News

German powerhouse Siemens AG on Monday said it would shed its 34% stake in the Franco-German joint venture AREVA NP S.A.S., citing a “lack of exercising entrepreneurial influence within the joint venture” as the reason behind the move.

Belarus, the country worst affected by the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, last week moved forward with plans to build its first nuclear power plant, naming Russian company Atomstroiexport to build it.

The Scottish government has approved an application to operate a 4-MW wave energy project that would harness power from the Atlantic Ocean in Siadar Bay—one of the first marine renewable energy projects to be approved in the UK.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week announced it would loan up to $300 million to Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s demonstration project to capture carbon dioxide at its Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, N.D.

GE-Hitachi is reportedly expecting to get orders for six to eight nuclear power reactors in India while Larsen & Tourbo (L&T) and Westinghouse Electric Co. announced Friday they would jointly build Westinghouse’s AP1000 pressurized water reactors and seek orders in the country.

Mississippi Power last week filed for a certificate of public convenience and necessity at the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) to build a 582-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kemper County. The plant represents the first advanced gasification generating facility with carbon capture capabilities in Mississippi, and one of the first in the country.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), an oil-rich region that is preparing to accommodate a 9% annual growth in power consumption, last week signed separate agreements with the U.S. and Japan for the potential development of nuclear power.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) last week unanimously granted approval for 345-kV transmission lines sought for the proposed $1.6 billion Big Stone II coal-fired plant in South Dakota.

Weeks after a containment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant ruptured and caused a massive coal ash flood, the federal utility is now also working to repair a gypsum pond at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Alabama, after gypsum slurry overflowed into the creek Friday.

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. named Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its 2008 CEO of the Year, citing key investments in energy companies such as General Electric and Constellation Energy as reasons that cemented the award.