Latest

  • Appellate Court Ruling Favors Ga. Coal Plant but Keeps Project on Hold

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that had rejected an air pollution permit for the planned $2 billion Longleaf Energy Station in southwest Georgia because it did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

  • Loan Guarantees for Beacon, Nordic; USEC Prepares for Offer

    The Department of Energy (DOE) last week issued $59 million in conditional loan guarantees to Beacon Power Corp. and Nordic Windpower, while USEC said on Monday it expects to receive a loan guarantee for its American Centrifuge Plant by early August.

  • DOE Officially Scraps GNEP

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has officially scrapped the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program, a Bush administration initiative to promote nuclear technologies while reducing the impacts associated with nuclear fuel disposal and proliferation risks.

  • T. Boone Pickens Suspends Mega-Wind Farm in Texas

    T. Boone Pickens has postponed plans for a multibillion-dollar project to build the world’s biggest wind farm in Texas, citing funding and transmission issues.

  • Duke Energy to Study Geologic Carbon Storage in Indiana

    Duke Energy has filed testimony with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for a proposed project that would store a portion of carbon dioxide emissions from its Edwardsport coal gasification power plant underground in southwest Indiana.

  • Our Integrity Is Not for Sale

    I was putting the finishing touches on this month’s editorial when I received an email from a reader who owns a company that serves the power industry. He was very complimentary of an article I recently wrote. "Goes without saying," I was thinking to myself. However, actually saying it goes a long way in my book, and I enjoy hearing from readers — at least most of the time.

  • POWER Digest (July 2009)

    News items of interest to power industry professionals.

  • Extreme Oil Changes

    Performing regular oil changes on remote generators is far from simple or cost-effective. Here’s how one firm harnessed technology to extend oil change intervals from one week to two months.

  • Too Many Fingers in the Smart Grid Pie?

    There has been much excitement about the advent of the "smart grid" recently, especially because of the strong push by the Obama administration. Despite the simple-sounding term, the smart grid is not a simple concept.

  • Digital Networks Prove Reliable, Reduce Costs

    The debate over the benefits of using digital bus networks as the communications backbone of new power plants is all but settled. The technology is maturing, and the reliability of digital hardware is superior to that of hardwired systems. Newmont Gold Mining’s 200-MW TS Power Plant is perhaps the power industry’s best example of how a plantwide digital controls architecture can provide exceptional reliability and be significantly less costly to install.