Latest

  • POWER Digest

    $1.9B Pan-African Renewable Energy Platform Launched. Renewables company Mainstream Renewable Power and private equity firm Actis on Feb. 17 launched a pan-African renewable energy platform dubbed Lekela Power, with ambitions to provide between 700 MW and 900 MW of wind and solar power across Africa by 2018. Mainstream will take responsibility for the full end-to-end […]

  • Palo Verde Nuclear Station Sets U.S. Production Record

    The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station led the U.S. in electrical generation in 2014, as it has done for 23 consecutive years, with a total output of 32.3 million MWh. That bested its previous record set in 2012. The Palo Verde plant is located about 45 miles west of Phoenix, Ariz. (Figure 5). It has […]

  • The State of U.S. Mercury Control in Response to MATS

    As this month marks the compliance date for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), it’s a good time to take a step back from the many months of concern and consideration of options to see how coal-fired power plants are actually responding to the new rule. It’s also a good time to acknowledge that […]

  • Are Simple Cycles or Combined Cycles Better for Renewable Power Integration?

    It’s been called “filling the duck pond,” and it’s the increasingly common challenge worldwide of balancing supply and demand when variable renewables are not feeding power to the grid. Gas-fired generation is often filling the pond, but the technology mix matters. The growing portfolio of renewable power generation around the world has made the selection […]

  • Zion Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Trust Fund Depleting Quickly

    The balance in the Zion Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning trust fund was about 30% lower at the end of 2014 than it was the previous year according to a report filed by ZionSolutions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 30. The Report on Status of Decommissioning Funding for Shutdown Reactors—due annually—indicated that there was […]

  • FERC Okays NextEra-HEI, Duke-Dynegy Deals

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its approval to two deals that will see shifts in electricity markets in Hawaii and the Midwest. On Mar. 27, FERC approved Duke Energy’s proposed sale of its merchant generation business to Dynegy for $2.8 billion. The deal, announced last August, covers 11 power plants in the Midwest […]

  • First New Nuclear Unit in U.S. in Nearly 20 Years Is on Track to Begin Operating in 2015

    Plant officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Bar nuclear facility said during a senior management meeting presentation that Unit 2—currently under construction—is expected to reach commercial operations on Dec. 13, 2015. Assuming it does, the unit will be the first nuclear reactor added to the U.S. fleet since Watts Bar Unit 1 was […]

  • Government Agencies Continue Partnership to Advance Hydropower Technology

    The U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of the Army for Civil Works announced on March 24 that the three agencies would continue to collaborate on hydropower development for at least another five years. The agreement extends a memorandum of understanding (MOU) the three agencies originally signed in […]

  • UPDATED: DOE and Senators Separately Outline Steps to Manage U.S. Nuclear Waste

    Adds Moniz’s March 25 comments on the future of the nation’s nuclear waste beyond Yucca Mountain. As four bipartisan U.S. senators unveiled a bill that tasks a new independent agency with permanent disposal of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz on Tuesday outlined steps the agency would take to […]

  • Dynamic Mercury Index Test

    One of the shortfalls in mercury control research was the development of a good surrogate for mercury capture in dynamic conditions, representative of ESP in-flight capture.  Our Dynamic Mercury Index (DMI) test is our answer to this absence.
    The laboratory-based test mimics real in-duct injection mechanically, and has proven to be an excellent directional indicator for