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DOE Grants California’s Request to Revise Civil Nuclear Credit Program Eligibility, Extends Deadline

July 2, 2022

The Department of Energy (DOE) has revised eligibility criteria for the first-award cycle of its $ 6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program and extended its application period to Sept. 6, 2022. The action responds to a request for adjustments from the California governor’s office to better address Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) 2,240-MW Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s (DCPP’s) “unique circumstances.”

The DOE’s formal amendment of its April 2022–issued CNC program guidance on June 30 seeks to clarify how it interprets a reactor has met eligibility requirements that it “competes in a competitive electricity market,” as set out in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The changes, which the DOE adopted from a proposal it unveiled on June 17, have drawn mixed reactions from an array of stakeholders, including the nuclear industry, the power sector, and citizen and environmental groups.

‘Material Amount of Total Revenue’

The April guidance, which applies to the CNC’s first-award cycle, allowed nuclear reactors to demonstrate competitive operation during the CNC’s four-year credit period by showing units would receive 50% or more of total revenue “from sources that are exposed to market competition.”…

Iceland National Power Company Details New Carbon Capture Project

June 30, 2022

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Landsvirkjun, the national power company of Iceland, on June 28 announced it intends to capture and reinject carbon dioxide (CO₂) from Þeistareykir (Theistareykir) Geothermal Station, and at the same time reduce CO₂ emissions from Krafla Power Station through enhanced well management efforts at that site. Construction of the project, called Koldís, is expected to begin next year, and the project should be fully operational by 2025.

Landsvirkjun wants its operations to be carbon neutral in 2025, and already has progressed toward that goal, reducing the group’s carbon footprint by 61% since 2008. A major part of its strategy is to significantly reduce emissions from geothermal power generation, as the vast majority of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by geothermal energy. Landsvirkjun expects the Koldís project will capture almost all CO₂ and hydrogen sulfide from the two-unit, 90-MW Theistareykir power station (Figure 1), and return it to the ground for storage, from 2025 onward.

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Swedish Group Moves Ahead With World’s Largest Single Offshore Wind Project

June 28, 2022

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Swedish-based renewable energy developer OX2 has taken another step toward construction of its Aurora offshore wind farm, a 5.5-GW project sited between the islands of Gotland and Oland in the Baltic Sea.

OX2 on June 27 announced it had submitted a permit application to build the wind farm under the auspices of Sweden’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Aurora, still in an early development stage, is part of OX2’s 11.7-GW project portfolio for Sweden. Aurora at present is considered the largest single offshore wind farm under development worldwide; Ørsted’s Hornsea project off the UK coast in the North Sea has 7.5 GW of total capacity, but that installation includes four separate wind farms.

“This is the next step to realize the Aurora wind farm,” said Hillevi Priscar, country manager for OX2 in Sweden. “Together with our other planned offshore wind farms it constitutes a significant part of the electricity production Sweden needs, to reach the climate targets and to secure the production and energy independence of Sweden.”…

AEMO Begins Cautious Lift of Australian Electricity Market Suspension

June 23, 2022

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The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on June 22 initiated the first step to lift a suspension of its National Electricity Market (NEM), citing a “clear improvement in market conditions.”

The measure comes more than a week since it indefinitely suspended spot markets in all regions of its NEM, given critical power generation supply shortfalls that it had said made it “impossible to continue” operations under national electricity rules. Suspension of the NEM marked a dramatic step for the AEMO, which serves as an independent system operator (ISO) that operates the competitive market serving New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.

While fuel supplies remain tight, more than 4,000 MW of generation is back online after outages, AEMO said on Wednesday. That paves the way for the operator to initiate a staged approach to lifting the market suspension, said AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman.

“The first step is that at 4 a.m. [on June 23], we will allow the market to set the price again,” Westerman said.…

Unit 3 at Barakah Nuclear Plant Licensed, Set to Load Fuel

June 19, 2022

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The third unit of the Barakah nuclear power plant (NPP), the first such facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Arab world, is ready to begin fuel loading, according to a statement issued by the country’s nuclear regulatory agency on June 19.

The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) on Sunday said it would send inspectors to oversee the process, in order “to ensure the fuel load and testing processes are completed according to requirements.”

The FANR on June 17 granted Nawah Energy Co., the operations and maintenance division of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp., a license to operate Unit 3 for 60 years. Christer Viktorsson, FANR’s director-general, said the licensing of Unit 3 means the plant’s operators can being a commissioning period to prepare for commercial operation.

FANR in a news release said its decision to issue the operating license “is a culmination of efforts made by FANR since it received the Operating License Application from Nawah in 2017 for Units 3 and 4.…

Southern Co. Gas-Fired Demonstration Validates 20% Hydrogen Fuel Blend

June 17, 2022

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A demonstration project at Georgia Power’s 2.5-GW natural gas–fired Plant McDonough-Atkinson facility has validated a natural gas fuel blend with 20% hydrogen by volume on one of its six Mitsubishi Power advanced-class gas turbines.

The test, one of the largest of its kind to date, provided an approximately 7% reduction in carbon emissions compared to gas, project participants Mitsubishi Power, Southern Co.’s Georgia Power, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) said on June 10.

The test successfully validated fuel blending hydrogen and natural gas “at both partial and full load” at the designed 100% natural gas firing temperature, “within emissions compliance and without impact to maintenance intervals,” project participants said. The team also confirmed “improved turndown by testing up to 20% hydrogen at minimum emissions-compliant load.”

The project entailed building flow control and pressure control skids to feed the fuel blend to one of the Smyrna, Georgia, plant’s six M501G natural gas turbines, which have an approximate output of 265 MW.…