Cover Stories

The Solana Generating Station ( solana in Spanish means “sunny spot”) is built on a 1,920-acre site near Gila Bend, about an hour’s drive west of Phoenix. According to Abengoa, which owns the facility

Think your nuclear plant faced delays and obstacles? India’s Kudankulam project, Unit 1 of which begins commercial operation this month, spent 26 years in development and construction and faced down obstacles that included a seven-month blockade by protesters to become the nation’s largest nuclear plant.  There are power plant projects that seem to drag on […]

While other countries move to reduce or eliminate nuclear generation, China has been rapidly expanding it. With 27 reactors under construction, its installed nuclear capacity is expected to more than double by 2020. The Hongyanhe facility is one example of nuclear’s growth in China and represents multiple firsts. China is powering up. The country’s generation […]

In the October 2013 issue of POWER, Tata Power’s 4-GW Mundra ultra-mega power plant was recognized with a Top Plant award in the coal category. This year POWER recognizes another behemoth in the region—and

This is a tough time to be running a business as power-intensive as aluminum smelting in India. The economic boom that has lifted many of the nation’s 1.2 billion citizens out of persistent poverty has

Germany’s energy transition— Energiewende —has made a lot of headlines. Whether you agree with the country’s energy policy or not, there is no denying that it has spurred the growth of renewables. Even

Eskom, South Africa’s largest utility, was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission and was converted into a public company, wholly owned by the government, in July 2002. Eskom produces about

Bad weather, unforeseen setbacks, and even natural disasters are far from unheard of during power plant construction. But there may be no plant that experienced the sort of construction hardships that Tokyo

For a country focused on wooing big businesses, constructing large industrial complexes, and building new administration offices, having a reliable electricity supply is vital. But with few natural resources, flexible and efficient generation is imperative. Korea Southern Power Co. (KOSPO) CEO Lee Sang Ho has a vision of making KOSPO into a “global top 10 […]

Awash in a sea of wind turbines, California’s Coachella Valley needed reliable peaking generation to back up its intermittent wind power. Competitive Power Ventures answered the call with the eight-unit, 800-MW Sentinel plant. Driving west on Interstate 10 through the Mojave Desert in California is a mostly monotonous experience of sand, scrub brush, and rolling, […]

The Municipal Government of Beijing through its operating companies is making enormous investment into its power and energy infrastructure, particularly combined heat and power facilities and renewable energy projects. The latest addition to its fleet of plants is the Jingqiao Power Plant, which supplies electricity to the Beijing grid and steam heat to nearby commercial […]

NYU needed to repower its decades-old cogeneration system and cut emissions at its main campus in Lower Manhattan. The new gas turbine–based system cut the university’s energy bills by $5 million a year—and kept it going when Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast.  When figuring the payback period on a new power plant, calculations are […]

With a huge gold mine set to increase the load on an already overstressed grid, the mine owners and a Dominican generation company found a way to power mine operations and address capacity shortfalls by joining forces on the same project.  Like many countries in the developing world, the Dominican Republic regularly struggles to meet […]

Combined cycle plants have the advantages of being extremely efficient and can be built in two phases when power needs peak unexpectedly. Ulsan 4 was built in response to the country’s 2011 power crisis for both reasons. The first task was installation of the combustion turbines in time to meet the 2013 summer peak demand. […]

The era of Big Solar has arrived, and at the moment there are none bigger than Ivanpah. For overcoming numerous obstacles to build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is awarded POWER’s 2014 Plant of the Year Award. When the 392-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Nipton, Calif., […]

Though no single mercury capture approach is best for all plants, when you can capture two (or more) pollutants with one sorbent, it’s worth a careful look.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Utility Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) regulation requires power plants to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including mercury. The […]

With quickly approaching deadlines for achieving renewable portfolio standard goals, the likely lapse of a critical exemption this month may increase the challenges for meeting those mandates. Approximately four years ago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took the first step in regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric generating units (EGUs) by promulgating the […]

Power plant operators have long understood the vital role water plays in power generation. Now, as the rest of the world begins recognizing that as well, a conflict is brewing between the growing demand for electricity and increasingly strained water resources. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve likely heard the term “water-energy nexus” […]

Economic and population booms forecast for several countries in the oil- and gas-rich Middle East are forcing a reassessment of those countries’ historic reliance on fossil fuels and a new focus on securing sustainable electricity and water supplies.  The Middle East is a region of extremes. While some countries enjoy opulent wealth, others are some […]

Faced with roadblocks to reducing greenhouse gas emissions via globally meaningful regulations or carbon pricing schemes, some scientists say it’s time to consider even more drastic human intervention. As it looks increasingly unlikely that the world will adopt a political and economic approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions—primarily carbon dioxide—what was once regarded as a […]

On May 16, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to release its long-delayed final 316(b) rule for existing facilities. The rule—which was supposed to have been issued Apr. 17 after

Though often lumped together under the term “energy storage,” the field is in fact a wide range of technologies ranging from well established to speculative, each with different functions, advantages, and drawbacks. The discussion below focuses on existing grid-scale (greater than 1 MW rated power) projects and is generally ordered by level of deployment. Pumped […]

The inherently unpredictable and variable nature of wind power can present significant integration challenges when increasing the penetration of wind turbines within already highly stressed medium-voltage (MV)

After operating on the sidelines for years, the energy storage sector is finally poised to begin making its mark, driven by greater policy support and technological advances that have begun making new solutions economic. “Just-in-time” delivery has become an ideal for many industries looking to optimize their efficiency and responsiveness. For the power sector, though, […]

Nuclear utilities are facing stringent cybersecurity requirements for plant digital assets that fulfill safety-related, important-to-safety, security, and emergency preparedness functions or that are

Once upon a time, obtaining a job at a nuclear power plant meant a person was set for life. If an individual did at least acceptable work and kept their nose clean, they were rewarded with a career that

It’s a hoary setup for a joke, but it’s no joke in talking about nuclear power. When it comes to worldwide prospects for nuclear expansion, there is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is found

Many American readers may not realize that, although the first major nuclear fission successes were achieved in the U.S., after World War II, when nations expanded their nuclear research to include power

Mention the word “drone,” and most people will have a mental picture of what a drone is and does. They likely will think first of military drones carrying missiles and other weapons that could malfunction

The future is looking bright for AES Huntington Beach Power Generating Station. Renderings of a proposed new look for the power plant—located steps from the beach on the Pacific Coast Highway—include