Latest
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Coal
Kemper IGCC Costs Again Revised Upwards, In-Schedule Date Reset
The total costs of Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant—the nation’s only large-scale integrated carbon capture and sequestration project (CCS) under construction—have now almost doubled to $4.02 billion. A review of the Kemper facility’s construction schedule and costs completed this month by Mississippi Power management prompted the company to push back […]
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Coal
Treasury Dept. Advises Development Banks Not to Fund New Coal Plants Without CCS
A revised technical guidance released by the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday to bolster a key facet of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) declares an end to U.S. support for multilateral development bank (MDB) funding for new overseas coal projects except in “narrowly defined circumstances.” The updated guidance document is designed to be incorporated […]
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News
Hans Blix Promotes Thorium Fuel for Power Generation
Former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, made a pitch for the use of thorium in nuclear power generation at the Thorium Energy Conference 2013, which concluded this week at the Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland. The Swedish diplomat was the first […]
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Nuclear
Former Dresden Nuclear Plant Workers Banned by NRC
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued orders on Oct. 28 prohibiting two former employees of the Dresden Nuclear Power Station in Morris, Ill., from participating in nuclear work under its jurisdiction. The two were implicated in an incident involving violations of the Behavioral Observation Program. Even without the order, the workers in question are unlikely […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Federal Court Orders EPA to Move on Coal Ash Regs
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a formal order today giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 60 days to set a deadline for issuing revised coal ash regulations, agreeing with a coalition of environmental groups that the agency has failed to timely complete its review process in accordance with provisions of the Resource Conservation […]
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Smart Grid
Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging on Grid May Be Far Less Than Feared
In recent years, the potential popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles has had utility executives up nights worrying about spikes in demand at the end of every workday as EV owners all began charging their cars upon returning home. Now, a new study from Austin, Texas–based Pecan Street Research (PSR) suggests that […]
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Wind
Statoil Pulls Floating Offshore Wind Project in Maine
Norwegian energy company Statoil last week canceled its $120 million project to put four 3-MW wind turbines on floating spar-buoy structures 12 miles offshore of Maine’s Boothbay Harbor. The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) had in January 2013 approved terms of Statoil’s proposed Hywind Maine project, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management last year […]
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Business
NRG to Buy EME Assets for $2.6B
NRG Energy will buy nearly 8,000 MW of generation capacity across the U.S. from bankrupt power firm Edison Mission Energy (EME) for $2.6 billion. The company entered into a plan sponsor agreement to acquire almost all EME’s assets, including EME’s generation portfolio and Edison Mission Marketing and Trading, a proprietary trading and asset management platform. […]
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Nuclear
Agreement Sets Stage for Construction of New Nuclear Plant in UK
EDF Group and the UK Government have reached an agreement in principle on the key commercial terms for an investment contract for the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Finalization of this agreement and construction of the plant are subject to a final investment decision. The government and EDF will work together to address […]