The road to innovation can be a long and winding one, but it might be hard to rival the path followed by the Ocean Renewable Power Co., of Portland, Maine, and its RivGen submersible electric power generating system, which is designed for installation on riverbeds and is based upon the company’s tide-driven units for maritime locations.
A federal judge on June 7 granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Dept. of Energy from enacting a stop work order that would have cancelled construction of the over-budget, behind-schedule MOX project at Savannah River Site.
Mismanagement by the U.S. Energy Dept. has added $196 million and three years to cleanup of a former nuclear fuel-processing site in West Valley, N.Y., said April Stephenson, DOE acting inspector general in an April 26 report.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has directed his department to examine whether subsidies, wholesale markets or other incentives may be skewing electric markets to favor one electricity power source over another or make the electric grid less resilient.
A bill to speed approval of advanced nuclear technologies and another to change the way the Dept. of Energy’s national laboratories are managed are among a handful of energy measures the House has passed in the first weeks of its new session.
New Jersey Transit is moving forward to implement the nation’s first microgrid tailored specifically to support public rail-infrastructure operations in case of a commercial power-grid disruption.