In mid-February, Glendale Water & Power awarded a $4.2-million contract to Greenville, S.C.-based Utility Partners of America Inc., as the Southern California city joined a nationwide move to so-called smart water and electric networks. The advanced metering infrastructure will act as a two-way communication network to connect the meter to the utility and to the customer. Utility Partners is the same company that won a $7.5-million contract for similar work in Sacramento, Calif., in November. It has installed an estimated 6 million meters across the country. The 33,400 new water and 84,500 electric meters UPA will install in Glendale will
Developers of a major offshore wind farm in Massachusetts Bay failed to reach agreement by March 1 with local Native American tribes who say the $1-billion Cape Wind project would destroy ancestral burial sites. The continuing impasse over the 135-turbine project means U.S. Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar will make a final ruling on its fate by the end of April. Salazar had acted as arbiter between the tribes and project developer Cape Wind Associates, with a self-imposed March 1 deadline. The lengthy permitting process now goes to a Dept. of the Interior agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, for
Lynchburg, Va.-based Babcock & Wilcox will work with FirstEnergy, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Oglethorpe Power to place its small-scale, 125-MW modular nuclear unit, called mPower, into operation by 2020, says Chris Mowry, CEO of B&W Modular Nuclear Energy LLC. The company and the utilities, which announced their consortium on Feb. 17, will work with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to modify the licensing process for the modular reactors. None of the companies working with B&W has agreed to buy its reactor because “we really need to get deeper insight on this thing, where and how exactly to deploy,” says
The long-awaited nuclear renaissance appears to be closer to reality. The Obama administration continues to send strong signals of support for nuclear power as part of the nation’s “clean-energy” future. On Feb. 16, the administration announced the first-ever $8.5 billion loan guarantee for a new nuclear plant and said it had introduced plans to triple the amount of nuclear loan guarantees in the fiscal 2011 budget. Photo: Unistar Unistar wants to build a new facility at its Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, Md., and is hoping for a loan guarantee The loan guarantees to Atlanta-based Southern Co. and its partners
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council�s latest energy plan calls for 85% of new energy needs over the next 20 years to be met through efficiency. Area utilities aren�t so sure of its feasibility. Portland General Electric spokesperson Steven Corson says that the 85% goal can�t be met �cost effectively� and is not realistic with current technologies and Suzanne Hartman of Seattle City Light says that it is �uncertain� if that goal can be met region-wide, although SCL will save enough energy in the next five years to equal the capacity of a new power plant. The Sixth Northwest Power
The Obama administration announced on Feb. 16 the first of what it hopes will be several loan guarantees for the construction of new U.S. nuclear facilities. The U.S. Dept. of Energy says it will offer a total of $8.33 billion in conditional loan guarantees to build and operate two new nuclear reactors at Atlanta-based Southern Cos.’ existing Alvin W. Vogtle plant in Burke, Ga. The project, the first U.S. nuclear powerplant to break ground in nearly three decades, is expected to create approximately 3,500 on-site construction jobs. Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group and Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. are providing engineering, construction
Equipment maker Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill., said on Feb. 8 that it would join the FutureGen Alliance, a public-private partnership set to build a 275-MW clean-coal powerplant in Mattoon, Ill., although it did not disclose the amount of its investment. Caterpillar’s announcement follows a similar move on Jan. 30 by Chicago-based Exelon Corp. Caterpillar, which manufactures coal mining equipment, says the alliance will help demonstration carbon-capture and sequestration technologies that are “absolutely essential” to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. It is the alliance’s 11th member. FutureGen still awaits word from the U.S. Energy Dept. on whether the agency will back the $1.5-billion
The switch barely has been flipped on the flow of stimulus-related electricity projects across the nation. Most contractors say that 2010 marks the beginning of a three-year push to construct transmission lines to carry—and smart-grid technology to manage—renewable power. Related Links: As Federal Dollars Pour Out, A Second Stimulus Plan Grows Transport Sector Sets Rapid Pace Water, Cleanup Sectors See Mixed ARRA Prognosis Buildings Project List Still Long “What we have seen is a lot of projects out there that are getting into the funnel, and there’s an effort to push them out and get them going,” says Tim Gelbar,
The Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power is developing a plan to turn the dusty dry lake bed of Owens Valley, Calif., into an 80-sq-mi, 5-GW solar park. The sea of photovoltaic cells could serve a double purpose, also helping the agency’s efforts to mitigate dust and alkalinity problems. Since 2000, DWP has spent more than $500 million trying to comply with federal clean-air standards to calm the dust from the dry lake bed, which is stirred by local wind conditions that can reach up to 60 mph. Some think the low, densely spaced solar panels could act as
Six marine energy developers in the U.K. have been allocated $35 million of government funding to accelerate prototype production of offshore devices used to convert waves or currents to energy by the not-for-profit company Carbon Trust. Photo: Courtesy of Aquamarine Power A quarter of the world’s wave and tidal technologies are being developed in the U.K. By reducing marine energy costs closer to wind-power levels, “thousands” of devices could be operational around the U.K. by 2020, say CT officials. “Getting the first commercial projects in the water is critical to ‘de-risk’ the technology and attract the necessary private sector investment,”
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