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Crimea was left without electricity supplies from Ukraine on Sunday after pylons carrying power lines to the Russia-annexed peninsula were blown up overnight. It was not immediately clear who had damaged the pylons, but a Russian senator described the move as an "act of terrorism" and implied that Ukrainian nationalists were to blame. Crimea receives the bulk of its electricity from the Ukrainian mainland and its seizure by Russia last year prompted fury in Kiev and the West, which then imposed economic sanctions on Russian companies and individuals. Russia's Energy Ministry said emergency electricity supplies had been turned on for...

Greens are hailing this as the spear-point of their green energy revolution. But the Premier’s green cars will run on...coal. Electric cars need large batteries, which have to be recharged. Maybe the Premier has a large subsidized solar panel on the roof of her garage, so that when she comes home, she can recharge the big battery? But the sun does not shine at night, so the car will still rely on electricity from coal.

Wireless power has been a dream of mankind’s for decades, but the technology finally appears to be gaining some traction. Theoretically, numerous studies have shown that wireless power is possible through a variety of aerial transmission modalities. Yet the problem with wireless power has been getting the technology to work at a reasonable range. So far, commercial use of wireless power has been limited, but progress is being made. For instance, Samsung now has a commercially available wireless charger for its cell phones. With the charger, consumers do not need to plug their phone into the wall for it to...

In a major speech setting out the future direction of the UK's energy policy, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced plans to restrict the use of the country's coal-fired power stations by 2023 and close all of the facilities by 2025. "Frankly, it cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the UK to be relying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations," Rudd said while speaking in London before the Institution of Civil Engineers. "We need to build a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century." Rudd said that even with huge growth in its...

As liquefied natural gas (LNG) continues to draw attention in the gas market, with the first new U.S. LNG export terminal in decades coming online next year, another liquefied gas--propane--is beginning to expand its share of the mix as propane power options continue to grow. While propane-powered engines and microturbines have been around for a long time, they've always taken a back seat to diesel for a variety of reasons--primarily cost. Diesel has historically been less expensive than propane, but a combination of higher crude oil prices, a glut in the natural gas liquids market, and growing environmental regulation of...

Rochester Gas & Electric filed with the New York State Public Service Commission on Nov. 10 a heavily-redacted copy of an Oct. 27 report on what it is doing, and plans to do, in case the Ginna nuclear plant of Exelon (NYSE: EXC) is retired later this decade. Since last year, Exelon has been working at the New York PSC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the life of Ginna, which the company says is not economic to operate in the current power market following the expiration last year of a long-term contract to supply power to...

Southern California Edison (SCE) plans to spend $12 billion over the next three years in an effort to adjust to new technologies. Most of the investment will be on upgrades to electric poles, transformers, wires and cables, but about $240 million a year will go toward new power generation. The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote in November on SCE's proposal for three new gas-fired power plants, which would help replace power generation lost when San Onofre nuclear plant was shuttered after a faulty replacement steam generator leaked. The plants are part of SCE's plans to buy 2,211...

Posted : 2015-11-02 16:29 Updated : 2015-11-02 20:33 NK tries out solar-powered bus North Korea's solar-powered bus / Yonhap By Kim Hyo-jin North Korea is operating a solar-powered bus in the western city of Nampo, the North's state media said Monday. "Nampo created a bus powered by solar energy and it is now being used for public transport," the state-run Korean Central Television (KCTV) said, quoting a member of the city's science and technology committee, Jeong In-sung. According to Jeong, the bus uses 32 100-watt solar panels, 50 batteries and a direct-current motor. "It has run 800 kilometers so far,...

DALLAS — In Texas, wind farms are generating so much energy that some utilities are giving power away. Briana Lamb, an elementary school teacher, waits until her watch strikes 9 p.m. to run her washing machine and dishwasher. It costs her nothing until 6 a.m. Kayleen Willard, a cosmetologist, unplugs appliances when she goes to work in the morning. By 9 p.m., she has them plugged back in.

Energy: The resident wants to decarbonize the planet by killing fossil-fuel production and its high-paying jobs. Almost no other nation is following his lead despite the promises that will be made at the Paris climate summit. Last week we learned in a Reuters report that Asia will build 500 coal-burning electric generation plants this year alone. An additional 1,000 are planned in China, India, Japan, Indonesia and other countries. The latest projections are that 40% of the added power generation in Southeast Asia by 2040 will be coal-fired. Does this sound like a continent that's taking the alarm bells of...

Britain's National Grid has asked for more power generation capacity to come online between 4.30pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday to balance supply and demand, after "multiple plant breakdowns". The Grid said in a statement it had issued a notice to the industry at 1.30pm "asking for more generation to be brought onto the system."

The last shipment of coal to a soon-to-be shuttered Consumers Energy Plant in Muskegon is scheduled to arrive Nov. 8. For more than 25 years, 1,000-foot ships have been regularly rolling into the Port of Muskegon with coal for Consumers' B.C. Cobb energy plant. The last such ship to deliver coal to Consumers in Muskegon will be the James R. Barker, a spokesman wrote in an email. "The Barker is scheduled to be loaded with 58,000 tons of coal in Superior, Wisconsin, on Nov. 5," wrote Consumers spokesman Roger Morgenstern. "After the ship is loaded and underway, we will have...

Electricity prices in Ontario officially increased Sunday and the rate hike is expected to push up the average household hydro bill by 3.4 per cent. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced the rate increase on Oct. 15 for winter months, which will impact most households and small businesses. Effective Sunday: The price for off-peak hours goes up 0.3 cents to 8.3 cents/kWh. The price for mid-peak hours goes up 0.6 cents to 12.8 cents/kWh. The price for on-peak hours goes up 1.4 cents to 17.5 cents/kWh. Sunday's rate hike means the on-peak price of electricity has jumped 77 per cent...

King Coal may be losing its throne sooner than expected, as the U.S. goes through a change in how it gets the bulk of its electricity. The change is not coming from solar and wind as environmental groups would like to believe, although renewables are growing. The big switch is coming from natural gas produced from fracking shale rock deep underground. Natural gas is replacing coal as the dominant way Americans receive electricity to power everything from their lights to their iPhones to the big screen televisions. It is cheaper than coal, which is why natural gas power plants are...

California’s politicians would like you to believe that their electricity comes from non-coal sources. However, while there are very few coal plants in California, making up only 0.4 percent of the state’s generation in 2014[i], California imports electricity from neighboring states and as much as half of Southern California’s electric generation comes from coal-fired generating plants in Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.[ii] Although California is pushing electric vehicles, wanting 1.5 million on the road by 2025,[iii] the greenhouse gas savings from their use will be minuscule if electricity continues to be generated mainly from imports of coal-fired generation and natural...

Despite considerable improvement since the turn of the century, India has one of the highest levels of electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in the world. T&D losses represent electricity that is generated but does not reach intended customers. India's T&D losses are almost 20% of generation, more than twice the world average and nearly three times as large as T&D losses in the United States. Electricity losses are the result of technical inefficiency and theft. Technical losses occur because of the resistance of wires and equipment as electricity passes through. Some loss is inevitable, but in places with good...

There they go again. New England authorities are passively accepting the closing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Reactor, one of the region’s four remaining reactors, which Entergy announced it will shutter up by 2019. The loss is 685 megawatts or 5 percent of New England’s electricity. Once again a reactor has been deemed too expensive to operate because nuclear gets absolutely no credit for delivering clean, emissions-free energy. As it happens, Pilgrim was delivering 84 percent of the clean energy in the state of Massachusetts. The closing leaves only the Seabrook reactor in New Hampshire and Connecticut’s two Millstone reactors, which...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed doubt about whether the Obama administration had the authority to issue a regulation aimed at encouraging efficiency in the electricity market by having electrical grid operators pay users to reduce consumption at peak times. The court heard oral arguments in an appeal filed by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking to reverse a May 2014 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that threw out the rule. The case pits the government's energy regulator against power companies that are fighting a regulation...

The owners of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth have announced that they will close the plant by June 2019. Entergy Corp. said Tuesday it is closing the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts because of "poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs."... ...The plant needs millions of dollars in safety improvements. The plant was relicensed in 2012 for 20 years....

A US realtor has announced plans to create a fleet of hybrid-electric buildings powered by battery energy storage systems from Tesla Energy. California-based Irvine Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with microgrid firm Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) to install the battery systems at each building. The batteries will be charged during non-peak hours and will be used for on-site power during peak daytime hours or in the event of a power failure, Irvine Company said. The project’s first phase is planned to include up to 24 office buildings in the city of Irvine, and is expected to reduce the...