POWER

Ohio-based power company FirstEnergy Corp. last week announced it plans to buy Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Energy in a $4.7 billion deal. The stock-for-stock transaction—valued at $8.5 billion—is expected to create one of the largest U.S. utilities.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, Feb. 15, 2010 — Local opponents of wind farm developments often claim that the energy projects depress their property values. It’s a difficult issue to settle. The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory claimed last December in a $500,000 study, three years in the works – “The Impact of Wind […]

In their February 10 “state of the industry” speech to the financial community, reprinted here with permission, Edison Electric Institute leaders summarized the challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.

Nuclear was such a target of the environmental movement that it embraced the “anything but nuclear” policy with abandon. Is the movement’s consideration of nuclear now a case of better late than never?

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama made only a passing reference to the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2545) passed by the House some months ago. “I’m eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate,” was President Obama’s acknowledgement that the House approach to controlling carbon in the U.S. faces an uncertain fate in the Senate. However, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) endangerment finding, released on the eve of the Copenhagen meetings last December could be the unnoticed uppercut that follows a weak congressional jab at controlling carbon.

The loading and discharge of conveyor belts is the area where many, if not most, of the problems in solids conveying occur. Fortunately, a new technology provides chutes to accomplish conveyor loading and discharge without blockages while minimizing the dust generated: engineered-flow transfer chutes.

Adding a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to an operating coal-fired plant may be an expensive and time-consuming project, but the environmental benefits are without question. However, once construction is complete and operations staff assume control of the SCR, proper measurement tools are required to monitor the catalyst performance life cycle.

Operating a boiler is not difficult, but operating a boiler safely and efficiently requires skill and proper training. Following boiler operation best practices will keep your equipment in like-new condition for years to come. This game plan includes a compendium of best practices, with web links to a number of additional key resources you should be famililar with.

In one of the most far-reaching of numerous new air regulations expected from the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to tighten the primary federal standard for ground-level ozone, the principal constituent of smog, to within a range of 60 to 70 parts per billion, saying the tougher standard is needed to protect human health.

The Energy Department’s top fossil energy official said [in December that] he might seek exemption or relaxation of “new source review” requirements for certain U.S. coal-fired power plants that are boosting efficiency through retrofits if the plants are also good candidates for subsequent installation of carbon capture and storage systems.

The Energy Information Administraion has predicted that, as the economy gathers steam this year, rising demand for gasoline, crude oil, coal, and natural gas is expected to push up energy prices, aided by a projected boost in crude oil production.

The week brought important policy and technology news concerning carbon capture and storage (CCS) from around the world. President Barack Obama unveiled a task force to make “clean coal” a reality as the European Union struck a major deal with member states for CCS funding. Caterpillar joined the FutureGen Alliance, and Siemens Energy said it would conduct a feasibility study for a novel postcombustion CCS system in West Virginia.

Calpine Corp. last week received final approval to build its long-delayed 600-MW Russell City Energy Center in the City of Hayward, Calif. The Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit issued by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) puts limits on the natural gas–fired power plant’s carbon emissions.

Despite some powerful drivers, nuclear power faces too many barriers compared to other means of generating electricity, and that means that a significant expansion of nuclear power is unlikely to occur before 2030, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a Canadian think tank, said in a report on Thursday.

French nuclear giant AREVA on Monday said it had acquired 100% of Ausra, a major U.S.-based provider of large-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. The acquisition marks AREVA’s foray into solar power. The company already has major offshore wind and biomass ventures.

Investigative efforts continue into the cause and origin of Sunday’s catastrophic explosion that killed five workers and injured 27 others at Kleen Energy System’s natural gas–fired plant being built at a remote location in Middletown, Conn.

Executives from U.S. wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, and solar industry groups on Tuesday jointly called on Congress to enact tax incentives, a federal renewable energy standard (RES), and comprehensive legislation—measures they said would accelerate growth in those energy sectors.

By Kennedy Maize Here at my western Maryland farm, we just got the fourth significant snowfall of the winter. We caught four inches while we were on vacation in the South Pacific in late November, over 20 inches on December 20, six inches a few days ago, and four inches last night (Feb. 2). The […]

Exelon Corp. last week said it intends to join the FutureGen Alliance, a consortium developing a 275-MW integrated gasification combined cycle power plant with carbon capture in Matoon, Ill.

The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) on Monday said it had received pledges from 55 countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. The international climate change body said the countries together accounted for about 78% of global GHG emissions from energy use.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week voted to approve interpretive guidance that calls for disclosure of climate-related business risks. These include the anticipated impact of climate change on assets and financial risks associated with compliance costs for existing and pending regulations.

The Brazilian government granted an environmental license to the controversial 11,000-MW Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest on Monday in hopes that the $17 billion project will help the country cope with growing demand.

President Barack Obama emphasized the role of nuclear power, offshore oil and gas exploration, and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in his first State of the Union speech last week. The proposed $28.4 billion Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the Energy Department released by the White House this week could provide a much-needed boost to these and other measures.

Seiffert Industrial’s new laser pulley alignment tool, Pulley PRO, uses a green laser beam for maximum angular resolution and for reliable and accurate readings. The lightweight and compact units magnetically attach to the inside or outside face of any pulley or sprocket and have no small parts or targets that can get lost. A laser […]

Sherwin-Williams introduced the Tile-Clad High Solids Mildew Resistant epoxy, an industrial coating that protects against mildew growth on exterior surfaces where dampness and humidity are of concern. The epoxy is well-suited for areas where mildew growth must be guarded against in order to maintain operations, such as water tank exteriors, structural and support steel, power […]

One of the world’s first osmotic power plants started operation at Tofte on the Oslo fjord in Norway last November, producing 2 kW to 4 kW after more than a decade of collaborative research and development by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft (Figure 1).

Acknowledging that ANSI centrifugal pumps often need to be installed in areas where space is at a premium, Griswold Pump Co. has developed the 811CC (Close Coupled) ANSI centrifugal pump. This pump offers the features and flexibility of standard Griswold 811 ANSI pumps but with a smaller electrical motor encased in a compact package. Despite […]

In order to operate aging nuclear power plant instrumentation and control systems for up to 60 more years or longer, there must be a smooth transition from existing analog technologies to advanced digital platforms. For this to occur, electromagnetic compatibility concerns related to both qualification testing and the electromagnetic environment must be addressed to ensure safe and reliable operation of these systems within the plant’s electromagnetic and radio frequency interference environment. By understanding the regulatory requirements and sharing implementation experience, digital system upgrades can be installed successfully.

CHLOR*RID International launched the Chlor*Ion Meter, a handheld digital testing device that electronically measures chloride on surfaces with an internal ion-specific electrode. Most surface chloride testing devices offer an external electrode on a cord, but these could be damaged in the field, CHLOR*RID says. Because it digitally measures chloride on surfaces, the Chlor*Ion Meter’s ion […]

Digital fieldbus technologies, including Foundation fieldbus and Profibus, are increasingly being used with success in the nuclear and fossil fuel power industries. This article compares a conventional control system with a Foundation fieldbus – based digital control system used in a typical circulating water system in a nuclear power plant. As shown in this example, using digital fieldbus technologies can result in significant savings in terms of installation and hardware costs.