In This Issue
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PUSHING EXPORTSRUSSIA IS CONTINUING ITS POLICY OF vigorously pushing the export of all things pertaining to nuclear energy production. The year 2010 proved to be a good year for business. The past year has witnessed multibillion-dollar nuclear power plant sales to countries ranging from Venezuela to India and from China to Turkey. Russia is building 15 of the 60 nuclear reactors currently under construction in...
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Transforming the Energy Landscape
LOOK BACK EVEN 10 YEARS AND YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE MOST of the technology we take for granted today; telephones and computers are just two obvious examples. It's difficult to recognize game changers when they first appear, precisely because they redefine the paradigms we've come to take for granted. But while the details may be murky, it's clear that the energy sector will change in fundamental ways...1 -
THE VIEW FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORKUTILITY CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICERS ARE on the front lines dealing with the miserable economy that has settled over the United States. To view the current economy through their eyes, EnergyBiz asked CFOs around the country, "Given how our economy has performed in the past two years, what are your main concerns and hopes as a utility CFO as we enter 2011?" Their responses, edited for style and length...1
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IS IT A BREAKTHROUGH PROJECT?AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF STARTING, STOPPING and enduring major permutations, the FutureGen 2.0 project in Illinois is finally back on track to retrofit a power plant with an innovative carbon capture and storage system. FutureGen 2.0 is a partnership among the U.S. Department of Energy, the FutureGen Alliance, a nonprofit consortium of coal-mining and coal-producing global energy companies and Ameren...1
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THERE IS MUCH PRESS ABOUT THE CURRENT U.S. natural gas glut. The glut won't last for long. According to astrophysicist Michio Kaku, if the world economic growth rate averages 3 percent annually, within a century or two our civilization will need to master all forms of terrestrial energy and harness the potential resources of the entire planet including modifying the weather, mining the oceans,...3
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Tres Amigas Plans to Transform the Grid
FOUNDED IN 1909, CLOVIS, N.M., SEEMS LIKE A TYPICAL, rural, small town. With a population of 32,667, the city is home to peanut and cotton farms, and ranches focused on meat and dairy production. Yet despite its outward appearance, this small, sleepy community may soon become an energy industry epicenter, one linking the nation's autonomous energy grids and creating a paradigm shift in how energy... -
SUBSIDIES KICK INSOLAR PROJECTS IN THE DESERT SOUTHWEST, ESPECIALLY those on public lands, seemed to fall into a black hole. Interminable reviews and a policy vacuum seemed to conspire to prevent any large-scale projects from being built for nearly two decades.But the imperatives of the economic stimulus plan and California's push for even more renewable energy seemed to change that dynamic in the past two years....
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BUILDING A MID-ATLANTIC OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRYStrong networks are the foundation of a modern economy. Railroads, highways, communications, air traffic and electricity networks provide the capability to move people, goods, information and energy. Networks can make possible transactions that would not otherwise have happened, and high-capacity networks eliminate bottlenecks that stifle business and cause markets to be inefficient. Networks...1
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The Business Transformations of Smart GridTHE PARTICIPANTSDonny Helm, manager of technology, Oncor Electric DeliveryCamilo Serna, director of strategic planning, Northeast UtilitiesJohn Kelly, deputy director, Galvin Electric InitiativeDon Von Dollen, program director, Intelligrid at the Electric Power Research InstituteClayton Burns, principal engineer for smart grid, National GridEric Mewhinney, manager of innovation and sustainability...
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Huge $6 Billion Project Delayed
THE DECISION IN SEPTEMBER BY OLD DOMINION ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE TO DELAY its ambitious $6 billion Cypress Creek project threw the future of coal-fired electricity generation in the U.S. further into doubt.The cooperative, based in Richmond, Va., acknowledged that uncertainty about restrictions on carbon emissions played a role in the decision. But it claimed that the main reason for the delay was...
