News

Montana last week revoked an air quality permit needed by the Southern Montana Electric (SME) Generation and Transmission Cooperative to build a 250-MW coal-fired power plant east of Great Falls, Mont. The decision was reportedly made at SME’s request.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is now looking to build a single reactor at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site in Hollywood, Ala., instead of the four reactors for which it had anticipated regulatory approval.

Duke Energy and the China Huaneng Group—among the largest utilities in the U.S. and China—on Monday signed an agreement to discuss and share information to explore a variety of clean energy technologies, especially those that pertain to cleaner coal.

To meet future demand as well as carbon constraints, the U.S. power industry should by 2030 build 45 new nuclear reactors, increase renewable generation four-fold, decrease electricity consumption 8% through improved end-use efficiency, and deploy 100 million plug-in electric vehicles, according to an updated “Prism and Merge” analyses from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

A new analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds that the most carbon dioxide reductions will occur in the electric power sector, mainly through the reduction in use of coal power. But it also finds that compliance with emissions caps that is generated through offsets could exceed actual reductions in covered emissions, and that the average electric customer could face a 20% price hike by 2030.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it would make available an additional $30 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects. At the same time, it pledged another $750 million in subsidy costs to support projects that increase the reliability, efficiency, and security of the national grid.

Italy’s Enel and Electricité de France (EDF) on Monday sealed a €16 billion deal to jointly develop feasibility studies for the construction of at least four advanced third-generation EPR units in Italy—a country that recently reversed a 21-year-old ban on nuclear power.

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is reportedly negotiating an energy project with Hydro Quebec and other Canadian entities that could allow the state-owned power organization to import up to 2,000 MW of power from multiple sources, including hydropower, from Canada.

Chinese officials claim that the country is 18 months ahead of schedule in its goal to close 50 million kilowatts of coal-fired generating capacity by the end of 2010. They say the country has so far shut down small coal-fired plants with a total generating capacity of 54.07 GW from 2006 to the end of June this year—about 7% of the nation’s current generating capacity.

Arkansas-based Baldor Electric Co. launched a new direct drive technology for the cooling tower industry that improves reliability, reduces maintenance, runs quieter, and saves energy. The Adjustable Speed Direct Drive Cooling Tower Motor combines technologies of the field-proven laminated finned frame RPM AC motor with a high-performance permanent magnet salient pole rotor design, and it […]