POWERnews

Last week saw the release of three reports from influential wind industry groups. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) foresaw annual global market growth rates of about 8% for the next five years, though it cautioned of a “substantial dip” in 2013. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) urged congressional renewal of wind tax credits, and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) called for more binding post-2020 policies to ensure sector growth in the European Union.

More than 2,500 dams in the U.S. provide 78 GW of conventional and 22 GW of pumped-storage hydropower. But the nation also has more than 80,000 dams that do not produce electricity—facilities that, if outfitted with hydroelectric power plants, could generate an estimated 12 GW and increase existing U.S. conventional hydropower capacity by roughly 15%, the Department of Energy (DOE) says in a new report,

Passage of the a federal Clean Energy Standard (CES) or Renewable Energy Standard (RES) in the near future is highly unlikely given the current political climate and upcoming election cycle, an analysis from research consulting firm Wood Mackenzie shows.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) final Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) quietly took effect on Monday, kicking off the three-year compliance period mandated under the Clean Air Act. Several more groups filed suit before the filing deadline for legal challenges on April 16, including the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), Colorado’s Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and the American Public Power Association (APPA).

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday heard oral arguments in a case challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). A decision in the case—which stayed implementation of the first phase of the rule on Jan. 1—is expected as early as June or July.

Southern California faces a grim summer with electrical generation capacity stretched to the limit, as any prospects for a quick restart of the idled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) now appear all but dead.

Completion of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) second Watts Bar reactor will cost nearly double the $2.49 billion price estimated in 2007 and take much longer than the projected 60-month completion timeframe, a construction review undertaken by the federally owned corporation has revealed. TVA management pointed to mismanagement and faulty execution as reasons for the discrepancy.

Under a settlement agreement reached between environmental groups on Tuesday and Power4Georgians, the consortium of four electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) in Georgia will continue development of its $2.1 billion coal-fired Plant Washington but will shelve plans for its proposed 850-MW supercritical Ben Hill plant.

Oklahoma’s Attorney General Scott Pruitt last week filed a motion with a federal appeals court on behalf of the state, Oklahoma’s largest generator Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), and Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) regional haze rule.

A new joint venture between American Electric Power (AEP) and Kansas City–based Great Plains Energy seeks to reap advantages from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Order 1000 and develop competitive transmission projects in the PJM Interconnection, Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and Midwest ISO transmission regions.