News

Rentech Inc.’s proposed St. Joe Renewable Energy Center—one of the world’s first biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) projects—last week received a final air permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and will now begin construction of the planned project.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Thursday announced approval of four new renewable projects on public lands, including two utility-scale solar developments in California, a wind energy project in Oregon, and a transmission line in Southern California.

On Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order in which it said it found insufficient consensus on smart grid interoperability standards to require it to institute a rulemaking procedure. It urged industry participants to continue working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop such standards.

Just a month after American Electric Power (AEP) announced it would shut down 6 GW of its coal-fired capacity by 2014 because of new federal emission rules, the Ohio-based utility on Thursday terminated a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) and brought a $668 million project to commercialize carbon capture and storage (CCS) to a screeching halt, citing an uncertain U.S. climate policy and the weak economy.

On July 6, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which requires 27 states in the eastern U.S. to significantly improve air quality by reducing power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and/or fine particle pollution in other states. This rule replaces the EPA’s 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR).

The Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) has said it is concerned that Duke Energy has not demonstrated any “budgetary constraints” on the Edwardsport integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project under construction near Vincennes, Ind. And, in a reversal of position, the state agency representing utility ratepayer interests recommended that the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) should not approve the company’s request for cost recovery for more than $2.35 billion.

Xcel Energy announced on Friday that it has reached a settlement with the federal government regarding costs incurred by Northern States Power Co. (NSP) and its customers because of the Department of Energy’s failure to begin removing used fuel from the company’s nuclear plant sites by a 1998 deadline. As a result, over $100 million will be returned to NSP customers in five states.

The Republican-led House Appropriation Committee on Monday approved an annual spending bill for fiscal year 2012 that would cut funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to $7.1 billion—18% less than requested. The bill would also suspend existing federal rules that limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources, prohibit the agency from issuing any rules limiting GHG emissions from stationary sources, and from issuing permits containing provisions to limit GHGs emissions from stationary sources during the next fiscal year.

The Canadian province of Québec last week issued draft rules for the operations of a greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program based on guidelines from the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), of which it is a member. The draft regulation, now open for a 60-day public comment period, covers emissions of more than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, and it applies to power sector and industrial emitters. If the rules go into effect, the province could have a working cap-and-trade program by Jan. 1, 2012.

New Hampshire’s Gov. John Lynch last week vetoed a bill that would have withdrawn the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional carbon trading program whose members include nine other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The governor said the bill would cost the state’s citizens jobs and hinder economic recovery.

Australia’s coal-fired power plants will have access to emergency federal loans to prevent financial failure and ensure power supplies. The government move is in response to a carbon tax set to be announced on Sunday.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.’s (AECL’s) CANDU reactor division is to be sold to Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. for C$15 million Canada’s natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, announced last Wednesday.

Last Thursday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced offers of conditional commitments for loan guarantees of approximately $4.5 billion to support three alternating current cadmium telluride (Cd-Te) thin film photovoltaic (PV) solar generation facilities.

An explosion and fire at a French nuclear plant and jellyfish clogging Scottish and Israeli cooling water intakes were added to the list of challenges faced by nuclear and coal generators in the past week.

Last Wednesday, worsening flooding conditions along the Missouri River prompted the partial evacuation of nonessential workers from the Iatan Power Plant in Weston, Missouri, 40 miles north of Kansas City. The plant remains in operation.

For the first time in 37 years, the Japanese government ordered large customers to restrict electricity usage if they are in Tohoku Electric Power Co. Inc.’s or Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) service territories, effective July 1. With the exception of essential services and powering cleanup operations at the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, large energy users are to cut consumption 15% below last summer’s levels.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced last Wednesday that it has determined that Massey Energy officials kept two sets of safety records for the Upper Big Branch Mine (UBB) in Raleigh County, W.Va., site of a deadly explosion a year ago. Additional details, including evidence that miners faced intimidation that prompted them to ignore safety hazards, point to the conclusion that the accident last spring was preventable.

Last week, New Jersey’s Legislature passed legislation that affirmed the state’s involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and banned the natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Neighboring New York, meanwhile, is poised to lift a moratorium on new shale gas drilling, and France has become the first country to ban fracking.

On June 30, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved PSEG Nuclear’s request to extend the operating licenses of Salem Generating Station Units 1 and 2 an additional 20 years. The decision was met by protests from environmentalists, who say that PSEG Nuclear has done too little to address leaks at the plant.

The late Dr. Carl Sagan once observed, “We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology (S&T).” I would add that those who know the least about S&T are often the ones responsible for determining policy and funding priorities. One good example of this problem is the piecemeal approach taken to developing carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies.

Hach Co. unveiled its DR 3900 spectrophotometer featuring state-of-the-art radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Hach, which describes the device as being “similar to a GPS telling you when to turn,” also says that the DR 3900 requires less training and increases confidence in the test results. This helps water and wastewater facilities prevent measurement errors. […]

The Tettex 2293 from Swiss firm Haefely Test AG is the result of extensive research and years of experience testing transformers. A simple one-time-connection system, together with the simultaneous winding magnetization method (SWM), drastically reduces measuring time. The SWM guarantees fast and reliable measurements even on large power transformers with delta windings on the low-voltage […]

Eclipse Inc. introduced the TJSR v5 self-recuperative burner for direct-fired furnace heating applications. The advanced burner design combines a high-velocity flame with fuel-saving recuperation. A space-saving integral eductor pulls the furnace exhaust through an internal ceramic recuperator. The recuperator preheats the incoming combustion air to very high levels, which improves furnace operating efficiency to reduce […]

Massachusetts-based Cabot Corp. recently introduced Enova, an aerogel that is a new high-performance thermal additive designed specifically for insulation coatings. Enova aerogel is designed for application to surfaces that are not already insulated but ideally should be. Cabot researchers have found that applying a 1-millimeter coating containing Enova aerogel to a 200C metal surface meets […]

Distributed wind generator supplier Southwest Windpower unveiled a small wind turbine for commercial and residential use, the Skystream 600, which it claims is the “most efficient power grid-connected turbine in its class, providing an average of 7,400 kWh of clean, low-cost energy per year per household in 12 mph average annual wind speeds.” The company […]

Encorp LLC announced the launch of its Microgrid System Controller, which it says is the industry’s first microgrid system controller to connect onsite synchronous generators with renewable energy assets—such as photovoltaic systems, wind, and microturbines—and then monitor and control the resulting microgrid. The controller has already been successfully installed at a major international defense contractor […]

Thomas & Betts’ Emergi-Lite Nexus Emergency Lighting Management System provides real-time status of the entire emergency lighting and exit-sign system, runs system diagnostics, performs required monthly and annual functional tests, generates maintenance logs, and runs compliance reports from a central control unit. Additionally, the system operates independently of the emergency lighting and exit sign, so […]

Flooding that threatens two Midwest nuclear power plants and fire that reached the edge of the top U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory put U.S. nuclear safety in the news this week. Government officials responded with assurances that all facilities had adequately safeguards in place to ride out natural disasters.

Progress Energy Florida provided an update to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) on Monday regarding the status of its Crystal River Nuclear Plant. Based on an initial review, the company believes that repairing the unit is the best option, and it is taking steps to complete more detailed engineering and construction analyses. The company estimates that the unit will return to service in 2014.

On Monday, federal regulators renewed the operating licenses for Xcel Energy Inc.’s Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2, which will allow the plant to run for 20 more years. Four days earlier, Xcel shut down its other nuclear plant in Minnesota to repair a valve.