After an extensive public process, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) last week approved construction of a 500-kV transmission line project running through the northern part of that state.   TrAILCo’s $850 million project—named the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL)—calls for construction of a new 500-kV line extending from southwestern Pennsylvania through West Virginia and into […]

Kennedy Maize
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.

A twist on an old technique, flue gas recirculation, helps prevent slagging in the upper furnace and convective pass, according to pilot testing recently completed by APTECH CST and the Southern Research Institute. The technology—along with a companion technology for furnace sorbent and urea injection for SO₂ and NO^x control—could help owner/operators of smaller, older coal-fired plants meet emissions limits at a reasonable cost.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week awarded military-industrial giant Lockheed Martin a cooperative agreement contract worth $1.2 million to demonstrate innovative generation technologies that use the ocean’s thermal gradient.    Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) uses temperature differences of 36 degrees F or more between warm surface water and cold deep seawater to […]

It’s gridlock on the road to the U.S. nuclear renaissance. Electric companies and consortia – 15 in all so far — are asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for combined construction and operating licenses for 24 new nuclear units under the terms of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The companies are all seeking the loan […]

President Bush on Friday signed into law a measure to renew critical energy tax incentives that had been set to expire at the end of this year. The measure, which gained new life after a political impasse had left its future uncertain only the week before, was one of many added to the financial bailout […]

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week created a new government department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as part of his latest cabinet shuffle. The new entity will take on several issues affecting the UK power industry, including soaring wholesale prices resulting from a squeeze in generating capacity, the nation’s crumbling power infrastructure, and […]

U.S. baseload generation capacity reserve margins declined to 17% last year, and with demand expected to outpace capacity growth, the nation could face significant risk of costly power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer, suggests a new study released by NextGen Energy Council.   The nonprofit organization is composed of a wide variety […]

Seventeen electric power companies responded to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) June solicitation for federal loan guarantees to support the construction of 21 new U.S. reactors, the agency said Thursday. The power industry has now asked the Energy Department to provide loan guarantees of $122 billion—almost seven times the original $18.5 billion allocated by the […]

According to radiation standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week, exposure over the next 10,000 years to neighbors of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility in Nevada will be limited to 15 millirem a year—a little less than that from a single chest X-ray.   The Department of Energy’s proposed […]