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.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) loan programs have made more than $30 billion in loans and loan guarantees, but it has not fully developed or consistently stuck to loan monitoring policies, an official from the Government Accountability Office testified before a House subcommittee on May 30. Congress authorized the Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) in 2005 […]
The Department of Commerce preliminarily ruled that China is subsidizing certain crystalline silicone photovoltaic (PV) products at a rate of 18.56% to 35.21%, marking another win for SolarWorld. Commerce announced its affirmative preliminary determination in a new countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on imports of PV cells, modules, laminates, and panels. The agency calculated a preliminary […]
Existing fossil fuel–fired U.S. power plants must comply with state-specific goals to lower carbon pollution by 2030 under rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today. The so-called “Clean Power Plan,” which applies to existing power plants, seeks to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. It […]
[Corrected (May 30): See note below] A cooperative agreement finalized by NuScale Power and the Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday means the small modular reactor (SMR) developer will receive up to $217 million in matching funds over a five-year-period to perform engineering and testing necessary for design certification. Last December, the Portland, Ore.–based company […]
A final rule establishing national technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards to reduce discharges of pollutants from nuclear and fossil fuel power plants to U.S. waters won’t be issued until at least September 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed. This April, the agency and environmental groups Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club […]
As of May 16, the Department of Energy (DOE) will no longer collect the one-tenth-of-a-cent fee per kilowatt-hour of power generated by nuclear plants that was set by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. In a letter dated May 12, the DOE notified generators storing spent nuclear fuel that is meant to be disposed of […]
The $930.7 million proposal by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to recover 90% of its budget authority through licensing, inspection, and annual fees to be charged to U.S. nuclear generators in fiscal year (FY) 2014 is a 7.7% hike from the year before, but it is “unjustified,” given the decline in the number of operating […]
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday announced his office would propose legislation that would require electric and gas utilities to assess and document their systems’ vulnerability to climate change. Though Schneiderman hasn’t yet set a date for when his office will propose the state bill, the legislation is likely to establish a framework […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) released a report on May 21 highlighting progress at five concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in the southwestern U.S. In the report, “2014: The Year of Concentrating Solar Power,” three DOE-supported technologies are featured: parabolic trough, power tower, and thermal storage. The DOE has helped finance the large-scale deployment of […]
A final rule released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today will affect cooling water intake structures at 544 U.S. power plants and provide those plants with lower-cost compliance options than previously proposed to reduce fish impingement and entrainment. The final rule issued under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act applies to facilities that […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce on May 13 awarded the Distribution Wind Energy Association (DWEA) a two-year grant to develop a roadmap to identify common manufacturing gaps for distributed wind equipment. The $488,634 grant from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) calls on DWEA to form the “Strategies for Manufacturers Advancing Research and […]
Duke Energy Florida will retire five coal-fired units in response to environmental rules, but it plans to replace them with new gas-fired generation, including a $1.5 billion combined cycle plant in Citrus County that could come online as soon as 2018, the company said on Tuesday. Duke Energy’s Florida-based subsidiary said it would retire Units […]
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), dispensing to the agency its third major legal victory on air pollution in a month. The EPA in December 2012 issued […]
Three U.S. senators on Tuesday introduced a trio of bills to improve the safety and security of decommissioning reactors and the storage of spent nuclear fuel ahead of Wednesday’s full Senate committee hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning. The three bills were introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should allow states to use energy efficiency programs as a way to comply with its forthcoming rule that will regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, state energy officials, regulatory utility commissioners, and clean air agencies from more than 45 U.S. states urged the agency on Thursday. In a […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday selected three projects to proceed to the second phase of its offshore wind advanced technology demonstration initiative: Fishermen’s Atlantic City Windfarm, Principle Power’s Oregon project, and Dominion Virginia Power’s Virginia Beach project. Assistant Secretary of the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) David Danielson revealed […]
The 59-MW Gyeonggi Green Energy fuel cell park (Figure 3) in South Korea’s Hwasung City—one of the world’s largest fuel cell facilities—began operation in February. The five-acre facility built by
A German court on April 14 reaffirmed that a nuclear fuel rod tax is unconstitutional and has ordered federal tax authorities to reimburse €2.2. billion ($3.04 billion) paid by five nuclear-owning utilities until compatibility with European and German law is established. The Financial Court of Hamburg had held in January 2013 that the federal nuclear […]
Oklahoma’s Gov. Mary Fallin (R) on Monday signed into law a measure that would allow regulated electric utilities to recover revenues needed to pay for transmission infrastructure as the number of distributed generation users increases. Senate Bill 1456, which drew strong opposition from environmental and distributed generation groups, reversed a 1977 law that prohibited public […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to make an additional $4 billion in loan guarantees available to help commercialize U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases. The DOE on Wednesday issued a draft loan guarantee solicitation under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (through Section […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to issue a final rule governing power plant cooling water by April 17 as agreed with environmental groups. In court papers, the agency instead stated its intention to complete the rulemaking by May 16, 2014. The agency secured more time under a modified settlement agreement with a coalition of […]
A federal court on April 15 upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) February 2012-finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), ruling in a 2–1 decision that the agency is not required to take costs into account when it promulgates rules that are “appropriate and necessary” to address hazards to public health. In the U.S. Court […]
In a stark departure from the zero-nuclear future proposed by a previous administration, the cabinet of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday endorsed restarting the country’s idled nuclear reactors as it develops more renewables. The cabinet on Friday officially adopted the first Basic Energy Plan since the Fukushima disaster, a 78-page document (in Japanese) that […]