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Progress Energy Florida (PEF) on Monday signed a contract with Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC and The Shaw Group Inc.’s Power Group for the engineering, procurement, and construction of two nuclear units for a proposed nuclear power plant in Levy County, Fla.

A mission including representatives from more than 30 of the world’s leading commercial nuclear companies is scheduled to visit India over the next week, reported The Times of India.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is reviewing proposed transmission projects for the next five years totaling $3 billion, the state’s main grid operator said in a report filed with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Japan, the island nation with nearly a tenth of the world’s active volcanoes, may soon see a resurgence in geothermal power. For the first time in 20 years, several Japanese companies have announced plans to build new geothermal power plants, Reuters reported on Monday.

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. last week asked a district court for additional time to decide whether to install expensive pollution controls or close two coal-fired units at its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside.

Joseph Kelliher, head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), announced Wednesday that he will step down as chairman effective Jan. 20. Kelliher said that although his term as commissioner would not end until 2012, he would immediately recuse himself from FERC business and explore other career opportunities.

Most forecasting reports concentrate on political or regulatory events to predict future industry trends. Frequently overlooked are the more empirical performance trends of the principal power generation technologies. Solomon & Associates queried its many power plant performance databases and crunched some numbers for us to identify those trends.

Courtesy: Platts Data source: Platts Energy Advantage and POWERmap. All rights reserved.

Thirty-five percent of the world’s energy comes from oil, and 96% of that oil is used for transportation. The current number of vehicles globally is estimated to be 700 million; that number is expected to double overall by 2030, and to triple in developing countries. Now consider that the U.S. has 27% of the world’s supply of coal yet only 2% of the oil. Coal-to-liquids technologies could bridge the gap between U.S. fuel supply and demand.

The future of high-level nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain remains uncertain as a new U.S. administration considers its nuclear agenda. The European Union’s policies remain just as unsettled. With new projects under construction in several countries and a nuclear ban in effect in others, no unified long-term storage approach is in sight.