POWERnews

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2010 (S. 20), which would require utilities to obtain 20% of their energy from “clean energy” sources by 2020, with the requirement rising by 5% every five years through 2050.

U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) on Monday introduced a comprehensive package of advanced energy tax incentives for clean renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon mitigation.

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday approved the first large-scale solar energy plants ever to be built on U.S. public lands, and today he signed the nation’s first lease for commercial wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

UK energy regulator Ofgem on Monday warned that the country would need to rewire in a smarter way to secure access to renewable plants, but that an investment of £32 billion ($50.8 billion) would be needed to overhaul the aging grid, including replacing old “pipes and wires.”

Computers at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor and around the country have reportedly been infected by the Stuxnet worm, a sophisticated malware that attacks supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems at power plants, factories, and military installations.

Electric grid cybersecurity in the U.S. was revved up in the past week as the Energy Department announced investments of more than $30 million in 10 solution-seeking projects. At the same time, the DOE selected an Electric Power Research Institute- (EPRI-) led collaborative to assess and develop technologies and standards to protect the nation against cyber attacks.

Regulators at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously voted to increase that state’s renewable electricity standard (RES) to 33% by 2020 last week. The regulation applies to all entities that deliver power, including publicly owned utilities and investor-owned utilities.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) last week approved BrightSource Energy’s 370-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System proposed for construction in the Mojave Desert. The project is the fourth solar thermal power plant approved in the past month despite presenting “significant environmental challenges,” the commission said.

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy last week said they filed a new application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to build the Virginia segment of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH).

A wave energy device was connected to the grid for the first time in the U.S. this week. Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) hooked up its PowerBuoy system, a device that had been deployed in December 2009 in waters 100 feet deep and nearly three-quarters of a mile off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.