Global Monitor

One of the world’s first power storage systems employing used electric vehicle (EV) batteries began operating on Japan’s Yumeshima Island in Osaka this February. The 600 kW/400 kWh system developed by Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corp. consists of 16 EV batteries that were recovered and inspected by the Sumitomo and Nissan Motor Co. joint venture 4R Energy […]

The crown for the world’s most powerful operating wind turbine was transferred this January to Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, as its first 8-MW prototype began generating power at the Danish National Test Center for Large Wind Turbines in Østerild. Compared to the first 450-kW offshore wind turbine that was installed in 1991 at Vindeby, […]

After decades of planning, Turkey may finally see the first four reactors at the Akkuyu nuclear plant completed by 2023. The country has had plans to establish nuclear power generation since 1970, but several

Second Nuclear Unit in Northeast China Begins Operation. The second nuclear unit at the Hongyanhe plant (Hongyanhe-2) in northeast China’s Liaoning Province entered commercial operation on Feb. 25

The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late February announced details of its first draft energy policy since the Fukushima crisis three years ago, and it suggests that nuclear power

coal export  coal export  

In 2009, when the first borehole in a series of wells was drilled as part of the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) in Krafla, northeast Iceland (Figure 5), it unexpectedly penetrated into magma with a

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) and Southern Co. have completed the initial demonstration phase of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) test at the Plant Barry power station in Mobile, Ala. The companies

The increasing penetration of intermittent renewable generation, smart grids, demand response, and other emerging technologies has underscored the need for power plants with greater flexibility and

In a ruling that could have reverberating implications for nuclear generators, Germany’s highest administrative law court upheld a lower court’s finding that declared unlawful the State of Hesse’s

South Korea OKs $7B Plan for New Shin Kori Reactors. Only two weeks after South Korea announced plans to cut the share of nuclear in its total future power supply to 29% by 2035 instead of 41% by 2030, the

Norwegian power company Statkraft has shelved its much-watched effort to harness energy from pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO). It said in a rare industry admission that the technology could not be sufficiently

Mexico’s much-awaited constitutional energy reform, passed on Dec. 12 by the federal congress and a week later by the required majority of state congresses, could spark increased private participation in

EU’s Highest Court Says French Onshore Wind Tariff Is Illegal. The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled on Dec. 19 that a French regulatory mechanism allowing network distributors—namely

Allowing nuclear generators to operate some of the existing 100 U.S. nuclear reactors longer than their 60-year licensed limit could help offset a potentially massive power supply gap that could ensue as those

The UK’s faltering plans to establish a carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry by the 2020s got a renewed boost in December as the government pledged to back the Drax Group’s White Rose project

A new kind of geothermal power being developed by a team of scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the University of Minnesota, and the Ohio State University could sequester carbon

Japan and South Korea, countries that depended heavily on nuclear power before the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011 (Figure 3), separately released draft long-term energy plans in December, both placing renewed

Jordan Picks Russian-Built AES-92 For First Reactor. Jordan in early November chose Rosatom’s reactor export subsidiary AtomStroyExport to supply AES-92 nuclear technology for its first nuclear power plant

A study proposed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) could shed more light on how safe it is to store high-burnup used nuclear fuel in dry casks. In an August 2013–released draft test plan

By 2035, renewables will hold a 30% share of the global power mix, but only 1% of the world’s fossil fuel–fired power plants will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports the

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a promising solar-fossil hybrid power system for integration with a conventional combined-cycle power plant. The hybrid system uses concentrated

Australia’s freshly elected prime minister, Tony Abbott, introduced a bill in November to scrap the nation’s controversial carbon pricing plan, which is slated to transition to an emissions trading scheme

Several new nuclear plant construction milestones were recorded worldwide in October and November. CPR-1000. On Nov. 23, China’s 18th large reactor, Hongyanhe 2, was connected to the grid. The $8.2 billion

Germany’s levy to promote renewables under the 2008 Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will climb to €0.624/kWh in 2014—a 20% increase that represents nearly a fifth of residential electricity bills. The measure

Up to 18% of the world’s electricity could be generated with wind energy by 2050, but the massive jump from 2.6% today would require the nearly 300 GW of current wind capacity worldwide to increase eight- to

The Power Finance Corp. (PFC), India’s nodal agency that conducts bidding for 16 proposed Ultra-Mega Power Plants (UMPPs)—coal projects of a 4,000-MW scale to make power available at a minimum cost—in