DOE

Westinghouse has officially unveiled the AP300, a “downsized” version of the company’s flagship AP1000 Generation III+ pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology. While the small modular reactor (SMR) will enter a nuclear market already rife with development, the AP300’s “nth-of-a-kind” basis positions it as a strong competitor, the company told POWER. The 300-MWe/900-MWth AP300, launched on May 4, […]

Sunnova Energy Corp., an energy-as-a-service (EaaS) provider, has snagged a first-of-its-kind conditional federal loan guarantee commitment of up to $3 billion for a project that could further future virtual power plant (VPP) deployment. The Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) on April 20 said it would provide a partial loan guarantee for up […]

Dalton, GA, April 6, 2023 – Summit Ridge Energy (SRE), the nation’s largest commercial solar company, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Qcells, a leading provider of complete energy solutions, to purchase 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels to support its development pipeline. This marks the largest equipment purchase in history within […]

India’s government is pushing for construction of more nuclear power plants as the country looks to increase its supply of cleaner energy. Officials have made some ambitious pronouncements, calling for as

U.S. utility Entergy and global power giant RWE are partnering to jointly assess the best means to develop an offshore wind market in the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies on March 30 unveiled a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they will analyze the Gulf of Mexico offshore wind market and define an optimal […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 29, 2023) — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released Advancing Offshore Wind Energy in the United States, U.S. Department of Energy Strategic Contributions Toward 30 Gigawatts and Beyond, a comprehensive summary of DOE’s role in the nationwide effort to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by 2030 and setting the nation on a […]

Wind turbines must move farther offshore to gain greater efficiency. But the challenges associated with doing so are significant. At the Dutch village of Den Oever, just north of Amsterdam, the A7 motorway extends onto the Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometer dike that separates IJsselmeer Lake and the North Sea. Near the midway point, approaching the village […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Ontario Power Generation (OPG), and Synthos Green Energy (SGE) will collaborate to shape a standard design for GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH’s) BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) to speed up the technology’s regulatory acceptance and spur future deployments. The three companies, which have separately begun a regulatory process for potential BWRX-300 […]

The Biden administration has pledged another $1.2 billion to help extend the operating life of older or distressed nuclear power plants, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm saying nuclear power is needed to support the nation’s clean energy goals. The funding, announced by the Dept. of Energy (DOE) on March 2, is the second tranche of […]

ATHENS, Ohio (March 2, 2023) – The Department of Energy (DOE) announced it has funded six research and development projects that will repurpose domestic coal resources for high-value graphitic products and carbon-metal composites that can be employed in clean energy technologies. Ohio University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment was awarded two of the […]

X-energy will demonstrate its four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 advanced nuclear reactor facility under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) at a Dow site in the U.S. Gulf Coast region by the end of the decade—not in Washington State as originally planned. The shakeup stems from a joint development agreement (JDA) the nuclear […]

A California-based group said it has completed the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments to produce a sustainable fuel for utility-scale fusion power. TAE Technologies on Feb. 28, in a peer-reviewed paper published by the scientific journal Nature Communications, said its research supports the path to providing electricity from nuclear reactors fueled with hydrogen-boron, also known as […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has broken ground on the Generation 3 Particle Pilot Plant (G3P3), a novel concentrating solar power (CSP) facility at Sandia National Laboratory that will use sand-like ceramic particles instead of molten salt to produce and store high-temperature energy. When completed in 2024, the “multi-megawatt” solar thermal pilot project will utilize an existing […]

Three major electric power trade groups in a letter on Feb. 15 urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to reconsider proposed energy efficiency conservation standards for distribution transformers, citing “severe and ongoing supply chain challenges that have prolonged and complicated distribution transformer production and availability.” The letter was sent ahead of a public meeting scheduled […]

The Department of Energy has moved to fund up to seven pilot enhanced geothermal system (EGS) projects to demonstrate different geologic settings, a variety of development techniques, and different well orientations. The U.S. agency on Feb. 8 announced up to $74 million to support the EGS pilots, for which the November 2021–enacted Infrastructure Act designates […]

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has announced a new competition designed to support the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into the nation’s power grid. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm unveiled the program Feb. 7 during a presentation to attendees of the DISTRIBUTECH 2023 event at the San Diego Convention Center in California. The program […]

With the U.S. government funneling billions of dollars into new grid infrastructure, and private companies rolling out new systems to mitigate outages and developing artificial intelligence that can predict

Public-private partnership funded by U.S. Department of Energy to advance capabilities using machine learning San Diego, Jan. 20 – General Atomics (GA) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have been awarded funding to advance power and particle exhaust capabilities in commercial-scale fusion energy pilot plants (FPPs) using machine learning. A public-private partnership funded by the […]

The groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will put hundreds of billions of dollars toward renewables. As the most comprehensive energy policy in recent years, the IRA is already having a profound impact

In January 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) published a list of five nuclear energy stories to watch in 2022. Here’s an update on the items the NE felt were important for industry insiders to keep an eye on. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law The DOE noted in the January […]

Almost all distribution transformers produced or imported into the U.S. could require amorphous steel cores starting in 2027 under new energy efficiency standards proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE). The measure, unveiled as industry grapples with a crippling shortage of distribution transformers, will serve a longer-term role in boosting grid resiliency as a “strategic […]

The first nuclear fusion reaction to result in a net energy gain has been successfully completed by scientists at a laboratory in California, a milestone in the decades-long pursuit of a way to produce unlimited energy with no carbon emissions or nuclear waste. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the official announcement Dec. 13 during […]

U.S. scientists reportedly have carried out the first nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain. The Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to announce the breakthrough on Dec. 13, according to news reports late Sunday. The nuclear power industry has pursued fusion technology for decades, with a renewed emphasis for those efforts in […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first round of funding from its $6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) Program is poised to go to Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s only operational nuclear plant. Pacific Gas & Electric  (PG&E), Diablo Canyon’s owner, could receive up to $1.1 billion in credits to extend the 2.2-GW plant’s operation for […]

Marking intent interest from the power sector in hydrogen’s decarbonization potential, six major utilities—Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Louisville Gas & Electric Co. (LG&E), Kentucky Utilities Co. (KU), Southern Co., and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)—have announced they will jointly pursue federal financial support for a Southeast Hydrogen Hub. The utilities, along with Battelle, an independent […]

Regulated utility PacifiCorp has launched a joint study with nuclear technology firm TerraPower to evaluate the feasibility of deploying up to five additional Natrium pool-type sodium fast reactors (SFRs) and integrated energy storage systems at retired coal plant sites in the utility’s service territory by 2035. The joint study “will evaluate, among other things, the […]

A fuel fabrication facility that will create reliable fuel for TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH’s) 345-MWe Natrium pool-type sodium fast reactor (SFR) demonstration in Wyoming and future Natrium nuclear plants is taking shape at Global Nuclear Fuel–Americas’ (GNF-A’s) nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Wilmington, North Carolina. GNF-A, a 2007-established GE-led joint venture with […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has ramped up efforts to explore recycling spent nuclear fuel (SNF), or used nuclear fuel (UNF), from the nation’s fleet of light water reactors (LWRs), doling out $38 million in federal awards to a dozen projects on Oct. 21. Teams will receive funding under the DOE’s March 2022–launched “Converting UNF […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has initiated community outreach to facilitate consent-based siting, management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), and interim storage facility siting. The effort, outlined in a series of steps the DOE expects to take in response to a recent request for public input, marks a significant first step toward advancing the agency’s […]

The Biden administration announced a goal of installing as much as 15 GW of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035, and said it plans to auction off leases to support project development by the end of this year. The Sept. 15 announcement touted both the potential of offshore wind and its impact on reducing […]