A German business magazine reports that Siemens is exploring options for its struggling gas turbine business, and could look to form a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). Manager Magazin on March 21 said Siemens “wants to accommodate the large turbine business of the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and in the future hold only a […]
Energy Secretary Rick Perry will reportedly announce March 22 that the Trump administration will finalize $3.7 billion in loan guarantees to support completion of the Vogtle nuclear plant construction project. The announcement is expected when Perry visits the site near Waynesboro, Georgia, on Friday along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Southern Co. CEO Tom […]
MGM Resorts International took a bold step in 2016 when it ended its energy-buying relationship with NV Energy and instead chose to purchase electricity from private providers. The company’s decision was driven by a desire to slash bills and boost renewables. Henry Shields, executive director of finance and analysis in the Corporate Sustainability division of […]
Renewable generation in the U.S. has doubled over the past 10 years. In 2018, generation from solar, wind, hydro, and other renewables soared to a record 742 TWh—or 17.6% of total U.S. generation. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), since 2008—when renewables provided 382 TWh—wind generation rose from 55 TWh and generated 275 TWh […]
A report from an independent market monitor for PJM Interconnection shows that natural gas-fired power generation topped coal-fired output in PJM in 2018, the first time that gas has topped coal in the history of the largest U.S. grid operator. The “2018 State of the Market” report from Monitoring Analytics LLC, which includes Volume 1 […]
Norsk Hydro, a major global aluminum producer that is also Norway’s third-largest producer of hydropower, has been stricken by an extensive cyberattack—reportedly ransomware—that forced its entire global network offline. The company powers its sizable aluminum production operations with 20 hydropower plants concentrated in Telemark, Røldal-Suldal, Sogn, and Vennesla, producing a total 10 TWh per year. […]
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw a proposed rule that they said could “lead to the undoing” of the Obama administration’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). In a March 18 letter to newly appointed EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, the group led by Sens. Lamar Alexander […]
Dominion Energy has reached an agreement with utilities in Connecticut to keep the Millstone Power Station, the state’s only nuclear power plant, in service for at least another decade. Dominion announced the deal March 15, the deadline the company had to tell ISO New England, the regional grid operator, whether it would retire the two […]
Westmoreland Coal Co., the nation’s largest independent coal producer, announced March 15 that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will operate as a new, privately held company. The company, headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, near Denver, said its assets, including three mines in Montana, are now owned and operated by Westmoreland Mining LLC, a […]
The chief executive of Vistra Energy Corp. last week said coal is not likely to regain market share in the U.S. power market. Curtis Morgan, in a panel discussion March 14 at the CERAWeek event in Houston, Texas, said “coal is on its way out. More and more plants are being retired.” It’s not the […]
