Business

In a significant breakthrough for the development of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycles, the 10-MWe Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) Demo pilot plant in San Antonio, Texas, has wrapped up Phase 1 testing, demonstrating the commercial readiness of its next-generation indirect sCO2 Brayton cycle. The $169 million project—the largest of its kind in the […]

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) announced six companies have successfully bid to provide deconversion services for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel to support advanced nuclear reactors. The DOE on October 8 announced the complete list of successful bidders. They include Nuclear Fuel Services, part of BWX Technologies (BWXT); American Centrifuge Operating, part of Centrus […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded capacity contracts of up to $1.5 billion to four major transmission lines under its Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP) to aid the transfer of 7.1 GW of new capacity throughout Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The DOE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO) on Oct. 3 also released its […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled plans on Sept. 27 to inject $1.3 billion into its portfolio of federally funded carbon capture demonstration and large-scale pilot programs by the end of the year—including up to $400 million to support one commercial-scale coal power plant carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration. The Office of Clean Energy […]

Project Tundra, a demonstration project that seeks to capture an average of 4 million tons of carbon dioxide from flue gas from two lignite-fired units at the 705-MW Milton R. Young Station near Center, North Dakota, has secured a $4.1 million federal award from the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). Under […]

The Jackson Generation plant, a 1.2-GW combined cycle power plant in Elwood, Illinois, debuted North America’s first M501JAC gas turbines. Developed by J-POWER USA, the facility has emerged as a model for

Oil shale doesn’t fuel a lot of power plants around the world, but in Jordan, it’s a vital option, offering energy security and independence. The success of the Attarat Power Plant in capitalizing on this

While natural gas power accounted for 43% of total U.S. power generation in 2023, several state and federal policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions are bolstering interest in hydrogen cofiring. These policies include the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized Carbon Pollution Standards, federal production tax credits, and the federal hydrogen hub program. However, only […]

Earlier this year, POWER partnered with Best Companies Group (BCG), an organization dedicated to identifying and recognizing outstanding workplaces across various industries, to launch our Best Places to Work

Italian firm Magaldi Group, a specialist in ultra-high-temperature material handling, is poised to deploy its first large-scale application of a novel thermal energy storage system that uses a fluidized bed of

Historically, generator inspections require rotor removal (Figure 3). There’s a significant level of risk during this process due to possible generator damage during the disassembly, and it also requires

The Australian state of Queensland is in the midst of a rapid changeover from coal to renewables. From 70% coal generation today, it is switching to 70% renewables by 2032. This means phasing out 8.1 GW of coal and some of its 3 GW of gas generation, while simultaneously building at least 25 GW of […]

Power plant managers know that optimizing cooling water operations will improve efficiency. Using an integrated approach that combines advanced chemistry, digital technologies, such as deposit sensing, and

U.S. energy needs have changed dramatically over the last few decades, and questions are growing as to whether our grid can manage these new demands. Aside from rising temperatures—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared 2023 the hottest year on record—the energy sector is managing a trio of additional challenges: City populations are growing, creating […]

Europe is pursuing an ambitious energy transition to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To reach this goal, the region has set stringent targets to decrease reliance on Russian fossil fuels and increase the adoption of renewable energy across the power and transportation sectors. Significant strides are being made in developing solar and […]

The field servicing of boilers is challenging. Often there are tough deadlines to meet, limited outage windows, severe space constraints, and many other difficulties to overcome. Here are some key best practices Rentech has gleaned from servicing hundreds of boilers (Figure 1) over the years. Know-How from the Start Projects usually arrive via a call […]

Marking the first-ever revival of a nuclear power plant in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 30 finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec International to support the recommissioning of the 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Michigan. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded electric cooperative Wolverine Power […]

In May, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS released additional guidance on the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) domestic content bonus, part of President Biden’s economic strategy to boost American manufacturing, and iron and steel production. The domestic content bonus credit is available to taxpayers that certify their qualified facility, energy project, or energy […]

A project that will demonstrate the conversion of a former coal mine in Bell County, Kentucky, into a utility-scale 287-MW pumped storage hydroelectric facility has garnered federal backing from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). Rye Development, a pumped storage hydropower developer, on Sept. 25 secured $12.1 million—the first tranche […]

The UK government has narrowed its shortlist of technologies competing in its flagship Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition to four candidates. On Sept. 25, it announced that Westinghouse, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), Holtec Britain, and Rolls-Royce SMR remain in the running to negotiate potentially multi-billion-pound nuclear technology development contracts under the fast-track initiative aimed at […]

Rapid growth in the U.S. data center market is ushering in a new era of power demand and testing the ability of electric utilities to keep pace with this surging growth. Data center energy use has doubled over the past three years and is expected to continue climbing as more hyperscale data centers leveraging power-hungry […]

The U.S. Department of the Air Force has awarded Sage Geosystems an initial $1.9 million contract to demonstrate its pioneering geothermal baseload power and energy storage system at an off-site test well in Starr County, Texas.  When completed as planned in 2025, the demonstration will become the first Geopressured Geothermal Systems (GGS) facility in the […]

Pennsylvania has been a hotspot for nuclear power since the advent of commercial nuclear power, which it pioneered with first power from the 60-MW Shippingport Atomic Power Station near Pittsburgh in 1957.   Today, the state, the second-largest nuclear power generator in the U.S., hosts eight operating reactors. These include Constellation’s 2.77-GW Peach Bottom Atomic […]

Fusion energy is a promising form of power generation that aims to harness the same process that powers the sun and stars. Fusion involves combining two light atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. This is the opposite of nuclear fission, which splits heavy atoms apart. […]

$100 billion investment potential will enhance American competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) while meeting the growing need for energy infrastructure to power economic growth The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced on Sept. 17 the Global AI […]

Back in the early 2000s, some controversy emerged about the practice of spraying large amounts of fog directly into the compressor. Some claimed that this led to blade erosion, pitting, and scaling. So, is it safe to use wet compression on gas turbines by pumping water droplets into the compressor inlet? The answer is yes—provided […]

Municipal power utility Idaho Falls Power (IFP) has announced it is negotiating a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Aalo Atomics, a 2022-founded nuclear engineering firm inspired by Idaho National Laboratory (INL’s) MARVEL microreactor. Aalo on Sept. 16 confirmed it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the utility to explore the deployment of a fleet […]

The growth of distributed energy resources (DERs) has significantly increased over the past decade as the U.S. moves to decarbonize the electric grid. Growth has been possible by incentivizing the transition to clean energy; states and federal legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), have used tax credits and other programs to accelerate deployment. […]

A California-based renewable energy company announced has several milestones, including that it has surpassed 20 GW of installed and awarded utility-scale solar and energy storage projects in America. SOLV Energy, headquartered in San Diego, also said it plans to bring about 4 GW of generation capacity online this year, and has another 3 GW of […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 293 hydroelectric projects across 33 states that will receive up to $430 million in incentive payments for capital improvements directly related to grid resiliency, dam safety, and environmental improvements. The funding, unveiled on Sept. 5, stems from the DOE Grid Deployment Office’s (GDO’s) Maintaining and Enhancing Hydroelectricity Incentives […]