Renewables

A federal court last week granted a motion barring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing the Clean Water Rule, which critics say is “exceptionally expansive.” A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Oct. 9 granted the stay sought by 31 states […]

Entergy Corp. will permanently close its 680-MW Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth, Mass., by June 2019, owing to poor market conditions, reduced revenues, and increased operational costs, the company said today.  The New Orleans–based company said it has notified grid operator ISO-New England (ISO-NE) that the reactor that began operations in 1972 would not […]

Alberta-based Carbon Engineering is inaugurating a pilot project today in Squamish, British Columbia, that will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere. The company, funded by private investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier Murray Edwards, has developed technology based on research conducted by Harvard University–based Professor David Keith’s research groups […]

India and 73 other countries submitted their carbon emission reduction targets for 2025 and 2030—or Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)—ahead of the deadline last week, with just two months remaining until talks to confront climate change are due to begin in Paris.  The United Nations (UN) has so far received 120 separate pledges covering 147 […]

Battery energy storage has exploded in deployment over the past several years, but the majority of it by capacity, especially in North America, is deployed at grid scale. That may be a problem, because a new study from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) suggests the greatest value to the system lies with behind-the-meter batteries—distributing battery […]

Xcel Energy said on Oct. 2 that the company would accelerate its transition from coal power to cleaner energy sources by retiring two units at its Sherburne County Generating Plant (Sherco) in Becker, Minn. The decision is part of the company’s strategy to cut carbon emissions 60% by 2030. The Sherco plant is Xcel’s largest […]

After years of stressing the conventional virtues of geothermal power production—reliable, baseload renewable energy from geological sources—the geothermal industry and the U.S. government are looking at ways technology can change the hot rocks game and give a boost to an often-overlooked resource. Legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who made a pile of money in information […]

Kuwait’s government in August approved the construction of several power plants and desalination facilities to boost its capacity by 3,580 MW. Like its oil- and gas-rich neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, Kuwait is seeing a power shortage owing to its growing population and economy. With only five power plants, the country has experienced […]

One of the world’s largest facilities that harvests energy from ocean temperature gradients began operation this August in Hawaii. The 100-kW ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) facility’s inauguration at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) marks a significant milestone for the technology (Figure 1). One key aspect being tested at the facility is […]

In the UK this August, two massive offshore wind developments were thrown into tumult. A consortium that secured the UK government’s approval in early August to build an array of offshore wind farms in the Dogger Bank development off the east coast of Yorkshire said it would proceed with only four projects instead of the […]