Sonal Patel
Articles By

Sonal Patel

Sonal Patel is a national award-winning multimedia journalist and senior editor at POWER magazine with nearly two decades of experience delivering technically rigorous reporting across power generation, transmission, distribution, policy, and infrastructure worldwide.

  • POWERnews—June 1, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   June 1, 2023 NRG Energy to Sell Texas Nuclear Plant Stake to Constellation in $1.75B Power Move Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear generator in the U.S., will take over NRG Energy’s 44% ownership stake in the 2.6-GW South Texas Project Electric Generating […]

  • NRG Energy to Sell Texas Nuclear Plant Stake to Constellation in $1.75B Power Move

    Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear generator in the U.S., will take over NRG Energy’s 44% ownership stake in the 2.6-GW South Texas Project Electric Generating Station (STP), a nuclear power plant located in Bay City, Texas. Under a definitive agreement announced by two companies on June 1, Constellation will acquire NRG’s 44% equity interest in […]

  • Dynamic Innovation in Power Sector Digitalization

    The power industry’s rapid adoption of digitalization is a striking example of its dynamic innovation—the continuous development and introduction of new ideas, products, or processes to meet shifting

  • OTEC, a Long-Stalled Baseload Ocean Power Technology, Is Seeing a Swell

    A project to deploy a 1.5-MW commercial-scale ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) platform in the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe by 2025 has gained a key design certification. The crucial

  • Japan Moving Forward on Nuclear Accident Tolerant Fuels

    Efforts by Japanese nuclear fuel manufacturers to develop accident tolerant fuel (ATF) materials are making progress, and their commercialization is currently expected between 2030 and 2035 after key

  • POWERnews—May 25, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   May 25, 2023 U.S. Power Sector Trade Groups Flag Critical Electrical Steel Crunch Nine trade groups—including four representing the power sector—have urged the Biden administration to prioritize actions that support the domestic production of electrical steel, warning that shortages are contributing to […]

  • Westinghouse, Bechtel Form Consortium to Design and Build Poland’s First Nuclear Plant

    Westinghouse Electric Co., Bechtel, and state-owned Polish entity Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ) will work together to kick off design activity for Poland’s inaugural AP1000 nuclear power plant later this year and potentially ink a construction contract in 2025 in a bid to meet Poland’s goal to begin nuclear power generation in 2033. The companies announced […]

  • DOE: MARVEL Microreactor Prototype Installed, Gearing Up for Testing

    A full-scale electrically heated prototype of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 100-kWth MARVEL nuclear microreactor has been successfully installed at a facility in New Freedom, Pennsylvania, and is readying for testing. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) fabricated the full-scale non-nuclear prototype—known as the primary coolant apparatus test (PCAT)—in January 2022 within nine months. PCAT was then […]

  • U.S. Power Sector Trade Groups Flag Critical Electrical Steel Crunch

    Nine trade groups—including four representing the power sector—have urged the Biden administration to prioritize actions that support the domestic production of electrical steel, warning that shortages are contributing to “significant and persistent” supply chain challenges. The groups, which include the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the American Public Power Association (APPA), the National Rural Electric Cooperative […]

  • UK Developing Digital Twin to Better Understand Future Energy Systems

    The UK will back a “digital twin” of future multi-vector energy systems, including non-electric ones, that will support the country’s efforts to meet its 2050 net-zero objectives. The UK’s effort echoes several initiatives launched worldwide to deliver new visibility, knowledge, and understanding of future energy systems and integrate real-time modeling. UK transmission and distribution grid […]

  • Global Commitments Bolster Romanian NuScale Nuclear Project

    A project to deploy the first NuScale 462-MWe VOYGR-6 nuclear power plant in Romania by 2029 has garnered a $275 million public-private funding commitment from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a global infrastructure partnership. The Romanian project may be bolstered by an additional $4 billion outlined […]

  • POWERnews—May 18, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   May 18, 2023 TVA Head Wants Nothing to Do with Building One Reactor Unless He Can Build 20 Building a nuclear power plant is a difficult job. It takes years of planning and sometimes more than a decade to complete. The risk […]

  • Oklo’s Next Two Nuclear Power Plants Planned for Southern Ohio

    Advanced nuclear reactor technology firm Oklo will build its second and third commercial 15-MWe Aurora Powerhouse reactors on land owned by the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI), a community reuse organization tasked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to re-industrialize land around the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) just south of Piketon, Ohio. Oklo on […]

  • POWERnews—May 11, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   May 11, 2023 Carbon Capture Key to EPA's New Power Plant Emissions Rule The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled new greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for the nation’s power plants, moving to require both existing and new facilities to capture emissions […]

  • NRC Issues License for Holtec’s New Mexico Consolidated Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted Holtec International a license to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico, despite the state’s opposition. Granted on May 9 after an eight-year process, the NRC’s license allows Holtec to “receive, possess, transfer, and store” 500 canisters holding […]

  • X-Energy, Dow Unveil Texas Site for ARDP Nuclear Demonstration

    X-energy and Dow will site a proposed four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 advanced nuclear reactor facility at Union Carbide Corp. Seadrift Operations, a sprawling Dow chemical materials manufacturing site in Seadrift, Calhoun County, Texas. The companies on May 11 said the small modular reactor (SMR) project, part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration […]

  • POWERnews—May 4, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   May 4, 2023 Westinghouse Unveils the AP300—A Miniaturized AP1000 Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Westinghouse has officially unveiled the AP300, a “downsized” version of the company’s flagship AP1000 Generation III+ pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology. While the small modular reactor (SMR) will enter a nuclear […]

  • Westinghouse Unveils the AP300—A Miniaturized AP1000 Small Modular Nuclear Reactor

    Westinghouse has officially unveiled the AP300, a “downsized” version of the company’s flagship AP1000 Generation III+ pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology. While the small modular reactor (SMR) will enter a nuclear market already rife with development, the AP300’s “nth-of-a-kind” basis positions it as a strong competitor, the company told POWER. The 300-MWe/900-MWth AP300, launched on May 4, […]

  • ERCOT Warns Demand Could Outpace Dispatchable Power This Summer

    Texas officials on May 4 warned that peak demand for electricity could—for the first time—exceed the amount the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) can generate from on-demand dispatchable power, forcing the grid operator to rely on renewables to keep the lights on this summer. During an annual public update ahead of summer 2023, Peter […]

  • Canada Starts Up First Geothermal ‘Co-Production’ Power Project at Active Legacy Oil Field

    A pioneering 21-MW power project that economically produces geothermal power with co-produced hydrocarbon fluids from an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operation is now commercially operating in Alberta, Canada

  • Enduring Value: Entergy’s More Than 100-Year-Old Story

    One man’s ambition to electrify the Middle South and improve its economic outlook 110 years ago evolved from a handshake for steam from a boiler powered with waste sawdust into Entergy Corp., a

  • POWER Digest [May 2023]

    European Grid Operator Secures 22 GW of HVDC Projects. European transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT will lead a charge to install 11 2-GW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems by 2031. A long-term

  • POWERnews—April 27, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 27, 2023 GE Invests Heavily in Improving Gas Turbine Repair Processes and Combustor Performance On the east side of Greenville, South Carolina, sits a 413-acre site with more than one and a half million square feet of manufacturing space and another […]

  • EPRI Head: Duck Curve Now Looks Like a Canyon

    The “duck curve,” a concept that has become emblematic of the challenges associated with integrating variable renewables in the power system, now looks like a “canyon,” illustrating a paramount urgency for adequate flexibility, Arshad Mansoor, president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), has warned.  In a recent post on LinkedIn, Mansoor highlighted […]

  • South Korean Companies Snap Up Opportunities to Advance Floating Nuclear, Nuclear Hydrogen, SMRs

    Days after Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced it would participate in a consortium to develop floating nuclear power plants, the owner and operator of South Korea’s 25 nuclear power plants joined forces with TerraPower to bolster the demonstration and commercialization of Natrium, TerraPower’s sodium-cooled fast reactor integrated energy system. The deals were announced […]

  • POWERnews—April 20, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 20, 2023 Olkiluoto 3 Finally Online in Finland; Germany Closes Last Three Nuclear Plants A long-delayed nuclear power plant in Finland has begun producing electricity, ready to provide energy to a region in need of the facility’s output in the wake […]

  • Fluor to Bolster Commercialization of Laser Fusion Power

    Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) giant Fluor Corp. will serve as an engineering and construction partner to design and plan laser fusion power plants developed by Longview Fusion Energy Systems—a company leveraging the recent fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Fluor on April 18 announced it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with […]

  • DOE Offers $3B Conditional Loan Guarantee to Virtual Power Plant Initiative

    Sunnova Energy Corp., an energy-as-a-service (EaaS) provider, has snagged a first-of-its-kind conditional federal loan guarantee commitment of up to $3 billion for a project that could further future virtual power plant (VPP) deployment. The Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) on April 20 said it would provide a partial loan guarantee for up […]

  • POWERnews—April 13, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 20, 2023 How an EMP or GMD Could Destroy the Power Grid and Create Chaos Perhaps the most devastating thing that could happen in any developed country would be widespread catastrophic damage to its electric power grid. Nearly everything in an […]

  • POWERnews—April 6, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 6, 2023 EPA Moves to Significantly Tighten Mercury and Air Toxics Standards A proposed rule unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 5 could considerably tighten the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants, with specific repercussions […]