Your Source for Energy Jobs & Industry News
Every week, I host 'The KJ Show,' which offers a mix of breaking news and practical advice on how the energy industry affects the consumer. During this fast-paced show, I combine weekly energy updates with conversations with leaders in the energy efficiency community. After each show, I'll share it here with the Energy Central Community in case you were..
Energy Central…
A decade ago, the annual Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington was brimming with optimism over a coming “nuclear renaissance,” as licensing requests poured into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and companies announced ambitious plans for new nuclear construction. Ten years later, the not-so-under-the-surface theme of the conference was nuclear survival.
“The question is survival,” former Entergy nuclear executive Bill Mohl told attendees at the annual Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington, D.C., in early February. Mohl, who led Entergy’s merchant power business and retired February 28, went on to explain that Entergy’s long-term strategy of buying up single-unit nuclear plants at bargain-basement prices and bidding them into the regional transmission operator (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) competitive wholesale markets was a miserable failure.
It seemed like a really good idea at the outset, but a combination of factors undercut the strategy, and Entergy is now exiting merchant nuclear power in as big a way as it entered. Vermont Yankee is shuttered.…
Academics at the University of Sheffield—a public research university in the UK—have begun two new carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, searching for cheaper methods of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fueled power plants.
The work is being funded by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Horizon 2020 Low Carbon Energy program.
The “ROLINCAP” project received €3.2 million to explore how new chemical solvents could be used in a “rotating packed bed” process, which is designed to accelerate chemical reactions. The method may allow CO2 to be captured more efficiently, with smaller equipment than was previously required.
“Our European consortium will work with experts from South Korea to develop technologies for post-combustion carbon capture and storage. We will explore new solvents and new techniques for process intensification, which I hope will lead to cheaper, more efficient carbon capture,” said Meihong Wang, Professor of Energy Systems in the Department for Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd.…