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With Vogtle Completion in Sight, Southern Company Targets Net-Zero Carbon Emissions

May 31, 2020

The post With Vogtle Completion in Sight, Southern Company Targets Net-Zero Carbon Emissions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fresh off the announcement that the final module for Vogtle Unit 3 was placed at the nuclear expansion project in Georgia, Southern Company said on May 27 that it was setting “a long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.”

The announcement was made during Southern Company’s annual stockholders meeting, which was held as an online event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also reaffirmed its intermediate goal of a 50% reduction of GHG emissions from 2007 levels by 2030.

“I continue to be confident that we are prepared and well-positioned to meet the needs of our customers, employees, communities and investors well into the future and will succeed in the transition to a net-zero carbon future,” Tom Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company, said in a statement. “As always, we are committed to providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to the customers we are privileged to serve.”…

IRS Grants Wind and Solar Sectors Critical COVID-19 Reprieves

May 29, 2020

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The post IRS Grants Wind and Solar Sectors Critical COVID-19 Reprieves appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has granted a one-year extension of the continuity safe harbor, providing much-needed relief for many wind developers, which, crippled by pandemic-related delays, were racing to complete projects before crucial tax incentives expired at the end of this year.

In its May 27–issued Notice 2020-41, the IRS essentially modified prior notices addressing the “beginning-of-construction” requirements for both the production tax credit (PTC), which applies to renewables facilities under section 45 of the IRS code, and the investment tax credit (ITC), for energy property under section 48.

Responding to pleas by industry and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to extend the so-called “Continuity Safe Harbor,” the IRS now gives qualifying renewables projects that began construction in either 2016 or 2017 until December 2021 to complete projects. As crucially, the new notice also provides a three-and-a-half month safe harbor for taxpayer-paid services or property on or after Sept.…

Siemens Details Spinoff of Energy Business

May 26, 2020

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The parent of Siemens Energy on May 26 provided details of the planned spinoff of the company’s energy business, saying 55% of Siemens Energy will be spun off to Siemens’ shareholders. The company said Siemens shareholders would automatically receive one share of Siemens Energy AG for every two shares they own of the parent, Siemens AG.

The company in its news release Tuesday said Siemens AG plans to further reduce its stake in the new business within 12 to 18 months of the effective date of the spinoff. The company, like others in the power generation business such as General Electric and ABB, has been restructuring its operations as the global energy landscape continues to evolve, with an increased emphasis on renewable power and a lessening of dependence on fossil fuels. ABB in late 2018 announced Hitachi would acquire more than 80% of the company’s Power Grids unit in an $ 11 billion deal.…

GenOn Will Close Three Coal-Fired Units

May 22, 2020

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The Texas-based company that owns a coal-fired power plant in Maryland announced it will retire the facility’s three generating units, which have been in operation for about 60 years.

GenOn Holdings said Units 1, 2, and 3 at its Dickerson Generating Station will be closed due to “unfavorable economic conditions and increased costs associated with environmental compliance.” GenOn in a May 15 news release said that “deactivation of the coal-fired units is subject to a 90-day reliability review period by PJM,” after which the company “will initiate a deactivation process and a step plan reduction in the workforce at the Dickerson site.”

The Dickerson facility was a POWER Top Plant in 2010.

The PJM Interconnection website shows the units’ requested deactivation date as Aug. 13. PJM is the regional transmission organization (RTO) that oversees the movement of wholesale electricity in Maryland, 12 other states, and the District of Columbia.…

Group Says It Will Launch World’s Largest Green Hydrogen Project

May 20, 2020

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Global energy company SGH2, part of Washington, D.C.-based Solena Group, said it has a deal with Lancaster, California, to build what the company calls the world’s biggest green hydrogen production plant, set to be in full operation in early 2023.

The company on May 20 said the plant will feature SGH2’s technology that uses recycled mixed paper waste to produce “greener than green” hydrogen. SGH2 said its process “reduces carbon emissions by two to three times more than green hydrogen produced using electrolysis and renewable energy, and is five to seven times cheaper.” The deal with Lancaster, first announced Tuesday, noted that SGH2 makes hydrogen with a plasma heating technology, originally developed for NASA, that will disintegrate recyclable materials at temperatures as high as 7,000F.

The company said its green hydrogen is cost competitive with so-called “gray” hydrogen produced from fossil fuels like natural gas, which comprises most of the hydrogen used in the U.S.…

DOE Launches Program to Demonstrate Advanced Nuclear Reactors Within 5 Years

May 14, 2020

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Bolstered by $ 230 million in Congressionally appropriated funding, the Department of Energy (DOE) has officially launched the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to help U.S.-based private developers of advanced nuclear reactors demonstrate their technology in the U.S.

Much anticipated by industry, the program formally established under the Office of Nuclear Energy program on May 14 is one of three major government-led and Congressionally supported initiatives to boost U.S. nuclear energy research and development. Congress has also appropriated $ 305 million for fuel cycle research and development, and $ 267 million for reactor concepts research, including for the industry-led Advanced Reactor Concepts program and the Versatile Advanced Test Reactor.

The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory provides resources for testing, demonstration, and performance assessment to accelerate deployment of new advanced nuclear technology concepts. These are some milestones and a tentative timeline the facility could achieve over the next decade.

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