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Wind electricity production must displace some existing generation. However, its relentless variability imposes daunting challenges for wind integration. Clever engineering schemes can mask the problem, but the data show that wind generation has and will continue to reduce carbon by negligible amounts, but at great expense.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week issued an air quality permit to the White Stallion Energy Center, a 1,320-MW coal- and petroleum coke–fired power plant proposed for construction in Bay City, Texas.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2010 (S. 20), which would require utilities to obtain 20% of their energy from “clean energy” sources by 2020, with the requirement rising by 5% every five years through 2050.

U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) on Monday introduced a comprehensive package of advanced energy tax incentives for clean renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon mitigation.

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday approved the first large-scale solar energy plants ever to be built on U.S. public lands, and today he signed the nation’s first lease for commercial wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

UK energy regulator Ofgem on Monday warned that the country would need to rewire in a smarter way to secure access to renewable plants, but that an investment of £32 billion ($50.8 billion) would be needed to overhaul the aging grid, including replacing old “pipes and wires.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has awarded French company AREVA an engineering and development contract to work on potential completion of the 1,200-MW Unit 1 at the Bellefonte nuclear power plant in northern Alabama.

A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examines two key options for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants. The first is horribly expensive and will be years in the making. The second is blocked by current regulations in the U.S. The GAO report “Opportunities Exist for DOE to Provide Better Information […]

Thirty-six years after work first began at the 1,600-acre site housing the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Hollywood, Ala., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in August said it plans to invest $248 million to maintain the option to complete the 1,260-MW Unit 1 reactor. The announcement was made as the nation’s largest publically owned utility […]

Australian company Horizon Power opened the country’s first hybrid solar-diesel power station in August near Marble Bar, and it is readying another for operation in the neighboring town of Nullagine, Western Australia—a region infamous for extremely hot temperatures. The power stations are the first “high penetration, hybrid solar-diesel systems” in the world, claims Horizon, adding […]