POWERnews

The week brought important policy and technology news concerning carbon capture and storage (CCS) from around the world. President Barack Obama unveiled a task force to make “clean coal” a reality as the European Union struck a major deal with member states for CCS funding. Caterpillar joined the FutureGen Alliance, and Siemens Energy said it would conduct a feasibility study for a novel postcombustion CCS system in West Virginia.

Calpine Corp. last week received final approval to build its long-delayed 600-MW Russell City Energy Center in the City of Hayward, Calif. The Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit issued by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) puts limits on the natural gas–fired power plant’s carbon emissions.

Despite some powerful drivers, nuclear power faces too many barriers compared to other means of generating electricity, and that means that a significant expansion of nuclear power is unlikely to occur before 2030, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a Canadian think tank, said in a report on Thursday.

French nuclear giant AREVA on Monday said it had acquired 100% of Ausra, a major U.S.-based provider of large-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. The acquisition marks AREVA’s foray into solar power. The company already has major offshore wind and biomass ventures.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week voted to approve interpretive guidance that calls for disclosure of climate-related business risks. These include the anticipated impact of climate change on assets and financial risks associated with compliance costs for existing and pending regulations.

The Brazilian government granted an environmental license to the controversial 11,000-MW Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest on Monday in hopes that the $17 billion project will help the country cope with growing demand.

President Barack Obama emphasized the role of nuclear power, offshore oil and gas exploration, and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in his first State of the Union speech last week. The proposed $28.4 billion Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the Energy Department released by the White House this week could provide a much-needed boost to these and other measures.

Exelon Corp. last week said it intends to join the FutureGen Alliance, a consortium developing a 275-MW integrated gasification combined cycle power plant with carbon capture in Matoon, Ill.

The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) on Monday said it had received pledges from 55 countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. The international climate change body said the countries together accounted for about 78% of global GHG emissions from energy use.

The Supreme Court last week refused to review a February 2009 ruling by a federal court that blocked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from asserting its power to override transmission decisions made by states.

A technical study released by the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) last week shows that shifting 20% or more of the Eastern Interconnection’s electrical load to wind energy by 2024 is technically feasible, but it would require significant expansion of the transmission system and system operational changes.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week said it would take a fresh look at regulatory policies to integrate variable renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, or non-storage hydro generating plants into the nation’s power grid while maintaining power system reliability.

Westar Energy has agreed to spend approximately $500 million to significantly reduce air pollution from a Kansas power plant and pay a $3 million civil penalty under a Clean Air Act settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department. The company has also agreed to spend $6 million on environmental mitigation projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday set the new one-hour standard for nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—formed from vehicle and power plant and other industrial emissions—at a level of 100 parts per billion (ppb). The agency said it would also retain the existing annual standard of 53 ppb.

The Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), which represents 11 municipal utilities, today announced it would undertake what it called the “nation’s first cost-effective, utility-scale distributed energy storage project.” The 53-MW project will use several rooftop ice-storage units from Ice Energy to reduce the state’s peak electrical demand by shifting as much as 64 GWh of on-peak electrical consumption to off-peak periods every year.

A letter posted on the California Energy Commission’s web site last week reveals that the state had urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to slow down implementation of rules governing greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources because it would create a “huge administrative burden.”

CPS Energy has reportedly dropped Toshiba from a $32 billion lawsuit stemming from now-defunct plans for the expansion of the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear plant in Matagorda County, Texas. The move was allegedly made to keep the case from being shifted to federal court.

A Texas district judge has reversed an order from the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to award billions of dollars in transmission projects relating to Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ), ruling that the regulatory agency should suspend the process until the PUC adequately weighs the costs and benefits to electric customers.

French oil company Total last week inaugurated what it is calling Europe’s first end-to-end carbon capture, transportation, and storage demonstration facility in Lacq, southwestern France. The €60 million project uses oxycombustion carbon capture technology developed by Air Liquide.

Europe added a total of eight new wind farms consisting of 199 offshore wind turbines—and a combined nameplate capacity of 577 MW—to the grid last year, according to a newly released report from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

A decision by the Florida Public Service Commission to reject a request by Florida Power & Light (FPL) to raise rates by $1.3 billion last week has prompted the company to suspend activities on several major projects in the state’s energy infrastructure—including a new nuclear plant. The company said the state’s denial of its request was “further evidence of a deteriorating regulatory and business environment.”

Three Chinese engineers hired by Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp. have been arrested in connection with the collapse last year of a 330-foot chimney under construction at a 1,200-MW coal-fired power plant in India’s eastern state of Chhattisgarh, killing 41.

Last week, Ameren Corp. and Dominion Virginia Power separately issued statements claiming the utilities had spent billions on improvements to existing power plants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday proposed to lower ground-level ozone standards from those set in March 2008. The tighter so-called “smog” regulations would require power plants to cut their emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other volatile organic compounds.

The UK government’s Crown Estate on Friday parceled out rights to develop 32-GW worth of offshore wind energy in nine coastal zones. The announcement was part of the government’s ambitious plans to develop a £75 billion offshore wind industry by 2020.

Georgia Power will delay the conversion of its coal-fired 155-MW Plant Mitchell in Albany, Ga., to run on wood waste until the Environmental Protection Agency better defines rules governing industrial boiler emissions in April 2010.

NV Energy has dropped plans to build a transmission line through Nevada, announcing on Monday that it had instead signed an agreement with an LS Power affiliate, Great Basin Transmission, to jointly own a 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission line running 250 miles from north of Las Vegas to near Ely, Nev.

San Antonio’s CPS Energy said on Monday it had received the contractually mandated cost estimate for the proposed South Texas Project Units 3 and 4 from contractor Toshiba—but it stressed it would make no decisions on the project until “rigorous analysis” of price and methodology was completed.

The National Park Service ruled Monday that Nantucket Sound—the Massachusetts site proposed for Cape Wind, the nation’s first offshore wind farm—is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The decision deals a new hurdle for the long-disputed proposal because it requires consideration of archaeological, historic, and cultural values in the review of the project by the Minerals Management Service (MMS).

France’s Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest constitutional authority, last week annulled a tax on carbon emissions hailed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying that the tax that was due to become effective Jan. 1 would have allowed for too many exemptions.