News

Two renewables giants with a hefty global reach are facing debilitating financial crises. SunEdison on the Verge of Bankruptcy California-headquartered solar project developer SunEdison, a company that has 1,000 operational sites worldwide and is staffed by 3,000 employees, is facing a liquidity crisis so dire, the company’s yieldco TerraForm Global warned in a March 29 […]

A handful of attorneys general want to join forces on ongoing and potential investigations into whether fossil fuel companies misled investors and the public about the impact of climate change on their businesses. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the joint effort on March 29, during a one-day climate change conference for attorneys […]

While conducting a comprehensive inspection on more than 2,000 of the reactor’s removable insert liner bolts during a Unit 2 planned outage at the Indian Point nuclear power plant, engineers identified issues with approximately 11% of them, requiring further analysis. Some of the bolts—and the bars meant to hold them in place—were missing, while others […]

Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), announced on March 29 that it’s launching a new business unit called Edison Energy that will provide energy consulting services to large energy consumers across the country to help them in identifying and exploiting opportunities to lower energy costs, reduce complexity of energy management, and meet […]

A diverse coalition of major investor-owned utilities, public power authorities, and one of the largest independent power producers, as well as a combination of cities and states, clean energy groups, and environmental groups, filed briefs with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan. The involved […]

The Edison Electric Institute has come under fire for a new communications plan that was intended to depict utilities as more community-minded.

Exelon’s acquisition of Pepco Holdings was approved March 23 as the District of Columbia Public Service Commission approved the deal by a 2-1 vote.

“My sense as I speak to you here today is that nuclear energy is toast,” said New York Times Reporter Eduardo Porter, as he opened a panel discussion titled “Nuclear Energy and the Clean Energy Future” held at the New York University School of Law on March 23. “Despite the challenge from climate change that […]

Over the past week, several states took action on the Clean Power Plan as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged governors to “wait and see” on the carbon rule, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) chief defended the rule. McConnell Urges Governors to Halt Compliance Work. In a March 21 letter to the National […]

Two environmental groups on March 22 filed a notice of intent to sue Florida Power & Light (FPL) in federal court over leaks from the utility’s Turkey Point Nuclear Plant south of Miami that have raised concerns about contamination of area drinking water. The problems began several years ago, after FPL completed an uprate at Turkey […]

As it promised last May, Michigan-based Consumers Energy is shuttering seven of its oldest coal-fired plants, which make up more than two-thirds of its coal fleet. Consumers Energy made the decision last year in response to changing environmental regulations and market conditions that made it uneconomic to continue operating the plants. The seven units, all […]

Whether utilities, technology providers, or independent third-party upstarts are best suited to create a reliable recipe for microgrid development remains an open question.

Although new microgrid configurations, technologies, and business models are still evolving in the U.S., some lessons have been learned in the past few years. Aside from the fact that financing nontraditional/non-campus microgrids is hard, if there’s one overarching lesson, it’s that a microgrid designed to provide only one benefit or rely on only one generation source is unlikely to succeed.

Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s a roundup of Garland’s more recent power sector rulings. July 2015: On Backup Generators Chief Judge Garland and senior circuit Judges Williams and Randolph repealed part of the Environmental Protection […]

South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) announced on March 15 that it has received two nuclear installation site license applications from Eskom Holdings, the only designated, cabinet-confirmed majority owner and operator of nuclear power plants in the country. The applications were for Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape and Duynefontein in the Western Cape. The Thyspunt […]

On March 13, three of Germany’s 16 states held regional elections that were largely seen as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s increasingly controversial refugee policies as well as the waning importance of energy and climate policies. Perhaps the biggest challenger and winner in this election was the far right, those against both the Energiewende […]

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed, with bipartisan support, a bill that slackens emissions limits for power plants that burn coal refuse. The Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment (SENSE) Act passed the House with a 231–183 vote on March 15. However, the White House has said it strongly opposes the bill (H.R. […]

Duke Energy is testing a hybrid ultracapacitor-battery energy storage system (HESS) at its Rankin Substation in Gaston County, N.C., in an effort to find a more effective way to integrate renewable energy into its system. The project became operational in February, but there is still testing in progress to demonstrate the system’s multiple service applications. […]

The proposed expansion of the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in the U.K., a joint project between French-based EDF and Chinese firm CGN, was thrown into fresh doubts this month as EDF’s CEO said the project cannot proceed without additional financial support from the French government. The hugely expensive project—at £18 billion ($25.5 billion) it would […]

It’s been five years since the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami prompted a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, but the world’s nuclear power sector is still lurching from its aftershocks. The Crisis at Daiichi Endures Five years ago, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed […]

Construction of a 50-MWt plant that will demonstrate a novel oxyfuel natural gas power system using Allam Cycle technology with zero atmospheric emissions has kicked off in La Porte, Texas. The demonstration plant is being built by the technology’s developer, Durham, N.C.–based NET Power, along with Exelon Generation, CB&I, and 8 Rivers Capital. NET Power’s […]

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its March 8 Short-Term Energy Outlook that natural gas would supply the largest share of U.S. electricity in 2016, continuing its rise against coal. EIA data from 2015 showed that gas and coal pulled into a near-tie on the year, with coal generating 1,356 TWh, for a 33.2% […]

Of nearly 18 GW of U.S. generating capacity permanently shuttered in 2015, 77% was conventional steam coal–fired. About 30% of that 13.7 GW in coal capacity was retired in April 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule went into effect, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on March […]

The 4-GW three-unit Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station has broken its own generation record, producing the highest electricity output of any nuclear plant in the world. APS, the Arizona utility that operates the plant, said Palo Verde generated 32.5 million MWh in 2015, making it still the only U.S. power plant to ever produce more […]

China has been struggling for years with endemic air pollution in major cities like Shanghai, and the nation’s traditional heavy reliance on coal has been challenged head-on by new government policies to cut emissions and reduce the carbon intensity of the power sector. While major advanced coal plants and China’s massive build-out of its nuclear […]

Distributed energy firm Vivint Solar has terminated an agreement under which it would have merged with renewables giant SunEdison in a $2.2 billion deal. The Lehi, Utah–based company told investors on March 8 that it had delivered a letter notifying SunEdison that the merger agreement had been terminated, owing to SunEdison’s “failure to meet obligations” […]

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the plea of 20 states to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule while the agency works to comply with a previous ruling. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had requested the stay to pause any further action to implement the rule […]

Entergy Corp. announced on March 4 that three of its subsidiaries had closed on a transaction to purchase the 1,980-MW Union Power Station near El Dorado, Ark. The plant includes four combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units, each rated at 495 MW. Each unit operates two GE 7-FA combustion turbines with inlet air fogging, two […]

The Oregon Senate passed a bill on March 2 that will require electric companies in the state to eliminate coal-fired resources from their electrical supplies by January 1, 2030. The bill—which passed in the senate by a 17–12 vote—had already been passed by the Oregon House of Representatives (38–20). It now heads to Gov. Kate […]

The disposal of coal ash, a combustion byproduct from coal-fired power plants, was propelled into the national conversation on December 22, 2008, when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston power plant suffered one of the largest coal ash spills in history. Calls for regulatory action shifted pitch again after the Duke Energy Dan River spill […]