The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating license of CMS Energy’s 798 MW Palisades nuclear plant, extending its operation to 2031. Palisades went into service in 1971.
GE Energy Financial Services is acquiring a 20 percent equity interest in The ERORA Group, which is developing the 630 (net) MW Cash Creek IGCC co-production plant in Kentucky. The plant, estimated to cost $1.5 billion, will use GE IGCC technology. The plant’s two primary products are expected to be electricity and natural gas manufactured from syngas generated by the gasifier. The plant will also produce sulfur as a by-product. Investment and technology development firm D.E. Shaw Group has contributed $500 million to the ERORA Project. Construction could start late this year or early next year.
Blue Earth Biofuels will develop and operate a biodiesel refining plant on Maui to supply fuel for use in Maui Electric Co.’s diesel generators. The plant is scheduled to be in service by 2009 and will initually produce 40 million gallons a year. Production is expected to grow to 120 million gallons a year by 2011. The plant will use palm oil imported from around the Pacific Rim and South America.
DTE Energy Co. said it will prepare a license application for a new nuclear power plant, although the company has not yet decided whether it will ultimately build and operate a new nuclear facility. The application will be for a new power plant at the site of DTE’s Fermi 2 plant. By moving ahead, DTE said it preserves potential financial incentives under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Around 27 percent of Michigan’s electricity is generated by four nuclear plants.
BP Alternative Energy North America expects to start work this year on five wind generation projects representing a combined capacity of 550 MW in California, Colorado, North Dakota and Texas. BP’s U.S. wind portfolio includes the potential to develop about 100 projects representing up to 15,000 MW. Last year, BP announced an alliance with Clipper Windpower to supply up to 4,250 MW of wind turbines over the next five years and also acquired wind developers Greenlight Energy and Orion Energy.
Exelon Nuclear produced 131.4 billion kWh in 2006 - the fourth consecutive year that the company has set a new generation record for a U.S. power plant fleet. Altogether, Exelon’s 17 reactors produced enough electricity last year to continuously power more than 16 million typical American households.
The Florida Public Service Commission has adopted new rules to encourage construction of additional nuclear power plants within the state. The rules are designed to spur investment and promote nuclear power development. Investor-owned electric utilities can now request partial recovery of the planning and construction costs of a nuclear power plant prior to the plant’s commercial operation.
AREVA has received its 100th order for a nuclear power reactor. Électricité de France chose AREVA to supply the system for the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) soon to be constructed in Flamanville, France. The U.S. EPR plant design is currently being considered by several U.S. utilities interested in building the first new nuclear power plant in the U.S. since the 1980s.
Black & Veatch has launched Clean Energy Technologies (CET) to modify and optimize an early stage biogasification technology originated by Pearson Technologies of Baton Rouge, La. Black & Veatch will engineer, design and construct the first plants using the process, which unlike conventional fermentation processes dependent on grains or other costly feedstocks, uses abundant carbonaceous materials such as corn stover, switchgrass, wood waste and other biomass and plant waste to produce syngas that is catalytically converted to ethanol or other higher value products.
NRG Energy and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to meet LCRA’s growing wholesale market in Texas by providing LCRA access to up to 700 MW of new NRG generating capacity.
Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, said a global warming report overstates a trend that can be reversed through government programs that put a national cap on emissions and reduce industrial carbon dioxide production. He said such programs can slow down, stop and reverse global warming. His comments were in response to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluding global warming is likely the fault of human activity. The report said prolonged carbon dioxide output from industry has caused global warming and that Earth’s temperature and sea levels would continue to rise this century, producing stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Rogers said water will rise some, but nations will adapt.