News

At least three states called for hefty new measures relating to greenhouse gas (GHG) goals over the past week. Mass. Gov. Directs State Officials to Implement Regulations to Annually Reduce GHG Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed an executive order on September 16 directing state officials to develop rules for specific, yearly reductions in GHG […]

The Heysham 2 nuclear power station broke a nearly 22-year-old record for continuous operation when it shut down Unit 8 on September 16 after 940 days online. The previous record—held by Pickering 7, a Canadian nuclear plant—was 894 days, set on October 7, 1994. EDF Energy said that the Heysham reactor—a 615-MW unit located on […]

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 […]

In an effort to become a fully regulated power company, American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to sell four Midwestern power plants—representing a total of 5.2 GW—to a newly formed joint venture of Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners for about $2.17 billion.  AEP will sell: the 1,186-MW natural gas–fired Lawrenceburg Generating Station in Lawrenceburg, Ind. […]

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 […]

After years of incremental advances, a variety of innovations both simple and exotic are promising to boost the output of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems as much as 30% over current technologies—if the market can be convinced to adopt them. The Dawn of SiC For a generation, silicon has been the go-to material for semiconductor substrates. […]

A strategy rolled out by the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of the Interior (DOI) to enable 86 GW of offshore wind capacity in the U.S. by 2050 highlights a number of key hurdles, including those related to technology, regulations, the environment, and markets. The DOE’s and DOI’s September 9–released joint document, “National Offshore […]

The global solar market has moved beyond its early, uncertain, freewheeling days. The luxury of behaving like start-ups has passed, and major firms in solar need to “grow up.” That at least was the message from top executives at Solar Power International (SPI), the industry’s largest trade show, in Las Vegas. David Crane of Pegasus […]

NRG Energy has taken action to acquire 2.1 GW of utility-scale wind and solar assets owned by bankrupt renewables giant SunEdison with a $144 million auction bid this week. New Jersey–based NRG Energy on Sept. 12 executed a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) to take on 200 MW of SunEdison’s construction-ready, fully contracted solar assets […]

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.

Talen Energy’s two-unit Martin’s Creek Power Plant in Mount Bethel Township, Penn., was forced offline as a result of a transformer fire Sept. 11, the company said. The incident occurred Sunday evening at a transformer yard adjacent to the plant. The fire was extinguished by local firefighters after about three hours. The plant was not […]

Duke Energy Renewables, part of Duke Energy’s Commercial Portfolio, announced on September 7 that it will add six Georgia solar projects to the 2.8-GW renewable energy portfolio the company owns and operates. The projects are relatively small in terms of capacity—averaging about 1 MW DC each (769 kW AC)—but they are the first Duke Energy […]

A merger proposed between Canadian firm Enbridge and Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. could create the largest energy infrastructure company in North America. The companies announced on September 6 that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in a stock-for-stock merger transaction that has an enterprise value of $127 billion. The transaction was reportedly […]

Panelists debating the pros and cons of a regionalized western power grid seemed to agree that the development of such a system is inevitable, but they disagreed on how fast the evolution should occur. The panel discussion took place during the California Independent System Operator (ISO) Stakeholder Symposium held on September 7 in Sacramento. At […]

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts, limping toward retirement in 2019, suffered yet another unplanned shutdown on September 6 after operators were forced to power down the reactor because of high water levels in the core. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) event report, “operators initiated a manual reactor scram due to high […]

Updates finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) identify nitrogen oxide emission (NOx) reductions from power plants in 22 states to help states address transported pollution under the agency’s more stringent 2008 ozone air quality standards. It marks the first time the EPA has updated an existing program […]

If wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) penetrations in the Eastern Interconnection were amped up to 30%, they would decrease coal, combined cycle, and combustion turbine capacity factors by 30% to 50%, a new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) suggests. The study, NREL’s Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study (ERGIS), was released on August […]

UK Abolishes Climate Change Department. As part of the major governmental shakeup triggered by Brexit—the UK’s momentous vote to leave the European Union—newly appointed UK Prime Minister Theresa May

A main bank transformer fire has put a halt to power ascension testing at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear plant. The incident occurred at about 9:10 p.m., on August 30, when an electrical fault on the 2B main bank transformer caused the Unit 2 main turbine to trip. The reactor, […]

Westinghouse, the lead supplier for the V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion project in South Carolina, said on August 30 that it had successfully placed the reactor vessel for the new Unit 2. The 278-metric-ton vessel was rigged into place by one of the largest construction cranes in the world, a heavy lift derrick with a […]

A fire at Muscatine (Iowa) Power and Water’s (MP&W’s) coal-fired power plant forced Unit 9 offline on August 30. The plant—located along the Mississippi River just south of town—includes three units with a combined capacity of about 276 MW. Units 7 and 8 were reportedly unaffected and continue to be available for power production. Customers […]

With costs for a restart escalating, Japan is considering scrapping its troubled Monju fast breeder nuclear reactor, just as a never-started nuclear plant in the Philippines may get a new lease on life. Monju May Be Finished Japan Times reported that readying the Monju plant for restart “would cost several hundred billion yen.” Sources said that […]

NRG Energy will pay $1 million in penalties, install environmental projects worth another $1 million, and complete costly upgrades under a consent decree it entered into with the state of Maryland to resolve wastewater discharge violations at two coal-fired power plants owned by its subsidiary GenOn. The settlement results from a June 2013 complaint Maryland […]

Fourteen research and development projects to scale up coal-based advanced combustion power systems and gasification processes and improve costs and endurance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have won investments of more than $28 million from the Department of Energy (DOE). The Energy Department on August 24 announced it has selected the projects to help […]

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 […]

Prices for solar energy systems fell to record lows across all sectors in 2015, according to two new reports from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The LBNL reports, released on August 24, are Tracking the Sun IX, which focuses on installed pricing trends in the distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) market, and Utility-Scale Solar 2015, […]

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 […]

The Sandy Creek coal-fired power plant—a 900-MW facility in Riesel, Texas—won a major victory in court on August 19 when a McLennan County jury agreed that the plant was appraised at a much higher value than justified by market conditions. The appraisal district had suggested the plant be valued at $900 million in 2014 and […]

It’s only 30 MW, but it’s a start. The Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., completed installation of its five wind turbines in the waters off Rhode Island on Aug. 18 (Figure), setting the stage for full operations in a few weeks, owner Deepwater Wind said.     The […]

By the end of this year, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from natural gas could surpass emissions from coal for the first time in nearly 45 years, according to projections by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook notes that consumption of natural gas in the U.S. between 1990 and 2005 […]