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President Biden has signed executive orders designed to move the U.S. to carbon neutrality by midcentury, part of a $2 trillion plan that would overhaul the nation’s electricity and transportation sectors. The president’s plan, outlined Jan. 27, focuses on climate change and includes a White House task force that would direct policies on greenhouse gas […]

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting global economic slowdown curtailed some energy projects in 2020, but corporations worldwide still bought a record 23.7 GW of clean power through long-term purchase agreements. That’s according to research published Jan. 26 by BloombergNEF (BNEF). The group in its “1H 2021 Corporate Energy Market Outlook” said more than 130 companies, […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   January 25, 2021 Biden Effects Regulatory Freeze, Revokes Trump Actions, Rejoins Paris Agreement President Joe Biden just hours after his inauguration effected an immediate freeze on several Trump-era deregulatory actions that directly affect the power sector, and revoked a long list of […]

A report from a major environmental group said that coal-fired power generation will continue to play a large role in U.S. electricity production for at least another 10 years. The Sierra Club report published Jan. 25, based on a review of integrated resource plans (IRPs) from the 50 U.S. utilities most invested in coal-fired and […]

Christopher Hanson, a nuclear energy government and industry veteran, has taken the helm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The designation by President Joe Biden on Jan. 23 may provide a boost to the administration’s climate initiatives, experts told POWER.  Hanson, a Democrat, is expected to fill the role for remainder of his five-year term […]

Over the last several years, cyber actors and online criminal gangs have used cyber warfare to disrupt business and infrastructure across the globe. Today, they are becoming even more aggressive and are using their resources to target Operations Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS) networks. According to the Canadian government’s Canadian Centre for Cyber […]

Mining is an energy-intensive industry; digging, crushing, and processing minerals takes a lot of power, and mines often operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like other industries, mining companies are seeking solutions to reduce their emissions; both for the sake of the planet and in response to increasing pressure from customers to […]

The case for advanced analytics and remote diagnostics During the last 25 years significant advancements have been made in remote monitoring capabilities for power plants. A number of operations and maintenance (O&M) functions can routinely be managed remotely, and it is also becoming more common for peaking and renewable energy plants to be remotely operated […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) new leadership team is a diverse group of individuals with a wide range of experience across the power sector and academia. The names announced Jan. 21 include Kelly Speakes-Backman, who has served as the first CEO of the Energy Storage Association (ESA) and was a keynote speaker at POWER’s […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   January 21, 2021 Biden Effects Regulatory Freeze, Revokes Trump Actions, Rejoins Paris Agreement President Joe Biden just hours after his inauguration effected an immediate freeze on several Trump-era deregulatory actions that directly affect the power sector, and revoked a long list of […]

Danish renewable energy giant Ørsted issued a final investment decision on the H2RES renewable hydrogen demonstration project, a pivotal power-to-mobility project that will use 2 MW of offshore wind–fed electrolyzing capacity to produce around 1,000 kilograms (kg) of green hydrogen daily.  The decision on Jan. 20 is a major boost for the H2RES project, which […]

A microgrid is a discrete energy system consisting of distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, wind turbines, backup generators, and battery storage systems, and loads capable of operating in parallel with, or independently from, the main power grid. A microgrid generally operates while connected to the grid, but importantly, it can break off and […]

President Joe Biden just hours after his inauguration effected an immediate freeze on several Trump-era deregulatory actions that directly affect the power sector, and revoked a long list of rules and executive actions affecting the bulk power system. The president on Jan. 20 also kickstarted America’s return to the Paris Agreement, sending a brief letter […]

A federal appeals court has vacated the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era greenhouse gas emission standards for power plants. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Jan. 19 said the measure intended to replace those standards, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, “rested critically on a mistaken […]

The goal of economic power generation from fusion has been elusive, but that hasn’t deterred researchers from exploring ways to develop the technology in a way that would support commercial electricity production. POWER magazine has covered the evolution of fusion research and development for many years, and nuclear experts now think we could be just […]

A British company announced it is joining with U.S.-based NuScale Power to develop a hybrid project using wind energy and small modular reactor (SMR) technology to produce power and green hydrogen. Shearwater Energy, a global energy services company, on Jan. 15 said it and NuScale have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on […]

General Electric (GE) has filed a lawsuit accusing “willful and malicious misappropriation of GE’s trade secrets” by Siemens Energy, charging that a current Siemens employee “knowingly and surreptitiously” received GE intellectual property, which led to Siemens using the information to improve its own bids for lucrative contracts supplying gas turbines to utilities. GE in the […]

A natural gas exploration company working in the Bakken Shale has announced plans to build a $400 million power plant in North Dakota that would run on ethane. Bakken Midstream Natural Gas (BMNG) on Jan. 12 said it hopes to begin construction of the Williston Basin Energy Center in 2022. The company in a news […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   January 14, 2021 Increase in COVID Cases Brings More Vogtle Delays Georgia Power is adjusting the work schedule for the expansion of the Vogtle nuclear plant, with the company saying hot functional testing and fuel loading of the new Unit 3… DOE […]

French energy major Total has signed an agreement to develop 12 utility-scale solar and energy storage projects in the U.S., announcing the deal Jan. 14, the same day the company said it has joined with Spain’s Iberdrola in a bid for one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects. The moves continue Total’s diversification from […]

Vistra Energy, the nation’s largest competitive generator, has begun operating a 300-MW/1,200-MWh lithium-ion battery storage system on its 1,020-MW combined cycle gas turbine Moss Landing power plant site in Monterey County, California. The battery storage system is the largest of its type in the world in terms of size and scale, and it towers over […]

The Montgomery County Power Station, a two-unit 993-MW natural gas-fired combined cycle plant, achieved commercial operation on Jan. 1, Entergy Texas Inc. and McDermott International Ltd. reported on Jan. 13. The plant—located at Entergy’s existing Lewis Creek site near Willis, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston—was reportedly brought online “well ahead of schedule,” according […]

Georgia Power is adjusting the work schedule for the expansion of the Vogtle nuclear plant, with the company saying hot functional testing and fuel loading of the new Unit 3 will be delayed due to “a significant increase in COVID-19 cases” at the worksite near Waynesboro, Georgia. The utility, part of Southern Company, on Jan. […]

As it readies for a leadership shuffle, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has rolled out an ambitious “blueprint” that urges continued technology innovation for existing nuclear, advanced nuclear, nuclear waste, and fuel cycles by the incoming Biden administration.  At its core, the NE’s “Strategic Vision” released on Jan. 8 posits […]

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant reached a milestone with delivery of the first steam turbine module for the project, four months ahead of schedule. GE Steam Power, which is supplying all the major equipment for the plant’s four turbine islands, on Jan. 12 announced it had delivered the module to Atomenergomash, an engineering company and […]

NuScale Power, Fluor Corp., and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) have executed a series of major agreements to prepare for licensing of the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, effectively driving forward the nation’s first small modular reactor (SMR) plant.  Fluor Corp., the majority investor in NuScale […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   January 11, 2021 Governments Look to Expand Nuclear Power Through SMRs Advancements in small modular reactor (SMR) technology are being supported by government investment within several countries, including the U.S. and the UK, as SMRs are increasingly seen as a way to […]

Global upheaval in energy markets has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and by ever-changing political winds, with energy investors at times torn between finding the best returns while also considering the impact of climate change. Many economies depend on fossil fuels, so moves away from coal-fired power and other forms of thermal generation can […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   January 7, 2021 South Korea Lenders Will End Support for Coal Affiliates of one of South Korea's largest business conglomerates announced they no longer will provide financial support for coal projects, putting in jeopardy plans to finish a 2,100-MW coal-fired power… Natural […]

Wrapping up an eventful year for advanced nuclear, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy announced $20 million in awards for the third of three pathways under its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).  The ARDP program, which the DOE officially launched on May 14, will leverage Congressionally appropriated funding to enable actual construction of […]