There was both bad and good news for petroleum contractors this summer. The bad news was a pall of uncertainty currently shrouding petro markets as major oil-spill disasters—Gulf of Mexico rig explosions and a Michigan pipeline leak so far this year—ratcheted up scrutiny, opposition, delays and cancellations of new projects. But if there is good news for petro contractors, it is the fact that America’s monstrous thirst for oil remains unabated, and contractors know it’s only a matter of time before the carbon-based infrastructure market comes roaring back to life. Photo: Courtesy of SAIC SAIC has three contracts for hydrocracker
A Houston company has completed construction of a pair of power-generation barges that, when installed later this year in Venezuela, will become the world’s largest floating power-generation facility. Photo: Courtesy Walker Marine Inc. Floating powerplants will move from Signal International Shipyard in Orange, Texas, to Venezuela in September. Waller Marine Inc. completed work on the two $125-million vessels, Margarita I and Josefa Rufina I, earlier this month at the Signal International Shipyard in Orange, Texas. Each barge boasts a single GE 7FA turbine generator and is capable of producing 171-MW. When installed in a prepared basin at Tacoa, Venezuela, near
Boise, Idaho-based U.S. Geothermal Inc. announced on Aug. 30 that it has signed a contract with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), McLean, Va., for engineering, procurement and construction for the first phase of a new geothermal powerplant at San Emidio in northwest Nevada. The design-build work will be done by a subsidiary of the Benham Cos. LLC, a unit of SAIC. The first phase of the project, set to cost $27 million and be completed by the end of 2011, will generate between 8 MW and 9 MW of power. A second phase, to cost $170 million, will add an
When finished in 2011, a flat 3½ -acre piece of land with 20 shipping containers on concrete pads in upstate New York won’t hint at the complexity underneath: 200 flywheel storage devices spinning at Mach 2 to retain and release up to 20 MW of energy on a second-to-second basis. Photo Courtesy Beacon Power LeChase Construction workers put a control trailer in place. Tyngsboro, Mass.-based Beacon Power is developing this first-of-a-kind energy storage facility in Stephentown, N.Y., one of several energy-storage projects that got a push forward from grants, loan guarantees and tax credits made available through the American Recovery
The Shaw Group Inc. will provide technical support services for at least two new nuclear power units in China under an agreement with the government signed on Aug. 17. The Baton Rouge, La.-based engineer-contractor currently is building four of the AP1000 closed-loop pressurized water reactors in the country, along with its consortium partner, Westinghouse Electric Co. Photo: Courtesy of The Shaw Group In Zhejiang province, a module is placed at the Sanmen nuclear power-plant, one of six plants Shaw Group will build for China. Shaw’s services on the new AP1000 reactors at the Xianning nuclear powerplant project in Hubei province
Under a national Smart Grid effort, the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association jointly are developing a standard that would provide a common basis for electrical-energy consumers to describe, manage and communicate information about electrical-energy consumption and forecasts. The first meeting on the proposed ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201P, Facility Smart Grid Information Model, is on Aug. 30 to Aug. 31 at ASHRAE headquarters in Atlanta. The goal is to define an object-oriented information model to enable appliances and control systems in buildings, homes and industrial facilities to manage lighting, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning
Wind energy, which accounted for 39% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity last year, could provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030 if growth trends continue for wind power installations, according to a recent study. On the down side, siting, planning and cost allocation issues remain “key barriers” to transmission investment, the study says. Slide Show It may be possible to reach the U.S. government’s goal of producing 20% of the nation’s electricity from wind energy by 2030, but the production goal it is not a shoe-in, says a recent report. To reach the 20% goal, installations would
The U.S. Energy Dept. has decided to abandon its original plan for the FutureGen 275-MW coal-fired power plant to test advanced carbon-capture and storage technologies. The agency announced Aug. 5 that will instead use its $1 billion in federal stimulus funding to refit and repower an existing plant in western Illinois to capture carbon dioxide. The money will go to members of the FutureGen Alliance, made up of U.S. and overseas utilities, powerproviders and other firm, as well as to Ameren Energy Resources, Babcock & Wilcox and Air Liquide Process & Construction to install new equipment at a 200-MW Ameren
Verdant Power Inc., the leading U.S. tidal power developer, and the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), a renewable energy company, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop tidal energy projects in China. The agreement is the first of its kind between China and the U.S. involving marine and hydrokinetic power projects. According to Trey Taylor, president of Verdant Power, the two firms have identified potential sites and are currently gathering data at those locations. The Generation-5 turbines they plan to use in China, says Taylor, “will be demonstrated at pilot project sites in North America as
China has installed the first major offshore wind farm outside of Europe. + Image In China, most offshore wind farms likely will be built in intertidal areas. Located in the East China Sea, near Shanghai, the 102-MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm began transmitting power to the national grid in July. The farm, which is slated to expand in the coming years, eventually will generate annually 267 million kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power 200,000 Shanghai households. It currently is supplying power to the Shanghai Expo and serving as a showcase project at the five-month-long international event. The $337-million Donghai Bridge farm
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