New Zealand’s biggest geothermal energy project in 20 years was officially opened in Kawerau in late November. The state-owned Kawerau Geothermal Station (Figure 5), on the North Island, adds 100 MW to the national grid.

Courtesy: Platts Data source: Platts Energy Advantage and POWERmap. All rights reserved.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has described landfills as an "effectively untapped resource" for renewable energy. The agency estimates that landfills are the source of about 12% of global methane emissions. (Methane is about 21 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.) The EPA estimated that there were some 1,000 projects around […]

Thirty-five percent of the world’s energy comes from oil, and 96% of that oil is used for transportation. The current number of vehicles globally is estimated to be 700 million; that number is expected to double overall by 2030, and to triple in developing countries. Now consider that the U.S. has 27% of the world’s supply of coal yet only 2% of the oil. Coal-to-liquids technologies could bridge the gap between U.S. fuel supply and demand.

This spring, Xcel Energy, along with state and technology partners, is set to test what the utility says is the first battery capable of storing wind energy. The ability to store energy from renewable generation sources with variable output is key to maximizing the value of renewable power in general and to Xcel’s “smart grid” plans in particular.

The future of high-level nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain remains uncertain as a new U.S. administration considers its nuclear agenda. The European Union’s policies remain just as unsettled. With new projects under construction in several countries and a nuclear ban in effect in others, no unified long-term storage approach is in sight.

On October 21, a mass of basketball-sized jellyfish managed to accomplish what activists of every stripe had failed to do: Abruptly shut down Pacific Gas & Electric Corp.’s (PG&E) 1,118-MW Diablo Canyon Unit 2 reactor in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. (Figure 8).

Power plants in Pennsylvania must be prepared to meet the ozone and fine particulate emissions standards established by the newly reinstated Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) as of Jan. 1, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PDEP) said Monday.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has vowed to clean up the 5.4 million cubic yards of wet coal ash—enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep—that spilled last week when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, failed.

French nuclear reactor builder AREVA and machinery giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced early last week they would join forces with others to design, develop, fabricate, and supply nuclear fuel to Japanese customers, while confirming their intent to jointly invest in a dedicated U.S. nuclear fuel fabrication facility.