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In the wake of a recent federal case, large power plants are off the hook for now as far as complying with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2004 rule intended to protect fish and other aquatic organisms by controlling cooling water intake practices.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Pranab Mukherjee, her Indian counterpart, signed a pact Friday that allows U.S. equipment and service providers to support India’s plans to increase the country’s nuclear capacity.     The accord seals the “123 Agreement,” an historic deal that lifts a 34-year-old ban on U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear trade. After three […]

After an extensive public process, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) last week approved construction of a 500-kV transmission line project running through the northern part of that state.   TrAILCo’s $850 million project—named the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL)—calls for construction of a new 500-kV line extending from southwestern Pennsylvania through West Virginia and into […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week awarded military-industrial giant Lockheed Martin a cooperative agreement contract worth $1.2 million to demonstrate innovative generation technologies that use the ocean’s thermal gradient.    Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) uses temperature differences of 36 degrees F or more between warm surface water and cold deep seawater to […]

PPL Corp. on Friday submitted an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license to build and operate a new nuclear plant—the 17th received by the agency so far.   The company has proposed in its combined construction and operating license (COL) application to build the Bell Bend nuclear plant close to […]

Representatives from both presidential campaigns engaged in a spirited debate about their candidates’ approaches to solving the nation’s energy problems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Oct. 6. Among the notable distinctions were that John McCain favors leaving energy decisions up to the states while Barack Obama calls for significant regulations and investment […]

What does human metabolism have in common with coal combustion? Quite a bit, it turns out, say researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) who are studying chemical looping combustion (CLC) involving coal gasification, an emerging technology for clean energy production from fossil and renewable fuels.

Worldwide energy consumption is projected to grow 50% between 2005 and 2030, driven by robust economic growth and expanding populations in the world’s developing countries, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a reference case projection from its International Energy Outlook 2008 in June.

The U.S., which continues to lead the world in on-line geothermal energy capacity, saw a 20% jump in new power projects since January this year, a survey released by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) in August showed.

In early August, a special transport departed from Voith Siemens Hydro’s Heidenheim workshop bearing the company’s 300-ton, 300-MVA hydro motor-generator back to Schluchseewerk AG’s Wehr pumped-storage station in Germany’s Black Forest.