The theory of capacity markets is simple: in a competitive market, electricity prices for future supply will rise as shortages loom, drawing in competitors to profit by building new generating capacity.
In practice, it may not be working out that way, and simmering discontent over how much consumers are paying for future reliability, and what they’re getting for it, may become open, and bipartisan, rebellion in 2012. Keep reading →
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko rejected Republican calls for his resignation Wednesday after the other four commission members publicly accused him of threatening NRC’s ability to act as the nation’s nuclear safety watchdog.
“If you do the right thing for your country, you will resign,” Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said at the hearing. Keep reading →
Innovations in electricity storage are needed if the US is to take advantage of clean energy resources, and two Senators have proposed an investment tax credit to accelerate storage solutions.
Senators Jeff Bingaman (Democrat for New Mexico) and Ron Wyden (Democrat for Oregon), the two ranking Democrats on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told an Energy Storage Association forum they are sponsoring a bill, S.1845, with Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, for a storage investment tax credit (ITC). It would be similar to credits now available for solar installations. Keep reading →
New discoveries of potential “tight oil” deposits are being made around the US, and no one is sure just how much oil the nation has waiting in geological formations that can now be tapped through new technology.
But the discoveries have already created one boom area, bringing a sparsely populated region of North Dakota gushes of jobs, people and problems no one foresaw. Keep reading →
US oil imports will continue to decline as domestic production rises, and by 2040 the US could be importing crude only from Canada, according to the latest forecast from ExxonMobil.
That forecast depends on off-shore, Arctic, oil sands and unconventional resources being available for development in coming decades. Keep reading →
We’re not in 1930 anymore.
The US electric grid of 2030 will confront emergent technology including remote renewables, microgrids and rooftop solar, fleets of electric vehicles and cyber attack threats. Keep reading →
The White House gathered the heads of 60 business, labor, municipal, and academic organizations on Friday to announce plans to invest $4 billion in building energy efficiency over the next 24 months, and none of that will be taxpayer money.
The investments will come in what’s called performance contracting, by which companies specializing in building efficiency retrofit buildings and are paid from the energy savings that result. Up-front investment is financed by banks based on contractor-guaranteed annual savings. Once the loan is repaid, the building owner gets the savings. Keep reading →
US nuclear plant operations, while still very good, are trending in the wrong direction, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, and complacency from years of safe operations, combined with overload from backlogged and new safety requirements, could mean trouble ahead in 2012.
Speaking to nuclear CEOs at their annual Institute of Nuclear Power Operations meeting in November, Jaczko fingered what he fears are declining performance trends. Keep reading →
The headlines should come somewhere between December and March 2012 when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, if all goes as expected, will okay building up to four new nuclear reactors.
The licenses for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Southern Co.’s Plant Vogtle in Georgia, followed quickly by two more at SCANA’s Summer station in South Carolina, will be the first granted since the 1970s. Keep reading →
For the nuclear industry, 2011 was Biblical.
Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Tornadoes. Floods. Fires. 2011 had everything but plagues of locusts. Keep reading →
