Engineering

Ongoing process steam leakage in power plant control valves due to erosion from wet steam must be addressed to maximise uptime at a critical time for industry, says a power industry expert. Continually rising gas prices caused by geopolitical events have put pressure on facilities to ensure continued, uninterrupted performance, and further heightened the impact […]

Project in Lithuania could offer important lessons for U.K. power station cleanup DALLAS – A consortium comprising Westinghouse Electric Spain, Jacobs (NYSE:J) and the Lithuanian Energy Institute was selected to plan dismantling and waste management at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in Lithuania. Soviet-designed Ignalina could be the first graphite-moderated reactor plant to be […]

It’s no secret that the U.S. power grid needs some work. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), nearly 70% of the nation’s grid is more than 25 years old. The DOE says the U.S. needs to expand

Nuclear energy—not just nuclear power—is seeing a burst of innovation unlike anything seen since the 1950s. While the strong momentum for the dispatchable zero-carbon energy source is promising, prominent pitfalls threaten necessary progress.

In January 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) published a list of five nuclear energy stories to watch in 2022. Here’s an update on the items the NE felt were important for industry insiders to keep an eye on. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law The DOE noted in the January […]

Countries’ timelines to becoming energy secure and reaching net-zero targets have shortened. Major contributing factors include COVID-19’s impact on supply chains and the war in Ukraine. Alongside this are external influences such as COP27, or the landmark U.S. Climate Bill, which will direct almost $370 billion toward rapidly scaling renewable energy production and reducing emissions. Already, intergovernmental […]

Deep technical knowledge underpins country’s energy security and net-zero carbon ambitions DALLAS – Jacobs (NYSE:J) was selected to provide the U.K.’s nuclear regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), with specialist engineering and technical support services. The four-year framework covers the ONR’s activities in new build, power generation, decommissioning and defense. Jacobs has supported the […]

Solar + wind, solar + storage, wind + storage—even fossil fuels combined with renewable energy—are supporting the growth of hybrid power plants that are breaking the norms of traditional power generation

Thermal power generation has to adapt new methods to thrive as renewables transform dispatch. Now used more often as a bridge source of power rather than the main source of power, many fossil fuel plants

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is a national Department of Energy (DOE) program led by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) that allows collaborators to harness the world-class capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratory System. NRIC supports the construction and demonstration of advanced reactor systems through a suite of services and capabilities. “Our vision is […]

European energy giant EnBW will pilot switching a 114-year-old coal-fired waste incineration and district heating power plant in Stuttgart-Münster, Germany, to gas-fired technology while ensuring the regionally significant plant will be ready to combust hydrogen “as quickly and completely” as possible. Siemens Energy on Nov. 17 sealed an agreement with the utility for an overall […]

NET Power, developer of the novel Allam-Fetvedt supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycle, will build its first 300-MW natural gas–fired power plant at an Occidental-hosted site near Odessa, Texas. The “serial number one” project will demonstrate—at utility scale—NET Power’s potentially revolutionary technology, which promises to provide low-cost gas-fired power generation, no atmospheric emissions, no water […]

Days after Poland chose Westinghouse to supply its AP1000 technology to the country’s first nuclear plant in Pomerania, northern Poland, the government and two Polish energy firms signed a letter of intent with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) to “push ahead” with development of a second nuclear plant based on APR1400 technology in Pątnów, […]

U.S. solar developers can address a number of crucial underperformance issues identified in kWh Analytics’ Solar Risk Assessment: 2022 through the adoption of pre-build resource assessments that utilize site-based measurement campaigns, according to Fulcrum 3D. kWh Analytics’ Solar Risk Assessment: 2022 report called on the U.S. solar industry to identify new solutions to issues causing underperformance across the industry. Despite […]

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Aug. 2 gave Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) the green light to commission the experimental 2-MWth thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR-LF1) at

AUSTIN, Texas (Oct. 26, 2022) – Emerson, a global software and engineering leader, has released a new version of its DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS). Version 15 of the DeltaV DCS helps plants digitally transform operations through improved production optimization and enhanced operator performance. New software designed to reduce the burden of IT support and […]

Innovative concept leverages decades of expertise in fusion research and development San Diego, Oct. 20, 2022 – Today, General Atomics (GA) announced a new concept for a fusion pilot plant (FPP) to deliver clean, safe, and economically viable fusion energy. GA’s FPP concept utilizes a steady-state, compact advanced tokamak design approach, where the fusion plasma […]

Westinghouse and Ansaldo Energia’s Switzerland-based nuclear arm, Ansaldo Nucleare, will cooperate in developing a nuclear power plant based on lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology. The two companies, which have separately spearheaded the development of fast-reactor designs, said they will advance a common design “to maximize synergies, combine experience in design, testing and licensing, and align […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE)’s latest Energy Earthshot will seek to cut the cost of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to $45/MWh by 2035, an ambitious goal that would shave current EGS costs by 90%. The DOE’s latest Energy Earthshot—part of a 2021-research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) initiative it launched to accelerate breakthroughs for emerging technologies—will […]

CORE POWER announced that it and its partners, the MIT Energy Initiative and the Idaho National Laboratory, were granted funding by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) for a three-year study into the development of offshore floating nuclear power generation in the U.S. “It is an important step forward for […]

Two major U.S. gas power plants will be part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) efforts to develop carbon capture technologies capable of capturing at least 95% of carbon dioxide.  The agency’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) on Aug. 26 announced $31 million in funding for 10 projects. While many of the […]

When a sinkhole was discovered near the base of the Boone Dam embankment, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s dam safety engineers went to work determining the best fix. The complexity of the work and quality

When Swedish company Vattenfall in 2018 set out to combine wind, solar, and battery storage resources at this pioneering energy park in the Netherlands, its foremost focus was to demonstrate a clean energy

Nuclear power plant outages are filled with intense work and tight schedules. A feedwater heater replacement project at Duke Energy’s Oconee station in South Carolina shows how teamwork coupled with

As owners and operators of fossil fuel plants navigate through the energy transition, digital technology offers the opportunity to perform while transforming, balancing the energy trilemma of providing a

Utilities function in the present but must always plan for the future. That’s even more true today, as the rapid pace of change with power generation technologies, and the transition to cleaner forms of energy, means utilities—whether they deal with electricity, natural gas, water, transportation, or are a municipality that pays attention to all those […]

Chair of House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Observes Fusion Experiment and Speaks with Early Career Scientists San Diego, August 18th – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, visited General Atomics (GA) and toured the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. While at DIII-D, Rep. Kaptur met […]

HOUSTON, Texas — Burns & McDonnell has been selected to provide engineer-procure-construct (EPC) services for project Texas Waves II, a 30-MW/30-MWh lithium-ion stand-alone battery energy storage system (BESS) in Scurry County, Texas. This battery system will make a meaningful contribution to grid reliability by providing the system operator a backup for lost generation. Additionally, the system […]

A project executed from conception through commissioning with the ideals of shared risk and shared success offers a unique approach to project execution, which could be replicated to keep other power plants in

The use of renewable energy in the agriculture industry is an exciting new frontier that—with the right partners—can bring environmental and economic benefits to farmers, surrounding communities, and the