The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its approval to two deals that will see shifts in electricity markets in Hawaii and the Midwest. On Mar. 27, FERC approved Duke Energy’s proposed sale of its merchant generation business to Dynegy for $2.8 billion. The deal, announced last August, covers 11 power plants in the Midwest […]

The ongoing record drought in California has caused significant changes in the state’s power mix as water available for hydroelectric generation becomes increasingly scarce, according to a recent report from Oakland-based nonprofit the Pacific Institute. The California Independent System Operator warned last year that water shortages were likely to substantially impact the state’s generation, with […]

The consortium behind the Nordlink high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link between Germany and Norway on Mar. 19 awarded the construction contract for the project to Swiss firm ABB. The $2 billion, 525-kV transmission line will be, at 623 kilometers (km), the longest HVDC connection in Europe. It will transit the North Sea across the Skagerrak strait, […]

The reliability support service agreement (RSSA) that would rescue the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in western New York from an early retirement has come under fire from a group of about 60 large electricity customers—industrial, institutional, and commercial entities—who on Mar. 6 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject the proposed deal, […]

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While developers in the U.S. celebrated financial closing for the 15-MW Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island—the would-be first offshore wind farm in the U.S.—Germany said this month that it expects to commission about 2 GW of new capacity in 2015, adding to its total of 1,048 MW at the end of 2014. Though […]

GE Power & Water announced Mar. 5 that it had achieved 50.1% gas-fired J920 FleXtra reciprocating engine during a test run at the Jenbacher facility in Austria. This is the first time a reciprocating engine has reached 50% efficiency. The 9.5-MW J920 FleXtra, introduced for 50-Hz applications in 2013 and 60-Hz in 2014, is the […]

Rooftop solar company SolarCity on Mar. 2 filed suit in federal court in Arizona seeking to overturn a new rate structure approved by the Salt River Project (SRP) that levies additional charges on customers with rooftop solar panels. On Feb. 26, the SRP board voted to approve a change in how it bills customers who […]

Plans for a massive coal mine in New South Wales, Australia, which is being developed by Chinese coal mining giant Shenhua Group, were thrown into doubt as the federal environmental minister opted to delay a decision on its final approval. The Watermark mine, which could cost $1.2 billion and produce more than 250 million metric […]

Google and rooftop solar company SolarCity announced on Feb. 26 that Google is contributing $300 million to an investment fund that is expected to finance $750 million in rooftop solar installations, the two companies said in a statement. The investment is structured as a tax equity deal that will allow Google to reduce its tax […]