A massive coronal mass ejection (CME)—commonly known as a solar storm—in July 2012 could have rivaled the worst recorded event from 1859 had it hit the Earth, according to a study published Mar. 18 in Nature Communications. Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and by Chinese scientists into a magnetic storm on July 23, […]

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A study by the Sandia National Laboratory last year demonstrated that hydrogen fuel cells mounted on floating barges could potentially provide shore-based power for visiting ships at West Coast ports, substantially reducing emissions from shipboard diesel generators. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the U.S. Department […]

A federal bankruptcy judge in New York gave final approval to Edison Mission Energy’s (EME’s) Chapter 11 reorganization plan on Mar. 11, one that involves the sale of all assets and subsidiaries to NRG Energy for $2.6 billion. The deal—involving 42 plants and 8.9 GW of net generation nationwide—makes NRG the largest merchant plant owner […]

In its preliminary Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for the summer of 2014, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said that more than 2 GW of new combined cycle plants coming online this summer will “significantly reduce the likelihood of scarcity conditions.” The region has struggled with its reserve margins for years, and […]

Maryland-based United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Mar. 5. The action has been expected since last December. USEC’s finances have been hammered by persistently low prices and weak demand for low-enriched uranium (LEU), as well by difficulties with a long-delayed project to develop a new centrifuge enrichment technology in […]

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The aftermath of two spills from a coal ash storage pond at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Station in North Carolina this month, which saw about 35,000 tons of ash flood into the Dan River, may lead to a crackdown by North Carolina state regulators and will likely affect the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) decision-making […]

Federal judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. ruled on Feb. 26 that Luminant had not violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) at its Big Brown Power Plant in Freestone County, Tex., as had been claimed in a Sierra Club lawsuit. Filed in May 2012, the lawsuit alleged that from July 2007 to the present certain emissions […]

The Gyeonggi Green Energy facility, a 59-MW fuel cell park in Hwasung City, South Korea, commenced commercial operation on Feb. 19. The plant consists of 21 2.8-MW hydrogen fuel cells supplied by FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn. The 5.1-acre facility in Gyeonggi Province, along the country’s northwest coast, is owned and operated by POSCO Energy, the […]