News

Construction of the 10-MW Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) pilot plant in San Antonio, Texas, is inching along, and developers in July announced that the building to house the innovative

Industry experts agree that deep geological repositories are needed for long-term storage of spent reactor fuel. They’re also digging for alternative methods. The U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year

Vietnamese officials earlier this year said they want the country to more than double its power generation capacity by 2030, to as much as 130 GW from the current capacity of about 55 GW. The Communist Party

BP made headlines in early August when it announced it wants to develop about 50 GW of net renewable generating capacity by 2030—a 20-fold increase from the 2.5 GW deployed in 2019—as part of a new

At the end of 2019, 125 projects larger than 1 MW were co-located with other generators or storage at a single point of interconnection across the U.S., according to a July 2020 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These “hybrid/co-located” projects, which exist in various configurations, represent a combined 13.4 GW of generating capacity and […]

Vancouver International Airport is the largest facility in British Columbia and requires a lot of heating and cooling. Those needs will be increased by a $300 million expansion designed to add 300,000 square

Milestone for First 700-MW Domestically Built Indian Nuclear Reactor. Unit 3 of the Kakrapar nuclear power plant in the Indian state of Gujarat—an indigenously designed 700-MW pressurized heavy water reactor

When the pandemic hit New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo began holding daily media briefings to provide updates and reassurances—and most days, he would challenge New Yorkers to learn the lessons of this

Turbines—whether powered by steam, water, natural gas, or some other fluid—are vital to the generation of electricity. Many companies in the power industry are focused on designing, manufacturing, and

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule that revises regulations for coal-fired power plants, a move that will limit the number of generation facilities that could incur costs for failing to comply with pollution limits. The action on Aug. 31 revises a rule established in 2015, when the EPA issued an order […]

NuScale Power said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its Phase 6 review of the Design Certification Application (DCA) of the company’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), and said the company’s SMR is the first such reactor to receive NRC approval of its design. NuScale on August 28 announced that with the DCA […]

Macquarie Capital and a handful of other development sponsors announced they have successfully closed financing for the C$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion U.S.) Cascade Power Project, a 900-MW combined cycle natural gas-fired generating plant near Edson, Alberta. The new facility (Figure 1), expected to meet more than 8% of the province’s average demand for power, will […]

Utilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast are preparing their response to Hurricane Laura as the massive storm bears down on the Texas and Louisiana coastlines. Entergy Corp., whose territory includes those two states along with Arkansas and Mississippi, on August 26 said it had about 7,400 workers ready to respond to the storm, including 5,300 […]

A new report from two groups that study energy policy supports the establishment of a fully competitive regional electricity market in the U.S. Southeast, something already being discussed by at least two of the region’s largest utilities. The analysis published August 25 from San Francisco, California-based Energy Innovation, and Boulder, Colorado-based Vibrant Clean Energy (VCE), […]

A major fire at the Srisailam Left Bank Hydel Power Station in India’s Telegana state on August 20 killed nine people and seriously injured three others. There is now a wide-ranging federal investigation into its cause.  According to plant owner and operator, Telangana State Power Generation Corp. Ltd. (TSGenco), the tragic accident occurred at about […]

Financing has been secured for a new combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Illinois, a project expected to begin supplying electricity to the Chicago area in 2023. Competitive Power Ventures (CPV), in partnership with GE Energy Financial Services, Osaka Gas USA, Axium Infrastructure, and Harrison Street, on August 24 said it has reached financial […]

California’s governor demanded an investigation into the cause of a series of power outages—the first since an energy crisis in 2001—that blacked out parts of the state in recent days.  California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has struggled to ensure reliability since Friday, Aug. 14, when, amid triple-digit temperatures, it declared a statewide Stage 2 Emergency, […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved to redesignate four new areas of Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Texas as being in attainment of air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2).  The proposed actions issued over the past week provide a potential reprieve for several coal power plants, which would have needed costly pollution controls to […]

Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sent its first electricity to the UAE grid on August 19, according to a statement from the country’s ambassador to the U.S. The Barakah facility is the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. The plant became operational about three […]

Several companies have announced new energy projects in Texas, including three utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), and a solar farm that will benefit customers in the western part of the state. The projects were announced August 19. In addition, officials in Houston on Wednesday said they have awarded a contract for a microgrid that […]

The small town of Cordova, Alaska, is located 150 miles southeast of Anchorage, near the picturesque head of the Orca Inlet on the Prince William Sound, at the mouth of the Copper River. It is renowned for its Copper River king and red salmon. Every year, the town transforms into a seafood and fishing powerhouse […]

Analysis from a global energy organization said power generation from coal-fired units fell 8.3% in the first half of 2020, with the world’s coal fleet running at less than half its capacity. The drop for U.S. coal generation was more steep, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting the output from the nation’s coal […]

An analysis of federal labor data for the clean energy sector shows renewable energy and other industries are adding jobs after months of declines brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. But the gains in July were lower than those in June, signaling sectors such as solar, wind, energy storage, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles continue […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform to substantially boost national energy research experimental capability and allow the scientific community to explore fundamental challenges related to integrated energy systems at scale.  ARIES, which the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, developed over this […]

Investors in the global power and utilities sector embraced agendas that created long-term value during the first half of this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the world. Recent activity points to several interesting trends that will likely persist in a post-crisis world and may even accelerate change in the sector, new analyses from global […]

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) are teaming on a notable five-year-long initiative to accelerate development and demonstrate low-carbon technologies that they say are needed to help private companies and governments achieve increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals by 2050. The Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI), officially launched on Aug. 10, is […]

It’s an article of faith in large parts of the U.S.—at least among power industry people—that organized and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–regulated “merchant” interstate power markets are the best way to ensure a sufficient supply of electricity, as well as to ensure fair and equitable prices for ratepayers. On that basis, large areas of […]

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), New Jersey’s giant utility, has become the latest major U.S. power company to seek an exit from the competitive generation business.  In a statement attached to the company’s second-quarter 2020 earnings results released on July 31, Ralph Izzo, PSEG chairman, president, and CEO, said the company is “exploring strategic alternatives” […]

Unit 5 at the Tianwan nuclear power plant, an ACPR-1000 under construction in China’s Jiangsu province, achieved first criticality on July 27, said Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp., the plant’s owner and operator. According to China National Nuclear Power Corporation (CNNC), China’s giant state-owned nuclear generator and fuel manufacturer which is building the reactor, first fuel […]

Indian power giant NTPC commissioned the second unit of the vast 1,320-MW Khargone Super Thermal Power Project in Madhya Pradesh this March, completing its first ultrasupercritical power plant. The project’s