POWER

The new Ashcroft Type 5503 differential pressure (D/P) gauge provides reliable low – differential pressure measurement in high-static, wet-wet pressure applications. Equipped with wetted materials of 316SS, Monel, or Hastelloy C, the rugged Type 5503 D/P pressure gauge is specifically designed to monitor a wide variety of caustic liquids and gases. Four-inch and 6-inch dial […]

“Engagement” was once the buzzword for employee satisfaction. That was then, say some HR gurus, but these authors argue that engagment is as important as ever.

Northern Italians are enjoying la dolce vita (the sweet life) even more today than they have historically, thanks to the additional electrical capacity provided by the new Livorno Ferraris power plant. Well-received by locals due to its environmentally progressive operations and low-profile appearance, the 800-MW plant is powered by combined-cycle units that burn natural gas. The plant, which generates more than 5 million kWh per year, is part of a comprehensive renewal of the Italian energy sector and will make an important contribution toward ensuring that the country’s power supply is more secure.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has of late gained steam as the best way to mitigate emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel power plants, despite evidence that the approach would require much energy and increase the fuel needs of a coal-fired plant by more than 25%. A new study from […]

The world’s war on carbon emissions isn’t going well. In just six months, the UN sponsored Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change will seek to launch a worldwide anti-carbon strategy with teeth. Billed by alarmists as “the last chance to save our planet,” all the signs are that Michael Jackson has a better chance of recording new material than Copenhagen has of delivering a meaningful international accord.

Construction of the Portlands Energy Centre was a logistical dream: A mothballed power plant next door had an active switchyard, natural gas pipeline, and cooling water structure. The new facility put peak power into the Ontario Power Authority’s grid from its two combustion turbines only two years after collecting the necessary permits. The entire plant entered commercial service on April 23, 2009 — six weeks early.

Recent months brought several developments in Europe’s much-touted "nuclear renaissance." Spain Extends Life of Nation’s Oldest Reactor Spain’s government on July 2 granted a four-year extension to the operating permit of the 466-MW Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant (Figure 3). The decision follows a nonbinding recommendation by Spain’s nuclear regulator in June to […]

Congress should push for nuclear energy as a climate and energy solution—now.

Xcel Energy has completed the third and final project required by its 2003 Metropolitan Emissions Reduction Project agreement: repowering the Riverside Plant with a gas-fired 2 x 1 combined-cycle plant and tearing down the old coal-fired plant. Saved from demolition was the Unit 7 steam turbine system that now serves the new plant. Xcel staff expertly managed the project to an on-time start-up and accepted many important construction tasks, harkening back to the days when utilities took a more active role in the design and construction of projects.

The first aircraft designed to fly day and night propelled solely by solar energy was unveiled at Dübendorf airfield, Switzerland, in late June. The Solar Impulse has the wingspan of a Boeing 747-400 and the weight of an average family car (1,600 kg) (Figure 4). More than 12,000 solar cells mounted onto the wings will […]

There’s been a lot of attention on “cellulosic” ethanol, but that could be a nasty dead end, according to this analysis from a well-respected Washington environmental think tank.

By Kennedy Maize Bobby Hefner, the doyen of deep gas, is back on the energy policy scene in a big way. That’s the only way Hefner has ever wanted to be seen: on a big canvas. Back in the 1980s, Hefner’s Oklahoma-based GHK company was the prophet of natural gas finds way down below where […]

The board of South Carolina’s largest power producer, Santee Cooper, on Monday voted to suspend construction of the proposed $2.2 billion Pee Dee Energy Campus—a 600-MW coal-fired power plant— in Florence County, S.C.. The state-owned utility cited the recession, lowered power demand, and proposed federal government regulations as primary reasons for its decision.

The Tennessee Valley Authority—the largest public utility in the U.S.—is reportedly considering shuttering two of its oldest coal-fired power plants. At the same time, it is moving forward with plans to end wet storage of ash and gypsum at fossil fuel plants, with a goal of modernizing its facilities and impoundments.

Fatalities at the 6,400-MW Sayano Shushenskaya plant in southern Siberia rose to 71 on Tuesday after several bodies were recovered as water was drained from the turbine room that completely flooded following an explosion on Aug. 17 at the giant hydropower station in the Russian Federation. Four workers remain missing.

American Electric Power (AEP) last week said it would request federal funding from the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative Round 3 to pay part of the costs of installing the nation’s first commercial-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage system on its Mountaineer coal-fired power plant in New Haven, W.Va.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday it would award $27.6 million in federal funding to 19 projects that enhance the capability to simulate, track, and evaluate the potential risks of carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage in geologic formations.

The first federally licensed in-stream hydrokinetic power project in the U.S. began operating commercially on the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minn., on Thursday.

By Kennedy Maize There’s a new debate developing about the politics of  cap’n’trade v. health care: can the administration pass both health care legislation and climate legislation?  Alternatively, would failure of the administration’s health care initiative, whatever it ultimately looks like, make passage of energy legislation more likely? The proposition that health care defeat will […]

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and media magnate Ted Turner have teamed up in calling for a utility sector “cash-for-clunkers” program, which they say could save money and reduce emissions right away.

An explosion thought to have been caused by a pressure surge in water pipes at Russia’s largest hydroelectric power station, the 6,400-MW Sayano Shushenskaya plant in southern Siberia, on Monday killed at least 12 people and injured scores of others. Dozens more are feared dead as a result of the accident.

Australia’s parliament rejected a government-backed plan last week that would have forced the country’s worst 1,000 polluters to buy carbon dioxide permits covering 75% of national emissions to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% to 25% by 2020. The government struck a deal with opponents today (Aug. 19), however, to mandate that 20% of the country’s energy will be produced from renewable sources by 2020.

An agreement reached between the City of San Francisco and Mirant Corp. could permanently shut down a controversial 50-year-old natural gas–fired power plant by the end of 2010 and force the Atlanta-based company to pay the city $1 million to address pediatric asthma in nearby communities.

Progress Energy Carolinas said on Tuesday that it would permanently shut down three coal-fired power plants near Goldsboro and seek state regulatory approval to build a new natural gas–fueled facility at the site. The decision will ensure compliance with North Carolina’s Clean Smokestacks Act, which establishes more stringent emission-reduction targets in 2013, the company said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday issued final regulatory approval for Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s 77–wind turbine project with a nameplate capacity of 115.5 MW. The $250 million project, which will cover 30,000 acres about 15 miles south of Minot, N.D., could be the largest cooperative-owned wind farm in the nation when it is operational in early 2010.

By Kennedy Maize God, I love global warming. This spring and summer has been the coolest and wettest since we moved to our current western Maryland farm 20 years ago. My pastures are lush with clover, and we took our lambs to the butcher six-to-eight weeks earlier than normal. We raise 99% grass-fed lambs (a […]

By Kennedy Maize I’ve been reading a lot lately about “geoengineering,” aka “climate engineering,” as a way to deal with global warming, instead of a cumbersome, bureaucratic international command-and-control regime, or a cap-and-trade mechanism. This is intriguing. I suspect this engineering approach is another policy dead end, but it is worth contemplating and discussing. Ultimately, […]

Dynegy on Monday said it would sell eight power plants to LS Power, a private equity firm that is a major stakeholder in the Houston-based generation firm. The transaction, estimated at $1.5 billion in cash and stock, is expected to enhance Dynegy’s "strategic and financial flexibility."

Montana last week revoked an air quality permit needed by the Southern Montana Electric (SME) Generation and Transmission Cooperative to build a 250-MW coal-fired power plant east of Great Falls, Mont. The decision was reportedly made at SME’s request.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is now looking to build a single reactor at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site in Hollywood, Ala., instead of the four reactors for which it had anticipated regulatory approval.