POWERnews

The growing lack of cooling water resources could decrease power generating capacity in the U.S. by between 4% and 16% and between 6% and 19% in Europe between 2031 and 2060, and the likelihood of extreme drops in generation as a result will almost triple, suggests a new study by European and University of Washington (UW) scientists.

A three-year schedule delay and cost overruns of about $2 billion plaguing the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) project to build a second Watts Bar reactor are directly attributable to deficiencies in the “project set-up” and “ineffective management oversight,” the federal corporation’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said in a report last week.

Illinois regulators on Tuesday rejected Ameren Illinois’ $625 million plan to deploy smart grid improvements in its service territory, saying the company not only failed to show it could deliver a cost benefit to customers, but that the deployment plan was “vague and incomplete” and bordered on being more a “general statement of intention to install smart meters in some parts of its service territory.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should examine the benefits of mandating that nuclear plants in the U.S. add probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to methods used to evaluate and prepare for natural hazards, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds in a new report.

Just weeks after the U.S. Commerce Department slapped a 31% tariff on 61 Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell producers and exporters, it imposed preliminary duties of as high as 26% on imports of utility-scale wind towers from China.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear a case filed by several states and citizen groups against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that contends that FERC Order 697, issued in 2007 to improve market-based rate regulations, exceeds FERC’s authority under the Federal Power Act (FPA).

Planning reserve margins in California and Texas will be "tight" this summer, and New England generators could face uncertain supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC’s) newly released 2012 Summer Reliability Assessment finds.

Over the next five years, at least eight advanced large-scale demonstration carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will enter operation—five in North America and three in Europe, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis shows. Leading the pack is Pennsylvania-based Air Products & Chemical’s CCS demonstration at a refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, a project that could be operational as soon as next year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday said it renewed the operating license for the 1972-commissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., for 20 more years despite objections by outgoing NRC Chair Gregory Jaczko.

Finding in a preliminary determination that crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells are being sold in the U.S. at below-market prices that harm domestic manufacturers, the Commerce Department slapped a 31% tariff on 61 Chinese PV producers and exporters with slight variations by company. All other Chinese producers and exporters of the cells will be subject to a tariff of nearly 250%. The decision has incited mixed, heated reactions from the solar industry.