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A Look Back at 2016: The Year of Transition

December 31, 2016

A tumultuous election year that was marked by market turmoil, the events of 2016 clearly showed that big change is afoot for the power sector.

Many of POWER‘s bold predictions for 2016, such as that the near-simultaneous surge in U.S. natural gas production and recent enactment of environmental rules would reshape the U.S. power sector, and that clean energy drivers would prompt diversification have come to be. But some events that have characterized 2016 were unprecedented and so significant, they are sure to send ripples well beyond 2017.

High Drama on the Legal and Regulatory Front

Twelve months ago, the power sector was emerging from the volatility of 2015, a year that was characterized by landmark decisions and rules, most prominent among them, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) promulgation of the final Clean Power Plan. In 2016, the legal and regulatory front saw tempered, albeit highly significant, activity.

None was as dramatic as the divided U.S. Supreme Court’s issuance in February of an unprecedented one-page order to stay implementation of the Clean Power Plan, pending a decision on its legality in the D.C.…

AECOM, EnergySolutions Joint Venture to Decommission San Onofre Nuclear Plant

December 27, 2016

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After a 10-month competitive bid process, Southern California Edison (SCE) has selected a joint venture of AECOM and EnergySolutions as the general contractor for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) decommissioning.

“We are pleased to announce the selection of the AECOM/EnergySolutions team, a global joint venture with extensive commercial and government decommissioning experience around the world, as the prime contractor to safely and efficiently dismantle the San Onofre nuclear plant,” said Ron Nichols, SCE president. The joint venture will be known as SONGS Decommissioning Solutions.

SONGS is one of the largest commercial nuclear plant decommissioning projects to take place in the U.S. with an estimated total cost of $ 4.4 billion including used fuel management, radiological decommissioning, and site restoration costs. The contract represents a significant portion of the work required to decommission the plant. The project is expected to create about 600 new jobs over the 10-year dismantlement and decontamination phase.

“We are currently decommissioning two nuclear power stations in Wisconsin and Illinois and are uniquely qualified for decommissioning projects with state-of-the-art facilities to process and dispose of waste that will be generated throughout the course of this project,” said Ken Robuck, president of Disposal and Nuclear Decommissioning at EnergySolutions.…

DOE’s First Advanced Fossil Fuel Loan Guarantee Commitment Awarded to Methanol Plant with Carbon Capture

December 25, 2016

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The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $ 8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to guarantee loans of up to $ 2 billion to help build the facility. If built, the facility will be the world’s first methanol production facility to use carbon capture technology. It would also be the first facility in the U.S. to derive methanol from petroleum coke (petcoke), which is a byproduct of oil refining.

The proposed plant will produce methanol, hydrogen, and other industrial gases and chemical products using petcoke as a feedstock. It proposes to capture 77% of carbon dioxide from the petcoke gasification plant. The gas will then be compressed and transported to oilfields in Texas for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE’s solicitation issued in December 2013 under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 sought applications for loan guarantees to finance U.S.…

Oregon Wave Energy Center Gets $40 Million for Test Facility

December 23, 2016

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Oregon State University’s (OSU’s) Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) was awarded up to $ 40 million by the Department of Energy (DOE) on December 21 to create what the center calls the world’s premier wave energy test facility in Newport, Ore.

The NNMREC facility, known as the Pacific Marine Energy Center South Energy Test Site, is planned to be operational by 2020. It will be able to test wave energy converters that harness the energy of ocean waves and turn it into electricity. Companies around the world are already anticipating construction of the new facility to test and perfect their technologies, OSU officials say.

Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center was awarded up to $ 40 million by the DOE on December 21 to create a wave energy test facility in Newport. Source: OSU

“We anticipate this will be the world’s most advanced wave energy test facility,” said Belinda Batten, director of NNMREC and a professor in the OSU College of Engineering.…

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Finalizes Rule on Wind Turbine Eagle Deaths

December 14, 2016

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on December 14 finalized the latest version of its rule governing permitted levels of eagle deaths at wind turbine farms.

The rule, first issued in 2009, governs the FWS’s administration of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which makes it a criminal offense to kill or injure a bald or golden eagle. However, the law allows for certain “incidental take”—unintentional deaths due to otherwise lawful activities—leaving it to the FWS to decide what activities qualify and how they are to be monitored.

Contentious Issue

The deaths of eagles and other birds at wind turbine farms has become a highly charged issue in recent years, one that cuts across many of the usual political battle lines. Some environmental and wildlife groups have lobbied for stricter controls while others have argued the impact of replacing fossil fuels with wind represents a net gain for bird populations. Many of the companies that own and operate wind farms in the U.S.…

Natural Gas and Wind Are Cheapest Sources of Power in Majority of U.S.

December 12, 2016

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In a finding that is likely to boost controversy over the future of U.S. energy policy, a comprehensive study of the full levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from various sources of electricity conducted by the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Energy Institute found that wind turbines and natural gas combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) provide the least expensive options for new generation across a large majority of U.S. counties.

The study, “New U.S. Power Costs: By County, with Environmental Externalities,” is part of an ongoing initiative at UT that attempts to take a “holistic approach” to calculating both direct and indirect costs of generating electricity.

The Institute has placed the results online in the form of an interactive tool that allows comparison of the LCOE for various options and adjustment of fuel costs. (The tool also makes some assumptions about the suitability of certain generation in various locations; for example, there are areas that would be unsuitable for fossil plants for environmental reasons.)…