The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent “waste confidence” ruling, which declares storage of spent fuel at reactor sites safe indefinitely, could fundamentally undercut the decades-long U.S. policy of seeking an off-site, permanent burial site for high-level nuclear waste. A five-decades-old goal of the U.S. nuclear power industry, its regulators, and the Department of Energy (DOE)—permanent, off-site […]

Too-frequent sootblowing can damage boiler components and place a big load on plant efficiency, but not enough of it can be just as big a problem. A sootblowing optimization system can help you find the “sweet spot.” With the increasing demands placed on today’s coal-fired power plants worldwide, operators are continuously looking for the best […]

China has been battling—and losing—a “war” on air pollution for years. Stepping up its efforts, the country recently issued new policy measures, tougher even than those in the U.S. and European Union, that could have big implications for its coal power sector.  Reports that heavy smog has blanketed large swathes of China’s provinces have become […]

Even without regulatory considerations, there are good reasons for virtually every coal-fired power plant to improve its heat rate. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has looked at dozens of methods for improving heat rates and evaluated their applicability and costs. Part 1 of this two-part series explains the basics of heat rate improvements and […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced five awards to a total of five companies that are designed to help advance key nuclear energy research and development projects supporting advanced reactor technologies. The awards were framed as being part of the administration’s Climate Action Plan and are part of a DOE program launched in […]

William D. Magwood, IV, formerly head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and current director-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), spoke with POWER Editor Gail Reitenbach on October 16 at the World Nuclear Exhibition outside […]

The clearcurrent® PRO gas turbine inlet filter surpasses 300 installations worldwide The revolutionary filter introduced in 2012 now installed on turbines worldwide Operators are snapping up the filter known for delivering predictable, reliable output (PRO) OVERLAND PARK, KAN.—October 28, 2014—CLARCOR Industrial Air today announced that the number of gas turbines using clearcurrent® PRO inlet filters has reached […]

 Augsburg, 10/28/2014 – The new CEO of MAN Diesel & Turbo SE comes from within the company. With effect from 1 January 2015 Dr. Uwe Lauber will assume the function as CEO of the globally operating technology company located in Augsburg. The 47-year-old Lauber had been Head of the Business Unit Oil & Gas before and […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-28-14 … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Power Plant Manager – City of TallahasseeTallahassee, Florida  Electrical Engineer – Eastman Chemical CompanyKingsport, Tennessee  Supervisor-Supply Chain Management (Power Generation) – Dominion Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania Decision Support and Analytics Solution…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-21-14 … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Maintenance Specialist – Turbine & Generator – Georgia Power CompanyCartersville, Georgia  Engineering Associate 2 – CPS EnergySan Antonio, Texas  Project Manager – Eaton Chicago, Illinois Technical Instructors Power Engineering – Deutsche RecruitingSaudi…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

Extension to thermal utility features MAN 28/32S engines Augsburg, Oct. 15th , 2014 – The Mexican energy company, Aldener ADM S.A. de C.V., placed this year an order with MAN Diesel & Turbo for two MAN 18V28/32S generating sets. The engines will help to expand an existing power plant– Guerrero Negro – located in El […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-14-14 … READ MORE »   > FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Production Leader – City of GainesvilleGainesville, Florida  Power Plant Operator Senior – University of Wisconsin – ParksideKenosha, Wisconsin  Marketing Communications Leader – Power Generation Services – GE Power &…… READ MORE »   > FRESH […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: Auto Draft … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Senior Engineer, Operations & Maintenance – ORE CatapultUnited Kingdom  District Operator – Con Edison, IncNew York, New York  Engineer/Maintenance Specialist – Boiler System Owner – Alabama Power Company Parrish, Alabama…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

The first full-scale commercial post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project at an operating coal-fired power plant is now online in Estevan, Saskatchewan, roughly 10 miles north of the U.S. border. The heart of the $1.4 billion project at Boundary Dam Power Station is the rebuilt 110-MW Unit 3, originally commissioned in 1970. The project, […]

Germany’s energy transition— Energiewende —has made a lot of headlines. Whether you agree with the country’s energy policy or not, there is no denying that it has spurred the growth of renewables. Even

Cold temperatures are nothing new, but extreme winter weather has been in the headlines more and more in recent years. Many of us had never heard the term “polar vortex” before last winter, but earlier

A sustained Arctic blast composed of freezing rain, record snowfalls, and high winds hit 22 states, from Mexico to New England in early February 2011. The extreme weather severely affected the power generation

Last winter’s polar vortex was a reminder that, despite several years of mild winters, colder months can still pack a wallop. Decades of coal, gas, and nuclear plant operations have taught plant operators

Twice this year, PJM flirted with blackouts when brutal winter storms (dubbed a polar vortex) struck the Eastern U.S. in January. The cold weather set a new winter peak demand record of 141,500 MW on Jan. 7

The upcoming implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) is putting pressure on coal-fired power plants to develop and implement compliance

Can hydropower get some love? Even fans of renewable energy can be forgiven for having forgotten about a resource that—up to now—has produced more electricity than wind, solar, biomass, and all other

Kemper County Combined Cycle Unit Begins Commercial Operation. Mississippi Power on Aug. 14 marked a significant milestone and started commercial operation (on natural gas) of the combined cycle unit at the

Gazprom on Sept. 1 made the first weld of a 4,000-km natural gas pipeline that will run from gas production centers in Russia’s Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production fields to Russia’s Far Eastern regions

A 7,100-MW±600-kV high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) line that runs 2,375 kilometers (km) from new hydropower plants on the Madeira River in the Amazon Basin to major load centers in southeastern Brazil

A recent encounter with a newspaper from 1901 got me thinking about the price of electricity over time and how it compares with price changes for other goods and services. Price Changes Over a Century The

Resource-rich Poland’s push to prioritize coal as its main energy source and to cultivate a nuclear power program to boost energy security at the expense of climate objectives has provoked its portrayal

Unbundled Renewable Energy Credits and the Benefits of Standardization Unbundled renewable energy credits and certificates (RECs) separate the renewable, or green, component of energy from the actual

Arizona-based solar photovoltaic (PV) system provider First Solar in August said it had achieved a cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV research cell conversion efficiency of 21%—a world record. The thin-film PV

Kelly Speakes-Backman Every day there is increasing evidence that we need to accelerate our nation’s transition to a cleaner energy infrastructure. The American Climate Prospectus released by the Risky

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in August revealed that it had developed a 2-MW 16-cylinder high-speed gas engine that potentially offers a power generation efficiency (lower heating value) of more than