POWERnews

Waste from end-of-life solar panels and other solar-related equipment provides an opportunity to recover valuable materials, along with other benefits. The International Renewable Energy Agency said that by 2030, the cumulative value of recoverable raw materials from end-of-life panels alone will be about $450 million worldwide, which the agency said is equivalent to the cost […]

Clearway Energy Group on July 8 said it has closed financing and begun a repowering project for the California-based company’s Cedro Hill wind farm in Webb County, Texas. Clearway said the repowering will boost the wind farm’s generation capacity to 160 MW, from its current 150 MW. Workers will replace the blades and nacelle with […]

Nuclear power has consistently provided about 19% to 20% of total annual U.S. electricity generation since 1990. It provides significant amounts of electricity in many other countries as well. According to data from The World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), a total of 414 reactors were operating in 32 countries, as of July 1, 2024. […]

Government officials in India have reportedly asked the country’s power companies to spend billions on equipment to support additional coal-fired generation. India is looking for ways to more quickly increase its baseload electricity supply as demand for power increases across the country. Reuters news service on July 3 said the Indian government supports tenders for […]

A major concentrated solar power (CSP) project in China selected Sulzer, a global fluid engineering company, to supply both the hot and the cold molten salts pumps for the installation. The planned 100-MW solar project will feature technology designed to deliver electricity from solar energy 24 hours a day. Molten salts have been used in […]

Over the past week, the offshore wind power sector in the U.S. received two major federal approvals that could add nearly 5 GW to the grid. On July 1, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved a construction and operations plan (COP) for  Avangrid’s 791-MW New England Wind 1 project and 1,080-MW New England Wind […]

Next-generation, or “next-gen,” geothermal resources have the potential to increase geothermal power generation in the U.S. by twenty-fold by 2050. Next-gen geothermal concepts use technologies developed by the oil and gas industry to engineer reservoirs for geothermal energy generation, vastly expanding the available resource base. Typically, the term next-gen geothermal refers to enhanced geothermal systems […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 overturned the Chevron doctrine—a forty-year-old precedent—significantly curtailing the power of federal agencies to interpret ambiguous statutory provisions, even in areas of agency expertise. The landmark 6–3 decision could have far-reaching effects on the power industry, with specific impact on sweeping energy regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) […]

In a strategic move to jumpstart domestic uranium enrichment capacity in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a request for proposals (RFP) to buy low-enriched uranium (LEU) from domestic suppliers. The RFP will seek LEU through procurement contracts for indefinite quantity and indefinite delivery (IDIQ). It could result in awards of “two […]

Colorado electric cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is proposing aid to coal communities in its service territory as part of an unopposed comprehensive settlement of the first phase of  the group’s recent Electric Resource Plan (ERP). The company on June 27 said the filing is an important milestone in the energy transition of the […]

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5–4 vote blocked enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) final “Good Neighbor Plan,” a rule intended to significantly cut smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities in 23 states. In the meantime, the applicants, which include the states of Ohio, Indiana, and West […]

Community solar provider Ampion Renewable Energy is partnering with The Wendy’s Company to help Wendy’s restaurants source renewable energy. Nearly 100 company-operated restaurants and nearly 40 franchise restaurants in New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts are now enrolled in Ampion+, a product that helps organizations reduce energy costs and secure Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that substantiate […]

The power generation industry continues to grapple with a multitude of challenges when it comes to producing more electricity, and to ensure that power is delivered where and when it is needed. There is pressure to integrate more renewable energy resources to help meet net-zero targets and other decarbonization goals. Electrification efforts, notably from the […]

GE Vernova said it has been awarded a contract by National Grid’s upstate New York business to supply and construct two separate 115 kV synchronous condenser sites at the company’s Coffeen and Taylorville substations. GE Vernova on June 26 said it will install three synchronous condenser machines, including Prolec GE generator step-up (GSU) transformers, at […]

Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company and operator of more than 8.2 GW of nuclear power capacity, said it has completed the installation of lead test assemblies with additively manufactured debris-filtering bottom nozzles (AMBN) at Alabama Power’s Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant. The AMBN assemblies are a new technology manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Co. […]

Siemens Energy and GE Vernova each announced the companies would support construction of large combined-cycle power plants in Saudi Arabia as part of that country’s plan to increase its supply of electricity to support a growing population. The gas-fired facilities—Taiba 1 and 2, and Qassim 1 and 2—will be built in the western and central […]

The U.S. Senate has passed the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, sweeping legislation that seeks to promote U.S. nuclear leadership, accelerate advanced nuclear technology development while preserving existing nuclear generation, bolster national security measures, and enhance regulatory efficiency to support new nuclear deployment. The Senate passed the bill on […]

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy major, said it has agreed to buy Greece’s Terna Energy in a €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion) deal. The agreement signed June 20 is one of the largest renewable energy transactions in the history of the European Union. Masdar—also known as Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co.—said Thursday it had a […]

Dynamic line rating (DLR) enables utilities to unlock up to 40% additional capacity from existing infrastructure, allowing grid operators to rapidly increase energy throughput. This capability is crucial in today’s energy landscape, where the proportion of renewable energy sources is quickly expanding, and the existing aging infrastructure cannot support this growing demand. Operating power lines […]

A leading solar energy equipment provider announced construction of a new factory that will expand its U.S. operations. California-based Nextracker on June 18 held a ceremony to mark the second Nextracker-dedicated manufacturing line that Unimacts, a Las Vegas-based group, has opened in the past year. The new 160,000-square-foot facility in Sloan, Nevada, south of Las […]

As the solar industry matures, pressure for asset owners to deliver higher returns continues to mount.  Not surprisingly, so has the demand to improve operations and maintenance (O&M) efficiency – the single largest component of a utility-scale solar asset’s post-construction budget. Whether an asset owner performs O&M in-house, outsources to a third-party, or utilizes a […]

The future of energy may depend on technology with roots in the video game industry, by a company founded more than 30 years ago that wanted to use accelerated computing to improve the look and feel of the gaming experience. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO and president since co-founding the Santa Clara, California-based company in 1993, […]

The second stage of one of the world’s largest wind farms is moving forward after developer TagEnergy announced it had closed financing for the project. The $2.6 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm in Australia, which when complete will have about 1.3 GW of generation capacity, will be the largest wind farm in Australia once fully […]

A leading renewable energy power transmission infrastructure company said it signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Canadian group for electricity from a wind farm project in Québec. Pattern Energy Group LP on June 18 announced a 30-year PPA with Hydro-Québec for the latter’s 150-MW Broughton Wind project, located in the municipalities of Saint-Pierre-de-Broughton, […]

Nevada-based utility NV Energy said it plans to add more than 1 GW of capacity from both solar power and battery energy storage to its generation portfolio by the end of 2027. The company, which includes Las Vegas in its service territory and is part of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, unveiled the additional […]

Bill Gates’ nuclear innovation firm TerraPower has broken ground on the non-nuclear portion of Kemmerer Unit 1, a 345-MW Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) power plant. The groundbreaking on June 10 makes the federal demonstration project the first advanced nuclear reactor project to move from design into construction in the Western Hemisphere, the company noted. […]

SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) are widely used reliability indices that measure the performance of power distribution systems. SAIDI represents the total duration of interruptions for an average customer over a given time period, typically a year. It is calculated by taking the sum of all customer […]

Michigan’s major electric utility said it plans to build one of the nation’s largest standalone battery energy storage projects at the site of a retired coal-fired power plant. Detroit-based DTE Energy on June 10 said it would convert part of the closed Trenton Channel power plant into a 220-MW energy storage facility. DTE retired Trenton […]

Deloitte, a group providing a variety of services for business and industry, in a new report published June 12 notes the importance of distributed energy resources (DERs) to the future of power generation and consumption. The report, titled “DERstribution Transformation: Harnessing the power of the household to meet utility decarbonization and affordability goals,” says that […]

The global race to build ever-larger offshore wind turbines may have another entrant, as Siemens Gamesa has reportedly told customers the company plans to produce a 21-MW model in the next few years. The Bloomberg news service on June 10, citing anonymous sources, said Siemens is involved in researching what would be the world’s largest […]