POWERnews

U.S. baseload generation capacity reserve margins declined to 17% last year, and with demand expected to outpace capacity growth, the nation could face significant risk of costly power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer, suggests a new study released by NextGen Energy Council.   The nonprofit organization is composed of a wide variety […]

Seventeen electric power companies responded to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) June solicitation for federal loan guarantees to support the construction of 21 new U.S. reactors, the agency said Thursday. The power industry has now asked the Energy Department to provide loan guarantees of $122 billion—almost seven times the original $18.5 billion allocated by the […]

According to radiation standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week, exposure over the next 10,000 years to neighbors of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility in Nevada will be limited to 15 millirem a year—a little less than that from a single chest X-ray.   The Department of Energy’s proposed […]

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on Friday awarded Garden State Offshore Energy (GSOE) $4 million to develop a 345.6-MW offshore wind farm, a project that could be the first offshore wind farm on the East Coast.   GSOE’s proposal calls for building 96 wind turbines arranged in a rectangular grid 16 miles off […]

UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture of Constellation Energy and France’s EDF Group, last week submitted a combined construction and operating license (COL) application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a potential new reactor at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Scriba, N.Y.   The final decision on whether to proceed with the […]

Current U.S. tax credits for renewable energy, including wind and solar energy, are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2008. Last week, both U.S. congressional houses passed versions of a bill that would extend these credits, but the House’s version of what has been called “the year’s most important tax package” prompted criticism from the […]

Nuclear energy giant Électricité de France (EDF) on Wednesday clinched a deal to acquire British Energy plc—a privatized UK company that provides almost 20% of Britain’s electricity—for £12.5 billion ($23.18 billion).   On Thursday, the majority French state-owned company bought a 26% stake in British Energy through its subsidiary Lake Acquisitions as part of its […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced a solicitation for up to $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for coal-powered projects that employ advanced technologies to reduce or sequester emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.   This marks the third round of solicitations for the DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program. The DOE said […]

RWE npower has urged the UK government to address pitfalls in carbon capture and storage (CCS) regulation and policy that could prompt delays to vital investments. The company, which revealed it was close to completing a UK CCS facility, was responding to the government’s CCS consultation that closed last week.   RWE npower, which supplies […]

All 12.6 million allowances offered at the first U.S. carbon dioxide emissions auction sold on Sept. 25, 2008. The permits were bought by 59 participants from energy, financial, and environmental sectors at a clearing price of $3.07 per allowance, states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) said Monday.   RGGI said on its […]