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The U.S. solar industry installed a record 19.2 GWdc of photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2020, a 43% increase from 2019, according to a report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The numbers are particularly impressive considering the world was dealing with unique challenges as a result of COVID-19. “After a […]

JERA, Japan’s largest power generation company, has submitted a scoping document to begin assessing the environmental impact of its plan to add two gas-fired units at the Chita Thermal Power Station, while decommissioning five existing units at the facility. The company filed the report with government officials on March 16, with a 30-day public comment […]

Utilities have a two-fold relationship with energy efficiency. On one side, public and private utilities gain from finding efficiencies in energy usage to reduce costs in their own operations—just like many other businesses. The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2002 Motor Market Assessment established that pumping systems offer the greatest optimization potential of all types of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the agency has awarded $2 million to four research and development (R&D) projects aimed at advancing clean-hydrogen production technologies. The DOE’s awards on March 15 are part of a push by the Biden administration in its fight against climate change. Jennifer Granholm, the new Secretary of Energy and […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 15, 2021 ERCOT Lists Generators Forced Offline During Texas Extreme Cold Event The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in freshly revealed data on March 4 reported that the Texas grid suffered 1,796 generating or energy storage outages or derates as […]

The regulatory group that oversees Texas’ deregulated power market has identified eight areas the agency will focus on as it continues to study the state’s response to a mid-February storm that left millions of electricity customers without power for several days. Texas power customers, along with electricity generators and retail power providers, continue to grapple […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 11, 2021 ERCOT Lists Generators Forced Offline During Texas Extreme Cold Event The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in freshly revealed data reported that the Texas grid suffered 1,796 generating or energy storage outages or derates as winter… Floating Energy […]

When evaluating resource adequacy requirements, many power companies and grid operators have used a methodology that originated more than 70 years ago. This probabilistic reliability approach has generally performed adequately through the years. It has generally evaluated loss-of-load events occurring at frequencies of one-day-in-10-years (1-in-10) to be acceptable in terms of system reliability. However, it’s […]

The Arab world’s first nuclear power plant has received an operating license for its second unit, and the facility’s timeline still calls for commercial start-up of the first unit later this year. The Barakah nuclear power station, in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi, will include four units with 5,600 MW of generating capacity […]

Floating energy storage systems are being developed for use in areas wanting to increase their use of renewable energy, but with constraints on the land available that could be used for solar and wind farms or land-based energy storage. Southeast Asia is one area ready to utilize such installations. The technology group Wärtsilä on March […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Estonian firm Fermi Energia OÜ have entered into a teaming agreement to support potential deployment of a BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in the Baltic country. The agreement between the technology company and the firm established in 2019 by nuclear industry professionals comes two years after the companies inked […]

The federal agency in charge of U.S. offshore energy management said it has completed the final environmental analysis for a proposed 800-MW offshore wind project, paving the way for the nation’s first commercial-scale development of its kind to move forward. The U.S. Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on March 8 […]

Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom continues to diversify, as one of the group’s subsidiaries has acquired a major stake in a South Korean manufacturer of energy storage products. RENERA LLC, which is Rosatom’s integrator company for the energy storage business, and also a subsidiary of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom, on March 5 announced […]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in freshly revealed data on March 4 reported that the Texas grid suffered 1,796 generating or energy storage outages or derates as winter storm Uri bore down on the state in mid-February.  The grid operator made the list public in a letter it sent to lawmakers in the […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 4, 2021 Board Votes to Fire ERCOT CEO Board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, voted late on March 3 to… Siemens Studies Hydrogen […]

A sweeping climate proposal introduced by U.S. House Democrats on March 2 sets a stringent clean energy electricity mandate for power retailers nationwide, requiring they procure 100% of their power supplies from zero-emitting generation by 2035.  Among its slew of measures aimed at achieving net-zero emissions nationwide by 2050, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action […]

Lithium-ion has become the dominant battery technology used in energy storage applications around the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only, or even the best, technology available. Many companies are working on different battery chemistries that could provide safer, longer-lasting, and ultimately more cost-effective options. One alternative that has gotten little exposure until now […]

In a brief interview this February, Francesco Venneri, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. CEO, explained to POWER why the company’s development of its proprietary fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel is significant for the future of advanced nuclear, and how the company plans to roll it out.  Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC), developer of the 5-MWe […]

Board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, voted late on March 3 to fire ERCOT CEO Bill Magness. The move comes as state and federal officials continue to investigate the actions of the grid operator that led to […]

Mitsubishi Power is developing a 40-MW class gas turbine that can directly combust 100% ammonia under an initiative that responds to heightened global decarbonization ambitions, as well as Japan’s recent roadmap for ammonia fuel.  The Yokohama–headquartered power equipment firm, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), on March 1 said it is targeting commercialization of […]

The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has resigned, stepping down after the state’s lieutenant governor earlier on March 1 called for her resignation, along with that of the CEO of the state’s power grid operator. DeAnn Walker, the PUC chair, in her resignation letter Monday to Gov. Greg Abbott, defended her […]

The group considered Texas’ oldest and largest electricity cooperative has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it can’t pay money wanted by the state’s grid operator in connection with power outages during a major winter storm that hit in February. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative filed its bankruptcy petition March 1 in the U.S. Bankruptcy […]

Siemens Energy said it is joining with a power generation cooperative on a plan to integrate hydrogen production and storage at a Utah power plant. Siemens on March 1 said it has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support a conceptual design study, which is set to begin […]

Enegix Energy has confirmed it plans to build what the company said would be the world’s largest green hydrogen plant, a facility in northeast Brazil that could produce more than 600 million kilograms, or about 1.32 billion pounds, of the fuel per year. Enegix on March 1 said the hydrogen production would come as part […]

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) announced it was awarded the firm order from the EDF Renewables-Enbridge-wpd consortium for the 448-MW Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind power project. The installation will be located just more than 6 miles off the Bessin coast, in an area of Normandy, France. SGRE on Feb. 22 said the wind turbine nacelles and […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   February 25, 2021 Exelon to Split Business, Spin Off Generation Segment Responding to rapid changes in the power industry, Exelon Corp. plans to cleave its business into two publicly traded companies: one comprising its six regulated electric and gas utilities, and…   […]

Responding to rapid changes in the power industry, Exelon Corp. plans to cleave its business into two publicly traded companies: one comprising its six regulated electric and gas utilities, and the other, which it plans to spin off, comprising its 31-GW competitive generation fleet and customer-facing businesses.  The separation—which the company’s Board of Directors approved […]

Power systems around the world are changing. Renewable energy, mainly in the form of wind and solar generation, is being added everywhere, while more traditional forms of power, such as coal-fired and nuclear generation, are being retired from the grid. Meanwhile, natural gas-fired generation has taken the lead role in facilitating the transition by providing […]

A federal government geothermal program based at the University of Utah has chosen 17 projects that will receive up to $46 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). The DOE on Feb. 24 said its Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Initiative will support funding for what it called “cutting-edge, domestic, and […]

Two GE 9HA.02 gas turbines—the largest model of GE’s second-generation H-class heavy-duty gas turbine fleet and one of the largest gas turbine models on the global market—on Feb. 24 began commercial operation at Southern Power Generation’s (SPG’s) 1,440-MW Track 4A Power Plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia.  The combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant, built […]