Carter & Burgess Inc., a unit of Jacobs Engineering Group, will be back in a California court on Feb. 28, seeking dismissal of a December ruling ordering the company to pay the city of Victorville $52.1 million over a failed powerplant project. The project’s price tag had more than quintupled before it was scrapped for parts in 2006. Photo: Courtesy of Gibbs, Giden, Locher, Turner & Senet LLP Powerplant, now defunct, is focus of fight between city and Jacobs Engineering unit. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor ruled on Dec. 17 against the Fort Worth-based engineer, which was acquired
National interest electric transmission corridors, laid out by the Dept. of Energy to help facilitate development of larger transmission lines in mid-Atlantic and southwestern states, are in question following a Feb. 1 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that the DOE failed to consult the affected states before designating the two areas for fast-track development of high-voltage lines. DOE designated the corridors in 2007 as Congress directed it to do under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 in an effort to reduce transmission congestion. The court said that the DOE also didn’t consider the
In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to support efforts to generate 80% of the nation’s electricity from clean sources by 2035. Days before his speech, the U.S. Energy Dept. offered two conditional loan guarantees—one for a solar farm in Arizona, the other for a renewable diesel facility in Louisiana—that will help achieve Obama’s goal and diversify the nation’s fuel mix. Photo: Courtesy Of First Solar Sarnia, Ontario’s 80-MW plant is currently the world’s largest operating PV solar plant. Photo: Courtesy of First Solar First Solar’s 21-MW project in Blythe, Calif. On Jan. 21, DOE awarded
A panel that advises the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that Atlanta-based utility Southern Cos. and its utility partners can build and operate two AP1000 nuclear power units at its Vogtle site in Waynesboro, Ga., “without undue risk to the health and safety of the public.” It reports that a final construction and operating license should be issued. The opinion, issued on Jan. 24, will be considered by the five-member commission when it makes a final decision on Southern’s license at the site later this year. The Shaw Group Inc., Baton Rouge, La., and Westinghouse Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa., have
Devices to harvest kinetic energy from the briny waste stream of seawater desalinization plants are to be used for the first time at an industrial scale in two plants now being built in Spain. Image: Courtesy Of Energy Recovery Inc. A kinetic energy exchanger (lower right) recaptures water-pressure energy in the outflow stream and transfers it back into the raw-water stream. Pressure-exchange devices supplied by Energy Recovery Inc., San Leandro, Calif., are to be installed in reverse-osmosis plants being built by Spain’s Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs at the Mediterranean coastal cities of Moncofa and Oropesa. Together,
As global interest in nuclear power grows, two major European design firms have joined forces to capture a share of the business. London-based W.S. Atkins plc. and Paris-based Assystem S.A. now are targeting international projects jointly while continuing to operate independently in their home markets. Based in France, the joint venture Nuclear Atkins Assystem Alliance (NAAA) claims that, drawing from the two companies, it will have access to 3,000 employees with market-relevant skills. NAAA executives believe that 30 countries are considering entry into the nuclear power market and that a similar number already have operational plants. Martin Grant, managing director
Turkey has revived its nuclear energy program after four decades of canceled projects. A deal has been brokered with Russia to build Turkey’s first nuclear powerplant on the Mediterranean coast, and talks have started with Japan and France regarding a second nuclear facility on the Black Sea. In December, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom signed an agreement to construct four 1,200 MW VVER reactors totalling 4,800 MW in Akkuyu in the province of Mersin on Turkey’s southern coast. The water-cooled, water-moderated energy reactors will be designed to withstand earthquakes of up to 6.5 on the Richter scale. The licensing process
E-Power S.A., the first private-sector power generation project in Haiti delivered on the basis of international tendering, started operations in Port-au-Prince Jan. 13, a year and a day after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The $56.7-million, 30-Mw, heavy fuel-oil-fired power plant will boost capacity in Port-au-Prince by 40%. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group that focuses on the private sector in developing countries, provided long-term $17-million financing, and syndicated an additional $12 million from the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO). The utility is 60%-owned by local investors with Korea East-West Power Co. Ltd, a Korean electricity utility, also holding
An agreement between Suncor Energy Inc. and Total Exploration & Production Canada Ltd. is expected to restart construction of a stalled multibillion-dollar oil-sands production facility this year. Total will buy a 49% stake in the Suncor-operated Voyageur upgrader project, located near Fort McMurray. The $1.75-billion deal also includes Total acquiring 19% of Suncor’s Fort Hills mining project and Suncor acquiring 37% of Total’s Josyln mining project. Work on the upgrader, which upgrades bitumen mined from the oil sands into oil, was suspended in 2008. Work will resume once front-end engineering design is updated. Dany Laferriere, Suncor spokesperson, says the agreement
New York City-based Verdant Power has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a pilot license to install 30 propeller-like turbines in the east channel of the East River in New York City that could generate up to 1 MW of hydropower. Verdant expects to have the license within six to 12 months. After securing the license, it will install the grid-connected Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy system, says Trey Taylor, co-founder and president of Verdant. Though Verdant calls the system a tidal system, the power is generated from the flow of the river, not the ebb and flow of