Photo courtesy Gazprom The South Stream Transport partnership last year commissioned three producers -- Europipe, United Metallurgical and Severstal -- to fabricate 75,000 12-meter pipes for $1 billion for the Black Sea section of the project. With South Stream now cancelled and the partners bought out, Gazprom looks to redirect its efforts to Turkey. Related Links: Work on Southern Gas Corridor Begins With South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion The cold bed of the Black Sea is once again the focus of the state-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom as its engineers plot to resuscitate its South Stream pipeline project using new routes.
Rendering courtesy of Alstom Five Alstom 6-MW turbines will be installed at the Deepwater Wind's offshore power project near Block Island, R.I. Related Links: Deepwater Winds Plans Two Northeast Offshore Networks Utilities Pull Out of Cape Wind In Major Blow to Offshore Wind Project While Cape Wind’s 468-MW offshore wind-farm development appears to be dead in the water, Deepwater Wind is moving full steam into early-stage construction of a $225-million wind farm, three miles southeast of Block Island in Rhode Island. “The response from the financial markets to the project has been extremely positive,” says Jeffrey Grybowski, chief executive officer
Photo Courtesy Exelon Corporation EnergySolutions underestimated Zion's decommissioning cost by about $100 million. Related Links: EnergySolutions Inks Contract For Unique D&D Plan at Zion U.S. Nuclear Plants Provide Market Niche for Waste Disposal System Providers The company charged with decommissioning a nuclear powerplant in Zion, Ill.—among the largest undertakings of its kind in the nation—could face a financial shortfall before completing work on the $800-million project, according to Chicago-based former plant operator Exelon.Exelon officials indicated that, late last year, nuclear-waste management firm EnergySolutions informed them of a potential shortfall and how the company intended to address it. "They've kept us
Related Links: Contractor Seeks 10-Year Construction Extension for MOX Project The full cost to build the much delayed Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MOX) project at the Savannah River site in South Carolina eventually could triple its original estimate, the Dept. of Energy acknowledged in a Jan. 15 project-management report. "Estimates for the capital work range from $8 billion [to] $12 billion, depending on the funding profiles," stated DOE's report. The agency also said capital expenditures so far have totaled $4 billion—the contract's original cost estimate—with construction only 50% complete, more than seven years after work first began.Project critics used DOE's
Photo Courtesy of REC Solar Disruption Hawaiians suspect NextEra will slight systems based on rooftop solar panels in favor of utility-scale projects, such as the Kauai solar project. Photo Courtesy of REC Solar Related Links: Hawaiian Utilities Balk at Speed of Solar Panel Adoption With Cable-Linked Projects Island State Aims To Be Model Advocates of renewable energy are not cheering the proposed sale of Hawaii's principal electric utility to the nation's largest solar and wind energy producer. Opponents of the deal fear the buyer may halt the growth of distributed solar generation to favor utility-scale projects it would operate. Similar
Rendering Courtesy of Cape Wind A rendering of the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Construction has yet to begin on the project's 130 turbine installations. Rendering Courtesy of Weeks Marine After coming on board the Cape Wind project in August 2014, contractor Weeks Marine announced it was building a wind-turbine installation vessel to be used in the developing U.S. offshore wind energy market. Related Links: Weeks Marine Finds Green Niche Cape Wind Signs Power Purchase Deal With Utilities Utility companies National Grid and NStar on Jan. 6 said they were withdrawing from their commitments to buy power from the
Courtesy IEA Two coal-fired powerplants are scheduled to add 9,000MW to the South African grid by 2020. Courtesy IEA Power production projects underway are expected to fuel regional GDP growth projected at 5% in 2015. Despite the challenges of inadequate policy, problems of pricing and lack of infrastructure, analysts say countries in sub Saharan Africa hope to increase power generation in 2015. The region is launching initiatives designed to meet the demands of projected GDP growth of more than 5% and also provide power to many of the 620 million people who currently live without access to electricity.Despite existing constraints,
Related Links: First Energy: The Hidden Gem Of Marcellus Shale? Ohio-based utility FirstEnergy is adding about $100 million in transmission upgrades in West Virginia as part of a $250-million company-wide program to support natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale region.Mon Power, FirstEnergy’s utility unit in the state, expects 400 MW of load growth through 2019 from new gas facilities, said Todd Meyers, a spokesman for the Akron-based parent company.“Some of the coal mines that took decades to become our largest customers have been eclipsed by plants planned by the natural gas industry,” he said.Projects include the just completed $52-million
Courtesy of Mortenson Co. Aided by bigger and better turbines, wind power picked up speed in 2014. Courtesy of Verengo In addition to utility-scale production units, residential solar power is providing distributed generation that is growing at exponential rates. Related Links: Expansion in Natural Gas Production Spurs Big U.S. Export Plans Batteries Set To Put Big Charge Into Energy Storage http://enr.construction.com/infrastructure/power_industrial/2014/0414-Prices-Dropping-as-More-Turbines-Turn.asp As 2014 began, Keystone XL supporters were pushing for President Obama to approve the pipeline’s southern segment. A Dec. 30, 2013, BNSF train carrying crude from the Bakken field derailed near Casselton, N.D., triggering a fiery explosion. Earlier in
Enlarge Map by BP The Southern Gas Corridor consists of three huge pipeline projects: the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPx), the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). SCPx gets underway in January 2015. TANAP will break ground later in 2015, and TAP will break ground in 2016. Enlarge Map by BP Shah Deniz's phase two will require massive investment, including two offshore platforms, subsea production wells and pipelines, a new terminal in Songachal, Azerbaijan, and two new compressor stations in Georgia. Getting a new source of gas supply to Europe has been a topic of discussion within the
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