In This Issue
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NuclearBirth Pangs of the Nuclear Renaissance
The much-ballyhooed U.S. nuclear renaissance, with a few exceptions, is running late, thanks to the usual Washington bureaucratic quagmire plus the added risk resulting from crumbling financial markets. The future doesn’t look much brighter. The poor outlook for Yucca Mountain and the new administration’s general indifference to nuclear power have made a rebirth of the nuclear industry an even higher-risk proposition than before.
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Hydro
Renewable Project Finance Options: ITC, PTC, or Cash Grant?
Dozens of institutional investors in U.S. renewable energy projects pulled out of the market when the nation’s liquidity reserves dried up late last year. Some left the renewable market sector in search of more lucrative investment opportunities. Others found themselves unable to take advantage of the attractive tax credits because they themselves lacked profits against which to use the credits. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, approved February 13, changed the investor ground rules — again.
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NewsTwo-Pump Fuel Recirculating System
The Duplex Pump Unit (FRS 660-11-DPU-UL) from RCI Technologies is the newest addition to that company’s line of diesel fuel purifiers and fuel recirculating systems (FRSs). Designed to automatically circulate and clean the fuel in customers’ fuel storage tanks on a preprogrammed schedule, the DPU features two fuel pumps, which operate alternately to circulate fuel through the system. Whereas RCI’s other FRS units utilize a single pump, the duplex pump offers backup in the event of a primary system failure. All FRS units employ filter-less technology. The control system is housed in a weatherproof, NEMA 4, key-lockable cabinet, and the system is equipped with alarms to alert the user in the event of pump failure, purifier high water level, system high pressure, or fuel catch basin leak. (www.rcitechnologies.com)
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Commentary
Energy Bubble, Anyone?
When the housing bubble burst, it exposed an unseemly alliance between special interests and the financial sector. Activists wanted homes for all at any cost, and lenders were happy to oblige despite the inherent risk.
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BusinessFabulous Wealth and Fabulous Poverty
Mark Twain summed it up best when he described India more than a century ago as a place of “fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty.” Today, for all its surging economic growth, 300 million Indians still live below the poverty line.
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CoalFirstenergy to Convert Coal-Fired Burger Plant to Biomass
Confronted with a district court ultimatum that would have forced it to install expensive pollution controls or close two coal-fired units at its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. announced in April that it would convert them to biomass. When the $200 million retrofit is complete, as is expected by 2013, the Burger Plant will likely be one of the largest biomass facilities in the U.S.
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Business
The Foreign Investment Factor (supplement to Powering the People: India’s Capacity Expansion Plans)
Recognizing that the long-term sunk cost, long project planning and construction timeframe, and high-risk portfolio make it difficult for private investors to raise funds whose maturity matches project completion dates, the Indian government has since 1991 allowed 100% foreign direct investment in the power sector.
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SolarInterest in Solar Tower Technology Rising
Though solar thermal tower technology has been around since the 1970s, to date, only one plant in the world commercially generates electricity: Abengoa Solar’s 11-MW PS10 tower just outside Seville, in Spain’s Andalucía desert has been grid-connected since early 2007. Because the technology relies on heat from solar energy that is reflected by mirror arrays (heliostats) onto a tower-mounted receiver, installations tend to be site-specific, expensive, and high-maintenance.
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News
Spain Is Tilting at Windmills
President Barack Obama has praised Spain as a global leader in renewable electricity generation and has lauded its success at creating so-called "green jobs." However, a recent Spanish university study concluded that Spain’s mad rush to meet overly aggressive renewable standards has destroyed jobs and driven up the real cost of electricity, without cutting carbon emissions.
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HydroTidal Barrages Could Power 5% of UK
Barrages across the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay, and the Mersey and Dee estuaries in the northwest UK could provide more than 5% of the nation’s electricity and meet half the region’s electricity, a study by engineers at the University of Liverpool has found.