Latest

The latest in a string of nuclear plants beset by technical troubles is PPL Corp.’s Susquehanna Nuclear Plant in northeastern Pennsylvania. The company said on Tuesday that a follow-up inspection of the Unit 1 main turbine at that two-reactor facility revealed “indications of cracks in blades” that are similar to damage discovered and repaired in 2011.

Activity kicked up in Washington in the past week, where members of the House of Representatives introduced a number of energy bills and passed a key amendment that could give states—not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—control over coal ash regulation.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) on Wednesday voted 2–1 to approve Mississippi Power’s $2.4 billion integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project proposed for Kemper County, saying it continued to find that the 582-MW project was the “best alternative” to meet the state’s future power demand. The state’s Supreme Court had reversed the PSC’s previous approval of the plant in March, ruling that it did not cite detailed evidence for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Wednesday approved primary contract terms of power purchase agreements (PPAs) for Ocean Renewable Power Co.’s (ORPC’s) 4-MW Maine Tidal Energy Project in Washington County and directed three investor-owned utilities to negotiate 20-year PPAs with ORPC. Those deals could be the first long-term PPAs for tidal energy in the U.S.

During the Clean Energy Ministerial in London over the next few days, the U.S. and the UK will agree to collaborate in the development of floating wind technology designed to generate power in deep waters currently off limits to conventional turbines, but where the wind is much stronger, the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced this week.

PPL Montana on Monday filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block it from releasing information about its 2,094-MW coal-fired Colstrip power plant to environmental groups that had requested the data via the federal Freedom of Information Act.

An agreement reached on Tuesday by Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) and the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma State, and the Sierra Club will force the American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiary to eventually retire two coal-fired generating units at its Northeastern Station in Oologah, Okla.

About 46% of power company executives in Europe and North America recently surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predict an increased risk of blackouts up until 2030, citing worries about the affordability and the pace of infrastructure investment, and future energy security.

Last week saw the release of three reports from influential wind industry groups. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) foresaw annual global market growth rates of about 8% for the next five years, though it cautioned of a “substantial dip” in 2013. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) urged congressional renewal of wind tax credits, and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) called for more binding post-2020 policies to ensure sector growth in the European Union.

More than 2,500 dams in the U.S. provide 78 GW of conventional and 22 GW of pumped-storage hydropower. But the nation also has more than 80,000 dams that do not produce electricity—facilities that, if outfitted with hydroelectric power plants, could generate an estimated 12 GW and increase existing U.S. conventional hydropower capacity by roughly 15%, the Department of Energy (DOE) says in a new report,