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President Donald Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, making the nation one of only three in the world not a party to the agreement, joining Syria and Nicaragua. While campaigning, Trump vowed to “cancel” the agreement, the first international climate agreement to include developing as well as developed […]

Exelon Corp. said it plans to retire the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant around September 30, 2019, unless policy reforms are enacted in Pennsylvania. The company used a similar ploy in Illinois to pressure lawmakers into passing the state’s Future Energy Jobs bill, which provides subsidies for nuclear power plants. In that case, Exelon […]

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) completed the dome lift at Fuqing Unit 5—the world’s first power plant being constructed utilizing the HPR 1000 (also known as the Hualong One) reactor design—15 days ahead of schedule on May 25. The feat was no small accomplishment. The dome weighs about 340 metric tons and has a diameter […]

Under a proposed restructuring agreement, NRG Energy will hand over 100% equity of GenOn Energy, a wholesale generation company it acquired in a $1.7 billion deal in 2012, to the company’s bondholders once GenOn emerges from voluntary Chapter 11 restructuring. NRG, GenOn, and an ad hoc group of GenOn noteholders reached a mutual cooperation agreement […]

CEO Tom Fanning told Southern Co.’s shareholders attending the company’s annual meeting on May 24 that a decision on how to proceed with the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion could take several more months. The Vogtle expansion—one of two new nuclear construction projects underway in the U.S. utilizing Westinghouse’s AP1000 technology—has been in limbo, albeit still in […]

The renewable energy sector employed 9.8 million people in 2016, up 1.1% percent from 2015, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA’s) “Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2017”, released May 24. “Renewable energy employment worldwide has continued to grow since IRENA’s first annual assessment in 2012, but the last two years have seen […]

Two nuclear plants owned by Exelon Corp. in Illinois and Pennsylvania failed to clear PJM Interconnection’s latest annual capacity auction, putting one of those financially crippled units at risk of early retirement. Meanwhile, procurements for solar, wind, and demand response fell dramatically compared to last year, and drastic price declines could roil the market for […]

President Donald Trump wants to balance the federal budget in 10 years, and it appears he believes that to do so, deep cuts to the nation’s energy research funding are needed. The administration’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) budget request, released Tuesday, May 23, cuts funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) by $1.7 billion, a […]

Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s plan for a rescue of its two uncompetitive Ohio nuclear plants took a nosedive May 17, as the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee suspended action on the company’s proposal to charge its customers a fee to subsidize the plants. FirstEnergy’s plan mimics programs adopted in Illinois and New York to create “zero energy […]

  Finnish technology firm Wärtsilä has acquired Greensmith Energy Management Systems, a firm that specializes in energy storage optimization and integration software, for an undisclosed amount. Greensmith, which has designed and deployed more than 180 MW of energy storage at 50 sites globally, has developed a software platform, GEMS, which optimizes the performance of energy […]