In This Issue
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WindMacarthur Wind Farm, Victoria, Australia
Owner/operator: AGL Energy/Malakoff Corporation Berhad Though endowed with some of the world’s largest coal resources, Australia—whose southern coasts experience strong westerly winds called the “Roaring
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RenewablesSpain Inaugurates 2-GW Pumped Storage Facility
Europe’s largest pumped-storage power plant was inaugurated this October in the Júcar River basin in Spain’s eastern province of Valencia as Spanish utility Iberdrola commissioned the final
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SolarMesquite Solar 1, Maricopa County, Arizona
Owners/operators: Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development Courtesy: Sempra U.S. Gas & Power California has been pursuing renewable generation since enactment of its Renewable
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Renewables
POWER Digest (December 2013)
First Kundankulam Unit Synchronized to Grid. The state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on Oct. 22 synchronized to the grid the first of two units at the Kundankulam Nuclear Power
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Waste to EnergyPolaniec Green Unit, Polaniec, Poland
Owner/operator: GDF SUEZ Energy Poland Historically, Poland has relied heavily on coal for electricity generation. International Energy Agency statistics show that coal generation accounted for 86.5% of total
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SolarShams 1, Madinat Zayed, United Arab Emirates
Owner/operator: Shams Power Co. Courtesy: Masdar The small nation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), despite having the world’s seventh-largest proven reserves of both oil and gas, has been working hard to
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RenewablesA Plan for Optimizing Technologies to Support Variable Renewable Generation in China
Recently, the variable generation (VG) industry has been strongly promoted in China to advance sustainable energy development, especially for wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV) power, which have entered
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CoalOptimized SCR Catalysts Maximize Mercury Removal Co-Benefits
The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) have given coal-fired power plant owners a short time to bring their plants into compliance with rules that require significantly less mercury (Hg) in stack
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Instrumentation & ControlsPower Plant Training Simulators Explained
Training simulators are worth their weight in gold to the power industry, as well as to most process industries in general. People tend to learn the fastest and the most thoroughly when hands-on trial and
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WindA Wind Energy Plan That Fits America’s Resources
America is blessed with long coastlines and relatively deep waters. But ironically, this has been a disadvantage to the U.S. offshore wind industry. Compared to more than 1,000 turbines that are already
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NuclearWhen It Comes to Nuclear Plants, Is Small Beautiful?
In 1973, an obscure economist from Britain’s National Coal Board, which then owned and operated all the coal mines in the country, published a book that posited—as the title proclaimed—that Small Is
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O&MPreventing Failure of Elastomeric Expansion Joints in FGD Systems
Fossil-fuel-based power generation plants with wet scrubbing systems use slurries of sorbents to remove sulfur dioxide from their emissions. These highly abrasive slurries accelerate wear on the expansion
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SolarPhotovoltaics Overshadow Concentrated Solar Power
As solar technologies, both solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) are often discussed collectively, along with solar thermal and solar fuels. But the difference between the two power
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GeneralNew Products (December 2013)
Rising energy costs necessitate new ideas and techniques for heat recovery—such as the Hitec Economizer from GEA Heat Exchangers. It is designed for equipping or retrofitting gas turbines and boilers, as
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Commentary
The When, Where, and Why of Energy Patents
New research conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Santa Fe Institute researchers finds that the number of energy patents is increasing faster than patents overall. However, the trend lines
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RenewablesCORRECTED: Germany Raises Renewables Levy by 20%
Germany’s levy to promote renewables under the 2008 Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will climb to €0.624/kWh in 2014—a 20% increase that represents nearly a fifth of residential electricity bills. The measure
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Commentary
Federal-State Cooperation Is Needed in Transmission Project Development
Beginning with its landmark Order No. 888 in 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has aggressively pursued policies designed to foster planning and construction of new transmission facilities
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WindIEA: Wind Power Could Supply 18% of World’s Power by 2050
Up to 18% of the world’s electricity could be generated with wind energy by 2050, but the massive jump from 2.6% today would require the nearly 300 GW of current wind capacity worldwide to increase eight- to
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Commentary
Defining the Future: Time to Get Real
Christoph Frei The global energy environment is increasing in complexity and uncertainty. We are in a much more challenging world than previously envisaged. The World Energy Council’s (WEC) analysis has
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CoalIndia Withdraws Tender for Chhattisgarh UMPP
The Power Finance Corp. (PFC), India’s nodal agency that conducts bidding for 16 proposed Ultra-Mega Power Plants (UMPPs)—coal projects of a 4,000-MW scale to make power available at a minimum cost—in
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RenewablesAlqueva II Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant, Alqueva, Portugal
Owner/operator: Energias de PortugalCourtesy: Alstom Sunny Portugal enjoys a climate much like that of Southern California and likewise has considerable wind resources. Unlike California, Portugal has
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HydroHeadway for Congo’s Long-Delayed 40-GW Inga Hydro Project
Plans to build the $12 billion Inga 3 hydropower project may be finally coming to fruition after a new energy treaty signed by South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) promised to give the
