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Wahl Instruments introduced the Heat Spy Portable Calibration Black Body, an ambient temperature black body used for single-point calibration verification and checking of thermal imaging cameras and point infrared thermometers. The easy-to-use device features an accuracy of ±0.3F (0.2C) over the entire range, and it is housed in a watertight IP67 carrying case. The Wahl […]

July 17, 1955, was the first time electricity generated by a U.S. nuclear power plant flowed into a utility grid. The experiment required Utah Power & Light to disconnect itself from the power lines to the 1,200 residents of Arco, Idaho, and plug in the Argonne National Laboratory experimental boiler water reactor, BORAX-III. The plant produced merely 2 megawatts for more than an hour, as planned, after which linemen reconnected the town’s grid to the utility. Since then, the U.S. nuclear industry has demonstrated excellence in operations, but more than 50 years after that first nuclear power supply, it is lagging far behind even developing nations in new construction.

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Electro Industries designed the Shark100 meter in response to requests within the industry for low-cost Ethernet-accessible power meters. Featuring 100BaseT Ethernet capability utilizing Modbus TCP as its standard protocol, the device offers a highly economical solution to provide multifunction metering. In addition to Ethernet TCP/IP, the Shark100 meter is a highly accurate 0.2% power and […]

The first legislative hearing on the 923-page Kerry-Boxer climate change and energy bill kicked off on Tuesday at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, with four prominent Obama administration officials making the case that failure to act now on climate change could affect U.S. standing in the global economy. Moderate committee members, meanwhile, criticized the legislation, signaling a tough battle ahead.

A settlement reached between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and health and environmental groups on Friday commits the agency to set pollution standards that limit air pollutants such as mercury and soot emissions from the nation’s coal- and oil-fired power plants by November 2011.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that 14 individuals who filed a class-action lawsuit against insurance, coal, and chemical companies can seek relief for property damages resulting from Hurricane Katrina. The court cited a Sept. 21 ruling, Connecticut v. AEP, by a federal court that allowed plaintiffs to sue coal-burning utilities for creating a “public nuisance” through their emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases. It is the second decision to allow a climate change–related public nuisance lawsuit to move past the pleading stage.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Siemens Energy Inc. last week formally commissioned a new 2.3-MW Siemens wind turbine at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center. The turbine is the centerpiece of a multiyear project to study the performance and aerodynamics of a new class of large, land-based machines—in what will be the biggest government-industry research partnership for wind power generation ever undertaken in the U.S., NREL said.

Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer last week warned that federal rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to limit nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions by requiring costly technological retrofits at the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station (NGS) could threaten closure of the plant and impact jobs, power supplies, and water costs to the state’s citizens.

The Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP), one of seven partnerships in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships program, said today that it has successfully injected 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the Mount Simon Sandstone, a deep saline formation that is spread out across much of the Midwest.

A new report from the National Academy of Sciences finds that in 2005, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter emitted by 406 coal-fired power plants—representing some 95% of the nation’s coal-fired generation—caused about $62 billion in “hidden” costs, or damages not reflected in market prices of electricity.

Start-up of Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 under construction in Finland, has been postponed beyond June 2012 because civil construction is taking longer than was previously estimated, according plant owner Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO). Finland’s nuclear regulatory agency has, meanwhile, called attention to “deficiencies” in the welding of the plant’s cooling system, potentially causing further delays.

The Pioneer Project—a long-awaited large-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) demonstration facility—last week got a boost as French industrial giant Alstom and Canada’s largest investor-owned power group, TransAlta, partnered with the governments of Canada and Alberta to build the plant at a coal-fired generation station in Canada.

Beacon Power Corp.—maker of a much-watched flywheel system that is designed to regulate grids using efficient energy storage—last week garnered the New York State Public Service Commission’s (PSC’s) approval for a proposed 20-MW flywheel frequency regulation plant in Stephentown, N.Y., as well as for the project’s overall financing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce fell victim to serial hoaxers The Yes Men on Monday, when pranksters sent out a press release on the Chamber’s letterhead announcing that the business group of 3 million members had changed its views on climate change legislation and would be holding a press conference to talk about its new position. The hoax was only exposed midway through the fake press conference after it was interrupted by a real Chamber official.

Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) last week said that it will likely open its 90,000-panel photovoltaic (PV) solar facility later this month. The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Fla., project, which will overtake Nevada’s Nellis Solar Power Plant for the title of largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in the nation and in North America, will begin operation as several other large U.S. solar projects are being shelved.

The cap-and-trade approach will best tackle global warming and sustain economic recovery because, though reducing carbon emissions will cost money, alternatives to cap and trade will cost more, Exelon Chair and CEO John W. Rowe reiterated on Tuesday in a keynote address at the PennFuture Southeast Global Warming Conference in Penn Valley, Pa.

In the wake of this week’s Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) in London—a meeting attended by leaders from 22 countries to explore the best ways to accelerate commercialization of carbon capture and storage (CCS)—several significant announcements were made around the world.

The $8 million pilot project funded by 37 power companies from around the world to test Alstom’s advanced chilled ammonia process on a 1.7-MW flue slipstream at We Energies’ coal-fired Pleasant Prairie power plant in Wisconsin has demonstrated more than 90% carbon capture—or about 40 tons each day—sponsors said on Thursday.

American Superconductor Corp. (AMCS) announced on Tuesday that its Superconductor Electricity Pipelines have been chosen for the Tres Amigas Project, the nation’s first renewable energy market hub. The Tres Amigas Project, introduced yesterday in Albuquerque by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary in President Bill Clinton’s administration, focuses on uniting the three main U.S. power grids for the first time to enable faster adoption of renewable energy and increase the reliability of the U.S. grid.

The Mexican government over the weekend disbanded Luz y Fuerza del Centro, a state-owned power utility that distributes 30% the country’s power supply, and ordered the federal electricity commission to seize the utility’s operations because it was hemorrhaging money and the ensuing budget gap could threaten service to some 25 million customers.

The catastrophe at the 6,400-MW Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant that killed 75 workers in southern Siberia on Aug. 17 had a number of contributing causes, including design, operation, and repair drawbacks, an investigative report released last week by the Russian industrial safety regulator Rostekhnadzor said. But the agency also pointed fingers at six high-ranking officials, saying that the accident resulted from their “negligence, laxity, and a lack of engineering thinking.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week proposed a rule that would limit future regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act to industrial facilities that emit 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide annually. The announcement was made on the same day as Senate Democrats unveiled the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” indicating increased pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation.

Canadian Hydro Developers last week agreed to buy the rights to a proposed 4,440-MW offshore wind project—what could possibly be the largest offshore wind facility in the world—in Lake Erie from Utah-based Wasatch Wind, but the company later acknowledged that the Ontario government had not yet granted it the rights to build the farm.

Alcoa Power Generating (APGI) has countered North Carolina’s alleged efforts to seize its privately owned hydropower business along the Yadkin River by filing a formal response with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the company said on Tuesday.

A pilot project begun at NRG Energy’s 1,700-MW Big Cajun II power plant will evaluate local conditions for growing switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum and determine if they could replace a portion of the plant’s combusted coal to reduce its carbon intensity. The project could lead to commercial-scale projects that would substitute biomass for some of the coal burned at NRG’s other carbon-intensive plants, the company said last week.

Twelve U.S. carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will be the first to receive grants from the $1.4 billion allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Energy Department said on Friday.

In this column last month I quoted Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh to represent India’s intention to not agree to any legally binding emissions targets at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December. That conference will start formal negotiations of a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. A number of readers wrote to say that they believe India and China, despite their protestations to the contrary, will cave to international pressure and at the end of the day agree to some binding carbon emissions limits. I disagree.

Martin Engineering’s Performance Duty QC#1 Belt Cleaner (PDQC#1) is the latest addition to the company’s line of "Quick Change" belt cleaners. The PDQC #1 Cleaner features a more rugged steel mainframe, a low-maintenance spring tensioner, and a high-volume urethane blade that extends life while maintaining cleaning performance. It also uses a one-piece urethane blade featuring […]

ESAB Welding & Cutting Products’ newly introduced CaddyTig 2200i AC/DC power source is designed to produce quality gas tungsten arc (TIG) and shielded metal arc (stick) welds in a variety of materials. With a light, compact design, the CaddyTig 2200i offers control panels that present all welding parameters in an easy-to-understand layout. ESAB’s two-program function […]