A pair of Colombian firms have been granted a 30-year concession to build and operate a 220-kilovolt electrical transmission line in Peru that will draw power from a hydroelectric plant near Machu Picchu. Empresa de Energia de Bogota S.A. and Interconexion Electrica S.A. will build the 204-kilometer Machu Picchu-Abancay-Cotaruse line for $62.5 million, officials said. Over the summer, the Zürich, Switzerland-based ABB group was awarded a three-year, $148.5-million contract to increase the installed power of the Machu Picchu facility to 99.86 megawatts and build an 87.57-MW facility near Santa Teresa. The project is designed to regulate the level and flow
David Jones grew up watching the massive Browns Ferry nuclear units being built near his home in Athens, Ala. The son of a pipefitter who worked at the plants, Jones knew as a youngster that he wanted to build nuclear plants for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Thirty years after earning a degree in civil engineering, Jones is heading a team that is building the first nuclear plant in the United States in more than 20 years. “It’s a dream come true for me,” says Jones, vice president of Southern Co.’s two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle, which is located
While the demand for new large nuclear reactors may have fallen in the United States in response to the recession, interest in smaller, cheaper, scalable nuclear reactors is on the rise. Image: Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Power B&W’s modular mPower unit. Six are under consideration for installation at TVA’s Clinch River site. Related Links: Nuclear Rebirth Mpower reactor Hyperion Power About a half-dozen companies have notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they will apply for design certification and eventually licenses for smaller reactors that range in size from 25 megawatts to about 300MW. “It’s a challenging time to justify putting
Southern California Edison plans to install 250 megawatts of solar-power generating capacity in California’s southern and central valleys over the next four years. Another 250 MW could be secured through contracts with independent providers as part of the utility’s $875-million initiative. Photo: Courtesy Southern California Edison Southern California Edison plans to install 250 MW of solar-power generating capacity over the next four years. The first 50 MW is expected to be online by the end of this year. By the end of this year, SCE expects to have the first 50 MW of capacity online or in the final stage
Developers of two new nuclear reactors in Bay City, Texas, have replaced Irving, Texas-based Fluor Corp. with Baton Rouge, La.-based The Shaw Group as partners in an engineering procurement and construction consortium with Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corp. Nuclear Innovation North America LLC, a company created by Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy Inc. and Toshiba Corp., made the announcement on Nov. 29. Nuclear Innovation plans to expand the South Texas Project nuclear facility with two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors that can supply 2,700 MW of power; it is the first site to use that reactor design. The project is expected to
A new 1-MW rooftop solar installation on the World Cruise Center at the Port of Los Angeles relied on a self-ballasted racking system to protect aging structures while offsetting increased electrical demands from an Alternative Maritime Power system that lights up docked cruise ships. Photo: Courtesy of Cupertino Electric A monocrystalline photovoltic system held in place with a concrete- ballasted roof will supply 1 MW of power to the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Center. Photo: Courtesy Port of Los Angeles Crews installing panels worked around cruise ships’ schedules. Of the five bidders vying for the $8.5-million contract in
A Denver jury decided Nov. 16 that The Shaw Group, Baton Rouge, La., will have to pay Xcel Energy, Minneapolis, Minn. $40 million for delays and construction costs on the Comanche Unit 3 coal-fired powerplant in Pueblo, Colo. But in a split verdict, the jury also awarded Shaw an undisclosed amount of damages. Photo: Xcel Energy Comanche 3 coal-fired unit is located in Pueblo, Colo. The verdict in district court for city and county of Denver relates to a dispute between Shaw and Xcel Energy regarding a contract entered into in February 2006 to build Xcel’s Comanche Unit 3, which
Crews have demolished the world’s first industrial plutonium processing facility at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Demolition of 23 structures in the complex, which dates to World War II, was completed using $13.5 million in stimulus funds, says Gordon Dover, the facility’s cleanup deputy project director. As part of the project, workers installed 16 groundwater monitoring wells. Los Alamos research now supports NASA space missions and nuclear reactor fuels research. But environmentalists filed suit in federal district court Nov. 12 to stop DOE from continued design on an estimated $4-billion research complex for chemistry
Environmental and energy efficiency advocates are praising the Environmental Protection Agency for issuing guidance to local and state permitting authorities to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions using best available control technologies (BACT). But industry groups have blasted the guidance, saying it could result in a moratorium on the construction of new powerplants and industrial facilities. The EPA released BACT guidance on Nov. 10 to help states and local air permitting authorities identify cost-effective pollution reduction options for greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. The new preconstruction permit program among the states begins on Jan. 2, 2011. Gina McCarthy, assistant
Dubbed “The Ugly 3” by opponents, Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 on the Colorado ballot propose statewide cuts in taxes and fees that could cost the state billions of dollars in revenue and force severe cuts in social services, road repairs and capital building programs. Related Links: Getting to the Bottom of Amendments 60, 61 and Prop. 101 All three measures are being pushed by an anti-tax group called CO Tax Reforms, which says they are the result of “taxpayers’ revenge” for motor vehicle fee increases voted by the legislature last year and a mill-levy freeze enacted in
RSS
