Photo Courtesy of Xcel Energy PUC's new cost guidelines could make coal-fired power less viable. Related Links: Quebc and California Link Credit Trading for Greenhouse-Gas Emissions EPA Proposes to Cut Carbon Emissions at New Powerplants EPA: the FederaL Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) A late-December regulatory decision will increase the weight Minnesota utilities give in their integrated resource planning to the social and environmental costs of carbon-dioxide emissions, reducing the competitive advantage enjoyed by fossil-fueled powerplants over renewable-energy power generation.The decision's immediate impact will be felt only in Minnesota, but it comes at a time of growing national concern over
Related Links: Information on ESBWR reactors NRC Information on licensing of new reactors A subsidiary of General Electric has agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations that it made false statements to the federal government about a component of an advanced nuclear reactor under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In a Jan. 23 announcement, the Justice Dept. alleged that Wilmington, N.C.-based GE Hitachi concealed known flaws with the steam dryer component of its Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR) n its steam-dryer analysis. The steam dryer removes water droplets from steam produced by the nuclear reactions that generate electricity
Related Links: EPA's web page on Bristol Bay Pebble Mine Partnership website A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency watershed assessment of the proposed Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska suggests the mine and its related infrastructure could destroy as much as 94 miles of streams and up to 5,300 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes.Backers of the controversial mine say the project—which could include a large containment pond, waste treatment facilities, roads, a pipeline and a highly engineered earthen dam to store waste by-products, or tailings—could cost up to $8 billion to construct.The site contains billions of metric
photo Courtesy of Poet-DSM The EPA is expected to cut biofuel requirements for 2014, putting plantssuch as this one in Emmetsburg, Iowaat risk. Related Links: Kansas Ethanol Plant Prepares To Fire Up Anaerobic Digester China Backs Cellulosic Ethanol Producer That DOE Rejected A trio of cellulosic ethanol plants in the final stages of construction in Iowa and Kansas are being threatened by an Environmental Protection Agency proposal aiming to cut federal renewable-fuel mandates.Officials at Poet-DSM, Dupont Chemical and Abengoa Bioenergy say the plants—each worth $200 million to $250 million—have taken more than a decade to develop and build. According to
Related Links: Spain's Solar Pullback Threatens Pocketbooks China's Moratorium on Solar Produciton Gives Hope Abroad From 2008 to 2012, Hawaiian Electric Company saw solar rooftop system installations double each year. As adoption again nearly doubled in 2013, 10% of the utility's customers had solar systems feeding into its grid. Hawaiian Electric recently announced a temporary slow-down of adding more solar energy onto some of the circuits on its grid. Other U.S. utilities also are imposing deterrents to small-scale solar.Hawaiian residents pay an average of 37¢ per kWh, triple the national average. But a 6-kWh solar installation in Hawaii can produce
In a sign that the sun may finally be shining on solar energy, an administrative law judge in Minnesota has found that a plan to build distributed solar arrays and supply renewable-energy credits delivers life-cycle value superior to rival proposals to build combustion-turbine plants. He recommends the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission select the solar developer's proposal.Geronimo Energy, Edina, Minn., was the lone developer offering solar energy in response to a call from Xcel Energy Inc. for 150 MW of capacity by 2017 and possibly 500 MW by 2019. Geronimo proposed a ground-mounted single-tracker system of photovoltaic panels with 130 MW
Related Links: Production Tax Credit Extension Boosts Wind Sector Is Energy Tax Policy the Way to Drive the U.S. Climate Change Fight? Once again, uncertainty reigns over whether the federal production tax credit (PTC), which expired on Dec. 31 for wind and several other alternative energy industries, will be renewed.The credit, which has a long history of being temporarily renewed after expiration, pays 2.3¢ per kilowatt hour of generation to wind, geothermal and cloosed-loop biomass energy companies, and 1.1¢/kWh to municipal solid-waste and certain other alternative power firms. The payment period generally applies to the first 10 years of operation.
Shimizu Corp. One of the construction challenges is mooring the platforms during constant swells and turbulence. Related Links: Maine To Launch Offshore Floating-Turbine Prototype U.S. Offshore Wind Energy Purveyors Gaining Ground A Japanese demonstration project is the largest yet examining the feasibility of placing floating wind farms in deep water.A government-backed consortium is building three floating platforms, each of a different design, 12 miles off Japan's Pacific shore, using two types of wind turbines with a total generating capacity of 16 megawatts.The first, a 2-MW turbine and a floating substation, began operating in November. Two more 7-MW turbines will be
Related Links: Overview of How NuScale SMR technology works US Dept. of Energy Moves Forward on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors The apparent winner of the second phase of a $452-million U.S. Dept. of Energy grant program to support the development and commercialization of small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technology in the U.S. is NuScale Power, a Portland, Ore.-based firm whose majority owner is Fluor Corp.DOE announced on Dec. 12 that it would award a yet-to-be-negotiated amount—up to $226 million—to NuScale to cover up to half the costs of a new Oregon-based project to design, certify and help commercialize small nuclear
Related Links: Announcement: Ontario Releases Long-Term Energy Plan Ontario will defer indefinitely construction of two new nuclear-power reactors at the Darlington and Bruce Power facilities, scale back plans to refurbish operating units at those sites and may order the shutdown of another six-unit plant before its scheduled 2020 closing date, according to a long-term energy plan the provincial government released earlier this month.The province said that advances in energy conservation, enhanced efficiency and a slowdown in electricity-demand growth prompted it to revise a 2010 energy plan that called for building the two new reactors at the Darlington powerplant site as
RSS
