POWERnews
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POWERnews—Oct. 29, 2020
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store October 29, 2020 Shakeup for 720-MW Nuclear SMR Project as More Cities Withdraw Participation At least eight cities have now dropped shares in the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), a 720-MWe NuScale Power small modular reactor (SMR) project proposed by Utah Associated […]
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Markets
Shakeup for 720-MW Nuclear SMR Project as More Cities Withdraw Participation
At least eight cities have now dropped shares in the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), a 720-MWe NuScale Power small modular reactor (SMR) project proposed by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS). Despite the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oct.16–announced $1.4 billion, 10-year award to fund one-time costs for the first-of-a-kind project, four Utah cities withdrew […]
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Nuclear
Fusion Power May Be Closer Than You Think
Fusion research and development have been ongoing for decades, and many people probably believe a fusion power system will remain out of reach for decades longer. But the truth is that more than 100 tokamaks have been constructed and the science behind fusion is well-understood. What has been elusive is generating net energy from a […]
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News
Vineyard Wind Secures Transmission Agreement With ISO-NE
Vineyard Wind has announced a transmission agreement with ISO New England (ISO-NE) to deliver power to the system operator’s grid when the Vineyard Wind 1 project comes online. The 800-MW offshore wind farm, located about 15 miles off the cost of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, is expected to be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm […]
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News
Japan’s Carbon-Neutrality Pledge a Fundamental Shift on Coal Power
Japan, an island nation that is currently heavily reliant on coal and gas power, will be carbon neutral in 2050, the country’s newly appointed prime minister Yoshihide Suga pledged in an Oct. 26 speech. The announcement by Suga in his first major policy speech to the national Diet was not unexpected for the nation […]
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Connected Plant
Technology for Advanced Asset Inspections
Netze BW GmbH is the largest distribution system operator (DSO) in Baden-Württemberg, which is the third-largest state in Germany. Netze BW is responsible for high-, medium-, and low-voltage networks across the state. Its power lines stretch over 100,000 kilometers (more than 62,000 miles), and like all power utilities, it faces a constant challenge of monitoring, […]
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Best of POWER—October 26, 2020
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store October 26, 2020 GE Secures First HA-Class Hydrogen Gas Power Deal: Long Ridge Energy Terminal Long Ridge Energy Terminal will transition a 485-MW combined cycle power plant that is under construction within its sprawling multimodal facility on the Ohio and West Virginia […]
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Nuclear
The POWER Interview: Designing a Net Energy Fusion System
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a company commercializing fusion energy, recently announced a series of seven papers published and peer reviewed in a special edition of the Journal of Plasma Physics. The papers validate the company’s approach to commercial fusion energy. CFS said the papers, written in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Plasma […]
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Nuclear
More Delays for Vogtle Plant Expansion
Georgia Power said it still expects to meet a state regulatory deadline for commercial operation of the first of two new reactors at its Vogtle nuclear plant expansion. The utility, though, on Oct. 22 acknowledged it has pushed back some aspects of the project, including delaying the loading of nuclear fuel for the first reactor […]
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News
PG&E Cutting Power Due to Wildfire Threat
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) said it could cut off power for nearly one million people across Northern California beginning Oct. 25, due to significant wildfire danger in its territory. Southern California Edison (SCE) also has warned of potential blackouts in its region due to forecasts of high winds. The utility last week was found […]
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Gas
Energy Deals Shift to Renewables and U.S. Shale Bargains
At a time when deal activity in the energy and natural resources sector has slowed dramatically—down 26.2% globally year-on-year—one development in particular may define the industry’s near-term future. In mid-May 2020, French oil major Total opted not to pursue a deal, announced in 2019, to purchase the African assets of Anadarko Petroleum, a U.S. producer […]
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POWERnews—Oct. 22, 2020
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store October 22, 2020 AECOM Sells Power Business as Part of Restructuring AECOM has announced the closing of the sale of its Power construction business to affiliates of CriticalPoint Capital LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Los Angeles, California-based… Commercial […]
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Renewables
New York Reforms Clean Energy Standard
An expansion of New York’s Clean Energy Standard (CES) approved by the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) adopts several measures that will help the state meet its new, more ambitious 70%-by-2030 renewable power target. In an Oct. 15 order, the PSC adopted several changes proposed by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority […]
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Energy Storage
Developing a Safer Lithium-Ion Battery
Most consumers know that lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries can get hot. People experience the phenomenon in devices such as cell phones and laptop computers. In extreme circumstances, the heat can cause fires with catastrophic consequences. One company that is working to remedy the problem is Burlington, Washington-headquartered LAVLE. The company’s COO Morten Pedersen and CTO Ben […]
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Nuclear
Commercial NuScale SMR in Sight as UAMPS Secures $1.4B for Plant
Buoyed by two major developments last week for prospective customers, NuScale Power is maintaining “strong program momentum” toward commercialization of its small modular reactor (SMR) technology, the company told POWER. On Oct. 16, the Department of Energy (DOE) approved a $1.355 billion award to fund the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), a potential 720-MWe NuScale […]
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Renewables
Harvesting Near-Ground Winds with Advanced Compact Turbines
Compact (H-type) vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are not as familiar as their horizontal-axis, propeller-type cousins. The two have their origins in the windmills of the 12th century, and even earlier, but the former has lacked financing, and research and development resources that have been poured into the latter to produce some of the lowest-cost energy […]
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Coal
Coal-Fired Power in 2021: A Recovery or a Reckoning?
This has been the year from hell for coal-fired power and the coal industry. If current projections hold, coal generation in 2020 will be 21% lower than last year and 62% lower than the 2007 peak. The coal share of the generating mix, which for decades hovered around 50%, will finish the year at 20%, […]
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Distributed Energy
Executives Tout Storage as Key for Distributed Generation
The growth of energy storage, along with deployment of new technologies, is at the heart of the future of distributed power generation. That’s according to industry executives participating in POWER’s Distributed Energy Experience. Woody Rubin, president of AES Distributed Energy, provided a keynote address on Oct. 20, talking about the rise of solar-plus-storage applications and […]
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Renewables
What Will It Take to Make Offshore Wind Viable in the U.S.?
The benefits of offshore wind power have become indisputable. While it takes significant investment to bring these sources of power about, we can see that where offshore wind is being introduced, jobs are being created and clean, sustainable energy is being generated. Despite these clear and appealing benefits, however, only a handful of countries have […]
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News
AECOM Sells Power Business as Part of Restructuring
AECOM has announced the closing of the sale of its Power construction business to affiliates of CriticalPoint Capital LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Los Angeles, California-based infrastructure consulting firm, which this month announced a restructuring plan, earlier this year closed on the $2.4 billion sale of its Maryland-based Management Services business—which […]
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Distributed Energy
Digital Applications, Data, and the Microgrid User Experience
EnTech Solutions, a sister company of Faith Technologies, was created to provide renewable, resilient energy solutions that enable its partners to control energy costs and reliability and minimize their environmental impact. EnTech utilizes microgrids that leverage proprietary power control hardware, energy management software, energy storage and other distributed energy resources (DERs) to consistently deliver high-value, […]
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POWERnews—Oct. 15, 2020
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store October 15, 2020 Natrium, Xe-100 Are DOE's Picks for Advanced Nuclear Reactor Demonstrations TerraPower and X-energy will each receive $80 million in initial federal funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to build their two distinct advanced […]
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News
Duke Energy Pursuing Sweeping Changes to Generation Mix
Doubling down on its net-zero efforts, Duke Energy will retire all coal-only units in the Carolinas, multiply its renewable portfolio, and cease emitting methane in its natural gas business by 2030. The company made the announcements on Oct. 12 at its first environmental, social and governance (ESG) day, a virtual event geared toward its investors. […]
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News
Orlando Utility Pulling Plug on Coal-Fired Generation
The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) said it plans to eliminate the group’s use of coal for power generation no later than 2027, including converting two coal-fired units at its Stanton Energy Center to run on natural gas. The Florida utility’s management on Oct. 14 made the recommendation as part of its Electric Integrated Resource Plan […]
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Interview
The POWER Interview: Importance of Tax Credits and Incentives
Tax credits and incentives, also known as C&I, have long been important to support the growth of energy technologies, from oil and gas exploration to solar and wind power. Federal tax credits have lifted the U.S. renewable energy industry over the past decade, leading to rapid growth in the sector. Laurence Sotsky is the CEO […]
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O&M
What’s Your Heat Exchanger Maintenance IQ?
Heat exchangers are at the heart of many critical industrial systems. From power plants to industrial chemical plants and everything in between, the heat exchanger in all its forms is a critical aspect of heat management systems. Therefore, organizations must take heat exchanger maintenance extremely seriously. A heat exchanger failure can be a potentially deadly […]
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Nuclear
Natrium, Xe-100 Are DOE’s Picks for Advanced Nuclear Reactor Demonstrations
TerraPower and X-energy will each receive $80 million in initial federal funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to build their two distinct advanced nuclear reactors and begin operating them within seven years. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette made the much-awaited announcement about the first ARDP awards in a brief Twitter […]
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Hydrogen
GE Secures First HA-Class Hydrogen Gas Power Deal: Long Ridge Energy Terminal
Long Ridge Energy Terminal will transition a 485-MW combined cycle power plant that is under construction within its sprawling multimodal facility on the Ohio and West Virginia border with the capacity to run on a hydrogen blend when it begins operation in 2021, and eventually transition to 100% green hydrogen within a decade. Long Ridge, […]
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Gas
West Virginia Natural Gas Power Project Shelved
A developer has shelved a 920-MW natural gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, West Virginia, citing “changing conditions in the energy and financial markets” and alleged coal industry interference. Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC), a single purpose entity engaged in developing natural gas-fired power plants in West Virginia and Pennsylvania that has been active since […]
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Best of POWER—October 12, 2020
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store October 12, 2020 DOE Has Chosen Advanced Nuclear Reactor Demonstration Winners The Department of Energy (DOE) notified Congress that it has chosen recipients for its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) and will make its… It's Fair to Say – New Plant […]