The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility to turn weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel is on the chopping block as the Obama administration has proposed switching to an alternative disposal method. South Carolina officials say they will sue the federal government for missing deadlines and to force it to pay contractual penalties of $1 million a day for failing to complete the project.
The U.S. Energy Department has already spent $4.5 billion on the half-built plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., designed to dispose 34 tons of plutonium as part of international weapons agreements. The MOX project is now estimated to cost between $9.4 billion and $21 billion, and may not begin operations until 2040.
A new department budget calls for spending $285 million to blend the plutonium with other materials and then dispose of it underground in New Mexico.
More: Aiken Standard; The New York Times
DOE Announces $18 Million in Grants for Solar-Battery Storage
The Energy Department is devoting $18 million to help develop ways to integrate solar generation and battery storage in order to overcome the challenge of matching the intermittent production of solar power to market demands.
The grants will go to Austin Energy, Carnegie Mellon University, Commonwealth Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute, Hawaiian Electric and the Boston-based Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems.
The money will go toward developing new integrated photovoltaic energy generation and storage projects using Internet-capable inverters that will join solar arrays, smart buildings and appliances, and utility communication and control systems.
More: Transmission and Distribution World
Solar Companies Form First National Trade Association
Seven energy companies have joined to create a national trade association to promote community solar projects, which are financed by subscribers who receive solar energy credits on their bills.
“Community solar is the necessary next step to bringing solar to the majority of Americans for whom solar is not yet an option,” said Jeff Cramer, the executive director of the new group, the Coalition for Community Solar Access.
The coalition’s founding leadership includes Clean Energy Collective, Community Energy, Ecoplexus, Ethical Electric, First Solar, NRG Energy and Recurrent Energy.
More: CCSA
Despite NRC OK, No Plans to Build South Texas Nukes
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved licenses to build two new reactors at the South Texas Project nuclear plant southwest of Houston, but NRG Energy and its partners have no plans to build them because of competition from cheaper power suppliers.
The partnership is continuing to look for new U.S. investors to eventually move the stalled project forward, said NRG spokesman David Knox. The company said five years ago it wasn’t investing any more money in the expansion, which then had an estimated cost of about $14 billion.
The existing South Texas Project’s two reactors are owned jointly by NRG, Austin Energy and San Antonio’s CPS Energy. NRG has sought additional partners in the expansion since CPS Energy, once a 50% partner, reduced its stake to 7.6%.
More: Fuelfix Blog
Fort Hood Looks to Renewables to Cut Costs
The U.S. Army has signed a 30-year contract with Apex Clean Energy to provide 65 MW of solar and wind energy at Fort Hood in Texas. The Army will pay Apex as much as $497.4 million over the life of the deal, about $168 million less than what it would pay for power from the traditional electricity grid, according to the Defense Logistics Agency.
Officials broke ground in January at the Army installation 75 miles north of Austin on a 132-acre solar farm that includes 63,000 panels. The solar project is paired with an investment in a Panhandle wind farm.
The military, the single largest consumer of energy in the U.S., is dedicating at least $7 billion to renewable energy projects, part of the Obama administration’s efforts to emphasize alternative sources of energy.
More: Austin American-Statesman; Bloomberg
FERC Infrastructure Report Shows Solar 2015 Project Leader
A report from FERC’s Office of Energy Projects shows that solar generation led the way for new generation in the U.S. in 2015, followed by wind and then natural gas, on the basis of number of projects. Solar accounted for 248 projects but ranked third behind wind and natural gas in terms of capacity.
Wind came in second with 69 projects, but the combined installed capacity of nearly 8,000 MW led the pack. Natural gas came in third in both number of projects (50) and capacity (6,000 MW).
Combined, solar, wind and natural gas accounted for nearly 97% of all new capacity installed in the U.S. in 2015.
More: JDSupra
Solar and Wind to Account for 6% of Generation in 2016
Utility-scale wind and solar will account for 6% of electric generation in the U.S. in the coming year, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration. Although solar’s share is less than 1%, it represents a 28% increase over 2015.
EIA did not count distributed solar, the most common type among residential and small business customers. If small-scale rooftop systems were included, solar would supply about 1.2% of 2016 generation.
Wind and hydro will come in at 5.2% and 6% respectively, according to EIA. When biomass and geothermal power are included, renewable energy overall is expected to account for 14.5% of power generation in 2016.
More: pv magazine
FERC Wants More Info from PennEast Pipeline
FERC last week ordered PennEast Pipeline to provide more information on its proposed 110-mile natural gas pipeline that would run from Pennsylvania under the Delaware River and into New Jersey, saying it wants to know more about how the pipeline would affect several nature preserves.
FERC is preparing its environmental impact statement for the pipeline proposal and wants to know how PennEast would protect wildlife and how it would mitigate any effect on wetlands.
Pipeline opponents saw FERC’s demand as a win and called on the federal agency to suspend its review of the project. “FERC’s letter demonstrates once again that the information that PennEast has submitted to date is incomplete and inaccurate,” said Michael Pisarro of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.
More: Mercer Me