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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday approved a full build-out of a 1.5-MW gird-connected wave power station that is planned by Ocean Power Technologies’ (OPT’s) Oregon subsidiary Reedsport OPT Wave Park. The license is the first issued for a wave power station in the nation.

Canada’s nuclear regulator on Friday issued a 10-year nuclear power reactor site preparation license to Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) proposed reactor at its Darlington nuclear site in Ontario. The license, described as "an important milestone in Canada’s nuclear history," is the first of its kind in nearly 25 years.

Four rules recently proposed or finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could prompt power companies to retrofit most coal-fired generating units and retire 2% to 12% of coal-fired capacity. The rules would also likely increase power prices in some regions, though they may not cause widespread reliability concerns, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests.

Science costs money, and someone has to pay the bill. When that someone is a corporation or industry group, certain hackles get raised. But does “industry-funded” research really deserve the condemnation it gets? The answer isn’t a simple yes or no.

These are heady days for gas-fired power, as record low prices have turned natural gas from an also-ran into possibly the leading source of electricity generation. But lurking in the background is a potential roadblock—the pipelines that bring gas to the plants, which have lagged behind in capacity. 

Gas is up and coal is down. The why of it is not so clear, nor is the degree to which it’s likely to continue. Here’s a review of the nuts and bolts, which suggests coal may be poised for a comeback.

Building almost any kind of power plant takes a lot of careful public relations. But NRG Energy has traveled a long and winding road in its attempts to replace a coastal plant in Southern California.

Incremental advances in gas turbine technology have made these industry workhorses bigger, more efficient, and more powerful. But some developments on the horizon suggest the industry is now poised to make some major leaps forward. 

When Verbund Thermal Power needed reliable and flexible condensate pumps for its new combined heat and power plant in Mellach, Austria, it used a new type of self-regulating centrifugal unit.