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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 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, […]
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 […]
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
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
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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 for coal- and oil-fired generation. The proposed rule seeks to significantly update the 2012–finalized National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Coal- and Oil-Fired […]
The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM), a real-time energy market operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), has gained three new participants, including its first generation-only entity. CAISO on April 5 announced the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Desert Southwest region, El Paso Electric (EPE), and AVANGRID have formally begun participation in the WEIM. […]
The spectrum of geothermal technologies is quickly evolving. This supplement to POWER’s April 2023 feature, “Startups Are Shaking Up Geothermal Power’s Potential,” briefly explains the differences between some engineered geothermal systems. Conventional geothermal energy is largely produced by hydrothermal systems, which consist of hot water circulated in deep-seated permeable rocks. Resource temperature ranges from high (greater […]
A project led by two major European gas transmission system operators (TSOs) has successfully tested blending rates of up to 25% hydrogen on a Titan 130 SoLoNOx Solar Turbines gas turbine, which serves as a
Driven by ripe market conditions, technology startups are injecting investment and innovation into geothermal power to unlock novel applications that could substantially scale up the niche renewable power
NTPC, India’s largest energy conglomerate and its largest coal generator, in March commissioned the country’s first supercritical coal-fired plant equipped with an air-cooled condenser (ACC). The effort