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Less than 24 hours after the unveiling of sweeping Senate legislation to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency released a final Clean Air Act rule that defines emission thresholds for greenhouse gas permitting requirements for power plants and other large stationary sources.

Facing a difficult uphill slog in a sharply polarized Senate, Sens. John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman have unveiled long-awaited draft climate change and energy legislation that includes billions of dollars in incentives for the nuclear, natural gas, and coal industries aimed at attracting enough bipartisan support to overcome an all-but-certain filibuster led by the Senate Republican leadership.

Boiler insulation practices have moved from using a single layer to a double layer of the same total thickness in recent years. However, this dual-layer trend has a downside: higher installation costs and the opportunity for contractors to cut corners when installing insulation. It’s time to return to using single-layer insulation on power boilers.

One of the primary challenges of reliably burning coal is managing the corrosion experienced by the furnace heat transfer surfaces. Fireside corrosion remains a leading cause of failure in superheater and reheater tubes. In Part I, we examined three case studies of different failure modes experienced by tubes located throughout the furnace. In Part II, we conclude with two additional boiler tube failure case studies.

Every power engineer must have a firm grasp of the rudiments of how fuel is processed to produce electricity in a power generation facility. With this article, we continue our three-part series on the essentials of recovering heat from flue gas to dry and process coal, with the goal of improving overall plant operating efficiency.

I recently had the privilege of moderating the Power Industry Executive Roundtable, part of the annual ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition opening ceremonies. Usually, the power industry executives have predictable views of important issues, but not this year.

The Virginia Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously approved an air emissions permit granted to Dominion Virginia Power’s 585-MW Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, a coal-fired plant that is 63% complete.

Michigan regulators on Friday denied Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative’s air quality permit for a new 600-MW power plant, fueled primarily by petroleum coke and coal, in Rogers City. The state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) decision was based on findings of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which said the company failed to demonstrate the plant was needed to meet future supply.

Nonprofit Ohio utility American Municipal Power (AMP) last week said it would begin shutting down the 213-MW Richard H. Gorsuch Generating Station (RHGS), a 1950’s vintage coal-fired power plant located near Marietta, Ohio, as part of a New Source Review (NSR) settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Renewables will be the fastest-growing source of energy throughout the world over the next 28 years, helping to meet a projected 49% increase in world energy use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). But, the agency also found in its International Energy Outlook 2010 released on Tuesday that fossil fuels could meet more than three-fourths of total energy needs in 2035, if current policies remain unchanged.