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A pilot project was initiated by China’s largest energy provider to test the effectiveness of fog-based power augmentation for a gas turbine at a compressor station. The system provided a significant

Coal-fired plants have been powering the electric grid for more than a hundred years, but the technology being used in them is not stagnant, as many advancements have been made. One new design—the Clean

Community solar projects, also known as solar farms or solar gardens, are maturing and moving forward. Minnesota leads the nation with 559 MW of capacity on the ground, and other states are following with new

A major part of maintaining a power plant at peak efficiency is dealing with or preventing damage from corrosion and corrosive objects that can enter air and water intake systems, including pipes and fluid

The hard realities of an energy system based on renewables will soon be with us, causing far more problems than are realized. Renewables don’t offer a quick fix, and we need to get the transition from

A new report released July 31 details continued growth in global energy storage, driven by lower costs for lithium-ion batteries. Research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) in its latest forecast published Wednesday said energy storage installations worldwide will grow across the next two decades, from the 9 GW/17 GWh of capacity deployed as of last year, to […]

A team that reviewed Southern Nuclear Company’s (SNC’s) April 2019 Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Re-baseline of Forecast Schedule and Cost said it believes the working schedule predicated on commercial operation dates of May 23, 2021, and May 23, 2022, for the respective units, is unachievable. Furthermore, the reviewers said the regulatory-approved schedule from the […]

Elevated temperatures take a big toll on gas turbine components risking cracks, corrosion, wall thickness, and material condition. Repair enhancements can extend a part’s life by slowing its degradation and pushing out its usable service life. Operators can see significant savings by opting for lower-cost repaired spares instead of new parts as demonstrated in the following case studies.

On July 29, 1949, at 2:15 p.m., General Electric’s (GE’s) first gas turbine at the Belle Isle Station in Oklahoma City began delivering power to Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.’s distribution system. The 3.5-MW GE Frame 3 machine reportedly had an efficiency of about 17%. Since the Belle Isle machine (Figure 1) started up seventy […]

NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce, and China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC)—three companies working on different small modular reactor (SMR) technology—recently announced positive developments for their respective designs. NRC Makes Progress on NuScale Design Review Portland, Oregon-based NuScale said on July 22 that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed the second and third phases of its SMR […]