Global Monitor

ABB Snags $450M Contract for Norway-UK Undersea Link. ABB on July 14 won a $450 million contract to supply high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations at both ends of the North Sea Network (NSN), a

Power-strapped Egypt’s first fast-track natural gas–fired project was completed in a record 159 days from groundbreaking to commissioning this July. The 650-MW Attaqa Simple Cycle Power Plant near Suez

The French Parliament on July 22 finally adopted a law that caps nuclear power generation capacity at its current 63.2 GW. The measure will force utility EDF to shutter nuclear reactors before it starts up its

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) on July 13 disposed its first waste in a newly completed low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste disposal facility underground at Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang

Australia Slashes Its Renewable Target to 33 TWh. The parliament of coal-rich Australia on June 23 approved legislation to slash the country’s Renewable Energy Target from 41 TWh to 33 TWh. The contentious bill passed after a compromise agreement in May (see “Australian Lawmakers Strike RET Deal” in POWER’s July 2015 issue). Australia’s RET, which […]

Lower power and electricity certificate prices in the Nordic region have made two wind power projects in Central Norway—with a combined capacity of 1 GW—unprofitable, Statkraft said in June as it announced it would scrap them. Norway produces the bulk of its power from hydropower (Figure 3), but the country’s government has encouraged wind farm […]

The 335-MW Waneta expansion completed this June near Trail, British Columbia, adds a second powerhouse downstream of the Waneta Dam on the Pend-d’Oreille River, near the border between Canada and the U.S. (Figure 5). 5. Second powerhouse. The Waneta Expansion Limited Partnership this June connected the Waneta Expansion Project near Trail, British Columbia, to the […]

E.ON in late June announced that it wants to shutter its Oskarshamn 2 reactor (Figure 1) in southeastern Sweden because it is unprofitable. The announcement is the latest in a string of early nuclear plant retirements from around the world. 1. Early retirement. The 638-MW Oskarshamn 2 nuclear reactor, built in 1974, is at risk […]

Steam turbine technology took a leap in June as Siemens revealed a 10-MW prototype that uses magnetic force to suspend a rotor weighing several tons. The innovation means that instead of needing hundreds of liters of oil for the bearings, the first-of-its-kind steam turbine only needs about three liters of oil (for the valve actuators […]