At a House hearing marked by partisan rancor, Energy Secretary Steven Chu disputed Republicans' allegations that politics played a role in his decision to approve a loan guarantee to now-bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra.E-mails obtained and released by Republican committee members have suggested that there was some disagreement within the Obama administration about Solyndra's economic viability.  Some lawmakers have suggested that the White House pressured the Dept. of Energy to take Herculean steps to save the foundering company, which declared bankruptcy late this summer.Chu told the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee at a Nov. 17 hearing

ENR The plant is sited in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, a key region for India's fishing industry. Commissioning of the 1,000-MW first reactor of the Kudankulam nuclear powerplant in India has ground to a halt due to protests by the local population. Originally scheduled for December, commissioning and start up of the estimated $3-billion plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu was moved to March 2012 because protestor blockades have prevented engineers from gaining entry into the plant.Stricken with delays since it was first conceived in November 2008, the plant has been the target of safety concerns

Israel Natural Gas Lines has signed an agreement with Italy's Micoperi Marine Contractors, Ravenna, to plan and construct a floating offshore terminal along the country's central Mediterranean coast to better ensure its supply of liquified natural gas. The $140-million project is expected to help Israel meet growing demand and counteract not only undependable natural-gas supplies from Egypt but also the current unavailability of supply from a large offshore gas field. Discovered in 2009 about 50 miles west of Haifa in the Mediterranean Sea, the Tamar field has an estimated 8.3 trillion cu ft of natural-gas deposits, but it is not

Related Links: Bright Outlook for New Jersey Solar Energy The U.S. photovoltaic industry is expected to hit a milestone this year by surpassing the 1-GW mark, or generating enough electricity from the sun to power more than 200,000 homes. While California remains firmly in the lead as the nation’s largest solar power generator, the Northeast region is catching up and accounts for much of the milestone thanks to aggressive business and homeowner incentive programs, said speakers at the PV Power-Generation Mid-West & East conference, held in New York City on Nov. 8-9.“The Northeast is the new California market,” Shaun Chapman,

Related Links: Bright Outlook for New Jersey Solar Energy The U.S. photovoltaic industry is expected to hit a milestone this year by surpassing the 1-GW mark, or generating enough electricity from the sun to power more than 200,000 homes. While California remains firmly in the lead as the nation’s largest solar power generator, the Northeast region is catching up and accounts for much of the milestone thanks to aggressive business and homeowner incentive programs, said speakers at the PV Power-Generation Mid-West & East conference, held in New York City on Nov. 8-9.“The Northeast is the new California market,” Shaun Chapman,

Related Links: TEPCO Crews Try To Cool Damaged Reactors at Fukushima Powerplant Life After Fukushima After Fukushima, the Non-Nuclear Options Special Report: Rebuilding Japan Eight months after the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant, the site has become a massive construction site. In fact, Japan is about to reach an important milestone: putting into cold shutdown Fukushima Daiichi's four damaged reactors.Last month, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the plant's owner, announced it would stabilize the crippled reactors and have the nuclear fuel cooled below 100 degrees Celsius by the end of December.The March 11 tsunami caused the loss

Florida Office of the Public Counsel Kelly says utility apparently mismanaged steam generator replacement project. Courtesy Progress Energy's Florida Public Service Commisssion public filing Root-cause analysis report by Performance Improvement International identified seven factors contributing to delamination, including tendon stresses and detensioning sequence. Related Links: Florida Utility: No Way To Predict Nuke Plant Cracking Japanese Disaster Puts Focus On U.S. Powerplant Problems Florida’s Public Counsel J.R. Kelly calls the separation of a concrete wall at Progress Energy Florida’s Crystal River-3 nuclear unit “a huge construction negligence case,” and says that Progress does not appear to have been very prudent in

Photo courtesy of Destination Rotorua Marketing Current geothermal resources come from depth of 3 km, with a temperature up to 330 C. Current research is aimed at 4 km and 400 C. A large research and development effort is under way in New Zealand, aimed at harnessing a natural geothermal energy source of more than 10,000 MW that sits beneath the country’s Taupo Volcanic Zone.The program’s overall objectives include analyzing how the fluid and rock interact below four kilometers; discovering what factors cause permeability; examining what issues might affect well productivity; and estimating the potential for sustainable, deep geothermal resource

Related Links: Interior Dept. fact sheet on proposal The Interior Dept. has proposed 15 lease sales for offshore oil and gas drilling over the 2012-17 period, including 12 potential leases at locations in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska.Expanded energy exploration could provide opportunities for engineering and construction companies, both at offshore sites and at nearby, on-shore locations.The proposal, which Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on Nov. 8, drew criticism from advocates and opponents of expanded oil and gas development.Drilling advocates, such as House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), faulted the Interior for

Photo Courtesy of Southern Co. The Vogtle nuclear plant already is employing 1,700 workers on site, with the first 1,154-MW unit due to start in 2016. The future of new nuclear plant construction in the United States hinges upon the performance of The Shaw Group and partner Westinghouse Electric as they build the first new U.S. nuclear reactors in more than 20 years, speakers at the Nuclear Energy Insider Nuclear Construction Summit agreed at the event on Oct. 26 in Charlotte, N.C.“Clarence and his team are make-or- break. If the team at Vogtle stumbles and falls, it is all over