POWER

A detailed analysis of power plants in China by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) debunks the widespread notion that outmoded energy technology or the utter absence of government regulation is to blame for that country’s notorious air-pollution problems. The real issue, the study found, involves complicated interactions among new market forces, new […]

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) last week announced plans to allow geothermal drilling in more than 190 million acres of federal land, spanning 12 Western states. Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior, said that the proposed initiative could increase geothermal power production in the U.S. tenfold. “Geothermal energy will play a key role […]

Dynegy Inc. must disclose timely and relevant information to investors about the financial risks that climate change may pose under an agreement the national energy company signed with New York’s attorney general on Thursday. Dynegy is the second of five companies to agree to make climate change disclosures. Xcel Energy was the first, signing a […]

French nuclear engineering firm AREVA and global defense and technology company Northrop Grumman Corp. plan to jointly build a new facility in Newport News, Va., to engineer and manufacture heavy components for AREVA’s U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR). The companies expect that the new facility will boost the U.S. nuclear resurgence. The companies said Thursday […]

Italy’s largest power company, Enel, and its biggest oil and gas company, Eni, will partner to create the country’s first project to capture carbon dioxide from a coal-fired plant and store it underground. The companies’ chief executives signed a strategic agreement last week at Italy’s Ministry of Environment headquarters to join forces and develop an […]

Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) announced last week that a recalibration of the international standard by which solar cells are measured revealed that they had created the first silicon solar cell to achieve the “magic” efficiency milestone of 25%. Physics dictates that the theoretical maximum efficiency for first-generation silicon photovoltaic cells will be […]

The impact of environmental initiatives and the need for transmission infrastructure are among the most important issues facing electric reliability in North America over the coming 10 years, the quasi-public agency North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) said last week in its 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (PDF). Though the total miles of transmission additions have […]

By Kennedy Maize Can termites lead the way to energy independence? A new study from the University of Florida in Gainsville says the tiny wood chompers and the bacteria in their gut could help turn non-edible plant parts into energetic ethanol. In a paper to be published in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Florida […]

Exelon has proposed the purchase of all the outstanding shares of NRG’s common stock for $6.2 billion. The combination of Exelon and NRG would form a utility with a generating capacity of about 47,000 MW and create the largest utility in the U.S., dwarfing both American Electric Power with 36,000 MW and Duke Energy with […]

Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, is now three years behind schedule and will not come on-line until 2012, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) admitted last week. The delay is the fourth announced for the 1,600-MW plant, which has been plagued with faulty materials and planning problems since construction […]

The UK will build only a quarter of the 29 GW of offshore wind farms needed to reach its target to have 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 unless the government acts urgently to reduce costs and risks to developers, a government-funded but independent think tank said in a report launched last week. […]

The Indiana Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled against four environmental and consumer groups and upheld a decision by state regulators to allow Duke Energy to build a $2.35 billion integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant at its coal and oil–fired Edwardsport facility in Knox County, Ind. Duke and Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company […]

PJM Interconnection has approved $1.8 billion in electric transmission system additions and grid upgrades to enhance the reliability of its power supply system. The grid operator’s system serves parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. On Friday, it said the upgrades and improvements authorized by its board comprised dozens of projects. Most new […]

Belgian utility Electrabel has threatened legal action if the country’s government enacts a bill that would force the its two nuclear operators to pay a € 250 million ($336 million) tax. The one-time levy would force Electrabel and SPE to contribute to the 2008 financial year. If they do not comply, a penalty of 2% […]

A regional system plan for 2008 released Friday by ISO New England Inc. forecasts that the region is likely to have sufficient capacity to meet electricity demand through 2014, but significant challenges—such as major transmission upgrades—remain for the region New England Inc. is the operator of the region’s bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets. […]

By Kennedy Maize   Evidence builds for the proposition that constructing new high-voltage transmission remains harder than bringing on new power generation. Facing increasing political opposition in West Virginia and Maryland, American Electric Power, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and Allegheny Energy of Greenburg, Pa., last week said they are going to reroute their planned 765-KV, […]

By Kennedy Maize   What will the new president really do once on infrastructure spending, despite the anodyne economic platitudes of the campaign? My guess is we will see the greatest economic stimulus effort since WW2. Deficits be damned. That’s probably good. The economic enemy is deflation, not inflation, if the Great Depression is any […]

A report from the front lines of the alleged global warming war. The Anchorage Daily News reported on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, that summer snow loss in the state in 2008 was less than winter snowfall, reversing a trend of two centuries. The newspaper said that “unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by […]

Desperate to score points in a crucial state where they are in the double-digit dumps, the Republican McCain-Palin presidential ticket rolled out their heartfelt support for “clean coal technologies” at a rally in Scranton, Pa., this week. Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin appeared in full throat. Her homage to coal, of course, came despite McCain’s […]

Software ranges from shrink-wrapped products available “off the shelf” to custom corporate implementations of enterprise systems that require sessions with shrinks to keep everyone sane. Regardless of its complexity, every piece of software a plant uses, or interfaces to, poses critical issues that require life-cycle management. Although functionality has always been the chief specification for software, plants must pay far more attention to long-term quality issues. These two concerns are often at odds with each other.

PPL Corp. on Friday submitted an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license to build and operate a new nuclear plant—the 17th received by the agency so far.   The company has proposed in its combined construction and operating license (COL) application to build the Bell Bend nuclear plant close to […]

Most of today’s operating coal plants began service at least a generation ago and were designed to burn eastern bituminous coal. A switch to Powder River Basin coal can stress those plants’ boiler systems, especially the pulverizers, beyond their design limits and cause no end of operational and maintenance problems. Many of those problems are caused by failing to maintain good fuel fineness when increasing fuel throughput.

Representatives from both presidential campaigns engaged in a spirited debate about their candidates’ approaches to solving the nation’s energy problems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Oct. 6. Among the notable distinctions were that John McCain favors leaving energy decisions up to the states while Barack Obama calls for significant regulations and investment […]

An increasing number of low-pressure steam turbines—especially at supercritical fossil units—have experienced stress corrosion cracking in the blade attachment region of their low-pressure rotors. Approaches to solving this problem range from redesign of the attachment and blade replacement to in-situ weld repair. Regardless of the procedure selected, the solution must completely restore the turbine performance while minimizing outage duration.

What does human metabolism have in common with coal combustion? Quite a bit, it turns out, say researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) who are studying chemical looping combustion (CLC) involving coal gasification, an emerging technology for clean energy production from fossil and renewable fuels.

Top Plant: Not all coal-fired power plants are constructed by investor-owned utilities or independent power producers selling to wholesale markets. When Newmont Mining Corp. recognized that local power supplies were inadequate and too expensive to meet long-term electricity needs for its major gold- and copper-mining operations in northern Nevada, it built its own generation. What’s more, Newmont’s privately owned 200-MW net coal-fired plant features power plant technologies that will surely become industry standards. Newmont’s investment in power and technology is also golden: The capital cost will be paid back in about eight years.

Worldwide energy consumption is projected to grow 50% between 2005 and 2030, driven by robust economic growth and expanding populations in the world’s developing countries, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a reference case projection from its International Energy Outlook 2008 in June.

Faced with soaring energy prices, researchers and developers worldwide are giving compressed air energy storage (CAES)—a technology almost 50 years old—a dusting, a spit shine, and a new life. In particular, they see it as a critical component for the dispatch of wind and other renewable power. The technology, which involves storing off-peak-generated energy in […]

The U.S., which continues to lead the world in on-line geothermal energy capacity, saw a 20% jump in new power projects since January this year, a survey released by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) in August showed.

Top Plant: The staff of the Rawhide Energy Station have been racking up operating stats and an environmental performance record that is the envy of other plant managers. In the past decade Rawhide has enjoyed an equivalent availability factor in the mid- to high 90s and an average capacity factor approaching 90%. Still not content with this performance, Rawhide invested in new technology and equipment upgrades to further optimize performance, reduce emissions, and keep cost competitive.