Technology

JANUARY 19, 2021 — The Ferrovial Servicios group, a leading global service operator, has selected Waga Energy to produce biomethane at the Can Mata landfill, one of Spain’s largest landfill, near Barcelona. The Can Mata site will be the first in Spain to use the WAGABOX® purification technology, developed by Waga Energy to recover landfill gas […]

LOS ANGELES, California (Jan. 18, 2021) — Swell Energy, Inc. today announced that the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved its $25 million contract with Hawaiian Electric for the delivery of various grid services through an aggregated “virtual power plant” (VPP) on three islands. Swell Energy, a California-based energy and smart grid solutions provider, will deploy behind-the-meter […]

The goal of economic power generation from fusion has been elusive, but that hasn’t deterred researchers from exploring ways to develop the technology in a way that would support commercial electricity production. POWER magazine has covered the evolution of fusion research and development for many years, and nuclear experts now think we could be just […]

A  seminal milestone in the drone industry, American Robotics now meets the safety requirements needed to make drones scalable for widespread commercial use. MARLBOROUGH, Mass. & WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–American Robotics, a leading developer of fully-automated commercial drone systems, today became the first company approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate automated drones without human […]

A British company announced it is joining with U.S.-based NuScale Power to develop a hybrid project using wind energy and small modular reactor (SMR) technology to produce power and green hydrogen. Shearwater Energy, a global energy services company, on Jan. 15 said it and NuScale have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on […]

Vistra Energy, the nation’s largest competitive generator, has begun operating a 300-MW/1,200-MWh lithium-ion battery storage system on its 1,020-MW combined cycle gas turbine Moss Landing power plant site in Monterey County, California. The battery storage system is the largest of its type in the world in terms of size and scale, and it towers over […]

As it readies for a leadership shuffle, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has rolled out an ambitious “blueprint” that urges continued technology innovation for existing nuclear, advanced nuclear, nuclear waste, and fuel cycles by the incoming Biden administration.  At its core, the NE’s “Strategic Vision” released on Jan. 8 posits […]

NuScale Power, Fluor Corp., and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) have executed a series of major agreements to prepare for licensing of the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, effectively driving forward the nation’s first small modular reactor (SMR) plant.  Fluor Corp., the majority investor in NuScale […]

Enterprise asset management (EAM) involves a combination of software, systems, and services that are used to maintain and control operational assets and equipment. The aim is to optimize the quality and utilization of assets throughout their lifecycle, increase uptime, and reduce costs. EAM involves work management; asset maintenance; planning and scheduling; supply chain management; and […]

The energy industry in Africa is staging a comeback after the pandemic’s significant economic impact over 2020. In 2021 and beyond, according to the Africa Energy Chamber (AEC), the revival will focus heavily on gas for power. While much progress has been achieved in the region’s vast and diverse power space, Africa’s power sector continues […]

2020 was a transformative year for the power sector, underlining both new challenges and potential opportunities. We not only saw how severe weather event threats, such as the wildfires and public safety power shutoffs in California, continued to illustrate the fragility of our existing centralized electric distribution system, but we simultaneously experienced the struggle of […]

A partnership between The Alliance Center and Fermata Energy will result in reduced energy costs The Alliance Center is installing the Fermata Energy V2B System at their facility in Denver. The Fermata Energy V2B System will work in conjunction with The Alliance Center’s electric vehicle (EV) to utilize the energy stored in a Nissan LEAF […]

JANUARY 5, 2021 — The technology group Wärtsilä will supply two large-scale biogas upgrading plants to different locations in Denmark. The order was placed by Nature Energy, the world’s leading biomethane company. By injecting biomethane – the end product of upgraded biogas – to the gas grid, Denmark will be taking an important step towards […]

Wind and solar power capacity and generation have been growing steadily for years, as efforts to halt climate change and a desire for clean energy have gained public support around the world. As renewable

Roiled over 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, two much-watched international power market outlooks surveying short-term and long-term implications caution the road ahead will be ridden by complexity. The

One of the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL’s) key initiatives aims to bridge the gap in research infrastructure and accelerate advanced alloy development and manufacturing. Materials are

Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular battery storage option today, controlling more than 90% of the global grid battery storage market, according to some estimates. However, the lithium-ion supply chain

As countries around the world set more stringent emissions standards, stationary gas engine operators are often required to incorporate new technology into their equipment. The changes can affect lubricants

With COVID-19 filling the news throughout 2020, it’s very likely you missed some of the most important developments that occurred in the power sector this year. Here’s a look at some of the highlights and big stories covered by the POWER staff this year. MOX Nuclear Fuel Loaded In January, Russian engineers announced the loading […]

Over the past year, power generators that depend on wholesale electricity markets for the bulk of their revenues endured remarkable pressure stemming from the pandemic, changing company business priorities, and environmentally driven policy shifts. But customer-centric efforts, founded on principles of healthy competition, have helped them persevere, said the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA).  The […]

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to lead three advanced energy storage projects. The projects will study innovative, non-battery-based bulk energy storage solutions integrated with fossil assets. “Investing in research and development to improve energy storage is critical at this moment in time,” Neva Espinoza, vice […]

Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom has signed an agreement confirming its participation in construction of a small modular nuclear reactor project in the Russian Republic of Sakha. Officials from Sakha—an area also known as Yakutia—on Dec. 23 signed a deal with Rosatom outlining the formation of “electric power tariff principles” for an SMR power […]

The U.S. bulk electric system consists of more than 360,000 miles of transmission lines, including approximately 180,000 miles of high-voltage lines, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That means power companies have a lot on their plates when it comes to inspecting and maintaining those assets. Furthermore, the stakes are high. As wildfires in […]

The shift from energy consumers to prosumers is fundamentally changing the relationship between utilities and their customers. Behind-the-meter distributed energy resources (DERs) transform the ways households consume, generate, and store power. In the U.S., there are now about 15 million smart thermostats, 2 million solar installations, and 1.5 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road. And […]

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the energy industry saw surplus supply and a change in usage patterns in 2020, to which it had to adapt painfully. Utility crews had to deal with a tedious hurricane season, with socially distant, limited staff. Artificial intelligence (AI) could have played a role in prioritizing essential tasks […]

Operational technology (OT) electronics and networks for manufacturing, energy production, and virtually every other industrial application, are targets for cyberattacks. For infrastructure-related companies, such as power producers, transportation, and water plants, the OT networks are not only the revenue producers, but also important targets for destabilizing national security. Successful attacks can be destructive and costly, […]

The search for more efficient methods of power generation at a time when climate change is top of mind continues to foster innovation. A U.S. company is among the latest to release a new technology, with development of a self-contained generator that doesn’t run on fossil fuels and works on the premise that once created, […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a “prohibition order” in line with President Trump’s May 2020 broad bulk power system (BPS) security executive order (EO 13920) that will ban some utility procurement of specific grid equipment from China.  When it takes effect on Jan. 16, 2021, the Dec. 17–issued “Prohibition Order Securing Critical Defense […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has chosen five assorted advanced nuclear reactor concepts under the second Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) risk reduction pathway. TerraPower and X-energy, which the DOE chose to support under the first ARDP pathway, are looking at siting their advanced nuclear demonstrations in Washington State, the DOE said.  The ARDP program, which […]