Current regulations for controlling particulate matter (PM) have resulted from decades of research and have transformed over the years as methods of gathering data have improved. The first standards for PM were established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1971 under the Clean Air Act.
Renewable energy has rapidly increased in recent years, helping to provide cleaner power generation. But renewables only provide capacity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, and this capacity can fluctuate often and quickly.
Spring 2011 was busy for those working in the refueling and maintenance outage sector of the nuclear power industry. In total, the industry scheduled 44 unit refueling outages for Spring 2011, compared to 22 in Fall 2010.
A lot of people talk about "sustainability" but there seems to be little agreement on exactly what that term means. Using renewable power sources, such as wind, is a part of sustainability.
The issue of varnish is an old one, but the lubricants used to clean and prevent it have changed over the past two decades.
Modern power plants depend heavily on rotating machines such as steam turbines, gas turbines, generators and so on. To maximize power plant profit, rotating machines of power generation trains should be operated with maximum reliability, maximum capacity, maximum efficiency and minimum operating and maintenance costs.
I understand no one should bite the hand that feeds them, but I found it somewhat disheartening how your May 2011 issue glossed over the hazardous side effects of hydraulic fracturing.
Investor-owned utilities are creatures of regulation and policy so it isn't surprising to see two big announcements in recent weeks linked to regulatory decisions.
One evolving aspect of Clean Air Act compliance that is not published in the Federal Register and receives no publicity is changes to the air dispersion modeling code. A significant change to AERMOD, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) recommended model for most air permitting applications, was made in April 2011.
Challenges for renewable energy, including hydropower, were highlighted last May when the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which supplies one-third of the energy consumed in the Northwestern U.S., faced an energy supply-and-demand dilemma. BPA was forced to decide how to deal with excess energy generated from the highest snowpack runoff since 1999, coinciding with high wind energy output and decreased regional electricity demand.
The most important issue addressed at the 2011 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Annual Meeting were the events taking place at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The nuclear crisis has been lead news globally since March 11, all but overshadowing the fact that 20,000 were killed in the earthquake and tsunami and another 100,000 displaced from their homes.
January 2011 was a good month for Oregon's two leading public universities. On Jan. 11, only a last second field goal kept the University of Oregon from winning the national collegiate football championship. Five days earlier, Oregon State University's (OSU) Facilities Services Department received LEED Platinum
certification for its new energy center, one of the first power plants in the nation to achieve that standard.
ABB has announced the development of a portable capacitance meter, the CB-2000, that is simpler to use and easier to carry than any other measuring devices previously available.
Wind farm power output can be increased at least tenfold by optimizing how turbines are placed on a given plot of land, say researchers at the California Institute of Technology, who have been conducting a field study at an experimental two-acre wind farm in northern Los Angeles County.
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