POWERnews

China rolled out its latest five-year energy development plan, detailing the country’s aim of investing about 2.5 trillion yuan (more than $363 billion) through 2020 in the development of renewable energy resources. Yang Li Zhe, deputy director of China’s National Energy Board, explained the country’s vision during a press conference held in Beijing on January […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has dropped its support of a 24-MW offshore wind demonstration project proposed by Fishermen’s Energy off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J. “Under the Energy Department’s award, Fishermen’s Energy must have secured a power offtake agreement by December 31st to be eligible for another round of funding,” a DOE spokesperson […]

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has submitted documents that suggest its plan to permanently store low-level and intermediate-level nuclear waste close to its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, at an underground site near the eastern shore of Lake Huron, is the best option for disposal. Responding to a February 2016 request for information by the […]

A tumultuous election year that was marked by market turmoil, the events of 2016 clearly showed that big change is afoot for the power sector. Many of POWER‘s bold predictions for 2016, such as that the near-simultaneous surge in U.S. natural gas production and recent enactment of environmental rules would reshape the U.S. power sector, […]

POWER‘s monthly infographic sheds light on power sector trends globally, and in 2016, it highlighted water issues, future coal fleet technologies, U.S. power plant retirements, energy storage technologies, China’s power glut, global emissions limits, and more. January 2016: Future Coal Fleet What the world’s future coal fleet will look like by technology. February 2016: GHG […]

Some of the U.S. coal market’s own product wound up in its stocking this Christmas season. Despite hope from the election of Donald Trump and a potential shift toward more coal-friendly energy policies, coal plant owners across the country continued the trend toward shutdowns and reduced operations that have marked the past few years. Coal […]

Toshiba Corp.—the parent of Westinghouse Electric Co.—said it might book huge losses as a result of Westinghouse’s acquisition of the nuclear construction and integrated services business CB&I Stone & Webster Inc. (S&W). Westinghouse closed on its agreement with CB&I in December 2015. When the deal was made, Toshiba estimated that the amount of “goodwill” resulting […]

Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center was awarded up to $40 million by the DOE to create a wave energy test facility in Newport.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery. The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to […]

After a 10-month competitive bid process, Southern California Edison (SCE) has selected a joint venture of AECOM and EnergySolutions as the general contractor for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) decommissioning. “We are pleased to announce the selection of the AECOM/EnergySolutions team, a global joint venture with extensive commercial and government decommissioning experience around […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Dec. 21 that it has issued combined construction-and-operating licenses (COLs) for Duke Energy’s proposed two-unit William States Lee III nuclear plant in Gaffney, S.C. The project, named for long-time Duke executive Bill Lee, would use Westinghouse’s AP1000 design and be located adjacent to the abandoned Cherokee nuclear plant […]

In a joint statement on December 20, the leaders of the United States and Canada announced that they had developed a new partnership that effectively bans additional licenses for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has abandoned an interagency review of draft model carbon trading rules that were issued alongside the final Clean Power Plan to make associated documents public before the Trump administration takes the reins at the agency. The agency proposed the model trading rules as components of state implementation plans that it […]

Fermi 2, a 1,170-MW boiling water reactor owned by DTE Electric on the western shore of Lake Erie, in Monroe County, Mich., has garnered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) green light to operate until March 2045. DTE Electric submitted an application to the NRC to renew the 29-year-old reactor’s operating license in April 2014. The […]

A joint strategy released by the governments of the U.S. and Canada to thwart the growing threat of cyberattacks on the electric grid sets three priorities that the countries said would be critical to preserving energy and national security. The “Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy,” released on December 15, outlines three […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on December 15 proposed reforms to its large generator (20 MW or more) interconnection processes. The notice of proposed rulemaking (or NOPR in FERC-speak) would revise FERC’s 2003 pro-forma large generator interconnection procedures and agreement. At the FERC meeting approving the proposed rule, FERC Chairman Norman Bay said, “Much […]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on December 14 finalized the latest version of its rule governing permitted levels of eagle deaths at wind turbine farms. The rule, first issued in 2009, governs the FWS’s administration of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which makes it a criminal offense to kill or injure […]

Although optimistic about the future of the coal industry under the Trump administration, Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the largest underground coal mining company in the U.S., does not expect the president-elect to bring back coal mining jobs or spur new coal-fired power plant construction. “I’ve asked President-elect Trump to temper his comments […]

The tumultuous Trump transition took another turn late Tuesday, as reports from many media outlets said he has picked Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), a freshman who won a second House term in November’s election, to be Secretary of Interior. Many of the same media sources late last week said Trump would pick Washington Rep. Cathy […]

As one of its last official acts, the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) backed away from making a definitive statement on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, saying it lacked sufficient data to quantify their severity and frequency. The 1,200-page final report issued December 13, “Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic […]

President-elect Donald Trump has picked former Texas governor Rick Perry to be his energy secretary

Block Island Wind Farm has begun commercial operations, making it America’s first offshore wind farm. Deepwater Wind and project partners have commissioned and tested the 30-MW installation off the coast of Block Island, R.I., and it is now delivering power into New England’s grid via National Grid’s 20-mile-long sea2shore submarine transmission cable, the company said […]

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) as his nominee to be Secretary of the Interior. There had been no official announcement as this was being written December 9, but CNBC said it had been informed of the choice by a “senior Trump official.” The Wall Street Journal and the […]

In a finding that is likely to boost controversy over the future of U.S. energy policy, a comprehensive study of the full levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from various sources of electricity conducted by the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Energy Institute found that wind turbines and natural gas combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) […]

Entergy Corp. has decided to permanently close the Palisades nuclear power plant on October 1, 2018. The news comes as a bit of a surprise, because Entergy had a power purchase agreement with Consumers Energy—Michigan’s largest utility and the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy—which committed the company to buying nearly all of the power generated […]

Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide Trump Reportedly Picks Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt for EPA President-elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon, citing a transition official. The […]

Global demand for the 17 periodic table elements—15 within the chemical group called lanthanides, plus yttrium and scandium—has soared in recent years as they become increasingly integrated in new technologies. Some major end uses include generators for wind turbines, permanent magnets and rechargeable batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles, automotive catalytic converters, fluid cracking catalysts […]

The owner of a merchant 1,022-MW combined cycle natural gas–fired power plant in California has filed for bankruptcy protection, citing regulatory policies and market forces that have depressed revenues. La Paloma Generating Co. on December 6 filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming a debt of $524 million that it racked up even though its four-unit […]

An email written by the team leader of an ongoing Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection being conducted at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant suggested that the facility’s staff were “overwhelmed by just trying to run the station.” The wide-ranging NRC inspection began on Nov. 28. It is the third and largest inspection conducted as part […]

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon, citing a transition official. The report had not been officially confirmed or denied as this article was written.     Pruitt, 48, is a long-time supporter of the fossil fuel […]