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As POWER closes this issue (March 15), 6,000 people have been confirmed dead and 10,000 others are still missing as a result of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that destroyed Japan’s eastern shore on March 11. At this writing, the country is battling a third cataclysm—the potential meltdown of several reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO’s) Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

Five new nuclear reactors were connected to the grid while construction of 14 others began in 2010, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in early March. Around the world, a total 65 reactors with a net power capacity of 62.9 GW were in various stages of construction—almost half of them in China.

Geologists drilling an exploratory well in Iceland’s Krafla volcano in search of supercritical geothermal resources in 2009 unexpectedly uncovered a new way to harness energy from deep within Earth’s crust. It involves accessing shallow bodies of molten rock, which the geologists say could likely be found elsewhere in Iceland and around the world, wherever young volcanic rocks occur.

Bayer in February brought online a pilot plant at Chempark Leverkusen, Germany, to recycle carbon dioxide (CO₂) scrubbed from the flue gas of a 1,000-MW RWE lignite-fired unit and convert it into a raw material and petroleum substitute for plastic manufacturing. The Bayer facility (Figure 4) essentially produces a chemical precursor into which CO₂ is incorporated and then processed into polyurethanes that are used for many everyday items.

Dutch energy consulting firm KEMA in February opened a new laboratory in Chalfont, Pa., to test and verify emerging utility-scale energy storage systems.

China Inaugurates 660-kV DC Line. The China Power Grid Co. on Feb. 28 began transmitting power through a 660-kV direct current power transmission link that runs from northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Part of China’s west-east power transmission program, the 10.4 billion yuan (US$1.58 billion) project runs 1,333 kilometers through five provinces and regions […]

This year’s series will focus on predictive maintenance (PdM), also known as condition-based maintenance.

Imagine this scenario: Two separate power plants experience a bowing problem greater than 18 mils with a steam-turbine rotor. The turbines are from the same manufacturer and several repair options are reviewed. Management at both plants selects an innovative approach involving removal of a substantial amount of material, which is replaced with weld overlay and then machined to correct diameters and centerline of the balance piston area. One plant’s insurance company covers the repair, the other plant’s doesn’t. Why?

In December 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision with considerable fanfare that was intended to provide for the development of 1,000 MW of additional new renewable generation and provide California’s large investor-owned utilities (IOUs) with additional flexibility in complying with California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements. Unfortunately, it is likely to have the opposite effect.

Located on the scenic Japanese coastline, Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.’s new 446-MW Sendai Thermal Power Station Unit 4 is a combined-cycle plant that replaces three 175-MW coal-fired units that had been in operation for more than 50 years. The new plant features the first application of MHI’s 50-Hz M701F4 gas turbine, which provides a thermal efficiency boost from the old plant’s 43% to more than 58%. This change substantially reduces CO2 emissions.