Renewables

In his final State of the Union (SOTU) address on January 12, and arguably less so than in any other address he has given over the last seven years, President Obama made sparse mention of energy and climate change. The president dedicated most of the energy references in his address to “clean” energy, encapsulating wind […]

Silicon Valley Power (SVP)—Santa Clara, Calif.’s municipal electric utility—has decided to stop importing out-of-state electricity from the San Juan Generating Station, completely eliminating coal from its power supply. San Juan is a 1,646-MW four-unit coal-fired power plant located in Waterflow, N.M., and operated by PNM. SVP owns an interest in San Juan through its participation […]

State renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) provide around $7.4 billion in annual economic benefits and substantial reductions in water withdrawals and consumption, according to a new study from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory released on Jan. 6. The study, “A Retrospective Analysis of the Benefits and Impacts of […]

The autonomous region of Xinjiang has an important strategic position in China’s economy—which consumes more energy than any other nation—yet several conditions limit the most effective use of its fuels. This article provides an overview of the situation. Since ancient times, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) has been in a particularly important position in […]

A significant transformation of the global power mix is under way, noted the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its newly released World Energy Outlook (WEO-2015). Renewables are getting subsidized boosts

Nearly five years after the world’s first large-scale floating deepwater wind turbine was erected 11 kilometers (km) offshore Karmøy, southeast Norway, Norwegian energy firm Statoil has made a final

Wind production in the U.S. hit record highs in October 2015, natural gas prices hit record lows, and solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption is continuing to grow to unprecedented levels. Energy storage prices are

The autonomous region of Xinjiang has a strategic position in China’s economy, yet several conditions limit the most effective use of its fuels. This article provides an overview of the situation. A more detailed version, with maps and tables, appears here under the same title. Since ancient times, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) has held […]

In mid-November, current members of POWER’ s Generating Company Advisory Team responded by email to a set of questions about their concerns, challenges, and new initiatives as they plan for the year ahead

From issuance of the final Clean Power Plan to mammoth mergers, 2015 will be remembered as a tumultuous year. Twelve months ago, as folks were emerging from an eventful 2014, POWER made some bold predictions, including that fuel economics will drive 2015 U.S. power markets, and the labor crunch will complicate the gas turbine arms […]

POWER‘s monthly infographic sheds light on power sector trends globally, and in 2015, it highlighted changes in plant retirements, sector revenues, rule costs, workforce, emissions technologies, and electricity costs, among other subjects. January 2015: Baseload Retirements How coal plant retirements compare with retirements of other baseload generation sources. February 2015: Power Revenues How revenues for fossil power […]

A status update and forecast for solar photovoltaic power in Greece, Croatia, and Italy.

North America’s reserve margins are trending downward, even though electricity demand has generally fallen, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned in a new report. The international regulatory authority established to gauge and improve the reliability of North America’s bulk power system (BPS) said in its annual long-term report that electricity demand has dropped […]

In a major boost to the wind and solar industries, Congressional leaders agreed on a multiyear extension of renewable energy tax credits, which could provide several years of predictable policies, encouraging investment in new projects. The tax credits are part of a 2,009-page omnibus-spending bill unveiled by the House Appropriations Committee on Dec. 15. The […]

Delegates of 195 nations, including the U.S., on Dec. 12 reached a landmark deal at the Paris COP21 conference that commits the world to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an effort to combat the effects of climate change. Though scientists have said global temperature increases need to kept below 2 degrees C to avoid […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan (CPP) is likely to be complicated at least as much by political and legal opposition as by technological challenges in reducing carbon emissions, several speakers at POWER magazine’s inaugural conference on legal issues in the generation industry noted on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas. “Navigating Legal Implications of […]

FirstEnergy Corp., which may enter into a settlement with Ohio to safeguard the future of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant—a deal critics have blasted as “corporate welfare”—just got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s permission to operate the 1978-built reactor until 2037. The 20-year license extension marks a milestone for Akron-headquartered FirstEnergy, which has warned it might have […]

This story is being written as world leaders gather in Paris for the COP-21 climate summit. Much of the reason they are meeting is because of the widespread burning of coal and the resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that are altering the planet’s biosphere. Though the burning of coal is not the only reason the […]

The power sector should view the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recent drive to tighten regulations on air and water emissions as an opportunity to improve its efficiency and environmental footprint rather than as an obstacle, said EPA General Counsel Avi S. Garbow at POWER magazine’s inaugural conference on legal issues in the generation industry. “We want […]

Germany’s largest power generator RWE, following in the footsteps of its competitor E.ON, plans to split its company to bank on renewable energy and grid operations, which it says is the future for utility companies. If approved by RWE’s supervisory board, the Essen-headquartered company that produces more than 40% of its power from hard coal […]

Baranof Island is home to Sitka, Alaska. Located on the outer coast of Alaska’s Inside Passage, it is accessible only by air and sea (although once on the island, standard forms of transportation are

With its vast resources of oil, gas, coal, and tar sands—some of the largest in the world—the province of Alberta has long been known as Canada’s fuel tank. Coal- and gas-fired power has supplied the

Just how fast are things moving in solar? When we received the nomination for the massive Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in late April, the 550-MW facility was the largest solar power plant in the world, sharing

The Great Rift Valley is a massive continental fault system that runs 6,000 kilometers (km) from Mozambique to Jordan. In Kenya, the East African nation that is neatly halved by the equator, the Rift Valley is

From space, the 12.7-kilometer (km) Sihwa Lake tidal barrage that houses a 400-meter (m)-long tidal power plant looks like a delicate strand stretched across one of many bays and inlets characterizing the

You can’t spell C-S-P without S-P-A-I-N. Though there are now many nations with concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in operation, and nations with larger ones than Spain possesses, it’s difficult to

One of the world’s largest biomass-fed organic rankine cycle (ORC) plants is getting ready to begin operations. Italian firm Turboden is preparing to put online an 8-MW power unit in Athens, Maine, that will

Battery storage firms and energy storage experts at the Energy Storage North America (ESNA) conference in San Diego Oct. 13–15 were effusive in their praise of battery storage’s potential while

GE Completes Alstom Acquisition. GE announced on Nov. 2 that a $10.6 billion deal to acquire Alstom ’s power and grid business is complete. Alstom will now entirely refocus its activities on rail transport

The world has a problem. According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people lack access to any form of modern energy service, and more than double that number lack access to adequate, reliable, affordable, and