News

France’s Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest constitutional authority, last week annulled a tax on carbon emissions hailed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying that the tax that was due to become effective Jan. 1 would have allowed for too many exemptions.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) last week put 31 renewable energy projects on a list for expedited processing so they could receive incentive funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act before its December 2010 deadline.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Monday issued a final rule to provide alternate requirements for protection against pressurized thermal shock events in nuclear power plant reactor vessels.

Researchers from John Hopkins and Texas A&M universities say that they have found a way to accurately predict power outages in advance of a hurricane. Computer models developed using data from Hurricane Katrina and four other destructive storms could save utilities substantial amounts of money and help facilitate rapid restoration of power after a storm, they say.

Baumer introduced the new MOR 90 and MOR 105 magnetic incremental encoders for improved speed and position control on electric motors, drives, gearboxes, and conveyors. Measuring just 14 mm thick, these extremely thin, flange-style encoders are virtually imperceptible when positioned between the motor and the gearbox and have little effect on the overall size of […]

Ashcroft A-Series pressure switches are designed for tough OEM and industrial applications that require a durable, high-quality miniature switch. Available with explosion-proof and watertight enclosures, the pressure switch features a refined piston actuator that can be ranged up to 2,000 psi while enduring a working pressure of 5,000 psi. Small dimensions, a choice of connections, […]

Racine Vortex released its RNS Series (Insertion) and RWS Series (Wafer) Vortex Steam Flow Meters to measure noncondensing steam and saturated process steam at pressures up to 150 psi for applications such as boiler monitoring. Both meters have no moving parts and are loop-powered devices with standard HART communication for ease of field programming and […]

Endevco Corp. launched Model 2771C-XX, an ultra-low-noise remote charge converter (RCC) designed for use with charge output piezoelectric sensors within applications such as nuclear power plant/regenerative energy and environmental testing. The model offers a rugged two-wire (IEPE), single-ended design that operates from constant current power (4-20 mA). Both RCC signal output and current to the […]

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Tuesday approved an air permit for an 830-MW coal-fired power plant in Hampton Township—with the condition that its proposer, Consumers Energy, will retire up to 958 MW of coal-fired generating capacity from seven of the company’s oldest existing coal plants in the state.

The first of two 800-MW units at Luminant’s new Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County, Texas, is now online, the Dallas-based company said on Monday. The coal-fired unit is the second Luminant has entered into service in Texas in the past six months. two

Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) on Tuesday said they had requested withdrawal of an application to run parts of the proposed Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) through Virginia because data from a regional grid operator showed that the project would not be needed in 2014 to resolve reliability problems on the grid.

A South Korean consortium last week won a $20.4 billion deal to build four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates—beating bids from a French consortium including Areva, GdF Suez, Électricité de France, and Total and a U.S.-Japanese consortium including General Electric and Hitachi. The consortium that won the first nuclear project awarded by […]

The U.S. Energy Department last week outlined plans to invest $366 million in three key energy areas: production of fuels directly from sunlight; improving energy-efficient building systems design; and computer modeling and simulation for the development of advanced nuclear reactors.

Texas has added some 3,140 MW of new generation capacity since May, mostly from coal and natural gas–fired power plants, the grid operator for most of the state said in a capacity, demand, and reserve update released last week.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week approved Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) application to build segments of  the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission (TRTP), a major transmission project and the first in that state specifically designed to access multiple renewable generation sources from remote renewable-rich resource areas.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week said that its decision to regulate coal ash waste from power plants, expected this month, will be delayed for a “short period” because of the “complexity of the analysis” underway at the agency.

Duke Energy this week agreed under a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to spend $93 million to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its coal-fired 560-MW Gallagher Station in New Albany, Ind.

A motion submitted to an administrative judge last week by Seminole Electric Cooperative states that the Florida-based electricity supplier has decided “not  to go forward with construction and operation” of a 750-MW coal-fired unit planned for the Seminole Generating Station—a 2009 POWER Top Plant—in Palatka, Fla. The company cited regulatory and legal uncertainties.

A year-long 1-MW pilot test demonstrating postcombustion carbon capture technology for coal-fired power plants has reportedly captured more than 90% of carbon dioxide from a slipstream of flue gas at FirstEnergy Corp.’s R.E. Burger Plant near Shadyside, Ohio.

World leaders have begun arriving in Copenhagen days before the international conference’s close on Dec. 18 to sign a comprehensive pact to curb climate change, but disagreements—mostly on rich-poor lines—among the 193 attending nations on issues from emissions reductions to technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) could mean there may be nothing to sign.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Monday said she would file a disapproval resolution to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) under the Clean Air Act.

Last week, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled a “basic framework for climate action” that combines caps on greenhouse gas (GHG) with offshore oil and gas exploration and an emphasis on nuclear power. At the same time, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine.) introduced legislation to cap the amount of fossil carbon sold but reduce the role of Wall Street in carbon markets.

NRG Energy’s $1.2 billion plan to build a 744-MW pulverized coal unit at its Limestone Electric Generating Station near Jewett, Texas, got a boost last week as the Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ) approved air permits for the plant.

Sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants across the U.S. fell 52% compared with 1990 levels, and they are already below the statutory annual emission cap of 8.95 million tons set for compliance in 2010 under the Acid Rain Program, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last week. The EPA’s annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory showed similar decreases by electric utilities for chemicals released into the air, land, and water.

Alberta will not stand in the way of new nuclear builds, but it will not invest public dollars in power proposals, the province’s Energy Minister Mel Knight said on Monday after a government-sponsored consultation showed that 45% of Albertans prefer that nuclear power plants be considered on a case-by-case basis.

General Electric last week won a $1.4 billion contract to supply wind turbines for the 845-MW Shepherds Flat wind farm proposed by independent power producer Caithness Energy. If built, the 338-turbine Oregon wind farm would be the largest in the world.

A permit issued by Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) last week to Southeast Idaho Energy to operate a clean coal gasification fertilizer plant near American Falls is the first in the state and the nation to set enforceable greenhouse gas emission limits.

San Antonio’s CPS Energy on Sunday filed a petition with a Bexar County court to define the liability faced by the utility and NINA (Nuclear Innovation North America), a Toshiba-NRG Energy consortium, if both parties pulled out of a project to expand the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear plant near Bay City, Texas.

In a “push” to the economy and employment, the European Commission today granted €1 billion to six carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and €565 million to nine offshore wind energy projects.

The U.S. Energy Department last week said it would fund three carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects with a value of $3.18 billion to accelerate their development: American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) proposed Mountaineer demonstration project; Southern Co.’s Plant Barry demonstration in Alabama; and Summit’s Texas Clean Energy Project in Midland-Odessa.