Commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) for coal powerplants moved closer to reality in April after the U.K. approved legislation to subsidize four large-scale CCS demonstration plants. The nation’s Dept. of Energy and Climate Change recently committed “millions” to support front-end engineering and design by two utilities competing to secure subsidies for the first of those plants. Two utilities are competing for construction of demonstration “green” coal plants in the United Kingdom. DECC aims next year to decide whether E.ON U.K. plc., Coventry, or a team led by ScottishPower plc, Edinburgh, will get backing for a large demonstration unit able

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run energy giant, has formally opened South America’s largest-capacity natural-gas pipeline, the 179-kilometer Gasduc III, near Rio de Janeiro, which required tunneling 3.8 km through Santana Mountain. The 40-million-cu-m-per-day, 38-in.-dia pipeline was built by Odetech, a joint venture of Odebrecht and Techint Engenharia. It is the largest-dia gas pipeline in South America.The pipeline awaits the completion later this year of the Caraguatatuba-Taubaté (GASTAU) gas pipeline, which will receive gas coming from the Santos Basin in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Dept. of Energy has awarded $452 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants to states and localities to help fund energy-efficiency upgrades to buildings. In announcing the “Retrofit Ramp-Up” grants on April 21, DOE said the federal funding will be complemented by $2.8 billion from non-federal sources over three years. DOE received more than $3.5 billion in applications, far more than the amount it had available. The largest of the 25 grants was $40 million, to the New York State Research and Development Authority. Maine, Michigan and Los Angeles County, Calif., each were awarded $30 million. DOE says

The team of European engineering firms which last month won a $200-million design contract for a nuclear-power research complex to be built in southern France, with a cadre of global sponsors, already is starting work, officials say. The engineering award for the $13- billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the project’s largest contract awarded to date and one of the largest design awards of any kind in Europe. Photo: ITER A-TeamCardache complex in France will be built by a Franco-British-Spanish team. Photo: ITER Power ParkThe 42-hectare site has been prepared for foundation work to begin next spring. Photo: ITER

India’s goal to achieve 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022 is proving to be a challenge as the industry awaits tweaks to a draft policy that will determine the tariff and allow the country to import photovoltaic cells—a technology that is not established in the country. But the road bumps haven’t stopped the development of some solar facilities in the country. The grid is underpowered, but PV sector is gaining turf. While the country currently has almost no grid-connected solar power, a recent McKinsey& Co. survey ranks India as the most attractive destination in the world for solar PV

After nearly a decade of review, the Dept. of Interior gave the go-ahead for the nation’s first offshore wind farm the $1 billion Cape Wind project off the coast of Nantucket on April 28. The facility could be operational by as soon as 2012. But the Interior Dept. says it will require the developer of the controversial project, Cape Wind Associates, LLC to modify its proposal to minimize potential adverse environmental and aesthetic impacts of construction and operation of the facility. Cape Wind Associates is a joint business venture between Boston-based firms Energy Management Inc. and Wind Management LLP. The

In May 2007, when South African utility Eskom broke ground on Medupi, the country’s first new powerplant since the 1980s, in some cases it was business as usual. The generating station would be coal-fired, sited next to the supplying mine and—with a 4,800-MW rated capacity—immense. Medupi, by far the largest powerplant under construction in Africa, will be one of the largest in the world upon completion. It will account for about 11% of South Africa’s electricity generating capacity. Kusile, another new plant with a commissioning schedule about 18 months behind Medupi’s, has an identical “six-pack configuration,” with six identical 800-MW

GDF Suez, the French-based utility, has awarded Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Power Group a contract to design, supply and erect a 190-MW biomass powerplant. The circulating fluidized-bed boiler island will be located at the Polaniec Power Station, about 60 miles northeast of Krakow. Foster Wheeler will design and supply the steam generator and auxiliary equipment as well as provide the civil works, erection and commissioning of the boiler island. The firm says it will be the world’s largest biomass boiler burning wood residues and up to 20% agricultural biomass but neither coal nor natural gas. The contract’s value was not

In April, floods and mudslides killed 249 people in Rio de Janeiro and the outlying metropolitan area, according to fire department officials. Even in a country accustomed to heavy rainfall, flash floods and mudslides, the loss of life was unprecendented, according to Brazilian reports. Photo: O Empreiteiro Slides claimed lives and property in areas where officials ignored illegal construction for years. Niterói city had the highest toll: 164 dead, many of whom were killede in slides. Forty-eight bodies have been recovered. In Niterói's Morro do Bumba district, houses were built illegally on top of a garbage dump that was supposed

Photo: Luetta Callaway Southern Nevada’s Water Authority recently unveiled its newest megamachine: a $25-million custom-made hybrid tunneling-boring machine that operates in both the open and closed positions, meaning the drill face is pressurized for more efficient ground and water control. It took Schwanau, Germany-based Herrenknecht AG 17 months to design and manufacture the 1,500-ton, 600-ft-long TBM, which is being used as part of the third raw-water intake tunnel project at Lake Mead. The additional straw is needed since lake levels have dipped 110 ft since 2000, leaving it at half capacity. In March 2008, SNWA awarded a $447-million design-build contract