A surge of energy is flowing into energy storage. Tesla Motors' Sept. 4 announcement that named Nevada the winner of a five-state competition to host its planned gigafactory added momentum to a market for which Lux Research LLC forecasts 8% compounded annual growth, to a global value of $50 billion, by 2020. Tesla's $4-billion plant outside Reno will produce batteries for the automotive market and the grid. According to market research firm IHS, the 2013 energy-storage installation of 340 MW will grow to 6,000 MW by 2017 and to more than 40,000 MW by 2022.Tesla aims to produce 50,000 megawatt-hours
Related Links: Seaborn Networks website Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying $250-Million Undersea Cable Project Plans To Link Africa to Internet Massachusetts-based Seaborn Networks and France's Alcatel-Lucent have started construction of the Seabras-1 submarine fiber-optic-cable system, which, when completed in 2016, will be the first such telecommunications link that directly connects the U.S. and Brazil, according to the joint venture.In a Sept. 9 announcement, the companies said the six-fiber pair system will extend 10,700 kilometers, between New York City and São Paolo, and include a 350-km side link to the Brazilian coastal city of Fortaleza.Existing underwater cable
Photo Courtesy of Ameren FutureGen seeks to retrofit a unit at an existing plant in Meredosia, Ill. Legal challenges may force the owner to return $1 billion in ARRA funding, obtained in 2010. Related Links: FutureGen 2.0 Clean Coal: Is Carbon Capture and Storage Fossil Fuels' Best Hope? Foundation work for a new chimney at a 65-year-old powerplant in Meredosia, Ill., is under way for a $1.65-billion retrofit designed to create a prototypical commercial-scale coal-fired facility equipped with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), says Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc.This is the first construction work to be performed
Photo Courtesy of SRS Watch Despite the Obama administration's attempts to halt the project, Congress appears poised to keep construction moving forward. Related Links: DOE: Nuclear Agency's Initial OK of MOX Project's Construction Violated Standards Senate Appropriators Question Pause in MOX Project A watchdog group eyeing federal spending at the Savannah River site, a nuclear complex in Aiken, S.C., is again raising concerns about the long-delayed, $7.7-billion Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project after the contractor filed a "routine" request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 10-year construction extension."The request to extend the construction license of the MOX plant is
Related Links: Pennsylvania Utility Proposes 725-Mile Transmission Line for Shale-Gas Power New Phase for Alaska's Massive LNG Pipeline Project The ongoing shale-gas-induced transformation of U.S. energy production will continue to drive increasing levels of capital expenditures (capex) for the foreseeable future, said industry officials speaking at the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association's (ECCA) annual convention, held on Sept. 3-6 in Orlando. The ECCA comprises owners, contractors and engineers involved in the energy production sector.But the growth in capex is definitely slowing, according to Jorge Leis, an oil-and-gas industry consultant who moderated a panel discussion, "Perspectives on the Market From the
The Data Centers LLC Data center that was set to be built at Delaware university campus included a 279-MW power plant that residents opposed. Related Links: University of Delaware Scraps Plans for Data Center and Powerplant UD terminates Data Centers project for STAR Campus The Data Centers website Newark Residents Against the Power Plant Website A Pennsylvania firm that aims to build large data centers, powered by off-grid powerplants from 212 MW to 310 MW in size, hopes to site one soon, despite the University of Delaware's decision this summer to scrap plans for a 900,000-sq-ft data center and an
Related Links: New Hampshire Town Signs Deal for Landfill Solar Power Stafford Hill Solar Farm Project Fact Sheet Green Mountain Power has begun constructing a 2-MW solar microgrid on a city landfill in Vermont. The unit is designed to store power during storms for an emergency shelter at Rutland High School.The $10-million Stafford Hill Solar Farm, which broke ground on Aug. 10, is the first project in the nation to establish a micro-grid powered solely by solar and battery backup, with no other fuel source, the U.S. Dept. of Energy says.Stafford Hill includes 7,700 325-watt solar panels on a ballasted
The Tennessee Valley Authority this week plans to begin pouring the concrete foundation for a 12,000 sq ft building that the designer is calling a “finger of God build.”The reinforced concrete building is meant to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake. “We hope we don’t see it tested, but if it is we hope it stays,” says Robert Feiel, project engineer for Mesa Associates, Knoxville.The diverse and flexible coping capability building, or FLEX, was developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the lessons learned in nuclear plant safety as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011. It provides an
Photo Courtesy of MESA Associates The NRC is requiring containment structure for Watt's Bar reactor before licensure. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set to begin pouring the concrete foundation in late August for a 12,000-sq-ft reactor containment structure at its Brown's Ferry nuclear powerplant in Alabama that is being designed to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake and 300-mph winds. Specifications for the building, known as FLEX, were developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from lessons learned after the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan."It's an entirely new layer of protection to be used for a beyond-design flood, earthquake or tornado," says
Related Links: Information on Power Africa initiative White House fact sheet on new additional commitments and goals Africa’s electric-power infrastructure is set to receive an enormous boost over the next four years, thanks to new government and public-sector commitments of nearly $14 billion announced at a recent summit of African and U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.The summit, held Aug. 4-6, drew some 50 African heads of state, ministers and business executives, who met with President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, congressional leaders and other officials to discuss partnerships with government and nongovernmental organizations.A key development was Obama's Aug. 5
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