News

Whether you are a customer (and we all are), a utility executive, a power plant manager, or a grid operator, the smart grid has the potential to provide benefits beyond electricity. That was one theme of the presentations on Tuesday, the first day of the GridWise Global Forum (GGF) in Washington, D.C.

South Africa’s government on Thursday announced it would no longer invest in the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project, despite providing nearly 80% of the R9.2 billion ($1.3 billion) that has been poured into development of the Generation-IV helium-cooled high temperature reactor design. The decision was reached with the “fiscal constraints in these hard economic times” in mind, the government said.

The week brought important news from Washington on energy- and climate change–related legislation. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) introduced a bill to create a federal renewable electricity standard, the White House said it had received permitting guidance on greenhouse gases from the Environmental Protection Agency, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) reportedly canceled a key vote on a bill that sought to curb power plant emissions.

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative (MITEI) concludes that uranium supplies will not limit growth of the nuclear industry, contrary to a view that has prevailed for decades.

Costs passed onto consumers associated with the construction of Duke Energy Indiana’s Edwardsport coal gasification plant near Vincennes, Ind., will be capped at $2.975 billion, according to a settlement agreement reached last week between the utility, the Indiana Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), and Nucor Steel Indiana.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) last week unanimously approved construction and operation of Solar Millennium’s 1,000-MW Blythe Solar Power Project. If built, the project, consisting of four parabolic trough units, could be the world’s largest concentrating solar power (CSP) facility and among the first commercial solar thermal plants permitted on federal land.

Xcel Energy shut down its 538-MW Black Dog Power Plant in Burnsville, Minn., on Tuesday after an explosion rocked the coal- and gas–fired plant, causing visible damage to the exterior of the building. No personnel were harmed, but three firefighters responding to a smoldering fire in a coal hopper received minor injuries, police said.

As lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week, a bipartisan group of 26 governors on Monday urged Congress to pass a federal renewable energy standard (RES), saying that it could spur rapid growth of the nation’s renewable electricity sources.

Indiana and 11 other states filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, asking it to overturn a September 2009 decision by 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allows greenhouse gas emitters to be sued for contributing to a public nuisance—climate change and global warming.

The U.S. Department of Energy last week committed millions of dollars to accelerate the technical and commercial readiness of renewable and energy storage technologies. Commitments include the largest single federal award to date for emerging U.S. marine and hydrokinetic technologies.