POWER

Black & Veatch expects sustained growth across global energy markets in 2014 with several ongoing themes continuing. Key market drivers supporting power infrastructure spend remain the same, centering on

The business environment for generating companies worldwide continues to become increasingly complex, and not just as a result of regulations. Even in the U.S., the concerns and constraints faced by generators

Now more than ever, we see the U.S. power market sharply focused on maximizing return on investment. We see power producers responding to economic uncertainty, high costs for new emission controls, and a

The U.S. power generation market is experiencing a unique set of transitional drivers, the biggest being the current economics within the energy market. U.S. Market Drivers A significant portion of the U.S

This is expected to be the year when modest economic growth at last returns to a recession-hit Europe. Recent depressed power demand from industry has already allowed the 27 countries of the European Union

In the early 1980s, a man named George Mitchell, who owned an independent oil and gas company in Houston, began to see a distressing trend in his company’s future. Mitchell Energy supplied natural gas to a

The Powder River Basin Coal Users’ Group (PRBCUG) recognized TransAlta’s two-unit, 1,340-MW Centralia Complex with its 2013 Plant of the Year (Large Plant category) award at its 2013 Annual Meeting

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

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

Now more than ever, the power generation business is a global business. Supply chains are more international than in the last century. Thanks to more easily retrievable reserves of shale gas, the prospect of

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

A series of derivative lawsuits has recently been filed against the officers and directors of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) based on the explosion of a PG&E gas transmission line in San Bruno

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

A tidal wave of pent-up federal regulations could surge across much of the electricity industry in 2014. In recent years, Congress has been unable to enact new laws in energy, which has led a frustrated

The Powder River Basin Coal Users’ Group (PRBCUG) each year since 2000 honors one or two plants that burn PRB coal for “innovation and implementation of best practices and continual improvements in areas

Training simulators are worth their weight in gold to the power industry, as well as to most process industries in general. People tend to learn the fastest and the most thoroughly when hands-on trial and

America is blessed with long coastlines and relatively deep waters. But ironically, this has been a disadvantage to the U.S. offshore wind industry. Compared to more than 1,000 turbines that are already

In 1973, an obscure economist from Britain’s National Coal Board, which then owned and operated all the coal mines in the country, published a book that posited—as the title proclaimed—that Small Is

Fossil-fuel-based power generation plants with wet scrubbing systems use slurries of sorbents to remove sulfur dioxide from their emissions. These highly abrasive slurries accelerate wear on the expansion

As solar technologies, both solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) are often discussed collectively, along with solar thermal and solar fuels. But the difference between the two power

Rising energy costs necessitate new ideas and techniques for heat recovery—such as the Hitec Economizer from GEA Heat Exchangers. It is designed for equipping or retrofitting gas turbines and boilers, as

New research conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Santa Fe Institute researchers finds that the number of energy patents is increasing faster than patents overall. However, the trend lines

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

Beginning with its landmark Order No. 888 in 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has aggressively pursued policies designed to foster planning and construction of new transmission facilities

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

Christoph Frei The global energy environment is increasing in complexity and uncertainty. We are in a much more challenging world than previously envisaged. The World Energy Council’s (WEC) analysis has

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