Global Monitor
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Connected Plant
GE Power Launches Advanced Management System in Delhi
Maintaining a reliable supply of power in Delhi, India, has been a major issue for the area as local demand for electricity continues to increase. The city in June repeatedly set new records for electricity
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Energy Storage
Grid-Scale Liquid Air Energy Storage Plant Is Launched
The world’s first grid-scale demonstration of a liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant was officially launched in June. UK-based long-duration energy storage firm Highview Power developed the 5-MW/15-MWh
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Renewables
More Solar Power Comes Online in Mongolia
The Mongolian government in late June commissioned the country’s second photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant, a 15-MW facility in the province of Dornogovi, in an “economic development zone” of
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Nuclear
Agreements Sealed for the World’s Biggest Nuclear Plant
The massive project to build six EPR reactors at the Jaitapur site in Maharashtra, India, received a significant boost in late June as GE and French utility EDF signed a strategic cooperation agreement that
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Distributed Energy
EV Batteries Repurposed for Energy Storage
Daimler, the German automotive company best-known for the Mercedes-Benz line of vehicles, obviously knows a bit about cars. So perhaps it’s no surprise its subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz Energy, is using vehicle
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Infographics
THE BIG PICTURE: The Electric Vehicle Push
Because the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) could ramp up demand for electricity and slash transportation-related emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, a growing group of stakeholders, including power companies and trade groups, strongly advocate for an accelerated EV rollout. By mid-2018, several countries with potentially large EV markets had set EV deployment targets, as well […]
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Renewables
POWER Digest [July 2018]
Renewable Projects Planned in Australia. CWP Renewables, a company based in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, on May 28 said it received a $700 million investment from Partners Group, a
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Nuclear
Russia Will Help Nigeria Develop Nuclear Plant
Nigeria’s government joined with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corp. (Rosatom) last year with a goal to develop the country’s first nuclear power plant, a plan that both sides confirmed and talked about
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Hydro
Hydropower Grows but Industry Is Changing
New hydropower capacity installed worldwide plunged 36% in 2017 compared to 2016, but the sector remains optimistic about its future despite a transitioning role for hydropower away from baseload power and
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Coal
Water-Capturing Cooling Tower Technology Makes Headway at MIT
A cooling tower water recovery system designed by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) could capture water from power plant fogs and plumes, potentially rendering them into a source
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Legal & Regulatory
How General Atomics Developed Its Revolutionary Nuclear Fuel Solution
The U.S. is pouring funding into developing new fuel technology for advanced nuclear reactors in a bid to help the flagging industry. On April 27, it awarded General Atomics (GA) $3.2 million for two projects that the San Diego, California-based company is developing, including an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) solution that the company says is […]
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Coal
India’s Power Industry Struggles to Solve Pollution Problems
In a bid to tamp down pollution, India’s government in December 2015 notified the country’s coal generators they would need to meet—for the first time—new emissions limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury, as well as tightened limits for particulate matter (PM) and water consumption. The gazetted notification gave new plants until […]
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Workforce
THE BIG PICTURE: CEO-to-Employee Pay Ratio
As required for the first time by a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K, public companies in early 2018 began disclosing ratios that compare total compensation paid to principal executive officers (PEOs), such as a CEO, to the median of the annual […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Renewable Growth Soars, Buoyed by Distributed Generation
Nameplate renewable capacity surged to more than 2,000 GW worldwide at the end of 2016, constituting more than 28% of total generating capacity (Figure 6). Most (56%) was hydropower, followed by wind (23%), and then solar, mostly from photovoltaic (PV) at about 15%. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) the expansion was fueled […]
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Renewables
Hybrid Energy Storage System Gets First-of-Its-Kind Certification
Geothermal energy is a growth business. Several countries, such as Kenya and Indonesia, are rich in geothermal resources, and others such as Chile, Mexico, and the Philippines are looking to rapidly develop
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Renewables
Novel Geothermal Power Technology Being Deployed in Canada
In a bid to tamp down pollution, India’s government in December 2015 notified the country’s coal generators they would need to meet—for the first time—new emissions limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx)
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Renewables
POWER Digest [June 2018]
Marking an important milestone in energy storage’s steady charge to become a key element in balancing variability posed by renewables, ACCIONA Energia has received a prototype certificate from DNV GL for a
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Infographics
THE BIG PICTURE: A Cold Comparison
The “bomb cyclone,” a winter storm that descended on much of the eastern U.S. from December 27, 2017, to January 8, 2018, renewed the raging debate about resiliency and prompted flashbacks of the “polar vortex,” a similar deep freeze that transpired in January 2014 and was compounded by the loss of 82 GW nationwide for various reasons. […]
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Renewables
Vattenfall Pioneers Innovative Offshore Wind Foundations
The first commercial-scale suction bucket jacket foundation has been installed at Vattenfall’s 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Scotland. The pioneering foundation, which weighs
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Technology
Construction Complete on Unit 1 of Barakah Nuclear Plant in UAE
The first of four nuclear reactors at the Barakah plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was completed in late March, a milestone both for the UAE and for South Korea, which supplied the APR-1400 pressurized
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Gas
MHPS Will Convert Dutch CCGT to Run on Hydrogen
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) in March said it would work with the Netherlands Carbon-Free Gas Power project to support the conversion of the country’s 1.32-GW Magnum gas-fired power plant to run
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T&D
POWER Digest [May 2018]
NTPC Commissions First Unit of Lara Project. The first unit of the 4,000-MW super thermal power project in Chhattisgarh in India was commissioned in late March by NTPC. The coal-fired plant, a $4.62
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Nuclear
France, India Moving Forward with Massive Nuclear Project
India’s government-owned National Nuclear Power Corp. (NPCIL) in March signed cooperation agreements for equipment and construction related to the massive 9,900-MW Jaitapur project in Maharashtra, the
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Coal
German Giants Swap Assets and Reshape Energy Sector
Germany’s electricity sector faced a renewed, violent shakeup in March as two of its biggest utilities, E.ON and RWE, announced a complex asset exchange that experts said points to the death of the
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Infographics
THE BIG PICTURE [INFOGRAPHIC]: Changing Fleets
The generating fleets owned by some of the largest companies in the U.S. (ranked here by capacity in 2017) have transformed over the past four years, in some cases dramatically, as total revenues fluctuated. Sources: Fidelity Investments (revenue data standardized by S&P Capital IQ); EIA-860 detailed data; SEC 10-K filings, and company websites. —Copy and artwork by Sonal Patel, a […]
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Renewables
Geothermal Generation Growing by Leaps and Bounds in Kenya
The Geothermal Resources Council, a California-based trade association, said Kenya ranks eighth in the world in geothermal energy production. And the country is poised to add substantially more
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Coal
Chile to Pursue Dramatic Coal Generation Reduction
Chile joined the ranks of nearly two dozen countries that have announced a phaseout or a moratorium of coal generation, pledging not to continue building coal-fired power plants unless they are equipped with
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Nuclear
Accident-Tolerant Fuels Could Be a Boon for Nuclear Industry
Following a planned outage, Unit 1 at the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley in southeastern Georgia returned to service in early March outfitted with first-of-their-kind accident tolerant fuel (ATF)
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Renewables
POWER Digest [April 2018]
China’s Installed Capacity Grows 7.6% in 2017. China’s installed power capacity in 2017 grew 7.6% compared to the end of 2016 and now stands at 1,777 GW—higher than U.S. installed capacity of 1,198 GW as
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Coal
Coal Generation Reaches New High in South Korea
The South Korean government said the country’s coal-fired power generation hit a new high in 2017, helped by three thermal power plants that came online with combined generation capacity of 5.3 GW. The