POWERnews

Two revolutionary mobile power stations, developed separately by companies in Russia and Germany, could soon be afloat. Russian investment management company United Industrial Corp. (Russian acronym OPK) said last week it is on track to launch the world’s first floating nuclear power station by 2010, while German power generation giant RWE could soon pilot a combined-cycle gas turbine “power barge,” deploying it at continental shores where electricity is most needed.

Talks have begun to resolve key differences between the U.S. House’s $819 billion economic stimulus plan and the $838 billion approved by the Senate this week. Among these differences are that the Senate bill includes $50 billion for loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and clean coal plants.

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) team of regional partners has begun injecting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into coal seams in the Central Appalachian Basin to determine the feasibility of CO₂ storage in unmineable coal seams and the potential for enhanced coalbed methane recovery.

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday heard the testimony of five witnesses in its review of a draft federal renewable electricity standard that could require that 20% of the nation’s power be produced by renewable energy sources by 2021.

Sweden has proposed to lift a nearly 30-year-old ban on nuclear power and annulled its nuclear phase-out. The country said on Thursday that nuclear power would be an important source of electricity while it acts on a new sustainable energy and climate policy.

Kentucky Utilities (KU) last week agreed to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty and spend approximately $135 million on pollution controls to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week said in her state of the state address that she had directed the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to evaluate, along with the Public Service Commission (PSC), “feasible and prudent alternatives” before giving coal-fired power plants in Michigan the green light.

A decade after Texas lawmakers passed sweeping legislation to deregulate the Lone Star State’s retail electricity market, a report by a coalition of 103 municipalities and other political subdivisions shows that Texas power prices have soared well above the national average—and more than in any other deregulated state. The report also alleges serious abuses in the wholesale power market and reduced profits for businesses as a result of deregulation.

The Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP’08), the first step of a transmission and generation system expansion analysis of the majority of the Eastern Interconnection, estimates the electricity sector will need over $80 billion in new transmission infrastructure to obtain 20% of the region’s electricity from wind generation.

Exelon has halted construction of a 650-MW natural gas–fired power plant it planned to build to meet electricity needs in southern Pennsylvania because demand has tapered off on the back of a slow economy.