International

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are 60 nuclear reactors currently under construction around the world. China leads the way with 20 units in progress, followed by Russia with seven, and India with five. Twelve other countries, including the U.S., round out the list. The IAEA predicts that nuclear power generating capacity […]

Brazil’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, in early August canceled development permits for an 8-GW hydroelectric project on concerns about its social and ecological impacts. If built as proposed by a consortium of multinational companies—including Brazilian parastatal Eletrobras and private sector partners GDF Suez/Engie, EDF, Camargo Correa, Neoenergia, COPEL, and Endesa Brasil—the São Luiz do Tapajós […]

One of the world’s first offshore tidal energy arrays was connected to Scotland’s grid this August. On its heels is the grid connection of a second array that is owned by a different company. Nova Innovation, a Scottish tidal energy company founded in 2010, on August 28 grid-connected the second of three 100-kW Nova M100 […]

Mexico to Launch Pilot Carbon Trade Program. Mexico will launch a yearlong simulation of a cap-and-trade program this November. The pilot program will involve up to 60 companies, allowing them to adapt a

Under a government decree published in early August, Russia will build up to 11 new nuclear reactors by 2030, including two BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast-neutron reactors. Russia already has 36 operating reactors

South Africa’s state-owned utility faces recent generation shortages, plant construction problems, load shedding, and uncertainty at the African continent’s only nuclear power plant. And that’s just on the generation side. Moves on the business planning and regulatory side are painfully slow and could, some argue, be writing the utility’s obituary. Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned monopoly […]

For all its record-breaking achievements for speed, innovation, and efficiency, the 3,960-MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project should have been a POWER Top Plant. But the unique project has been plagued by serious setbacks—including loss of life—that show how perilous the plant construction journey can be. A decade ago, India was suffering a power crisis […]

The Dutch parliament’s vote in favor of a motion to cut carbon emissions 55% by 2030 could spell the end of coal-fired power generation in the European nation. Although nonbinding, the measure would bring the Netherlands in line with agreements negotiated during the Paris climate talks that took place late last year. What it means […]

Oral arguments on the merits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan were concluded before an en banc panel (10 judges, rather than the anticipated three) at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on September 27. West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (No. 15-1363) is arguably the most important environmental case in nearly […]

In a widely expected move, the Japanese government finally killed the ill-fated Monju breeder reactor project on September 21, but reasserted its faith in breeder reactor technology as a component of the nation’s future power mix. The Monju plant was an ambitious project that never came close to meeting its backers’ expectations. Launched in 1980, […]

Global resources of variable renewable energy—primarily wind and solar—despite breakneck growth over the past two decades, are beginning to run up against technological and policy limitations on further deployment, and future growth will depend on significant changes in policy and grid design, according to a new report. Released on September 20, Variable Renewable Energy Sources […]

States, regulators, and market participants have in recent years called attention to a trend concerning uneconomic baseload generation in organized wholesale markets, specifically in ISO New England, New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), MISO, PJM, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Cheap natural gas, low power demand […]

The $23.8 billion Hinkley Point C nuclear project has received the UK government’s green light, but the country wants to ensure that project’s ownership cannot change without government agreement. After a “comprehensive review” of the project and a revised agreement with French power generator EDF, the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial (DBEI) Strategy […]

In response to what was a record earthquake for the country, four of South Korea’s 25 nuclear power plants have been shut down as a precautionary measure.

Danish firm DONG Energy has begun building one of the world’s first bioresource power plants that will produce electricity from household waste by using enzymes to convert the waste to biogas. The commercial 5-MW plant under construction in the UK city of Northwich could be commissioned in early 2017. It will use the company’s proprietary […]

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) this June approved 20-year license extensions for the aging Takahama 1 and 2 reactors, a first for the power-strapped country that has been conflicted about the future of its nuclear power plants since the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe in 2011. A regulatory system established in the aftermath of Fukushima limits the […]

The second World Nuclear Exhibition was held at a moment in time when the prospects for nuclear power are both tantalizing and frustrating. One thing is clear: The dynamics of the nuclear power industry have changed recently—and so have the solutions proposed for achieving greater certainty. One of the strongest arguments nuclear power has going […]

Although the U.S. and Canada are both aiming for similar greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, the two countries are embarking on decidedly different approaches to reaching their goals, according to a report released on August 23. IHS Markit—a company that provides information, analytics, and solutions to customers in business, finance, and government—developed the report, titled […]

An “ice wall” put up by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) around its four crippled reactor units at Fukushima Daiichi reportedly isn’t working as planned to keep out groundwater flowing into the devastated nuclear plant. According to The Asahi Shimbun, an expert panel at Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority on August 18 said that though five […]

Industrial gas turbines are increasing in size. As a result of this, repair facilities that overhaul and repair these machines must keep pace. One of the key tools is a large lathe. As one of the leading industrial gas turbine and rotor repair providers in the world, Sulzer has recently upgraded its service center in

News agencies are reporting that an explosion at a coal-fired power plant in Dangyang, a city in central China, has killed at least 21 people and injured five others, three seriously. The event is said to have occurred around 3:20 p.m. local time on August 11. The facility—designed to generate thermal power and sell slag, […]

Construction on Belarus’s first nuclear power plant, being built by Russian state firm Rosatom in Ostrovets near the Lithuanian border, was halted after a construction mishap in July that is only now coming to light. Exactly what happened at the construction site on July 10 is unclear, but according to Rosatom, the plant’s reactor vessel […]

Turkish President Erdogan’s meeting with Russia’s President Putin could signal a major shift in energy flows into the EU and increase the West’s dependence on Russian gas, which could open the door wider for U.S. LNG.

China’s ambassador to the UK, in an opinion piece in British newspaper Financial Times, warned that Sino-British relations are “at a crucial historical juncture” and suggested that enormous recent Chinese investments in Britain are at risk should the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor project be cancelled. The long-delayed and much-debated two-unit expansion at the […]

China’s once-booming coal power sector is facing an existential challenge as continued breakneck expansion of new capacity is colliding with flattened growth in power demand, despite increasingly strenuous government efforts to put the brakes on new construction. According to a pair of new studies, China’s overcapacity in coal-fired generation could reach a staggering 400 GW […]

Italian firm Ansaldo Energia successfully defended an arbitration case brought by Siemens in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitral Tribunal regarding its right to use Siemens gas turbine technology under a license agreement, the company said on Aug. 1. The dispute stemmed from an agreement that ran from 1991 through October 2004 under which […]

Düsseldorf’s new “Block Fortuna” at the Lausward Power Plant, owned by municipal utility Stadtwerke Düsseldorf, is setting records and giving Germany’s coal-fired power plants some much-needed competition for backing up the nation’s large percentage of variable renewable power. Germany’s Energiewende (literally, “energy turn”) functions as something of a living laboratory, where innovation equals survival, because […]

The governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland have big ambitions for their unified electricity market, including a wind-heavy 40% renewable generation target by 2020. Making that happen while delivering safe, reliable electricity to customers across the island means a sea change in how the grid is operated. One of the first big steps is installation […]

Southern Co., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities, appears torn between enormous recent investments in advanced coal and nuclear technologies—the company’s successful strategy in the past—and a competing sense that natural gas and distributed energy might be the company’s ultimate future. The Southern Company, based in Atlanta, Ga., is a regional utility behemoth, mostly […]