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Fuel Loading Only Major Milestone Left for Vogtle Unit 3 Nuclear Project

July 30, 2021

The post Fuel Loading Only Major Milestone Left for Vogtle Unit 3 Nuclear Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, reported during the company’s earnings call on July 29 that hot functional testing (HFT) had been completed on Vogtle Unit 3, and that the “next and final major milestone” is fuel load. “We project fuel load to occur sometime near year-end 2021 or early in 2022,” he said.

The Vogtle nuclear power plant expansion project includes the addition of two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors—Units 3 and 4 at a site near Waynesboro, Georgia, that has two existing units. (Unit 1 began operation in 1987 and Unit 2 began operation in 1989.) The project is owned by four partners—Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corp. (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power, 22.7%), and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

Construction on Unit 3 and 4 has been a long, drawn-out process. Southern Nuclear (a subsidiary of Southern Company) filed for an early site permit (ESP) application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in August 2006.…

Arizona Solar Project to Supply Microsoft Now Online

July 20, 2021

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A solar energy project that will provide power for Microsoft has begun commercial operation in Arizona, with the project developer announcing term financing has been completed.

Longroad Energy, a Boston-based renewable energy developer that also has offices in California and Maine, on July 20 said the 200-MW Sun Streams 2 array—one of four Maricopa County-based projects that Longroad acquired from First Solar in February of this year—is online. The other three projects, known as Sun Streams 3, 4, and 5, are scheduled to enter operation over the next three years.

Sun Streams 2 has a 20-year revenue agreement with Microsoft for the project’s capacity, along with renewable energy certificates, in support of the company’s West US 3 data center. The project includes battery storage; the four-project portfolio totals about 900 MW of solar plus storage.

Microsoft in June announced the launch of a new Azure cloud data center region in Arizona.…

Bechtel, GE Will Lead 3.2-GW Gas Power Project

July 14, 2021

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The post Bechtel, GE Will Lead 3.2-GW Gas Power Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Vietnam’s first privately-owned power plant has moved a step closer to fruition, as Delta Offshore Energy chose Bechtel to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for a proposed 3,200-MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility.

The power station, sited in Bac Lieu province in the Mekong Delta about 155 miles south of Ho Chi Minh City, will be fueled with liquified natural gas (LNG). The plant will feature four single-shaft General Electric (GE) 9HA.02 H-class turbines. Vietnamese officials have said they expect the $ 3-billion project will further economic development in the region, which already is becoming an industrial hub. The Bac Lieu Province People’s Council approved the plant’s 70-hectare (173 acres) footprint earlier this year.

“This power plant is a game changer for the Bac Lieu province,” said Scott Osborne, Bechtel’s general manager for infrastructure, Asia Pacific, after the FEED contract was announced July 6.…

Project Will Burn Ammonia with Coal to Cut Emissions

May 24, 2021

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The post Project Will Burn Ammonia with Coal to Cut Emissions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Japan’s largest power generation company plans to begin using ammonia as a fuel at one of its coal-fired plants as part of an effort to reduce the facility’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

JERA Co., a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings (TEPCO) and Chubu Electric Power, and IHI Corp., a Japanese engineering company, on May 24 said the four-year test project will begin in June and run to March 2025. The companies said it will be the world’s first major project to develop technology to enable co-firing a significant amount of ammonia at a large-scale commercial coal-fired plant.

The demonstration is aimed toward an eventual ammonia co-firing rate of 20% at the 1-GW Unit 4 of JERA’s 4.1-GW Hekinan Thermal Power Station, beginning in fiscal year 2024. The project is designed to establish ammonia co-firing technology by co-burning coal and ammonia.…

Offshore Milestone as Feds Back Vineyard Wind Project

May 12, 2021

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The post Offshore Milestone as Feds Back Vineyard Wind Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. has received the go-ahead from the federal government, with industry insiders saying the milestone decision is likely to spur more rapid development of the nation’s offshore wind projects.

The Vineyard Wind installation, an 800-MW project that will use GE’s Haliade-X turbines, on May 11 received the Record of Decision (ROD) from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The ROD is the last major step in the federal review process for Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).

“Today’s Record of Decision is not about the start of a single project, but the launch of a new industry,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen in a statement. “Receiving this final major federal approval means the jobs, economic benefits and clean energy revolution associated with the Vineyard Wind 1 project can finally come to fruition.”…