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.
A major U.S. solar manufacturer will shutter a manufacturing plant in Tennessee in part due to ongoing challenges presented by global trade disputes. Polycrystalline silicon–maker Hemlock Semiconductor, a company majority owned by Dow Corning Corp., on Dec. 17 said it would close a facility in Clarksville, Tenn., owing to “sustained adverse market conditions.” “As difficult […]
A final rule issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate coal combustion residuals (CCRs) from coal power plants clarifies technical requirements for coal ash landfills and surface impoundments nationwide under Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the nation’s primary law for regulating solid waste. The final rule is […]
In the third part of a long-awaited safety evaluation report (SER) for the stalled Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository released today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says the Department of Energy (DOE) fails to meet necessary requirements relating to ownership of land and water rights. Volume 4 (Administrative and Programmatic Requirements) of the five-part […]
The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 that cleared Congress last week and was presented to President Obama on Monday has the backing of automation organizations. The bill was one of four cybersecurity measures passed—without much debate and by voice vote—by Congress before the 113th session came to a close on Tuesday, Dec. 16. Sen. John […]
Electric utility spending and budgets for customer-funded energy efficiency programs have seen a 30% boost compared to 2010 levels and could double by 2025, thanks to expanding state policies, an updated report from the Institute for Electric Innovation (IEI) suggests. The report, “State Electric Efficiency Regulatory Frameworks,” outlines policy developments that support utility investments in […]
Inadequate training and a culture of complacency among many owners and operators of critical infrastructure are significantly raising the risks of highly damaging cyberattack throughout the world, according to Steve Mustard, an industrial cybersecurity subject-matter expert of the International Society of Automation (ISA). The ISA reports that Mustard, who recently delivered a presentation on industrial […]
The U.S. on Tuesday issued a new final determination affirming that some crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) products from China and Taiwan have been sold at dumping margins of between 11% and 165%. The final determination from the Department of Commerce stems from anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty investigations covering a category of cells, modules, laminates, […]
The two nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle will be delayed beyond their forecast commercial operation dates of December 2017 and 2018, an oversight team told Georgia regulators in the project’s latest construction monitoring report. The consortium building the project had originally projected the first of the two AP1000 reactors would be operational in […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) today opened a loan guarantee solicitation to make available as much as $12.5 billion to bolster the construction of new nuclear projects. Issued under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Advanced Nuclear Energy Projects Solicitation backs four key technology areas: advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors […]
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants amassed more than 1.6 million remarks before the public comment period ended on Monday. Here’s a snapshot of what states, regulators, industry groups, and environmental alliances told the agency about its Clean Power Plan. States Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday finalized changes to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), applying to periods of startup and shutdown at new and existing coal- and oil-fired power plants nationwide. As published in the Federal Register on Nov. 19, the final action on the EPA’s reconsideration of the startup and shutdown […]
China on Wednesday issued a key energy strategy that sets obligatory 2020 targets for renewables and nuclear power use and urges increased natural gas consumption—but which also caps coal consumption. The State Council’s Energy Development Strategy Action Plan covers the period between 2014 and 2020. It caps annual energy primary consumption at 4.8 billion metric […]
The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan could result in the retirement of between 3.3 GW and 8.7 GW of coal-fired capacity in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid and jeopardize electric reliability for the state that is already power strapped, the independent system operator (ISO) says in a new analysis. The Environmental Protection Agency’s […]
Events over the past year—turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East and the Russian-Ukraine gas crisis—along with uncertainty for nuclear power and pervading energy poverty worldwide show that the energy system is “under stress,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its freshly released World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO-2014). Despite technology and efficiency improvements, without actions […]
Reaching an unexpected climate breakthrough, the U.S. and China in a joint statement on Wednesday each announced new targets to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. President Barack Obama set a new target to cut U.S. carbon emissions between 26% and 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, said his country […]
Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s twin Sendai nuclear units in Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture on Nov. 7 got the government’s green light to restart. Once back online, likely in 2015, the units will be the first to restart of Japan’s 48 reactors that were shuttered for safety checks following the March 2011 Fukushima accident. Kagoshima Prefecture Governor Yuichiro […]
Four industry-led projects will each receive about $16 million in federal funding to help them to significantly reduce the cost of producing hydrogen-rich syngas derived from fossil fuels and advance the gasification process for power generation and syngas production, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Nov. 6. “Gasification plants have the potential for greater […]
A collapse of Bangladesh’s national power grid over the weekend turned out the lights for about 60% of the nation of 160 million people for more than 10 hours. The interruption reportedly occurred at about 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 at a substation in Kushtia district, western Bangladesh, which knocked out a 400-kV transmission line […]
South African utility Eskom was forced to implement rolling blackouts for the second time this year after a coal silo supplying a 4.1-GW coal-fired power plant collapsed on Nov. 1. A crack was observed in one of the three 1994-built coal storage silos serving the 13-year-old Majuba Power Station in Mpumalanga Province at about 12:30 […]
The Republicans seized full control of Congress on Tuesday, bagging the six seats necessary to snatch the Senate away from the Democrats—and leaving several Obama administration energy-related initiatives in a fog. With most election results in, Republicans have control of at least 52 Senate seats, snaring key seats in Iowa, North Carolina, Colorado, Arkansas, South […]
Cost estimates for the Kemper County Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle project (IGCC) have surged another $330 million since August, mostly owing to delays that have shifted the plant’s in-service date to the first half of 2016. Plant owner Mississippi Power’s latest monthly report submitted to the Mississippi Public Service Commission shows that the project’s total […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) final rule governing long-term spent nuclear fuel storage onsite at U.S. power plants is illegal and should be overturned, the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont claim in a legal challenge filed on Monday. In a petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. […]
The AREVA-Siemens consortium that is building the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor in Finland, and the plant’s owner, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), have again increased claims and counterclaims for billions of dollars in costs and losses, which they say are caused by delays afflicting the world’s first EPR project. At the end of 2003, TVO […]