Latest

In the past week, Ontario’s Bruce A restarted after 17-year hiatus, with hiccups; Indian state approval restarted work to complete Kudankulam; Vermont Yankee turned 40; and Entergy won a new legal round to keep the contested Vermont reactor operating.

NRG Energy last week filed a notice of intent with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) to mothball Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 of its 635-MW Dunkirk coal-fired power plant near Buffalo, N.Y., by September this year until market conditions improve.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week conditionally approved an enforcement approach proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) that allows industry to self-report “low risk” reliability standard violations. The initiative will “free up resources and attention to address more serious risks to reliability,” FERC said in its decision.

An agreement reached between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Constellation Energy Commodities Group will require the company to pay $245 million to settle FERC allegations that the company manipulated power markets run by the New York Independent System Operator (ISO) and ISO New England between September 2007 and December 2008. The penalty is the largest ever imposed by FERC under the expanded enforcement authority assigned to the federal body in 2005.

Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Enough capacity exists in deep saline aquifers in the U.S. to store about a century’s worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s coal-fired power plants, a new study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows.

Exelon Corp. and Constellation Energy on Monday completed their long-awaited $7.9 billion merger. The combined company, which retains the Exelon name, has a market cap of $34 billion, a 35-GW generation fleet, and activity in 47 U.S. states and some Canadian provinces. It is now the biggest power utility in the U.S.—until the $26 billion Duke-Progress merger is completed, at least.

A bill passed with a bipartisan vote of 265–154 by the U.S. House last week seeks to fast-track permitting for hydropower installations of 1.5 MW or less in canals and pipelines by minimizing environmental reviews.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) last week detailed its “FLEX” response strategy, a program that calls for more safety and emergency response equipment at each of the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors. According to the trade industry group, “The initiative commits every U.S. company operating a nuclear energy facility to order or enter into contract for a plant-specific list of emergency equipment by March 31.”

A report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) claims that though the U.S. solar power sector was hard hit by policy changes and plunging global prices of photovoltaic (PV) panel prices, it installed 1,855 MW of PV capacity last year—more than doubling the previous annual record of 887 MW set in 2010.