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News
Whitfield Goes on Offensive Versus EPA
U.S. House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) unveiled draft legislation on Oct. 28 to address Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules affecting electricity generation. The bipartisan legislation is intended to ensure America can maintain a diverse and affordable electricity portfolio, which includes the use of coal, natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables. Whitfield […]
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Renewables
Imperial South Solar PV Plant Begins Commercial Operations
The Imperial Solar Energy Center South facility, one of the largest commercially financed solar plants in the U.S., commenced commercial operations on Nov. 1 near El Centro in California, just north of the Mexican border. The 130 MW project, which was developed by Tenaska Solar Ventures, began construction in December 2011 and consists of nearly […]
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Coal
Duke Sets Another Coal Plant for Demolition
Duke Energy’s drive to reorient its fleet away from coal took another step on Nov. 4 when it announced demolition plans for its 84-year-old Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C. The 454-MW plant was one of Duke’s oldest fossil assets, having come online in 1929. It was retired in April, two years ahead of […]
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Gas
Salem Harbor Station to Swap Coal for Fast-Start Gas
It’s official: The coal- and oil-fired Salem Harbor Station north of Boston, scheduled to be retired next year, will be replaced with a fast-ramping natural gas combined cycle plant. The four-unit, 720-MW plant, which was built on the site of an existing coal terminal in the 1940s, was sold by previous owner Dominion Resources to […]
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Coal
New Executive Order Seeks to Increase Climate Resilience
An executive order signed by President Obama today requires federal agencies to promote the “dual goals” of a greater resilience to climate change and a removal of barriers to carbon-curbing measures, including carbon sequestration. Climate change impacts that include “prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, […]
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Nuclear
South Korea Ramps Up Nuclear Exports
After decades of developing indigenous nuclear reactor technology, South Korea in 2010 voiced ambitions that entail exporting 80 nuclear reactors by 2030. In 2009, the country saw its first major deal, winning a lucrative $20.4 billion contract to build four APR-1400 reactors in the United Arab Emirates. That technology is an advanced version of the […]
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Renewables
Giant Wind Power Sockets Installed in the North Sea
A tremendous amount of offshore wind capacity—from 100 MW to 13,000 MW—is expected to play a major role in Germany’s transition to sourcing 80% of its power from renewables by 2050. However, Energiewende
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Nuclear
France to Fund Nuclear Reduction with Carbon Tax
Following the election of President Francois Hollande in 2012, France has engaged the public in a series of regional and web-based debates to pin down key tenets of its so-called “energy transition.” The
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Renewables
New Design Solves Scaling Problems on Geothermal Control Valves
Scaling is one of the most frequently occurring problems in geothermal power plants and can prohibit the control of well flow if it builds in the well or wellhead. At HS Energy on the Reykjanes Peninsula in
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Nuclear
South Korea Walks an Energy Tightrope
South Korea, the world’s eighth-largest trading nation, whose trade volume has surpassed $1 trillion for two straight years, barely avoided blackouts between June and August this summer after the country’s