Editorial

Online load management schedule for Great River Energy’s demand response programs. Screenshot taken February 10, 2016. Source: Great River Energy http://lmguide.grenergy.com/

Janet McCabe, the Environmental Protection Agency’s acting administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation, speaking at the 2016 EUEC conference in San Diego, February 3. Source: POWER/Thomas W. Overton

Don Wharton, managing director of coal transition, TransAlta. Courtesy: TransAlta

A small British Columbia substation on a winter day, December 2015. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Transmission lines near Squamish, British Columbia, December 2015. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Transmission lines near Squamish, BC, December 30, 2015. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Carbon Engineering’s pilot project in Squamish, B.C., aims to prove that direct air capture of carbon dioxide is more feasible and easily deployed than processes used to capture the greenhouse gas from power plant flue stacks. By the end of 2016 the company hopes to add a small fuel synthesis process that would combine captured CO2 with hydrogen to create synthetic gasoline. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Carbon Engineering’s pilot project in Squamish, B.C., aims to prove that direct air capture of carbon dioxide is more feasible and easily deployed than processes used to capture the greenhouse gas from power plant flue stacks. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

In May 2014, Martifer Solar delivered one of the first unsubsidized solar power plants in Italy for the Ikea Group on the rooftop of a new commercial store in Pisa, Tuscany. The project has a total capacity of 696.15 kW and was structured without a feed-in-tariff. Courtesy: Martifer Solar

The canopy of Bologna’s fruit and vegetable market, Centro Agro-Alimentare di Bologna (CAAD), consists of 43,750 solar panels with a total area of 100,000 square meters, equivalent to 14 football fields. Courtesy: CAAD

This 19.96 kW solar PV plant at the Ethel depot in Tavros, Greece, was installed in 2009. Courtesy: PPC Renewables

This 1-kW PV installation at the National Park Brijuni in Croatia was installed by Luxor Solar in 2013. Courtesy: Luxor Solar

Many mines were built with the assumption they would generate up to 10,000 jobs each. Mines often have their own power plants too, like the Dul CSM in eastern Czech Republic. Courtesy: LMB Photography 2006

“We are miners. Who is more?” That old slogan of solidarity still holds sway as eastern European nations struggle with jobs losses if they move away from coal. This Czech longwall mining crew took a break deep underground at the Dul CSM hard rock mine. Courtesy: LMB Photography 2006

EU progress toward climate and energy goals is mixed. Courtesy: Coal Atlas 2015, Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin and Friends of the Earth International

NARUC Committee on Electricity meeting, Austin, Nov. 9, 2015. Source: POWER

Missed steps in a three-step process. After flue gas is ducted from Unit 3 of the Boundary Dam Power Station, it runs through the SO2 absorber (the shorter tower on the left), then through the CO2 absorber (the taller tower with water vapor showing), and then the CO2 is released from the amine in a stripper before being sent to the adjacent compression facility in the foreground. SaskPower recently admitted that the capture facility has only been operating at around 40% capacity over its first year, rather than the design 90%. Courtesy: POWER/Gail Reitenbach

CO2 lean amine tank. To prevent degradation of the concrete absorber tower, 70,000 ceramic tiles line the inside of two amine tanks inside the carbon (and SO2) capture facility at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam plant in southern Saskatchewan. Courtesy: POWER/Gail Reitenbach

Transmission lines, Bodie State Historic Park. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Substation, Bodie State Historic Park. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Lightning arresters, Bodie State Historic Park Museum. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

1. Solar is hot in Hawaii. In 2014, 21% of the power used by customers of Hawaiian electric companies came from renewable energy resources, including wind, solid waste, geothermal, hydro, solar, and biofuel energy. The state wants to produce 100% of its power from renewables by 2045. Courtesy: POWER/Gail Reitenbach

1. Lisa D. Johnson. Courtesy: Seminole Electric Cooperative

3. Added gas. Gas fuels 810 MW of Seminole Electric Cooperative’s units: 500 MW of combined cycle power and 310 MW of peaking capacity from five aeroderivative combustion turbine units, all at the Midulla Generating Station. Courtesy: Seminole Electric Cooperative

2. Coal, as required by federal policy. Coal fuels the 1,300-MW Seminole Generating Station in Putnam County, Fla., providing more than half of the cooperative’s power. The plant was built when the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 banned all new oil- or gas-fired generating facilities. Courtesy: Seminole Electric Cooperative

Swiss company Climeworks plans to build a pilot plant that will capture CO2 directly from the air and sell the captured greenhouse gas to an actual greenhouse, where it will enhance plant growth by 20%. Courtesy: Climeworks

Calgary-based Carbon Engineering Ltd.’s direct-air carbon capture process. Courtesy: Carbon Engineering Ltd.

Twitter post from a GE Digital coder with a poster for the company’s new “Digital Power Plant” in the background.

A GE wind turbine and its digital twin. Image credit: GE Power & Water

Security ratings for the 12 months ending August 1, 2015, for six major sectors. Courtesy: BitSight Technologies