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Connecticut Gives Go-Ahead for 804-MW Offshore Wind Project

December 8, 2019

The post Connecticut Gives Go-Ahead for 804-MW Offshore Wind Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Vineyard Wind’s 804-MW Park City project was given the go-ahead by Connecticut officials on Dec. 5, with regulators saying Vineyard’s bid in an offshore wind solicitation was “lower than any other publicly announced offshore wind project in North America.”

Vineyard Wind competed against other groups in the bidding, including developers backed by Ørsted and Shell. The company now will negotiate contracts with the state’s two major utilities, Eversource and United Illuminating Co.

The Park City development is considered the largest renewable energy project in Connecticut history. State officials said it could provide about 14% of the state’s electricity. The project’s turbines would be located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and would not be visible from Connecticut’s shoreline.

The project includes redevelopment of port facilities in Bridgeport Harbor. Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Thaaning Pedersen in a conference call on Thursday would not disclose the project’s cost, but the price for a similar Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast is about $ 3 billion.…

ExxonMobil Extends Deal for Fuel Cell Carbon Capture Project

November 12, 2019

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The post ExxonMobil Extends Deal for Fuel Cell Carbon Capture Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

ExxonMobil and FuelCell Energy announced a new joint-development agreement to enhance carbon capture fuel cell technology, as the groups work on a process to capture combustion exhaust from power plants and other industrial facilities.

The two-year deal, announced Nov. 6 and an extension of an earlier agreement, is aimed at optimizing core technology, process integration, and large-scale deployment of carbon capture. FuelCell Energy’s technology uses carbonate fuel cells to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide (CO₂), with the CO₂sent to the fuel cell. The fuel cell produces power and captures and concentrates the CO₂for storage.

“We have a great opportunity to scale and commercialize our unique carbon capture solution, one that captures about 90 percent of carbon dioxide from various exhaust streams, while generating additional power, unlike traditional carbon capture technologies which consume significant power,” FuelCell CEO Jason Few said in a statement.…

New Jersey’s First Offshore Wind Farm Will Be a Mammoth 1.1-GW Ørsted Project

June 23, 2019

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Danish renewables firm Ørsted’s 1.1-GW Ocean Wind project is the winner of New Jersey’s first award for offshore wind, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) said on June 21.

Ørsted, with support from Public Service Enterprise Group’s (PSEG) non-utility affiliate, vied for the award with two other offshore wind developers that submitted bids between September and December 2018 in response to the state’s first offshore wind solicitation. Other bidders included Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a partnership between EDF Renewables and Shell New Energies, and Boardwalk Wind, which was sponsored by Norwegian multinational company Equinor.

NJBPU unanimously granted the award to Ørsted after evaluating wide criteria, including offshore wind renewable energy certificates (OREC) purchase price, economic impact, ratepayer impact, environmental impact, the strength of guarantees for economic impact, and the likelihood of successful commercial operation.

The agency said Ørsted’s economic development plans were the most detailed and could result in net economic benefits of $ 1.17 billion to the state.…

Hitachi May Scuttle UK Nuclear Project

January 14, 2019

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Hitachi may cancel its plans for a $ 20.5 billion nuclear power project in Wales, according to several media reports from the UK and Japan. The Japanese company is expected to determine the fate of the project at a board meeting this week.

The Guardian newspaper was among those that in recent days reported an impasse in talks among Hitachi, UK officials, and the Japanese government regarding financing for the plant would likely lead to a cancellation. Hitachi already has spent about $ 2.6 billion on the project.

The Nikkei Asian Review on Jan. 11 reported that Hitachi’s board this week would likely move to suspend all work on the Wylfa Newydd plant. The power station on Anglesey island, on the north coast of Wales, was first proposed in 2009 as a 3,000-MW plant with two advanced boiling water reactors. Horizon Nuclear Power, a joint venture of E.ON and RWE, was behind the project. Hitachi bought the venture in 2012.

Two earlier 490-MW reactors at the Wylfa site, known as Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, became operational in 1971.…

Select Boiler Chemistry in the Design Phase of Project Life

September 2, 2018

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On many combined cycle projects, the major decisions about boiler chemistry are left until after the plant has been designed, equipment is procured, and construction is well underway. However, the best time to make these chemistry decisions is in the design phase of the project. That enables the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor to design the plant that best fits the selected chemistry program (Figure 1).

1. Water treatment decisions. The EPC contractors should design the plant that best fits the users’ selected chemistry program. Courtesy: Colleen Scholl, HDR Inc.

Phosphate Versus Oxidizing, All-Volatile Treatment

For example, consider the selection of a phosphate program versus an oxidizing, all-volatile treatment (AVT-O) program. Of these two, the phosphate program requires more-responsive instrumentation and controls, because of the potential problems of phosphate carryover and hideout. If the EPC contractor has a priori knowledge that phosphates will be used, its engineers can specify highly responsive pH and phosphate instruments, and can ensure those instrument signals are transmitted to automated chemical-injection pumps that feed into multiple injection points (Figure 2).…

Regulators Back Settlement for Costs of Failed Kemper IGCC Project

February 7, 2018

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Shareholders of Mississippi Power will have to absorb the majority of outstanding costs resulting from the scuttled Kemper County coal gasification project, as the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on February 6 approved a settlement for the remaining liabilities associated with the much-touted “clean coal” plant.

Mississippi Power in a statement said it “is pleased with this final order from the Public Service Commission, which effectively settles all costs associated with the Kemper County energy facility.” Anthony Wilson, the company’s CEO, in a statement after today’s vote said, “The economics really didn’t work out and the technology was hard to perfect.”

The PSC in 2017 told Atlanta-based Southern Co. to end construction at Kemper. The gasification project, touted as the future of coal, never was operational, as costs ballooned from an original price tag of $ 2.9 billion to about $ 7.5 billion. The settlement agreement, which was reached last year pending approval, means Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co.,…