Global Monitor

GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is pulling out of Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a company that in 2012 got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) unprecedented approval to build and operate a full-scale laser uranium enrichment facility. The move was precipitated by a change in business priorities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the GLE’s proprietary SILEX technology is […]

Ghana Starts Up Key Gas-Fired Power Unit. Ghana has inaugurated the first of two 180-MW units of a natural gas–fired power plant that it is banking on to boost the West African country’s electric reliability. President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the first unit of the Sonon-Asogli project at Kpone, near the capital Accra, on April […]

Oil-rich Venezuela is gripped by a power crisis so debilitating that the government has instituted four-hour daily blackouts across most of the country, forced hotels and malls to generate their own power, and

A research photobioreactor designed to capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plant flue gas for high-density algae cultivation is showing promise. The bioreactor patented by California-based algal firm PHYCO2 is undergoing a multi-year trial at Michigan State University’s (MSU’s) T.B. Simon Power Plant, a co-generation plant that provides steam, heat, and power […]

Taking full advantage of the international political thaw with Iran, Germany has begun working closely with the fossil fuel–rich nation to develop renewable energy strategies based on the successes and failures its policymakers have learned from its own Energiewende (energy transition). To jumpstart this, Germany’s government recently released a commissioned report titled “Enabling PV Iran,” […]

Malaysia, a country that has historically depended on oil and natural gas for energy, put online a $1.67 billion ultrasupercritical coal-fired power plant this March. Malaysian firm Malakoff Corp.’s giant 1-GW Tanjung Bin Energy Power Plant (T4) entered commercial operation this March, on schedule, four years after construction began (Figure 6). 6. The face of […]

South Africa’s power system is preparing to receive a critical capacity boost. In March, state-owned utility Eskom grid-synchronized the first of four units of the Ingula Pumped Storage project in

WTO Rules Against India in Solar Power Dispute. A mandate that certain types of solar cells and modules used for India’s ambitious state-backed solar initiative must be domestically manufactured violate

The world added 33 GW of new hydropower capacity in 2015, including 2.5 GW of pumped storage, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) said in a recent brief. The new capacity made up only 3% of the

Spain’s power sector, which has been shaken financially in recent years owing to plunging power demand, posted its first electricity tariff surplus in 14 years at the end of 2015. The National Markets and

A small modular reactor (SMR) system that uses a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) Brayton cycle instead of the steam Rankine cycle is under development at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and

The first of two 500-kW OpenHydro tidal turbines has been successfully deployed at French utility EDF’s much-watched Paimpol-Bréhat tidal project, which is under construction in North Brittany, France. When

Saudi Arabia Mulling Privatization of State-Owned Utility. State-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) is to be split into four power generation firms by the end of 2016 to increase efficiency, Abdullah

Vietnam, which has long been a coal exporter, is considering a hiatus in licensing new coal-fired power plants because it says domestic coal reserves won’t be enough to feed generators starting in 2020

One of Russia’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities has been grid-connected in Abakan, located in the Republic of Khakassia. The Khakass capital in central Russia just north of Mongolia, historically

China has edged past the European Union (EU) in terms of total installed wind capacity, with 145.1 GW to the EU’s 141.6 GW. This means that China, which erected a stunning 30.5 GW in 2015—nearly half of

Vattenfall has dismantled five offshore wind turbines—with a total capacity of 10 MW—at the Yttre Stengrund wind farm in Kalmar Sound, Sweden. The month-long decommissioning project was the first in the

A nuclear power plant in Australia—a country that harbors the world’s largest resources of uranium but uses no nuclear power—wouldn’t be economical, but building a nuclear storage and disposal facility

Exelon Completes Peach Bottom Reactor Uprate. An extended power uprate (EPU), begun in 2009 to increase the output from the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station by 270 MW, was completed in January, said the

Desert sand from the United Arab Emirates could be used in concentrating solar power (CSP) facilities to store thermal energy up to 1,000C. And replacing the typical heat storage materials used in thermal

China, which is seeing a nuclear plant boom with 30 reactors already in operation and 24 under construction, is accelerating development of its first 60-MWe (200-MWt) floating nuclear reactor. China General

Legal battles to stall the 11-GW Belo Monte hydroelectric dam—being built on the Xingu River in Amazon forest for one of the world’s largest power plants—are raging on in Brazil (Figure 1). In January

Tremors in China’s economy rattled its power sector last year. For the first time since the Cultural Revolution in 1968, the country’s power generation dropped from the previous year—modestly, by 0.2%

Gas power technologies set new benchmarks over the past few months as gas turbine “gorillas” Siemens, General Electric (GE), and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) all reported new

The world’s first 1,400-MW Advanced Pressurized Reactor (APR1400), a South Korean Generation III design, has now been connected to the grid. Nearly eight years since construction kicked off in October

Nuclear ambitions fostered by some countries were tested by a variety of events at the end of 2015. Work Continues on Turkey’s Russian-Built Akkuyu Plant. Reports that Russia has halted construction of