POWER

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week released action plans developed by 16 utilities describing measures the facilities are taking to make their coal ash impoundments safer.

By David E. Wojick, PE, Ph.D. Washington, D.C., May 22, 2010 — Listed below are the National Research Council panel members who wrote the so-called National Academies of Science report on climate science, published this month. Several are old time anthropogenic global warming (AGW) proponents, like Bob Corell of the Heinz Center, Warren Washington of […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 21, 2010 — Thanks to the far-reaching and meticulous online research for which he is justifiably famous, my friend Glenn Schleede has answered the conundrum that stands in the way of widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies. Writes Glenn, “I haven’t been able to verify this, but I’ve heard […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 29, 2010 — File this in the “empty threat” folder: Gary Pierce, a member of the five-person, elected Arizona Corporation Commission, the state’s utility regulator, has suggested that Arizona should block a move by the city of Los Angeles, Calif., to boycott the Grand Canyon State by cutting off […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on May 13 finalized the so-called "Tailoring Rule," regulations that would implement certain Clean Air Act (CAA) permitting programs for electric power plants, refineries, and other major "stationary sources" that emit at least 100,000 tons per year of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Last week brought news about new nuclear power projects from Turkey, Jordan, and Mexico.

The UK’s Liberal Democrats—a party long-opposed to nuclear power—last week said it would abstain from voting against construction of new nuclear power plants in that country, as long as they are privately funded.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the State of California on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to coordinate procedures and schedules for review of hydrokinetic energy projects off the California coast.

The Arkansas Supreme Court last week upheld a state appellate court decision that had previously overturned, on technical grounds, a permit authorizing construction of Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s (SWEPCO’s) 600-MW John W. Turk Jr. coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County. The decision could pose a serious setback for the project—the nation’s first ultrasupercritical plant—that is under construction and almost a third complete.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 16, 2010 — Will Happer, noted Princeton physicist, and a veteran of Washington’s bureaucratic wars, has an intriguing suggestion about how to reconcile the views of raving advocates for climate controls with the objections of skeptics, when both sides are populated by reputable scientists. He wants the government to […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Friday announced it would grant $62 million to 13 concentrating solar power (CSP) projects. The funds are expected to support improvements in CSP systems, components, and thermal energy storage and accelerate the market-readiness of the renewable energy technology.

An evaluation of Powerspan Corp.’s ECO₂ post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture technology by global engineering firm WorleyParsons Group at FirstEnergy Generation Corp.’s R.E. Burger Plant near Shadyside, Ohio, concludes that the 1-MW pilot test facility is well-designed and instrumented. The results can be reliably used to design, build, and predict performance of a larger, commercial size plant, the group reportedly said.

Researchers at Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ICMAB-CSIC, and Spanish firms Labein Tecnalia and Nexans, and Endesa, have constructed a 30-meter superconducting electric cable that they say could reduce energy loss by 50% and even 70% in some parts of the distribution network.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) today rolled out a draft of the American Power Act, long-awaited climate and energy legislation developed with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The 1,000-page-plus bill covers a variety of issues, from a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to expanded nuclear power and boosts for carbon capture and sequestration.

Barely three months after Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) and CPS Energy negotiated a $1 billion settlement that reduced the San Antonio municipal utility’s share in the proposed nuclear expansion of the South Texas Project (STP), Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said on Monday it would take a 9.24% stake in the Bay City project.

UK-based National Grid on Friday agreed to buy power from the $1 billion Nantucket Sound Cape Wind project, a 468-MW offshore wind farm expected to be operational in 2012 that had garnered approval from the U.S. Interior Department just nine days earlier.

Dominion Virginia Power on Friday said it had selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI’s) U.S-specific version of the Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (US-APWR) for its proposed unit at North Anna Power Station in central Virginia. The selection was the result of a competitive process launched by the utility last year.

Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday said it had authorized Wisconsin Power and Light Co. (WPL) to spend $150 million to install additional emissions reduction technology at Edgewater Generating Station Unit 5.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 7, 2010 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency never saw a regulation it didn’t like. The Competitive Enterprise Institute never saw one it did. Now the federal agency and the Washington-based conservative think tank are involved in a silly but amusing battle of “Did not! Did so!” It promises […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 6, 2010 — Gambling appears to be a nearly ubiquitous human trait, as a news release I received recently demonstrates. The release, from Bookmaker.com, an offshore gambling den (online betting is technically illegal in the U.S., but that’s a joke) offers the odds that BP will be able to […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed two landmarks rules this past week: On Friday, it released regulations that seek to govern mercury emissions from some 200,000 industrial boiler process heaters and solid waste incinerators, and on Tuesday, it issued a long-awaited proposal to regulate coal ash—though it deferred a decision on whether to treat it as hazardous waste.

Rules adopted by the California Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday will force 19 coastal power plants—including two nuclear plants—in that state to phase out “once-through cooling” practices to reduce their impact on marine life. The new rules—the first in the U.S. to restrict ocean water use for existing power plants—could have widespread implications, including massive costs and forced shutdowns.

Mississippi Power Co.’s plans to build a 582-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant proposed in Kemper County could be scrapped after regulators last week ordered a cost recovery cap of $2.4 billion—some $800 million less than what the utility had originally sought.

A Superior Court judge in Georgia on Friday ruled that the state public service commission acted illegally when it certified Georgia Power’s two proposed Plant Vogtle reactors by failing to properly document justification for the reactors.

Progress Energy will postpone major construction activities at its proposed Levy County nuclear plant in Florida until after the project’s federal licensing is complete. The company last week said in a statement announcing its 2011 filing of nuclear cost-recovery estimates that the delay would allow for “greater clarity on federal and state energy policies.

San Diego–based Sempra Energy last week agreed to pay $410 million to settle a series of lawsuits and claims arising from the 2000–2001 California energy crises. The payments will go toward some $3.2 billion in settlements already negotiated by California’s attorney general and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) with various energy companies that allegedly profited from artificially inflated power prices during the crisis.

Seven years have passed since the world’s first low mass flux vertical tube once-through furnace was put into operation by Doosan Babcock at the Yaomeng Thermal Power Plant Unit 1 in China. That boiler replaced a boiler of another design that had become unreliable. The operating experience with the Posiflow design has been so positive that the owner has since ordered and commissioned a replacement for Unit 2’s boiler. Here’s what makes this furnace design unique.

Shrinking water supplies will unquestionably constrain the development of future power plants. A hybrid system consisting of concentrated solar thermal power and desalination to produce water for a plant, integrated with a combined cycle or conventional steam plant, may be the simple solution.

In 2006 and 2007, POWER ran a three-part series on the formation of SO₃, O&M issues caused by SO₃, and sorbent injection control for SO₃ control. Three years later, many plants still struggle with their SO ₃ mitigation systems or remain undecided on which mitigation path to follow. This article explores the advantages of dry sorbent injection technology.

Offers of nuclear loan guarantees are pending, construction permit applications are at an industry high, and the political stars seem to be properly aligned. However, there remains one obstacle in the development path of the next-generation of nuclear plants: How will these plants be financed?