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New York Latest State to Set 100% Carbon-Free Goal, with Increased Renewables

January 18, 2019

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is continuing his push for renewable energy in the state, as the governor on Jan. 15 announced an initiative for New York to achieve 100% carbon-free power generation by 2040. Cuomo’s “Green New Deal,” part of his 2019 Justice Agenda and as part of the state budget, calls for an increase in deployments of renewable energy projects, including offshore wind.

New York is the third state, behind Hawaii and California, to commit to a full portfolio of renewable power generation. The Sierra Club said more than 100 U.S. cities and counties also have committed to all renewable energy, and about a half dozen already have met that goal.

“Let us set the goal, 100% clean power by 2040, highest in the United States of America, a climate action council to eliminate the state’s carbon footprint,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address at the state capitol in Albany. He said he wants groups to “come up with the next generation of clean technology and train our workforce for those jobs.”…

Tianwan Unit 4 Latest Chinese Reactor to Come Online

December 26, 2018

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Unit 4 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in China entered commercial operation this past weekend after completing commissioning. It began supplying power to the country’s national grid on Dec. 22.

Tianwan NPP is the largest facility built with a Russian-Chinese framework of economic cooperation, with Units 1 through 4 based on the VVER-1000 reactor type. Units 1 and 2 entered commercial operation in 2007, and Rosatom handed over Unit 3 to Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp. (JNPC) in March of this year.

Tianwan Unit 4 was brought to its minimum controllable power level on Sept. 30, marking the final stage of first criticality procedures, which began Aug. 25 when the first fuel assembly was installed in the reactor. A total of 163 fuel assemblies were ultimately loaded.

Russia’s Atomstroyexport was general contractor for the project, working with JNPC. Alexey Bannik, vice president for projects in China with Rosatom’s engineering division, said the start of commercial operation of Unit 4 “means that a two-year warranty period for the plant operation has commenced, and once expired the Unit will ultimately be handed over to the Chinese Party.”…

Tube Leaks Cause Latest Delay to Kemper Project

March 20, 2017

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The Kemper County Energy Facility will not reach full operation by its latest mid-March deadline, project owner Southern Company subsidiary, Mississippi Power announced March 16 in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“On March 9, 2017, Mississippi Power experienced certain tube leaks in one of the syngas coolers for gasifier ‘A’ and commenced an outage on gasifier ‘A’ to perform necessary corrective actions. As a result, Mississippi Power no longer expects the remainder of the Kemper IGCC will be placed in service by mid-March 2017,” the filing says.

The Kemper County Energy Facility, a new-build, integrated coal gasification combined cycle plant located near Meridian, Mississippi, is currently three years behind schedule and $ 4.7 billion over budget. Once completed, the plant will employ two gasifiers and a carbon capture system to burn low-rank Mississippi lignite with emissions roughly equal to those of a natural gas plant.

As of the company’s last monthly SEC filing, the plant was expected to reach full operation by mid-March, following several delays over the course of the last few months.…