POWERnews

The week brought news of key alliances around the world concerning important fossil fuel–fired projects with carbon capture potential.

California regulators on Friday approved a program that seeks to generate 500 MW of solar power through the deployment of thousands of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on large commercial rooftops across Southern California. The approval marks the first time a California utility will own a significant renewable energy source.

A national assessment of demand response released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Thursday estimates that up to 20% of peak electricity use in the U.S. can be cut through programs in which customers agree to curb consumption at times of high demand.

SkyFuel Inc. has signed an agreement with Sunray Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Cogentrix Energy, for the installation of SkyTrough collectors at Sunray’s 43-MW parabolic trough generating plant near Daggett, Calif.,

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) announced support for the FutureGen project on Friday resurrected hopes for the Illinois gasified coal power plant and carbon capture initiative from which the Bush administration abruptly withdrew last year. If a decision is made to move forward with construction in 2010, however, the Mattoon, Ill., project will be initially designed for 60% carbon capture—not 90% as originally intended—and to gasify a single coal type.

Overshadowed by news that FutureGen—the nation’s first commercial-scale coal-fired carbon capture and storage (CCS) project—had regained the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) backing, the DOE’s financial awards on Friday to nine smaller projects that will develop precombustion carbon capture technologies for future integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants went almost unnoticed.

Energy legislation unveiled by House Republicans last week in response to the Waxman-Markey climate change and energy bill focuses heavily on an expansion of the nation’s nuclear industry, calling for construction of up to 100 new nuclear power plants by 2030 to meet the nation’s energy needs and environmental challenges.

The Mohave Generating Station, a 1,580-MW coal-fired power plant that operated from 1971 to 2005 in Laughlin, Nev., will be decommissioned and removed from the site, the plant’s four owners said last week.

Exelon has launched a series of planned power uprates across the company’s nuclear fleet that will generate between 1,300 MW and 1,500 MW of additional generation capacity—equal to a new reactor—within eight years.

Canada last week marked a major milestone in its move toward establishing a national carbon market by laying down the rules for a federal greenhouse gas offset system.

A report released on Monday by the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Western Renewable Energy Zones (WREZ) initiative identifies 36 areas in the Western Interconnection that have the potential both for large-scale development of renewable resources and low environmental impacts.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) last week halted construction of two major hydroelectric projects on the Jinsha River for inadequate environmental reviews. The order has thrown into question a 200 billion yuan (US$29.2 billion) investment in hydro projects along the middle reaches of the river.

A superior court judge from Maricopa County, Ariz., has accepted jurisdiction to decide whether the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), a state regulatory body, has constitutional and statutory authority to adopt and implement renewable energy standards across the state.

An administrative law judge presiding over hearings on an appeal of an air permit granted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to the $1.6 billion ultrasupercritical John W. Turk, Jr. Power Plant proposed for Hempstead County, Ark., on Monday threw out arguments by environmentalists questioning whether carbon dioxide emissions from the plant were properly considered.

Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W) entered the race to commercialize small-nuclear reactors today, unveiling the mPower, a modular 125-MW Generation III nuclear reactor that can be scaled to produce up to 750 MW.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu laid out the Obama administration’s position on nuclear energy, nuclear waste storage, and carbon sequestration at a House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee last week.

A federation of Japanese power companies last week reportedly asked member companies to “rethink plans” to power the country’s nuclear plants with mixed oxide (MOX) fuel because many plants are unlikely to launch plutonium generation within the next three years, as expected.

European heavyweights Alstom and Siemens could vie to bid for AREVA’s transmission and distribution (T&D) business if the French state-controlled giant puts it up for sale to plug a €12 billion gap and finance its investments, market research group Frost & Sullivan said last week.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week renewed the operating licenses for Units 1 and 2 of the 2,301-MW Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Ga., for an additional 20 years, making them the 53rd and 54th reactor licenses renewed by the federal regulatory body.

Entergy subsidiaries on Thursday announced they had completed three major transmission projects in south Louisiana, including a rebuild of a line in Plaquemines Parish that had been destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and two upgrades to transmission lines that run through the Baton Rouge to New Orleans corridor.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Friday appealed a January 2009 ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that declared emissions from the public company’s coal plants in eastern Tennessee and Alabama a public nuisance in North Carolina. Experts say that the landmark decision could pave the way for public nuisance suits to regain prominence in climate change–related litigation.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Friday ordered Duke Energy to permanently shut down three units—a combined capacity of 265 MW—at the company’s Wabash River Station in Indiana within three months.

The Canadian government is restructuring the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) and may sell a stake of the company to the private sector to leverage the country’s long-term investment in nuclear energy.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, now bound for debate on the House floor after clearing the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, contains four key changes that will secure the coal industry and thousands of jobs that coal provides, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) said Friday.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) was the most solar-integrated utility in the U.S. last year, followed by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, according to new rankings released last week by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA).

Owners of unregulated power generation in the Mid-Atlantic continued to enjoy high profits in 2008, despite the economic downturn, according to a study of financial data released on Monday by the American Public Power Association (APPA).

After a week of long and heated arguments, the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday passed by a vote of 33 to 25 the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a massive 946-page bill that would set up a cap-and-trade program and a federal renewable energy standard.
H.R. 2454 now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee, which will review the tax and trade implications of the bill. That committee could make more revisions to the bill.

U.S. power sales have plunged in the past six months on the back of an unprecedented demand decline that was caused by sharp contractions in the economy, and recovery is not anticipated until the 2010 to 2015 period, an analysis from Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie shows.

Russia’s federal atomic energy agency, Rosatom, reportedly said Tuesday that it had reached a landmark deal to supply enriched uranium fuel rods to nuclear power plants in the U.S.

A jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana last week ruled in favor of Duke Energy and against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on four of six projects involved in a decade-long pollution controls lawsuit affecting the company’s Midwest power plants. The jury ruled against the company on two Indiana projects.