News
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News
Reduced Cost for Renewables Supports Sector Growth
A new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows costs for renewable power are increasingly cheaper than those for generation from coal, reinforcing the trend of increased investment in solar and wind power and away from fossil fuel-powered electricity production. The IRENA report—Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2019—showed that more than half of […]
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Interview
The POWER Interview: Ameresco’s CEO on Efficiency, Renewables, and Resilience
The present and future of power generation is and will be driven by new technologies, those designed to increase the efficient use of electricity while limiting emissions and supporting resiliency. It’s a challenging time for those in energy. Developing solutions to solve issues in the power sector involves navigating an uncertain and ever-changing regulatory landscape, […]
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News
Germany Brings Last New Coal Plant Online
What is expected to be the last new coal plant to come online in Germany entered commercial operation on May 30, more than a decade after it was first planned. The 1,100-MW Datteln 4 power plant, owned by Uniper and located in Datteln in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, opened despite the German government’s stated plan […]
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News
EPA Curbs State Review of Energy Projects
The Trump administration on June 1 moved to limit the ability of individual states to use provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to block energy projects, a potential win for the power generation and other energy industry sectors that have battled lengthy licensing and permitting reviews and rejections based on climate change arguments. The […]
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News
Salt River Project Issues RFI to Gather Information on Projects up to 500 MW of Wind Power
Salt River Project has issued a Request for Information (RFI) for up to 500 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. The RFI seeks response from experienced wind project developers who can provide wind energy supply from new or existing wind projects. No contract will be entered into as a direct result of this RFI process; however, […]
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Gas
T-Point 2 Is a Proving Ground for Gas Turbine Advancements
It may be unusual to recognize a demonstration facility with POWER’s Plant of the Year award, but T-Point 2 is a remarkable unit that is poised to change the way power plants operate. Besides validating new
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Smart Grid
Smart Neighborhood Wins Smart Grid Award
Alabama Power’s Smart Neighborhood integrates a microgrid into a community filled with high-performance homes containing energy-efficient systems and connected appliances. The innovative initiative, which
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News
Company’s Mission: A Clean Energy Building, and Living Laboratory
Embracing sustainability is more than a slogan for Delta Electronics (Americas); it’s defined by the company’s headquarters building. The site incorporates Delta’s own technologies to promote energy
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News
Power Project Provides Shelter from the Storm
Dozens of microgrids are deployed at schools across Puerto Rico, bringing reliable, resilient power to the island. The project, featuring solar plus storage, is an important part of the region’s recovery
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Markets
COVID-19 Makes for an Interesting Summer Peak Season
It’s peak season for the U.S. power industry. While actual dates may vary from one utility to another, generally the summer peak period spans from Memorial Day (May 25 this year) to Labor Day (Sept. 7)
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News
Record-Low Solar Prices Drive Middle East Projects
Abu Dhabi Power Corp. (ADPower) in late April announced what it called the lowest-ever cost-competitive tariff for a solar photovoltaic (PV) project, a few months after a project in Dubai made that claim for
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News
Renewables Gain Investors as Some Flee Oil, Gas, and Coal
The global crash of prices for crude oil, on top of a prolonged slump in the price of natural gas, is taking a toll on the oil and gas sector. The coal industry also continues to suffer, as the supply of
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News
POWER Digest [June 2020]
SGRE Signs Deal for O&M on Wind Turbines. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has secured a long-term, 20-year contract to provide full-scope operation and maintenance (O&M) services for a 135-MW
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News
Coal to Gas—Medical Campus Gets a Generation Transformation
When a hospital’s primary mission is keeping people healthy, what happens when a power plant gets sick? That was the situation that faced the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center (MRMC) when it’s circa 1950
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News
BACNet Protocol Can Change Energy Storage Industry
The growth of the energy storage industry in the past few years has been huge, and the sector is expected to add another 2 GW of capacity in 2020. In many ways, energy storage solutions (ESS) are at the
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Workforce
Assembling a Skilled Workforce in 2020 and Beyond
Many companies say their employees are their greatest assets, yet they don’t all invest the time or resources necessary to find the best people for open positions. Creating a sound recruiting program and
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Supply Chains
Equipment Showcase: Construction Equipment
Construction equipment is a critical part of the power generation industry, as new facilities are built and older facilities are upgraded to enhance efficiency and comply with evolving regulations. The
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Waste to Energy
Waste-to-Energy Strategies Are Not Dead
Few waste-to-energy (WTE) plants have been completed in the U.S. since the mid 1990s, but the story is different around the world, where WTE technology is seen as a suitable solution to municipal solid waste
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T&D
How Our Current Power Grid Is Failing Us
As coal prices fluctuate and regulations increase, utilities are phasing out dirty coal sources. With renewable energy like solar and wind set to become the fastest-growing sources of electricity generation in
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Wind
Sumitomo Electric Completes the Construction of Japan’s Largest Wind Farm “Wind Farm Tsugaru”
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has completed the construction of the largest wind farm in Japan, “Wind Farm Tsugaru,” which was ordered by Kajima Corporation. Wind Farm Tsugaru, with a total output of 121,600 kW, is the largest onshore wind farm in Japan (as of April 2020), established in Tsugaru […]
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Coronavirus
Charting a Path Forward for the Energy Sector in a Post-Pandemic World
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is not the type of thing enterprise technologists could see in our magic crystal ball. Before the onset of the virus and its effects, I set out three predictions for the energy, utilities, and resources sector for the coming year—but of course, a global shutdown of business, transport, and […]
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Wind
IRS Grants Wind and Solar Sectors Critical COVID-19 Reprieves
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has granted a one-year extension of the continuity safe harbor, providing much-needed relief for many wind developers, which, crippled by pandemic-related delays, were racing to complete projects before crucial tax incentives expired at the end of this year. In its May 27–issued Notice 2020-41, the IRS essentially modified prior […]
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News
With Vogtle Completion in Sight, Southern Company Targets Net-Zero Carbon Emissions
Fresh off the announcement that the final module for Vogtle Unit 3 was placed at the nuclear expansion project in Georgia, Southern Company said on May 27 that it was setting “a long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.” The announcement was made during Southern Company’s annual stockholders meeting, which […]
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News
Data Tool Shows Pandemic’s Impact on Power Prices
A clean energy valuation and risk analytics company said that low demand for energy during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with low prices for natural gas and strong power generation from renewable energy resources, has brought unprecedented low prices for electricity in multiple U.S. markets. REsurety said its Renewable Energy Market Analytics Platform (REmap) shows that […]
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Biomass
Large cogeneration project in Japan is expanded by 20 Spanner Re2 systems
Since the beginning of 2019, only ten, then twenty wood-power plants from Spanner Re2 GmbH including peripherals with above-average plant runtimes have been in operation. By the end of this year, the customer will install additional wood-power plants with an electrical output of 1 MW. Neufahrn i. NB. Spanner Re2, based in Neufahrn in Lower […]
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Gas
Doosan Škoda Power turbines continue to conquer Latin America, where they will serve in Uruguay’s first combined gas-steam cycle power plant
Pilsen (5/27/2020) – Pilsen-based Doosan Škoda Power successfully installed and launched a steam turbine with an output of 200 MW (DST-S20), along with operational equipment, at the Punta del Tigre combined gas-steam cycle power plant, located some 50 kilometres from Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The project called Punta del Tigre B, with a total […]
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Connected Plant
The POWER Interview: How Modern Control System Technology Is Changing Power Plant Operation
Distributed control systems (DCSs) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) have been commonplace in power plants for decades, but the technology has not been stagnant. Today’s systems are beginning to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to take plant control to a whole new level. To get an insider’s perspective on how these systems […]
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Solar
Sharp launches new stylish black half-cut cell PV panel
London, 26th May 2020 – Sharp today announces the addition of a new all black design monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) panel to its half-cut cell portfolio, the NU-JC320B. The new stylish half-cut cell PERC module offers a 2-3% higher module performance compared to standard full cell panels, providing design-oriented customers with an efficient and reliable […]
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News
Siemens Details Spinoff of Energy Business
The parent of Siemens Energy on May 26 provided details of the planned spinoff of the company’s energy business, saying 55% of Siemens Energy will be spun off to Siemens’ shareholders. The company said Siemens shareholders would automatically receive one share of Siemens Energy AG for every two shares they own of the parent, Siemens […]
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Coal
Thanks to Asia, Coal Is Still King Worldwide
Despite the U.S. and Europe shuttering coal-fired power plants, coal remains a major fuel in global energy systems. In 2018, global coal demand rebounded and grew by 1.4% due to increased consumption in Asia, where coal consumption increased by 2.5%. This increased consumption was mainly from power generation, which reached an all-time high, increasing 3% […]