Mitsui Inc., one of Japan’s largest construction firms and also one of its major nuclear fuel traders, is investigating the feasibility of building biomass power generators to help dispose of debris from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as help recycle waste from the reconstruction effort.
Massachusetts’ highest court on Dec. 28 upheld an agreement allowing Cape Wind to sell power to National Grid, removing a major obstacle for the planned 130-turbine offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound.The ruling affirms the 2010 decision by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) to allow National Grid to buy 50% of Cape Wind’s output — 234 MW. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the New England Power Generators Association and TransCanada had appealed the DPU’s decision late last year.In the 35-page ruling, Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford called the DPU review consistent with
COURTESY STATOIL Statoil's 2.3-MW demonstration turbine off the Norwegian coast. Related Links: Maine Offshore Wind Study Statoil Hywind Demonstration Description Statoil, developer of the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, is reporting good performance on its 2.3-MW test project near the North Sea. The Norwegian company is targeting the Gulf of Maine as a site for a 12-MW floating-turbine test wind farm, despite the tough U.S. environment for wind-energy development. If constructed, this would be the first floating wind turbine farm in the U.S.“We chose the coast of Maine because of good wind conditions, deep waters and proximity to electricity
Courtesy of Kitimat LNG The Kitimat LNG facility is one of a handful seeking to export Canada's natural gas to Asian markets. Courtesy of Kitimat LNG The proposed $5.7-billion Kitimat LNG export terminal received a 50-year export license from Canada's National Energy Board. Related Links: Israel Taps Italian Firm To Build Floating Offshore LNG Terminal DOE OKs Terminal LNG Export Two Canadian energy companies are closer to developing export facilities for liquefied natural gas in the Pacific Northwest, driven by burgeoning demand for natural gas in Asia and vast North American natural-gas reserves. Other companies are also queuing up to
Related Links: National Academies' press release (with link to full report) "Oil-Spill Panel Seeks Industry, Federal Actions," enr.com Jan. 12, 2011 A new report on the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil-well blowout concludes that industry and regulators had a “misplaced trust” in the blowout preventer used by the Deepwater Horizon rig.Like many other reports about the Gulf Coast disaster, the National Academy of Engineering/National Research Council study, released on Dec. 14, concludes that the accident, which killed 11 rig workers and spewed more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf, was caused by a combination of factors.But
N/A Work on $20-billion chemical complex addition at Saudi site will start in 2012. A Dow Chemical Co.-Saudi Aramco joint venture has already contracted out about half of the $20-billion capital investment for its world-scale petrochemical complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. It expects to award all engineering, procurement and construction contracts by mid-2012, a project executive said last month. Aramco Vice President Abdulaziz Al Judaimi added that construction would start in the third quarter.Jacobs Engineering Group on Nov. 8 won the EPC management contract to provide front-end engineering design, overall construction management and other services. The contract value was not
+ Image Graphic by EIA and Lippman Consulting Related Links: Power Sector Sees Mini Boom In Natural-Gas Projects Energy experts agree that investing in sustainable energy technologies is a must for the United States. But amid a booming global energy market, is it a realistic investment?That depends on which expert you ask."We're in our Sputnik moment" for energy and sustainable innovation, claims Lauren Azar, senior adviser to Steven Chu, the U.S. Secretary of Energy. "If we don't invest in green technologies, we will be left behind. We will be clinging to the past instead of sprinting toward the future. I
Courtesy BlueFire Ethanol BlueFire Ethanol's construction site is ready to break ground in Fulton, Miss. China's biggest electric company, China Huadian, has agreed to provide financing and engineering services for the project. BlueFire Ethanol, one of the competitors not chosen this year to receive U.S. Dept. of Energy loan guarantees to build an advanced biofuels plant, is taking its cause abroad. Last month, the cellulosic ethanol producer attracted China's largest electrical utility, China Huadian Engineering Co. Ltd., which has 75,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $51 billion in assets.This past September, alternative-energy companies were waiting to hear who would win
Courtesy of NRC Pilgrim 1 unit in Plymouth, Mass., is a likely candidate for seismic upgrade and vent-hardening measures. As the U.S. nuclear industry has begun to understand what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, it is ramping up to harden plants here to ensure that they would withstand a one-two punch similar to what struck the Japanese nuclear plants.In October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a prioritized list of recommendations for analysis and improvements at U.S. plants. The first tier of those recommendations are to be implemented "without delay."In July, an
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