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France Set to Take Over Major Power Producer Amid Energy Crisis

July 10, 2022

The French government is prepared to take full control of EDF, one of the world’s largest producers of electricity, as the energy group struggles with increasing debt due to problems with its current and future nuclear power fleet.

Élisabeth Borne, who took over as France’s prime minister in May, in her first state-of-the-nation speech to the country’s parliament on July 6, said a power crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means the government must take action to limit the impact of rising energy prices. Borne told legislators, “We must have full control over our electricity production and performance. We must ensure our sovereignty in the face of the consequences of war and the colossal challenges to come … that’s why I confirm to you the state’s intention to own 100% of EDF’s capital.”

EDF is facing construction delays and cost overruns on new nuclear power plant projects in France and the UK. It also is dealing with corrosion issues at some of its older nuclear facilities.…

IEA Calls for More Diverse Solar PV Supply Chains

July 8, 2022

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The International Energy Agency (IEA) is urging the development of more diverse solar PV supply chains, suggesting the sector’s heavy reliance on China has led to imbalances that pose risks to its future growth.

A dedicated study of the world’s solar PV supply chain issued by the Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization on July 7 acknowledges that government policies in China have contributed to a cost decline for solar PV of more than 80% through economies of scale and continuous innovation. But because global manufacturing capacity for solar panels has increasingly moved out of Europe, Japan, and the U.S. and into China over the past decade, China’s share in all key solar panel manufacturing stages now exceeds 80%. For key elements, including polysilicon and wafers, China’s share “is set to rise to more than 95% in the coming years, based on current manufacturing capacity under construction,” the agency said.

However, this concentration of PV supply chains poses specific vulnerability and risks to the industry that the world is banking on to achieve substantial decarbonization, it said.…

Repowering Project Aims for Pinnacle of Success

July 6, 2022

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Clearway Energy Group reaffirmed its commitment to renewable energy, and to its support of West Virginia’s push for cleaner energy, with a repowering of the Pinnacle Wind Farm. The project extends the wind farm’s lifetime, creates jobs, and provides more tax revenue and funding for local community groups.

Repowering of power generation facilities can provide an aging plant with a new lease on life. But there’s more to it than just extending an installation’s operational lifecycle; repowering can increase power generation capacity, the efficiency of electricity output, and can enable an existing facility to take advantage of new technologies, without the need to construct an entirely new power plant. Such an effort also enables a power plant to continue to benefit a community by creating jobs, bringing in tax revenue and other funds—and of course providing even more needed electricity.

Clearway Energy Group, headquartered in San Francisco, California, saw that potential at the company’s Pinnacle Wind Farm in Keyser, West Virginia.…

Wudongde Project Takes Hydro to New Heights

July 4, 2022

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A multi-year, multibillion-dollar undertaking on China’s Jinsha River has achieved several “firsts” for the hydropower sector, earning POWER’s highest honor thanks to its development, design, and importance to the power generation industry. It also is a model in China’s push for more clean and sustainable energy.

China already was the global leader in hydropower generation before Xi Jinping, the country’s president, in 2020 announced a plan for the world’s most populous country to become carbon neutral by 2060. That strategy, backed by government policies in support of renewable energy as part of the overall plan to increase the electricity supply for China’s nearly 1.5 billion people, again put the spotlight on the country’s massive hydropower projects. China has more than quadrupled its hydroelectric power generation capacity since 2000; according to Global Data, a UK-based data analytics and consulting group, the country’s cumulative installed capacity of its hydropower plants was just shy of 380 GW as of year-end 2021, growing at a rate of about 2.6% year-over-year.…

DOE Grants California’s Request to Revise Civil Nuclear Credit Program Eligibility, Extends Deadline

July 2, 2022

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The Department of Energy (DOE) has revised eligibility criteria for the first-award cycle of its $ 6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program and extended its application period to Sept. 6, 2022. The action responds to a request for adjustments from the California governor’s office to better address Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) 2,240-MW Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s (DCPP’s) “unique circumstances.”

The DOE’s formal amendment of its April 2022–issued CNC program guidance on June 30 seeks to clarify how it interprets a reactor has met eligibility requirements that it “competes in a competitive electricity market,” as set out in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The changes, which the DOE adopted from a proposal it unveiled on June 17, have drawn mixed reactions from an array of stakeholders, including the nuclear industry, the power sector, and citizen and environmental groups.

‘Material Amount of Total Revenue’

The April guidance, which applies to the CNC’s first-award cycle, allowed nuclear reactors to demonstrate competitive operation during the CNC’s four-year credit period by showing units would receive 50% or more of total revenue “from sources that are exposed to market competition.”…

Iceland National Power Company Details New Carbon Capture Project

June 30, 2022

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Landsvirkjun, the national power company of Iceland, on June 28 announced it intends to capture and reinject carbon dioxide (CO₂) from Þeistareykir (Theistareykir) Geothermal Station, and at the same time reduce CO₂ emissions from Krafla Power Station through enhanced well management efforts at that site. Construction of the project, called Koldís, is expected to begin next year, and the project should be fully operational by 2025.

Landsvirkjun wants its operations to be carbon neutral in 2025, and already has progressed toward that goal, reducing the group’s carbon footprint by 61% since 2008. A major part of its strategy is to significantly reduce emissions from geothermal power generation, as the vast majority of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by geothermal energy. Landsvirkjun expects the Koldís project will capture almost all CO₂ and hydrogen sulfide from the two-unit, 90-MW Theistareykir power station (Figure 1), and return it to the ground for storage, from 2025 onward.

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