Plant Design

Although other renewable sources of energy may be growing at a faster rate, more electricity continues to be generated in the U.S. by conventional hydropower than by wind, solar, and geothermal power combined

Geothermal technology, though over a century old, is constantly changing. Developments in mapping techniques have improved exploratory practices. Plant adaptations, such as hybrid technologies and the

Entergy Tests Fiber Optic Cables to Slash Copper Use A unique pilot under way at a substation in New Orleans, La., uses fiber optic cables in a way that could help utilities reduce the use of copper wire. But

Why would one want to validate a turbine design? The answer is that actual operation of new and more advanced gas turbines can reveal issues that are very difficult to predict on the drawing board. As a

Although new microgrid configurations, technologies, and business models are still evolving in the U.S., some lessons have been learned in the past few years. Aside from the fact that financing nontraditional/non-campus microgrids is hard, if there’s one overarching lesson, it’s that a microgrid designed to provide only one benefit or rely on only one generation source is unlikely to succeed.

Utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) generation has exploded over the past few years. From nearly nothing in the late 2000s, the U.S. now has more than 10 GW of utility-scale solar PV in operation according to the Energy Information Administration. That figure should continue to grow strongly because of the recent extension of the investment tax […]

Steam turbines have to be warmed slowly to avoid excessive differential expansion of the various components, rotor stress, and potentially reduced service life. For that reason, startup times must be extended

At the ballyhooed Paris climate conference last December, a little-noticed event occurred that could lead to important developments for electric generators. At the Paris meeting, some 80

In late 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published new regulations governing wastewater discharge from steam electric power plants. These new regulations, or effluent limitation guidelines

Many combined cycle and cogeneration plants with heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) were originally intended as baseload power sources or steam producers. In recent years, however, some have been