Related Links: Desalination Advocates are Pinning Hopes on New Plant in California Mining firms BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are moving ahead on a planned $3.43-billion water-supply project for the Escondida copper mine in Chile's high desert. The upgrade will include the largest seawater reverse-osmosis desalination plant in the Americas, says Black & Veatch, which announced on Oct. 29 its selection as engineer-of-record for the facility and related marine works. The plant is set to produce about 220,000 cu meters of water a day.The two mining firms are the majority owners of Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, located 3,100
Related Links: People News: Edwards Elevated to Lead Black & Veatch as COO The U.S. natural-gas sector will continue to grow, but market and regulatory forces are putting a damper on the prospects for big-dollar gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas export facilities, Black & Veatch says in a new report.According to B&V’s “2013 Strategic Direction in the North American Natural Gas Industry,” the gas industry—boosted immeasurably by shale gas discoveries and by technology improvements in extracting gas from shale—is “in the midst of significant growing pains.”The report, released October 31, says more than 95% of those surveyed for the
Courtesy DOE Eleven offshore wind projects, totaling more than 3,800 MW, are in advanced stages of development. Related Links: First $1.8B Leg of U.S. Offshore Wind Transmission Link Is Set Statoil Pulls Plug on Maine Offshore Wind Project, but U. of Maine Venture Proceeds Despite low natural-gas prices that are dampening the competitiveness of renewables, the U.S. offshore-wind industry continues to gain ground. Eleven projects, totaling 3,824 megawatts, are in “advanced” stages of development, according to a U.S. Dept. of Energy study by Navigant Consulting.The 11 projects have either received approval for a lease in federal or state waters, conducted
Related Links: GEA release on global geothermal report Activity in the global geothermal market continues to pick up steam, with more than 670 geothermal projects under way in 70 countries, according to new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Geothermal Energy Association. The report, "2013 Geothermal Power: International Market Overview," found that more than 11,700 megawatts of new geothermal capacity, equal to that currently available from existing geothermal systems, are in the early stages of development or under construction, with the U.S., East Africa and Southeast Asia among the hottest markets. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) Executive Director Karl Gawell says the
Norwegian oil-and-gas giant Statoil pulled the plug on its Hywind Maine offshore wind project due to commercial uncertainty, but the University of Maine is forging ahead with plans to build a 12-MW offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine by 2017.“Statoil will now focus on the Hywind concept in Scotland, a project we have matured in parallel with Hywind Maine during the last three years,” according to a Statoil statement released on Oct. 15.Trine Ulla, head of business development for floating wind at Statoil, says, “Regardless of our exit [from] Maine, we will continue to explore the U.S. offshore
Photos courtesy of SASOL Sasol existing chemicals plant in Lake Charles, La.; the South African firm's planned new facilities would be adjacent. Sasols flagship gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, which it owns in joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, cost much more than its original $5-billion construction estimate, one Wall Street analyst says. Related Links: Sasol Advances U.S. Ethane and Derivatives Project Western Canada Eyes Gas-to-Liquid Production Facility South Africa integrated energy and chemical company Sasol is pushing ahead with its planned gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility and ethane cracker projects in Louisiana, with the latter's final investment decision expected by the first quarter
Photo Courtesy of GE Algeria has one of GE's largest installed equipment bases, including more than 400 gas turbines, 340 compressors and 35,000 kilometers of inspected pipelines. Related Links: East Africa Power Transmission Project Ready for Takeoff After Funding Approval Algeria’s national electricity-and-gas company, Sonelgaz, has, through one of its subsidiaries, signed three power-generation equipment-supply contracts with Fairfield, Conn.-based GE worth $2.7 billion as the country prepares to meet increasing domestic energy consumption, now estimated at 30.9 billion cu meters.The three contracts, awarded on Sept. 23 by Sonelgaz’s Société Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité (SPE Spa), are for the supply
Courtesy of EDF Planned new nuclear complex would be built at site of reactors built in previous decades (below). China’s state-owned nuclear industry has secured a major European foothold with deals announced on Oct. 21 for the first new plants in the U.K. in more than two decades.Construction of the two 1,660-MW European pressurized-reactor (EPR) water units, valued at more than $22 billion, is set to start next summer on the Hinkley Point C project, in Somerset, England, subject to final financing decisions next year by the French project developer EDF Group.The project would be adjacent to the site's existing
Related Links: Climate Change's Effects on Our Energy: An Interactive Map Price Tag for Repairs and Reconstruction from Colorado Floods Tops $1.3B Water Sector Takes the Brunt of Changing Weather President Obama's Speech on Climate Change at Georgetown University (Video) If governments and businesses ignored the realities of climate change on Port Fourchon, a spit of land on Louisiana's coast, the results could be disastrous.The port services as much as 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's offshore oil industry, and when it isn't operational, at least a fifth of the nation's domestic oil supply is blocked from delivery. Without work
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants CB&I to enact measures to improve the workplace culture related to quality control at a Lake Charles, La., plant supplying wall modules to nuclear-power projects in Georgia and South Carolina.