Photo Courtesy of the Geothermal Energy Association Geothermal energy officials ring the opening NASDAQ bell during the U.S. and International Geothermal Energy Finance Forum in April. Related Links: Geothermal Power Grew 5% in 2012 California Sees Transmission As Key to Geothermal Buildup The U.S. geothermal energy industry—which grew by 5%, or 147.05 MW, for the year ending March 2013—is seeking more up-front private-equity financing. There are 175 geothermal power projects in development in California, Nevada and other western states. They would add some 620 MW of operational capacity by January 2016, reports the Geothermal Energy Association.Unlike solar or wind, geothermal
Related Links: Tres Amigas to Link Major US Power Grids Texas Gears Up for Boom In High-Voltage Construction The planned completion this year of $6.8 billion in "competitive renewable energy zone" transmission lines in Texas is leading wind-power developers to shift wind-project planning into high gear.Kent Saathoff, executive advisor to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, says the build-out of some 2,300 miles of 345-kV CREZ lines will roughly double to approximately 18,000 MW—the amount of wind and other power that can be delivered from remote, sparsely populated areas in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle to population centers like
Photo Courtesy Panda Power Funds Panda Power Funds' Temple gas unit is one of three planned by developer. A tightening power supply in Texas is spurring a multibillion-dollar boom in the construction of new natural gas-fired power plants and other projects.According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the electric grid covering 85% of the state, the power reserve margin in the ERCOT region will fall below the reliability council's 13.75% target this summer and for the foreseeable future unless more generating capacity is built.More specifically, ERCOT said the reserve margin is expected to be only 13.2% this
Related Links: Haiti Fires Up Oil-Fired Power Plant Italy Turns to Oil-Fired Power Plants as Russia Trims Supply While oil plays a commanding role in global energy markets, its position as a fuel source for electric powerplants ranges from dominant in certain countries to modest or non-existent in others.Oil is mostly used by countries who have abundant supplies of it, such as the Persian Gulf countries, Russia and Venezuela. “If you don’t have to use oil, you’re not going to build oil-fired plants unless you’re sitting on it,” says Chris Bergesen, editorial director for UDI Productsat Platts—like ENR, a unit
Related Links: Secret Study on Nuke Plant Fix May Hold Clue to Duke CEO's Ouster Duke Energy Moves To Become Largest Utility in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission engineers and Duke Energy Carolinas representatives met on March 25 to discuss the utility's plan to protect the Oconee nuclear station's standby shutdown facility, or SSF, in the unlikely event the Jocassee Dam, located upstream of the station, were to fail catastrophically.In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011, the NRC has been expanding its review of U.S. nuclear units' ability to withstand natural phenomena, including flooding, said commission
Related Links: AREVA (Transnuclear's parent company) website Columbia, Md.-based Transnuclear has developed a training facility in Aiken, S.C., to help workers become proficient in transferring and loading fuel from wet pools to dry-cask storage.The training facility, completed in 2012, is part of Transnuclear's NUHOMS University program, which works with contractors involved in fuel transfers at nuclear facilities and utilities. The facility replicates the equipment and situations workers would encounter on a typical loading campaign.Approximately 40 workers have graduated from one of the program's five-week training sessions, and another 30 have come to the facility for specific training tailored for utilities.
Photo Courtesy of NAES U.S. nuclear powerplants adding spent-fuel storage capacity. Related Links: Transnuclear Facility Trains Workers for Dry Storage Campaigns Cask Storage For Spent Fuel Nuke Waste Disposal Solution Still Elusive The U.S. nuclear-generation fleet's steady, predictable output of spent nuclear fuel and the federal government's inability to establish a permanent geologic repository point to several decades of regular, high-value work for contractors that install dry-cask storage systems for spent fuel.Thanks to a government plan to establish one or more large-scale, consolidated sites for dry storage of spent fuel by the early 2020s, the next few years could be
Photo Courtesy of South Carolina Electric and Gas Continuous pour at V.C. Summer plant was three days ahead of similar effort at Vogtle. Related Links: Vogtle Suppliers Continue to Miss the Mark for Quality Control Vogtle Nuclear Plant Owners Seek Budget Hike, Extend Schedule On March 11, two years after the meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crews at South Carolina Gas and Electric's V.C. Summer Unit 2 marked a more auspicious milestone: the first concrete pour at a U.S. nuclear powerplant in 30 years.Three days later, crews at Southern Nuclear's Vogtle Unit 3 in Georgia completed another pour.
With pipelines to terminals in short supply, North Dakota crude is moving by rail. Related Links: Bakken Oil-Shale Extraction Sparks a Construction Boom North Dakota Is Bakken Business Carbis Inc. Savage Services employment link Over the past month, at defunct oil refineries, industrial facilities and other brownfields on the East Coast, construction work has been accelerating to convert these sites into rail terminals to take crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale formation.The boomlet is gaining momentum. In Eddystone, Pa., Enbridge is turning the site of a shuttered coal plant into a rail terminal able to take delivery of about
Related Links: Geothermal Energy Industry Production and Development 2013 Report Installed geothermal capacity in the United States grew by 5%, or 147.05 MW, since March 2012, according to the Geothermal Energy Association, which released its annual industry update in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26.The growth in 2012 builds on a trend of steady, incremental geothermal growth over the past decade, mainly in the western U.S. According to the Energy Information Agency, geothermal power now accounts for 3.5% of renewable-energy generation in the U.S.But for that trend to continue, the market must surmount a number of obstacles, speakers at the Geothermal
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