Photo Courtesy of Southern Co. The Vogtle nuclear plant already is employing 1,700 workers on site, with the first 1,154-MW unit due to start in 2016. The future of new nuclear plant construction in the United States hinges upon the performance of The Shaw Group and partner Westinghouse Electric as they build the first new U.S. nuclear reactors in more than 20 years, speakers at the Nuclear Energy Insider Nuclear Construction Summit agreed at the event on Oct. 26 in Charlotte, N.C.“Clarence and his team are make-or- break. If the team at Vogtle stumbles and falls, it is all over
Related Links: Upstate New York Project Will Harness Flywheel Power Firms' Finances Raise Questions Beacon Power Corp., which developed a first-of-a-kind energy storage facility in New York with the help of a $43-million loan guarantee, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 30 in federal court.The company, based in Tyngsboro, Mass., built a $69-million, 20-MW flywheel storage facility in upstate New York designed to keep the flow of power steady.Unlike Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra, which received a $535-million Dept. of Energy loan guarantee and filed for bankruptcy in September, Beacon is generating revenue, but apparently not enough to keep it afloat.LeChase
The merger of two of the largest U.S. pipeline companies could create a heavyweight able to finance needed pipeline infrastructure, says Fadel Gheit, a senior oil-and-gas analyst with New York City-based Oppenheimer & Co.“I think it will create long-term projects and make investments where [they are] needed,” Gheit says of the proposed merger between Kinder Morgan Inc. and El Paso Corp., announced on Oct. 16. Both firms are headquartered in Houston. “We don't have enough pipeline to take gas where it is used,” Gheit says, a situation that has existed in the pipeline sector for decades.For now, though, both El
Photo courtesy ORNL TVA relieved Bechtel from construction management at Watts Bar nuclear plant, after construction schedule slipped from 2012 to 2013 completion date. Related Links: Florida Utility: No Way To Predict Nuke Plant Cracking The Tennessee Valley Authority is taking over the management of the construction of the second unit at the Watts Bar nuclear plant after the construction schedule slipped under the current contractor, the federal power producer said Wednesday.TVA renegotiated its engineering, procurement and construction contract with Bechtel Power, Terry Johnson, a TVA spokesman, said. TVA will take over as project manager while Bechtel retains the technical
Photo courtesy of Poet Poet Design and Construction crews construct a new weigh station at Poet's Liberty Project in Iowa. As the U.S. Depts. of Energy and Agriculture pony up grants and loans to help fund new research and refineries to turn woody waste into cellulosic ethanol, private-sector companies are building the first commercial-scale cellulosic refineries in the nation and promoting their chemical processes for easy conversion from waste to sugar to fuel.With more than a half-dozen cellulosic plants in development in the U.S., federal officials and private companies hope to prove wrong a recent report from the National Research
The separation of a concrete wall at Progress Energy Inc.'s Crystal River nuclear powerplant in northwest Florida has “fundamentally changed the way the [nuclear power] industry analyzes post-tensioned, pre-stressed concrete structures,” according to the utility’s Oct. 10 filing with the Florida Public Service Commission. The PSC is probing the incident and must approve the North Carolina-based utility's request to have ratepayers cover repair costs.Raleigh-based Progress Energy is seeking to recover expenses related to the delamination of a wall at Crystal River’s nuclear unit No. 3, a problem first identified in October 2009 and again in March 2010 as the company
Image courtesy of Common Ground Alliance Call before you dig. It's that simple. If an excavator dials 811 or a local one-call center before digging, damage to underground utility lines and the people who dig near them occurs less than 1% of the time, according to the 2010 Damage Information Reporting Tool Report released on Oct.12 by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA).“A call to the one-call center or 811 is the simplest and most effective way to reduce or eliminate excavation-related underground-utility damages,” says Robert Kipp, CGA president.The 2010 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Report also estimates that the total
With plans for 18 million sq ft of commercial space and 37,000 homes, Albuquerque's master-planned sustainable community, Mesa del Sol, was selected as an ideal test site for a collaborative U.S.-Japanese demonstration project to examine emerging technologies that digitally control and balance power generated by various energy sources, including renewables.Upon completion of Mesa del Sol's $6-million retrofit in spring 2012, the community's centerpiece, the Antoine Predock-designed Aperture Center, will be home to the three-year commercial smart-grid technology test.“The smart-grid project has created a unique research opportunity to develop a building energy management system that will use real-time data on available
A new federal initiative designed to speed permitting of transmission lines may not expedite their construction, according to two utilities that have transmission projects included in a new Obama administration initiative, the Rapid Response Team for Transmission.The initiative, announced on Oct. 5, brings together nine federal agencies to streamline the process for new lines. The group focused its efforts on seven projects in various stages of development.The group will oversee and coordinate various federal agencies' actions—environmental impact statements, for example—and update the status of projects every week or two on a public website.Construction on the first line could begin next
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