Global Monitor: NRG applies for first COL

Power, Nov 2007

'We are honored to be selected by TVA for this historic assignment,' said Jim Reinsch, president of Bechtel's nuclear power business. 'This cost-effective project will provide clean, safe, and reliable power for TVA's customers and demonstrate the importance of nuclear power as a contributor to meeting America's energy needs in the coming decades.'

face= Bold; Southern Co. and Florida muni launch IGCC projectface=-Bold;

With some hefty financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Southern Company and the Orlando (Florida) Utilities Commission have become the first U.S. utilities to begin building a power plant based on an advanced integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) technology.

The DOE is subsidizing the project, in Orlando, under its Clean Coal Power Initiative to demonstrate new clean coal combustion technologies such as IGCC. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman joined David Ratcliffe--Southern's chairman, president, and CEO--and Orlando officials at the groundbreaking of the 285-MW coal gasification plant, to be built on the grounds of the Orlando Utilities Commission's Stanton Energy Center (Figure 4).

The plant will be powered by Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG) technology developed by Southern at its Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Ala., in partnership with the DOE and the engineering contractor KBR Inc. According to Southern, TRIG is a superior, proven, and practical method of gasifying coal to produce power, chemicals, and transportation fuels with less environmental impact than conventional IGCC technologies. The company says it can easily handle the high-moisture, high-ash coals that account for more than half of the world's reserves of the fuel.

The Orlando plant also is expected to produce 20% to 25% less COface= Subscript; 2face=-Subscript; than a typical coal-fired power plant. However, current plans for the project do not call for capturing any carbon released by its coal combustion.

The gasification project is valued at $844 million, including the costs of permitting, design, construction, and start-up, and four and a half years of O&M and evaluation expenses. The DOE will contribute $294 million of that total, with Southern Company and Orlando's muni funding the remainder. Commercial operation is scheduled for June 2010.

face= Bold; UK approves wave energy 'hub'face=-Bold;

The British government has approved construction of the most ambitious ocean energy facility proposed to date--the $56 million Wave Hub, a deep-sea electricity 'socket' that will sit on the seabed 10 miles off the Cornish coast and link as many as 30 wave energy machines to the UK electricity grid.

The project, to be located in waters about 150 feet deep, will enable wave energy developers to 'plug in' and test the efficiency and durability of their machines, which convert the kinetic energy of waves to electricity.

Plans call for the Wave Hub (Figure 5) to be connected to the UK grid by a 15-mile undersea cable that will come ashore at a substation at Hayle, in southwest England. All told, Wave Hub could deliver up to 20 MW of electricity, enough power to meet 3% of Cornwall's electricity needs, according to the South West of England Regional Development Agency (Southwest RDA), the project's main backer.