Sweden is at the forefront of the European renaissance in nuclear power. Having held a referendum in 1980 to phase-out nuclear power by 2010, public opinion has shifted to a more positive view of atomic energy.
Fossil fuel fired power stations are under growing pressure to cut their carbon emissions. One emerging technology, or set of technologies, that has been proposed to mitigate future CO2 emissions is carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Developing viable systems for storing electrical energy is of critical importance to the power industry because one of their key benefits is that they act as instantly usable assets to enable Smart Grids to cope with intermittent sources of power generation such as wind and solar.
Experienced power plant operators can attest to the marathon race between data intelligence and equipment failure. Despite sizeable investments in instrumentation, sophisticated OEM devices, sensors and software, many plants contend daily with data overload and a lack of actionable intelligence to prevent surprises.
Air heater and recovery boiler cleaning in power plants is typically carried out with high-pressure water, chemicals or steam. These techniques, while effective on moderate air-side fouling of heat exchange surfaces, are usually unable to remove the more tenacious deposits that can build up from fly ash, dust and oil in coal fired plants.
With 102 plants currently operating, a total installed capacity of 55 GW and an output of around 165 GWh/year, Russia is the fifth-largest hydropower generator in the world. Yet in terms of exploiting its hydropower resources, Russia trails markedly on the world stage, taking second place behind China.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to see into the future? Sadly, that ability, as of yet, is beyond us humans. However, from the electric power industry’s perspective the plethora of annual market reports forecasting the status of the sector in 10 or 20 years’ time are at least a good starting point, and in many cases help to steady the nerves in these uncertain times.
European Council President Herman van Rompuy called heads of European Union (EU) governments to his first energy summit on 4 February. This was billed as an energy summit, but because it occurred during the on-going Eurozone crisis and faster moving events in Egypt, politicians spent most of the time talking about these issues rather than energy.
The US Department of Energy has awarded a $967m loan guarantee to NRG Energy to support construction of the world’s biggest solar power plant with photovoltaic panels.
A $2.2bn hydrogen power project in Abu Dhabi involving BP has been delayed by Masdar, according to a senior company official.
EU leaders closed the bloc’s first ever energy summit with an agreement to accelerate plans for a Europe-wide supergrid.
Siemens will supply a flagship H class gas turbine to South Korean utility GS Electric Power, which is building the 400 MW Bugok 3 combined-cycle gas turbine power plant.
The US Department of Energy has awarded a $967m loan guarantee to NRG Energy to support construction of the world’s biggest solar power plant with photovoltaic panels.
Duke Energy is awaiting regulatory approval for a $13.7bn deal to buy Progress Energy that would make it the largest power utility in the USA.
Centrax is to supply the gas turbine generator set at the heart of a new energy centre at a major health campus in Scotland, where it will reduce the hospital’s emissions by nearly 20 per cent while cutting costs by some £2m ($3.2m) per year.
Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian Cables & Systems has won the contract to supply and install the land connection route for the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm in Wales, UK.
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