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Pennsylvania Regulators Prepare Final Electric Market Reforms

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Dallas Smith is saving $250 a month on his business’s electric bill thanks to increasing competition spurred by Pennsylvania’s ongoing market deregulation.

The president of Smith Village Home Furnishings, a family business in Jacobus, southern Pennsylvania, has signed up with NextEra Energy Services, one of dozens of new energy suppliers in the state, to get power at 8 cents a kilowatt hour for 24 months, saving him 8% compared with power from his old supplier, the utility Met-Ed. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 22, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Small Modular Reactors – The iPads of Nuclear Power

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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 →

 /  Published March 22, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Solar Tariff Ruling on Chinese PV Imports Divides US Industry

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Solar trade tariffs released today in a preliminary ruling from the US government were much lower than expected and would disappoint petitioners trying to block cheap Chinese photovoltaic imports, said industry advocates.

The Department of Commerce announced its preliminary determination in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, which was initiated last year at the request of SolarWorld Industries America, the largest PV manufacturer in the US. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 21, 2012 at 10:00 AM

General Wesley Clark Calls Solar Industry to Arms

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General Wesley Clark became the latest recruit to the clean energy industry yesterday with a call to arms for the American solar industry.

Gen. Clark told delegates at PV America West in San Jose yesterday that the solar industry could play a pivotal role in kick-starting the US economy. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 20, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Wall Street Speaks On Renewable Energy: Focusing On Fundamentals

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As some of the most tempting government financial incentives begin to fade from the renewable energy space ahead of deadlines at the end of 2012, bankers and project developers specializing in renewable energy projects are reworking their models.

The 1603 program that gave cash grants in lieu of tax credits and the production tax credit that underpinned the wind industry are both on the sidelines as financiers review upcoming projects still in the pipeline. The pipeline of proposed projects is flush, but shifting priorities, transmission limitations and near-invisible overall power demand growth are weighing on a sector already struggling to compete with low natural gas prices. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 20, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Shale Gas Development Fuels Manufacturing Sector

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A new midstream service complex in Ohio is the subject of a recent deal that underpins a wider resurgence activity in the industrial sector driven by shale gas discoveries across the country, but particularly in the states underlying the Utica and Marcellus Shales.

An unexpected but common theme at the Wall Street Green Summit going on this week in New York is how unconventional natural gas development is strengthening the US manufacturing sector. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 20, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Would Refinery Shutdown Hurt U.S. Homeland Security?

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Depending on who you ask, the impending closure of a major Philadelphia refinery will either increase U.S. vulnerability to a terrorist attack on its energy supply, or simply shift demand to other suppliers of petroleum products.

Senior officials from federal energy and homeland security departments debated the loss of U.S. refining capacity with industry representatives and politicians at a field hearing of a Congressional committee outside Philadelphia on Monday. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2012 at 3:30 PM

A Smarter Grid for Natural Gas, Power, Water – Even Renewables

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Smart grid technology benefits everyone from utilities to consumers and a business case can be made for the large capital investment required to get us there.

That’s the message eMeter Co-Founder and CTO, Larsh Johnson gave Breaking Energy during a recent interview. Energy and infrastructure giant Siemens acquired eMeter in January 2012. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Center Seeks To Shed Light On Fracking And Health

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A truck with the natural gas industry, one of thousands that pass through the area daily, drives through the countryside to a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in Springville, Pennsylvania.

In the continuing debate over whether fracking for natural gas contaminates drinking water, a new health center in the midst of Pennsylvania’s drilling country may provide fresh clues. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Supply Chain Adaptation Needed In Renewable Energy: Consultants

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Is there a future in the US for renewables without federal incentives?

That is the question PA Consulting Group asked itself recently, and renewable energy expert Barbara Sands came up with a three-part answer that focuses on supply chain shifts. Producers need to act on multiple fronts to manage the impact of expiring federal cash grants at the same time that demand ahead of renewable portfolio standard 2020 requirements in the states begins to rise. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 16, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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