hydropower

Numerous guests celebrate anniversary of Voith subsidiary at Kössler headquarters in St. Georgen, Austria Focus of celebration on innovative solutions for small hydro All key areas of expertise from development to services from a single source St. Georgen. Since its establishment in 1928, Kössler has evolved into one of the world’s leading manufacturers for small […]

It’s not a secret that the North American power mix is changing. Renewable energy and natural gas are picking up market share while coal-fired generation shrinks and nuclear power remains stagnant at best

Joe Grimes, executive vice president of generation with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), gave the keynote presentation during the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition, which was held March 19–22 in Nashville, Tennessee. His presentation focused on steps TVA is taking to diversify its generation portfolio in order to reduce risks and keep costs as low […]

Voith delivers complete electromechanical equipment for hydropower plant extension project Voith’s asset management solution OnCare AM in use for the first time at a hydropower plant Expansion of hydropower potential to increase Pakistan’s independence from fuel imports Islamabad (March 14, 2018) — In the presence of numerous guests from the areas of politics, industry, and […]

Coal-fired power generation has taken another punch, as Consumers Energy—which along with DTE Energy supplies most of Michigan’s power—has announced it will phase out coal burning over the next two decades, with a plan to generate at least 40% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040. Patti Poppe, Consumers’ president and CEO, made the […]

A business group geared toward sustainable energy says renewable sources of energy for the first time are generating nearly as much power as the entire fleet of U.S. nuclear reactors. The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), along with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, on February 15 released the sixth edition of its Sustainable Energy in […]

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) in December 2017 announced a plan to build three natural gas-fired power plants in the country, thanks to a $2.8 billion pipeline project that would bring natural gas from the southern part of the African nation to its northern region. The plants, sited in Abuja, Kaduna, and Kano, would […]

Overwhelmed by low wholesale power prices and changing customer needs in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) on January 30 unveiled a lifeline it hopes will allow it to remain commercially afloat. While the nonprofit federal power marketer headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is part of the Department of Energy, it is self-funding and […]

FAGERSTA/SOLLETEA, Sweden (January 23, 2018) — There are a large number of hydropower plants in Europe and North America that are more than 100 years old. Voith installed new technology in two of these plants in Sweden, Semla and Graninge, making them not only much more efficient but also more environmentally compatible. As a result […]

In a press briefing held with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on January 10, President Donald Trump said that U.S. could “conceivably” re-enter into global climate change mitigation efforts under the Paris accord. While he has “no problem” with the accord itself, he felt the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration treated the U.S. unfairly, […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its first look at expected power generation in 2019, and its conclusions are much the same as those it expects in 2018—the use of natural gas to produce electricity will continue to rise, and the use of coal will continue to decline. EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook, released January […]

Successfully designing and constructing a hydropower plant, while accounting for site space constraints and not disrupting commercial traffic on a busy waterway, presented challenges for a Midwestern utility

The Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, part of a hydro-solar integration in the high desert on the Tibetan Plateau, has helped the country move toward its ambitious targets for increasing generation from cleaner fuel

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. has dropped the price of several assets as it continues to work toward closing a deal to sell five of the company’s natural gas-fired power plants, along with a hydroelectric facility, to an equity group that specializes in energy investments. FirstEnergy this week said it had cut the price of the facilities […]

Rosatom Gets Approval to Proceed with Turkish Reactors. Turkey’s energy watchdog EPDK in mid-June gave Russia’s state-owned nuclear entity Rosatom the green light to proceed with construction of the $20

With its increasing use of solar and wind power, Portugal has for many years been focusing on the flexible and dynamic potential of pumped storage to stabilize electricity grids. In the north-west of the country, the new pumped storage plant Frades II has been in operation since April 2017. Technology Group Voith supplied the plant […]

While hydropower installations worldwide fell slightly in 2016 to 31.5 GW compared to 33 GW in 2015, the sector marked a colossal jump in pumped storage installations last year, the International Hydropower

Rain and snow has returned to California, ending the record-setting drought with record-setting precipitation. The drought led to forest fires, dead orchards, and brown lawns. It also took a big bite out of ratepayers’ wallets and increased global warming emissions, due to the loss of low-cost, zero-emission hydropower. In a study released April 26 by […]

Small hydro is becoming big business as ongoing technological advances make more small sites economic to exploit. Older plants can also see substantial output and efficiency gains by upgrading from decades-old

China’s Sichuan provincial government has moved to restrict construction of small and medium hydropower projects between 2016 and 2020 in an effort to improve grid planning and efficiency. Policy proposals posted on the Sichuan government’s website in October seek to prohibit small-scale hydropower projects and limit medium-sized plants over the next five years. Reuters reported […]

Owner/operator: Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. Building the 1,870-MW Gibe III hydroelectric project required unprecedented solutions that took into account the remoteness of the site, the narrow gorge where the dam is located, the height of the dam, and challenges in sourcing reliable materials. Split almost diagonally by the East African Rift System, Ethiopia is a […]

The ocean power sector is still in its early stages of development, shackled by high development and operational costs. Trends emerging over the past two years hint at which technologies could dominate the sector’s future. Despite decades of research and development that have yielded several innovative ways of using oceans to fuel power generation, the […]

TransCanada—a leading North American energy company—has struck deals to sell its U.S. Northeast Power business. LS Power will acquire three principally natural gas–fired power plants and a wind farm from TransCanada, while ArcLight Capital Partners will buy 13 hydropower facilities located in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. “The sale of our merchant U.S. Northeast Power […]

Continuous contributions in hydroelectric generating equipment for over forty years TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that Toshiba Group has won major orders to supply hydroelectric generating equipment for the Malea Hydro Power Plant Project in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The orders were received from PT Malea Energy, the subsidiary of Kalla Group that generates and […]

A new assessment tool developed by engineers at Oregon State University (OSU) could allow people, agencies, and communities interested in developing small-scale hydropower plants in remote places to easily and accurately assess whether a potential project would meet their current and future energy needs. The free, open-source computer modeling package dubbed the Hydropower Potential Assessment […]

Heidenheim/Spean Bridge. Technology Group Voith has won a contract to modernize the Mucomir small hydroelectric power station in Scotland. Operator is SSE, one of the largest suppliers of renewable energy in the UK. Voith oversees the building, installing and commissioning of the power stations turbine, the replacing of the digital governors and hydraulic units as […]

Resolution recognizes TVA for providing low-cost electricity, controlling floods, improving river navigation across seven states WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7, 2016 – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) today introduced a resolution praising the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for its successful construction and management of the “Unified Plan of the […]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Engineers at Oregon State University have created a new computer modeling package that people anywhere in the world could use to assess the potential of a stream for small-scale, “run of river” hydropower, an option to produce electricity that’s of special importance in the developing world. The system is easy to use; […]

Droughts attributed to the El Niño phenomenon have gripped Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia. Bogotá in April prepared to ration power and instituted mandatory reductions in consumption, warning that

The world added 33 GW of new hydropower capacity in 2015, including 2.5 GW of pumped storage, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) said in a recent brief. The new capacity made up only 3% of the