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The Canadian province of Alberta may be well-known for its oil and gas reserves, but it is also active in developing renewable energy. On Thursday, Edmonton-based independent power producer Capital Power was chosen to supply a 142-MW wind farm for BC Hydro.

Only 8% of utilities around the world have completed their smart grid technology implementations while 37% have projects under way and more than half haven’t yet started, according to a new Microsoft Corp. survey released at CERAWeek 2010.

SunEdison received final approval from the Italian government last week to develop and construct a 72-MW photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in northeastern Italy, near the town of Rovigo. When completed, this is expected to be the largest PV solar power plant in Europe.

On Monday, the Illinois Senate overturned a 23-year-old ban on building new nuclear plants in the state.

NB Power announced last Wednesday that it will close its Grand Lake Generating Station earlier than anticipated due to a fire that occurred in the burner of the front boiler. The New Brunswick, Canada, plant was expected to close when its operating license expires in June this year.

Last week the first-ever ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit brought encouraging news to companies seeking to move their green technologies from the drawing board into the marketplace by announcing the availability of stimulus fund money. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E), part of the Department of Energy, is modeled on the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which led to developments including military and networking technologies.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced selections for the award of approximately $40 million in total to two teams led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and San Diego–based General Atomics for conceptual design and planning work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP).

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on March 3 that it had filed a motion to withdraw its license application to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

On Friday, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Xcel Energy, and a coalition of lawmakers, energy companies, and environmentalists announced agreement on legislation that will lead the nation in cutting air pollution, creating jobs, and increasing the use of cleaner energy sources.

On Friday, First Wind, an independent U.S.-based wind energy company, was offered a conditional commitment from the Department of Energy for a $117 million loan guarantee to finance the construction of its proposed 30-MW Kahuku Wind project in Kahuku, Hawaii. The project is expected to include a battery energy storage system.