POWERnews

A federal court last week lifted an emergency stay that had prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from proceeding with a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting of greenhouse gas sources in Texas while it considered legal challenges against the agency’s authority. The court’s decision means that EPA-issued regulations can curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other large stationary sources in that state.

The second 615-MW supercritical pulverized coal unit of We Energies’ Oak Creek Power Plant went commercial last week. The first unit—a POWER Top Plant—went into service on Feb. 2, 2010, and Elm Road Unit 2’s turnover to the Wisconsin Electric Power Co. by general contractor Bechtel Power Corp. last Wednesday completed the controversial expansion of the 1,135-MW power plant.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week instructed staff to address a potential problem at nuclear power plants around the U.S. where the containment sump—an emergency long-term cooling water source—could be clogged by debris accumulating after a high-pressure coolant break.

North Carolina–based utilities Duke Energy and Progress Energy agreed to an all stock merger valued at $13.7 billion on Monday. The combined company, to be called Duke Energy, will be the nation’s largest utility. It will have a $65 billion enterprise value, $37 billion in market capitalization, and 57 GW of domestic generating capacity—including the largest regulated nuclear fleet in the country.

The past week saw a spate of nuclear-related news from around the world. Brazil said it would issue approvals for four nuclear plants and a massive hydropower dam in 2011; a Minnesota House committee voted to lift the state’s 20-year ban on new nuclear power; and a Chinese firm that owns the incident-plagued Hong Kong Daya Bay nuclear plant said it would boost operational transparency to quell public concern.

The 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind farm proposed for construction on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, Mass., on Friday received two key approvals—from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—completing its federal permitting process.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a Clean Air Act complaint on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleging that owners and operators of the 2-GW coal-fired Homer City Generating Station in Homer City, Indiana County, Pa., violated New Source Review (NSR) requirements.

South Korean utility GS Electric Power and Services Co. is Siemens Energy’s newest customer for the German firm’s new high-efficiency H-Class gas turbine. Siemens said today that it would supply—for the first time—a complete combined cycle power plant equipped with the new-generation gas turbine.

Virginia’s State Corporation Commission on Monday denied a request by Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power to delay regulatory proceedings for a proposed 765-kilovolt, 275-mile transmission project from Putnam County, W.Va., to Frederick County, Md.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting requirements for carbon dioxide as they apply to biomass-fired and other biogenic sources of power will be deferred three years so that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could have enough time to better weigh the issue, the federal agency announced today.

In its last item of business before a new General Assembly took office today, the Illinois Senate rejected—for the second time since last week—a bill that would have procured $3.5 billion from ratepayers for the construction of Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center, an integrated gasification combined cycle power (IGCC) plant proposed for central Illinois. The vote puts the future of the controversial coal-fired plant in doubt.

As regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to curb greenhouse gases from power plants and other large stationary sources took effect for the first time this week, a federal appeals court temporarily stayed the federal agency’s plan to seize control of greenhouse gas permits from Texas.

Ormat Technologies last week said it would not proceed with Part II of a loan guarantee application for three geothermal projects in California and Nevada, shunning the opportunity for up to $330 million in federal funds. The Reno-based company said it had instead decided to “explore” commercial financing, citing uncertainties in the project permitting process and transaction costs associated with the program.

The German state governing council of Hesse last week partially approved a 1.1-GW coal-fired power plant proposed for construction by Germany firm E.ON at its Staudinger site. If E.ON receives clearance for actual operation of the plant, the plant will be the sixth block at the site, replacing three older units built in the 1960s and 1970s.

A novel technology that could help release some currently unusable energy in an estimated 2 billion tons of coal waste in the U.S. has been demonstrated by a Department of Energy–supported project, the federal body said on Tuesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week said it had published its final Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month approved Constellation Energy’s $1.1 billion acquisition of BostonGen’s five power plants in the Boston area, which have a combined capacity of 2,950 MW. The approval marks closing of the sale of the third-largest generating portfolio in the New England region.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued its plan for establishing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution standards under the Clean Air Act in 2011. The agency looked at a number of sectors and is moving forward on GHG standards for fossil fuel power plants and petroleum refineries—two of the largest industrial sources, representing nearly 40% of the GHG pollution in the U.S.

The General Electric Co. (GE) agreed last week to requirements established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for final cleanup of PCB-contaminated sediment in the Hudson River. The second phase of the cleanup is to begin in late spring.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on Dec. 23 that a $17.1 million loan guarantee has been finalized for the AES Westover facility. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 20- MW energy storage system using advanced lithium-ion batteries.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced last Wednesday that it is accepting applications for a total of up to $74 million to support the research and development (R&D) of clean, reliable fuel cells for stationary and transportation applications.

In a news conference hosted today by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), presenters argued that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has overstated the economic benefits of recycling coal ash by more than 20 times and exaggerated the potential stigma on recycled fly ash that could result from tougher coal ash regulations. At the same time, the EPA is vastly underemphasizing the costs to human and environmental health of not regulating the substance, presenters said.

On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted 9-1 to adopt a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that is scheduled to start in 2012. The program will affect power plants and other industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide.

On Dec. 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is proposing actions under the greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting program to address issues about the public availability of certain data that some businesses may consider to be confidential. The total emissions for each facility is still required to be reported to the EPA and released to the public.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced yesterday that it had finalized a $1.45 billion loan guarantee for building Abengoa Solar’s Solana, the world’s largest parabolic trough concentrating solar plant (CSP). The 250-MW project in Arizona will require a total investment of around $2 billion.

Advocates and developers of renewable power in the U.S. got an early Christmas present late Dec. 16 when the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing a one-year extension of the Department of Treasury Section 1603 tax grant program (TGP) as part of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010.

Last Thursday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that a partial loan guarantee for a $1.3 billion loan has been finalized to support the world’s largest wind farm. The loan will finance the Caithness Shepherds Flat project, an 845-MW wind generation facility located in eastern Oregon sponsored by Caithness Energy LLC and GE Energy Financial Services.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. on Dec. 16 was notified that the Prevention of Significant Deterioration air quality construction permit for its 895-MW Holcomb expansion project was approved by Acting Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) John Mitchell. The permit is expected to be issued by the end of the year. The […]

Basin Electric’s directors decided last week that a proposed demonstration project to capture emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the Antelope Valley Station (AVS) in Beulah, N.D., will remain on hold until the economic viability of such a venture can be further developed.

Following a 26-month environmental and safety review, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week approved a 20-year license extension for the NextEra Energy Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC) near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.