Coal

Germany’s levy to promote renewables under the 2008 Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will climb to €0.624/kWh in 2014—a 20% increase that represents nearly a fifth of residential electricity bills. The measure

The Power Finance Corp. (PFC), India’s nodal agency that conducts bidding for 16 proposed Ultra-Mega Power Plants (UMPPs)—coal projects of a 4,000-MW scale to make power available at a minimum cost—in

First Kundankulam Unit Synchronized to Grid. The state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on Oct. 22 synchronized to the grid the first of two units at the Kundankulam Nuclear Power

Addressing climate change and improving air quality will be among the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) foremost objectives over the next four years, a draft strategic plan recently released by the federal agency shows. The 86-page Draft FY 2014-2018 EPA Strategic Plan was released for public review and comment on Nov. 19 as part of a […]

Coal-fired power stations rely on storing coal in large bunkers or silos. Over time, changes in the type and quality of coal can lead to poor flow during discharge, creating production inefficiencies and significantly reducing storage capacity. Manual intervention is frequently used to promote flow; however, this is a hazardous process for operators and fails […]

Anyone operating a coal-fired power plant has faced the challenge of keeping coal-handling equipment free of blockages and plugging. Not only do material flow problems interrupt smooth plant operations, but they also require dirty, sometimes dangerous, and often unscheduled maintenance work. As in many other industries, remote-controlled tools can help solve this problem. Bulk material […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will retire more than 3 GW at eight coal units in Alabama and Kentucky to address “challenging trends” that point to lower power demand, a slow economy, uncertainty in commodity pricing, and tougher air pollution rules. The U.S. corporate agency’s board of directors on Nov. 14 approved plans to retire all […]

A communiqué drafted by participants from 22 coal-heavy countries at the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) that was held in Washington D.C. last week affirms that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an indispensable element of any effective response to climate change. Members of the ministerial-level international climate change initiative also urged acceleration of the […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Air Act when it promulgated the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in 2011, nine states argue in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last week. The brief filed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, […]

By 2035, renewables will hold a 30% share of the global power mix but just 1% of the world’s fossil fuel–fired power plants will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its newly released World Energy Outlook (WEO-2013). The annual report presents a central scenario in which global […]

In international trade, a gap between theory and practice has always existed. Theory stresses, as an underlying ideal, the economic benefits of trade based on comparative advantage. In practice, and for a variety of reasons—institutional constraints, political factors, ambiguity of legal doctrine, bilateral or multilateral treaty obligations—the ideal intermittently bows to reality, whether in the […]

Eighteen carbon capture projects across the U.S. have been chosen to receive $84 million in federal funding to help improve the efficiency and drive down costs of carbon capture processes for new and existing coal power plants. The Department of Energy (DOE), which announced selection of the projects today, said funded research will focus on […]

Duke Energy’s drive to reorient its fleet away from coal took another step on Nov. 4 when it announced demolition plans for its 84-year-old Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C. The 454-MW plant was one of Duke’s oldest fossil assets, having come online in 1929. It was retired in April, two years ahead of […]

An executive order signed by President Obama today requires federal agencies to promote the “dual goals” of a greater resilience to climate change and a removal of barriers to carbon-curbing measures, including carbon sequestration. Climate change impacts that include “prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, […]

The total costs of Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant—the nation’s only large-scale integrated carbon capture and sequestration project (CCS) under construction—have now almost doubled to $4.02 billion. A review of the Kemper facility’s construction schedule and costs completed this month by Mississippi Power management prompted the company to push back […]

A revised technical guidance released by the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday to bolster a key facet of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) declares an end to U.S. support for multilateral development bank (MDB) funding for new overseas coal projects except in “narrowly defined circumstances.” The updated guidance document is designed to be incorporated […]

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a formal order today giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 60 days to set a deadline for issuing revised coal ash regulations, agreeing with a coalition of environmental groups that the agency has failed to timely complete its review process in accordance with provisions of the Resource Conservation […]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants plunged 10% in 2012 largely due to the coal-to-gas switch and a slight decrease in power production, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Wednesday. Earlier this week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported similar findings. The EPA’s 2012 data from its GHG Reporting Program, which collects annual […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a narrow challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources, including power plants. In a mixed bag for groups fighting the EPA’s GHG regulation, the high court on Tuesday accepted for review six petitions—which were consolidated for oral […]

CPS Energy announced that its 420-MW Deely Unit 1 power plant was returned to service on Oct. 12. The plant had been shutdown since Sept. 10, 2013, when it was taken offline following an explosion that resulted in damage to the cascade building, which houses the conveyor system that feeds coal into the plant. The […]

Late last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on climate change and carbon emissions, which noted that “atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide . . . have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently called carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) […]

Though a stalemate on the federal budget endures in Congress, and the federal government continues to be partially shut down, the Supreme Court began its new term on Oct. 7 by announcing that it had accepted two cases seeking a review of the invalidated Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). The two CSAPR cases, EPA, […]

The Supreme Court of the state of Kansas last week invalidated a controversial air pollution permit granted in 2010 by state regulators to Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s proposed 895-MW coal-fired Holcomb 2 plant. The court ruled in favor of environmental group the Sierra Club, which claimed that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) erroneously […]

Courtesy: Dominion Curt Morgan, CEO and president of Brayton Point Energy LLC, announced in a written statement on Oct. 7, 2013, that the Brayton Point Power Station will be closed permanently in 2017. The news comes as a bit of a surprise, since the station was recently purchased by a subsidiary of funds controlled by […]

While many people believe coal is incompatible with meeting the challenge of climate change, the World Coal Association (WCA) disagrees. Together with the Polish Ministry of Economy, the WCA has developed “The Warsaw Communiqué” to address steps that can be taken to tackle climate change and allow coal to continue to play its role as […]

In the past two years, roughly half of U.S. coal production was attributable to the top four coal producers, the result, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), of changes in regional production as well as decades-long trends that have seen the several mergers and acquisitions. Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal Inc., Alpha Natural […]

With the recent push for the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants (see “Turning the Heat Up on Carbon Emissions” in the October 2013 issue of POWER), the science behind this action needs to be revisited. The regulation of carbon dioxide emissions will apply to all fossil fuel energy sources; […]

Electric power production from coal is on a steep rise in major developing countries, including China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Vietnam, albeit declining in developed countries such as the United States. Shortfalls in coal production have been reported in some of these countries, but these issues are being addressed by increasing coal production, as […]

A federal court on Monday said it would issue a memorandum opinion by the end of this month on a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate a final coal ash rule. At least 11 environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean […]

“Abnormally wet weather” and “lower-than-planned construction labor productivity” have forced Mississippi Power to push back commercial startup of its integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project in Kemper County, Miss., to later in 2014 from the originally scheduled in-service date of May 2014. The company said in a stock filing on Tuesday that it would […]