Latest

  • Northeast states petition EPA to require coal plant mercury emission reductions

    Six New England states and New York last week asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic coal plants to clean up their smokestack mercury emissions. The seven states—Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont—have claimed that mercury pollution from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, […]

  • Pickens to scale back world’s largest wind project

    T. Boone Pickens will “scale back” a multibillion-dollar project to build the world’s biggest wind farm in Texas because of the capital market crunch. The Texas oilman’s Mesa Power LLP had announced plans for a four-phase project to add 4,000 MW of wind power to the Texas grid last year. The Pampa Wind Project was […]

  • Bruce Power may build two reactors in southern Ontario

    Canada’s only private nuclear generating company, Bruce Power, said Friday that it is considering building two new nuclear reactors in Nanticoke, Ontario, the site of North America’s largest coal-fired plant that is slated to shut down by 2014. The plans have met strong opposition from the provincial government. The company said it would launch an […]

  • N.C. regulators approve Progress Energy transmission line route

    The North Carolina Utilities Commission last week approved Progress Energy Carolinas’ selected route for a 64-mile, 230-kV electric transmission line between Richmond and Cumberland counties in the North Carolina Sandhills. The transmission line, announced in 2007, is part of a project that includes a 600-MW natural gas–fueled power plant to be built at the company’s […]

  • Siemens and RWE pilot virtual power plant comes on-line

    Germany’s Siemens Energy and RWE Energy said Friday that the first virtual power plant operated by the companies had come on-line. The pilot project, which linked nine small hydroelectric facilities with a total capacity of about 8.6 MW, would demonstrate the technical and economic viability of virtual power plants and accumulate findings for further possible […]

  • University of Wyoming and GE reach agreement on coal gasification research facility

    GE Energy and the University of Wyoming (UW) reached agreement last week on a proposed development plan for the High Plains Gasification Advanced Technology Center. This facility, consisting of a small-scale gasification system, would enable researchers from both GE and UW to develop advanced gasification and “cleaner” coal solutions for Powder River Basin and other […]

  • Under construction in South Africa

    This summary of power generation projects is a web-only supplement to the November 2008 special report titled “Whistling in the dark: Inside South Africa’s power crisis.”

  • Laser scanning produces 3-D plant database

    Advanced computer design tools have merged with high-definition laser camera scan data to produce integrated images that are particularly useful for outage and maintenance planning.

  • Acceptable alternatives to titanium tubing

    As an alternative to titanium, consider highly alloyed stainless steels for your next tubing project.

  • Putting a neck on the line

    Bernard Welding Equipment has introduced a new Metal Inert Gas (MIG) gun Neck Grip and Neck Coupler to improve operator comfort and access to difficult-to-reach joints. Made of a high-temperature silicone rubber tube that slides onto all Bernard Q-Gun and S-Gun necks, the new Neck Grip reduces fatigue and increases operator control for those welders […]