POWERnews

The U.S. clean hydrogen sector is poised for significant growth, driven in part by its potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in hard-to-abate industries such as transportation and chemical production. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) have catalyzed this momentum, providing production tax credits (PTCs) and billions in funding to […]

Microsoft has announced a deal to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. It’s the latest move by a technology company to use nuclear power to provide electricity for energy-intensive data centers and support the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement announced September 20, if approved by regulators, would allow Microsoft […]

Fusion energy is a promising form of power generation that aims to harness the same process that powers the sun and stars. Fusion involves combining two light atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. This is the opposite of nuclear fission, which splits heavy atoms apart. […]

$100 billion investment potential will enhance American competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) while meeting the growing need for energy infrastructure to power economic growth The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced on Sept. 17 the Global AI […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted Abilene Christian University (ACU) a construction permit to build its Molten Salt Research Reactor (MSRR) facility on the university’s campus in Texas. The approval is the regulatory body’s first for a liquid-fueled advanced reactor, the first for a research reactor in decades, and its second for any advanced […]

Significant carbon capture projects—at Cane Run 7, PPL Corp.’s 691-MW gas-fired unit in Louisville, Kentucky, and Four Corners, a 1.5-GW coal-fired power plant in New Mexico—have separately secured federal awards from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). OCED has allocated $4.9 million to PPL Corp. subsidiary Kentucky Utilities Co. under […]

Back in the early 2000s, some controversy emerged about the practice of spraying large amounts of fog directly into the compressor. Some claimed that this led to blade erosion, pitting, and scaling. So, is it safe to use wet compression on gas turbines by pumping water droplets into the compressor inlet? The answer is yes—provided […]

Municipal power utility Idaho Falls Power (IFP) has announced it is negotiating a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Aalo Atomics, a 2022-founded nuclear engineering firm inspired by Idaho National Laboratory (INL’s) MARVEL microreactor. Aalo on Sept. 16 confirmed it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the utility to explore the deployment of a fleet […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said generation capacity of nuclear power worldwide is expected to rise more than the group previously expected, to as much as 950 GW of generation by 2050. The IAEA in a report published Sept. 16 revised its annual projection for a fourth straight year, saying global nuclear capacity could […]

GE Vernova said it has been chosen by investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners to integrate 250 MW/1,000 MWh of battery energy storage into a major data center complex in Queensland, Australia. Quinbook, with U.S. headquarters in Houston, Texas, and offices in the UK and Australia, is a specialist investment manager focused on the energy transition […]