Tennessee Valley Authority

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Watts Bar 2 is nearing completion, and the Tennessee Valley Authority says that when the nuclear reactor in Rhea County, Tennessee, is completed, “it will produce the nation’s first new nuclear generation of the 21st century.” A 21st century plant but with deep roots in the 20th century – construction on the Westinghouse-designed pressurized water… Keep reading →

2013 World Solar Challenge Dynamic Scrutineering

Google and private equity firm KKR are investing $400 million, including equity and debt financing, in six solar power plants being built by a subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corp. The projects have a combined capacity of 106 megawatts and should begin operating by January. [Reuters] The Tennessee Valley Authority is retiring eight units at three… Keep reading →

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Fails Pressure Test, To Be Inspected By NRC

The U.S. has lost three percent of its summertime nuclear generating capacity as troublesome plants are retired. Robert Stone’s controversial film Pandora’s Promise has brought the question of how nuclear power might fit into a clean-energy future to center stage. We’re not going to hold (let alone resolve) that debate here and now. Instead, we’ll just note that… Keep reading →


More than two weeks have passed since Hurricane Sandy brought the Eastern Seaboard to a standstill. Although life is slowly returning to normal, Sandy joins a long series of painful reminders of how dependent 21st century America is on reliable electricity: it powers nearly every facet of our lives. The potential silver lining in the wake of Sandy’s devastation is the influx of interest in our outdated and inadequate transmission grid, highlighting long ignored issues from the benefits of buried transmission lines to the importance of an integrated, redundant, resilient grid – built to withstand even Sandy’s fury.

A robust and modern electric grid is also essential for taking advantage of America’s unmatched renewable energy resources. Wind and sunlight cannot be delivered to customers from their best sources – mostly remote areas and offshore – using railcars and pipelines like coal, oil, and gas; they need transmission lines. In the Southeast, where wind and solar are relatively scarce, transmission lines are critical for bringing cheap and abundant renewable resources from other regions. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which provides power to nearly all of Tennessee and other Southeastern areas, is now importing wind power from eight wind farms in the Midwest. Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, last year made one of the largest wind purchases ever from producers in Oklahoma. Keep reading →


As advanced information technology continues to permeate the power sector and the two-way data flow between utility and customer deepens, countless opportunities to streamline the delivery and consumption of electricity arise. Across the US, utilities are taking innovative approaches to fostering energy efficient behavior by working with customers to build sustainable practices, programs and business models.

The key is to use all available channels – including social networking – to engage customers with a simple message, you need to “keep [customers] informed and show [them] results,” Bill Andrew, President and CEO of the Delaware Electric Cooperative told audience members at last week’s DNV Kema Utility of the Future Leadership Forum in Washington DC. Keep reading →


Small modular reactors are not a substitute for the familiar 1,000-plus-megawatt reactors, says Tennessee Valley Authority Chief Operating Officer William McCollum, any more than the iPad is a substitute for a laptop computer or a cell phone. Instead, he said, SMRs, like iPads, are creating a whole new niche for nuclear.

Supporters see them as safer than the big plants, cheaper, requiring less time and up-front investment to build, and, longer term, pioneering in nuclear nonproliferation and spent fuel disposal technology. Some designs have the potential to bring electricity to isolated and water-short communities. Keep reading →


There are lots of reasons to love renewable energy. It’s homegrown and domestically produced. It provides long term stable pricing and is not subject to fluctuating fuel costs. It generates economic development for America’s heartland. It is constant and will never run out. And it’s clean. In order for America to harness the most amount of power from the wind and the sun, a stronger electricity grid is fundamental.

From the winds of the Great Plains to the desert sun of the Southwest, America has vast, untapped potential to generate low-cost renewable power. The Great Plains states – from North Dakota to Texas – possess the strongest wind resource of all developed countries. We have the potential to generate as much electricity annually from domestic renewable resources as the U.S. consumes as a whole – several times over. There is no lack of generation potential. The trick is getting the clean power to market. Keep reading →