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Dynegy Inc.’s transfer of some coal plant assets to itself from its subsidiary Dynegy Holdings two months before the latter company filed for bankruptcy protection last November represented a “fraudulent transfer,” a court-appointed examiner in the bankruptcy case said in a report released on Friday.

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.

The Department of Energy has made $15 billion in loan guarantees and conditionally committed to another $15 billion, but its loan guarantee program lacks much-needed consolidated data on application status, which could make easier efficient management and program oversight, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found. The report was released on Monday, just before Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended the Obama administration’s loan programs before a Senate committee.

A new report released last week by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) finds that loss of reactive power is the most likely outcome from a severe solar storm centered over North America.  Significant losses of reactive power could lead to voltage instability, and, if not identified and managed appropriately, power system voltage collapse could occur, the report concludes.

A report presented to China’s legislature on Monday by Premier Wen Jiabao could have positive implications for the country’s centrally owned grid and nuclear firms, but they could leave "thermal generators out in the cold," experts said.

In the keynote address to the CERAWeek 2012 conference in Houston on Tuesday, Helge Lund, president and CEO of Norway-based Statoil, urged the oil and gas industry to embrace a greater sense of responsibility in facing its current and future challenges.

Three Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) between the U.S. government entities and private companies signed on Friday will seek to leverage Savannah River’s land assets and energy facilities near Aiken, S.C., to support potential private sector development, testing, and licensing of prototype small modular reactor (SMR) technologies.