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American Electric Power (AEP) plans to retire nearly 6 GW of coal-fired capacity and upgrade or refuel another 11 GW as part of an estimated $8 billion plan to comply with a series of regulations proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). About 25 GW of AEP’s 38-GW capacity is coal-fired—making it the biggest […]

An electricity grid policy framework was released at a White House event on Monday at which government and industry representatives discussed the compelling benefits of a modernized grid while hinting at the often intransigent obstacles to making progress toward that goal. In conjunction with the event and release of the policy statement, the Obama Administration announced several public and private initiatives, including $250 million in loans for smart grid technology deployment as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday announced it would take more time to review public comment on draft rules concerning greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and propose the regulations on Sept. 30—instead of July 26 as initially planned. The agency said, however, that it is on track to have final rules ready by May 26, 2012.

A report released on Friday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that power plant smokestacks of 500 feet or higher disperse pollutants over greater distances—and that stack height is one of several factors that contribute to the interstate transport of air pollution. The congressional investigative arm also finds that several boilers remain uncontrolled for certain pollutants, including several connected to tall stacks.

Italy on Monday overwhelmingly voted to abandon nuclear power after Germany’s cabinet last week backed a controversial policy to shutter that country’s nuclear plants by 2022.

The body of a contract worker trapped when a large boiler structure at the Paul L. Bartow Power Plant on Weedon Island near St. Petersburg, Fla., unexpectedly collapsed was recovered late Monday night, four days after the accident occurred, Progress Energy said.

The Department of Energy in the past week made three more conditional loan guarantee offers: $2 billion to support two concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in California—the Mojave Solar Project in San Bernardino County and the Genesis Solar Project in Riverside County—and a $350 million partial loan guarantee for an Ormat-owned Nevada geothermal project.

Through a combination of actions that encourage the development of untapped geothermal resources and new technologies, geothermal energy could account for around 3.5% of annual global electricity production by 2050 (a considerable increase from current levels of 0.3%) the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a report released on Tuesday.

The latest recipient of a conditional commitment for a $45.6 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) is Fotowatio Renewable Venture’s 20-MW alternating current (AC) photovoltaic (PV) solar generating facility.

GenOn has reportedly reached a settlement agreement with environmental groups PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club in a case that alleges the Houston-based company continuously violated its Clean Water Act discharge permit and discharged more than three million gallons of wastewater a day from its 1,700-MW coal-fired Conemaugh Generating Station in Western Pennsylvania into the Conemaugh River.