nuclear reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke, Ga. The conditional commitment could accelerate the start of construction for the first U.S. nuclear plant in more than 30 years.

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) underwent an overhaul at a meeting last week in Accra, Ghana. Transformative changes reflect global developments that have occurred since the partnership was established in 2007, and include a new name—the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation—and a new mission statement.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday took several actions to boost effective planning and cost sharing for new transmission lines. Measures included issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) for open access transmission reforms by establishing a closer link between regional electric transmission planning and cost allocation to help ensure that needed transmission facilities are actually built.

Regional grid operator PJM Interconnection last week told developers of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) that the 275-mile, 765-kV project was the most “robust and effective” means to ensure long-term reliability of the Mid-Atlantic grid, and that it was imperative it be placed into service by June 1, 2015.

A solid organic electric battery based on treated potatoes that was introduced by researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem promises to provide an inexpensive solution for parts of the world lacking in electrical infrastructure.

Burning forest trees for power can result in an initial “carbon debt” because it releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per unit of energy than oil, coal, or natural gas, before it reduces carbon dioxide, sometimes over decades, according to a six-month-long study commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER).

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Tuesday released the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) economic analysis of their American Power Act (APA), a bill that would establish a multi-sector cap-and-trade program. The analysis finds that the bill would keep allowance prices low while keeping household costs to a minimum.