May 18,2012 --

Hydroelectric developer Free Flow Power is shelving plans that would create five hydroelectric plants on the Mississippi River between Red Wing, Minn., and Lynxville, Wis.

Cost escalation is just one of the headaches the Aussies face

May 18,2012 --

Developer Reservoir Capital Corporation has received approval from the Republic of Serbia for its 58.4-MW Brodarevo 1 and 2 hydropower projects.

Loneliness an 'enormous health risk' among CEOs, author says

May 17,2012 --

A bill that would benefit hydropower developers in the state of Vermont is making its way toward Governor Peter Shumlin's desk.

May 17,2012 --

A declaration adopted by 20 small island developing states could potentially increase the percentage of hydroelectric power in their overall energy mixes.

May 17,2012 --

Australian hydrokinetic power developer Carnegie Wave Energy has completed a year-long study that demonstrates the viability of a commercial ocean power project in Bermuda.

May 16,2012 --

The Nova Scotia Department of Energy has established a goal of replacing 10% of the province's power supply with forms of tidal energy by the end of the decade.

A University of Calgary professor looks to upgrade bitumen underground

An opportunity in our Edmonton office

An opportunity in our Edmonton office

An opportunity in our Edmonton office

Sizewell nuclear power station has applied for planning permission to open a visitor center on the Suffolk coast. The old one was closed after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA. EDF Energy, which owns Sizewell B, said it hoped to have the temporary visitor center open by the end of summer. Jim Crawford, Sizewell [...]

France’s Areva is teaming up with Japan’s Mitsubishi to explore for uranium in Australia. The move could lead to the formation of a joint venture, should promising deposits be identified. Areva subsidiary Afmeco Mining and Exploration (Afmex) will work with Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (MDP) to conduct exploration “for several years across tens of thousands of [...]

Cameco, the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer, has made a deal to further its resources, offering $136 million for Germany-based Nukem Energy. In buying Nukem from private equity firm Advent International, Canada-based Cameco will acquire a company with expected sales of between 10 million and 15 million pounds of uranium in 2012. Cameco will [...]

The economic performance of Ontario Power Generation’s Pickering nuclear stations is among the worst in the world, says a report prepared for the Ontario Energy Board. Not only is it the most expensive to operate, it lags at the far end of the pack in terms of reliability, with some units shut down almost 40 [...]

Tepco’s losses have been put at ¥781.6 billion ($9.8 billion) for financial year 2012. About half of this stems from the cost of compensation and cleanup; the other half is from the higher cost of generation in Japan’s shaken power market. Decreases in Japanese electricity use over the year as a result of consumer efforts to [...]

Following the successful completion on 27 April of the last of 74 tests in its start-up program, Kalinin 4 has now moved to the final stage of its commissioning program, trial commercial operation. A start-up management team led by Mikhail Kanyshev, director of the Kalinin plant, has examined a record issued by a working committee [...]

One week before the UK government tables its energy market reforms some key aspects of the package are still being decided. Its success will be vital to plans for nuclear new build, including the sale of Horizon Nuclear Power. All these matters were discussed by MPs at a session of the Energy and Climate Change [...]

Ghana is exploring a nuclear energy program in its power mix strategy, as it strives to become a major net exporter of energy in the West Africa sub region, the country’s deputy energy minister has said. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said the government has targeted the utilization of nuclear power to supply adequate, reliable and affordable [...]

Huge cost and decades-long payback times of new nuclear power make it difficult to fund during economic crisis, MPs told Investing billions in new nuclear power stations would have forced a credit-rating downgrade on energy giant RWE, the company’s chief executive has revealed. The head of another big six energy company, E.ON, blamed the abandonment [...]

PetroChina, Mitsubishi and KOGAS are partners

May 15,2012 --

Renewable energy developer Minerco Resources Inc., has announced that it will sell its 4-MW Iscan hydroelectric plant in Honduras.

May 15,2012 --

The San Diego County Water Authority has signed SNC-Lavalin's Operations and Maintenance division to a 62-month contract for management of its Lake Hodges Pump Station.

May 15,2012 --

Global development consultancy Mott MacDonald has been selected as designer and technical advisor by Kier Construction Limited for a US$27 million hydroelectric project.

Christy Clark targets risk-benefit ratio of proposed Northern Gateway pipeline

May 14,2012 --

BC Hydro has received a go-ahead from the British Columbia Utilities Commission for upgrades at the 114-MW Ruskin powerhouse and dam.

Land sales for drilling rights in Alberta netted the province an average of $206.20 per hectare on April 4, 2012. It’s the lowest result since an average of $196.96 per hectare was earned from an auction on October 28, 2009 – right in the middle of the economic meltdown. It’s a sharp drop off from [...]

A B.C. firm enters the fracking market with a novel storage tank

An opportunity in our Edmonton office

I love corporate press releases. Not only are they frequently filled with enough bafflegab and jargon to set plain language writing back centuries, it’s always high comedy to see how the authors try to make a major development – like, say, the abrupt departure of a longtime CEO – seem like just another day at [...]

May 11,2012 --

Although final additions are still being made to Sri Lanka's 150-MW Upper Kotmale hydropower plant, the project was officially opened by president Mahinda Rajapaksa this past week, sources report.

Partnerships are as old as the resource itself

A letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accused one of the agency’s managers of suppressing negative inspection results about a Nebraska nuclear-power plant at the center of one of the most serious safety incidents in recent years. The April 24 letter to Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), ranking member of the House energy committee, [...]

Report pegs infrastructure, pipeline investment at $50 billion

Paris  – Outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has enjoyed legal immunity for the past five years, could soon be forced to explain himself to magistrates in three separate funding scandals that have dogged his time in power. France’s constitution says a president cannot be required to testify or be investigated or prosecuted until a [...]

Atlanta (AP) — The time line for building a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant in Georgia has slipped seven months, while the Southern Co. faces a dispute over who should pay for $400 million in unanticipated costs, utility executives said Wednesday. Southern Co. initially planned on finishing the construction of its first new reactor at Plant Vogtle [...]

EDF, the owners of the Sizewell nuclear power plant hope to build the new station at site near Southwold. Sources close to new President Francois Hollande believe once a full analysis of the economy has been conducted he will move to block state-owned EDF spending billions overseas. Last night the energy firm reiterated its commitment [...]

Paris, May 10 (Reuters) – French state-controlled power group EDF reported a 6.3 percent rise i n first-quarter sales, after bitterly cold temperatures boosted electricity demand and prices. The world’s biggest single producer of nuclear power also confirmed its 2011-2015 financial outlook, which includes an average annual EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization) [...]

French connection in form of EdF seen as one of the front runners for ČEZ Temelín partnership Czech electricity giant ČEZ says it will sound out major power companies, including what it regards as its main power production rivals, with regard to the search for a strategic partner to share the costs and risks of [...]

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is drawing up a law to make building atomic reactors more profitable. The U.K. is aiming to revive the nuclear industry after Germany’s largest utilities scrapped a project in March because the investment would take too long to pay off. Yesterday, the government announced measures including long-term contracts that give [...]

Dublin — Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Nuclear Market Opportunity in India 2012″ report to their offering. Amidst the pandemonium in the wake of the Tsunami-induced disaster in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor, nuclear energy has fallen into disfavor worldwide. But on July 18, 2011, energy starved India went ahead and commenced [...]

Lithuania’s government has approved the draft concession agreement for the planned Visaginas nuclear power plant as part of major legislation on strategic energy projects, while Czech power company CEZ confirms it is looking for a strategic partner for Temelin. Lithuania’s energy ministry signed the Visaginas concession agreement with strategic investor Hitachi in March. Now that [...]

May 10,2012 --

A joint initiative signed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland calls for the development of more pumped-storage power plants.

May 9,2012 --

Work on the 90-MW Rusumo Falls hydroelectric plant is set to begin soon, says Rwandan Minister of Infrastructure Albert Nsengiyumva.

May 9,2012 --

The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a loan worth US$670 million to finance Costa Rica's Reventazon hydroelectric project, according to documents provided by the bank.

Washington — President Barack Obama nominated Kristine L. Svinicki for a new term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday despite objections from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Svinicki has been caught in a dispute over NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, a former Reid aide who has been accused of intimidation and bullying. Svinicki has served [...]

An acquisition of the largest third party supplier of Electrical and Mechanical equipment for enhancing the safety of nuclear facilities, that complements our current served markets and provides additional growth and expansion opportunities in the power generation segment. Fort Worth, Texas, April 30, 2012 AZZ incorporated (“AZZ”) (AZZ), a manufacturer of electrical products and a [...]

Tokyo—Japan’s government will take a controlling stake in the Fukushima nuclear plant’s operator under a new plan ministers approved Wednesday, effectively nationalizing one of the world’s largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12 billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt. Tokyo Electric [...]

On Tuesday the Department of Energy announced the distribution of $47 million for a range of scholarships and research programs related to nuclear power. This year’s Nuclear Energy University Programs and Integrated University Program encompass 143 awards at 46 colleges and universities. “We must invest in the next generation of American scientists and engineers in [...]

Vienna — A U.S. security institute says commercial satellite imagery shows new activity at an Iranian military site which raises concern that the Islamic state may be “washing” a building the United Nations’ nuclear agency wants to inspect. The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suspects nuclear weapons-related research may have taken place at [...]

The Canadian government has accepted the environmental assessment report for the possible construction of new nuclear capacity at Darlington, clearing the way for the issuance of a site preparation license. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) formally submitted the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for up to four new units at Darlington in 2009. The EIS also included an application [...]

Vilnius  May 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania’s government gave its final approval to several plans aimed at reducing its dependency on Russian energy sources on Wednesday, including a new nuclear power plant which it said could cost up to 7 billion euros ($9.10 billion). The government of center-right Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said it had given [...]

Prague, May 9 (Reuters) – Czech power group CEZ said on Wednesday it had decided to launch a tender to select a potential strategic partner for an expansion of its Temelin nuclear plant. The 70-percent state owned power producer CEZ, the biggest listed central European company, has opened a multi-billion dollar tender to build two [...]

In this Alberta Oil podcast, Leger Marketing’s Ian Large talks about what lessons the oil and gas industry can learn from an exclusive national poll it conducted on energy issues

The reactor building dome is being assembled and installed in stages at Novovoronezh Phase II unit 1, Russian nuclear company Rosatom has said. The two power units being built at the second phase of the Novovoronezh site in western Russia will be AES-2006 VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors. They are expected to come into operation in 2014 [...]

In the oil sands, abrasive ore is said to be so coarse that it wears enough steel off mine hardware to make a truck every day. Flint Energy, the Calgary-based infrastructure and oilfield service titan, has built a good deal of its Canadian business on that reality. The company last week reported first-quarter revenues from [...]

A regular stream of Atlantic Canadians helps plug a labor gap

May 8,2012 --

British Columbia's controversial 45-MW Kokish River hydropower project has gotten an official go-ahead from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

May 8,2012 --

Ocean power developer Hydro Alternative Energy Inc. has announced its plan to develop a 1-MW hydrokinetic project with South African municipality eThekwini.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford named her new cabinet today and she’s picked Calgary-West MLA Ken Hughes to lead the government’s energy department. I wish I could provide some crackling analysis on Hughes suitability for this important job. But the first-time MLA is a bit of a blank slate for a writer (me) who moved to [...]

Bargain shopping for natural gas assets in Western Canada may not be so easy after all. After a quarter in which PricewaterhouseCoopers tracked 116 Canadian energy deals worth $13.8 billion – including the $3.2-billion marriage of Pembina Pipeline Corp. and Provident Energy Ltd., as well as the $1.3-billion purchase of NAL Energy Corp. by Pengrowth [...]

May 7,2012 --

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has awarded a contract worth about US$30 million for rehabilitation work at the 1,250-MW Castaic hydropower facility.

May 7,2012 --

Black & Veatch has been selected to design a new powerhouse for We Energies’ Twin Falls hydropower plant.

Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan aren’t the only Canadian jurisdictions with shale fever. As horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing extracts huge amounts of tight oil and gas from shale basins across the prairies and in plays like the Bakken and the Eagle Ford in the United States, the Northwest Territories is looking to get in [...]

A promising new analysis could reverse years of neglect

Company eyes an offshore prospect in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

May 4,2012 --

Work at a 119-year-old hydropower plant will allow the facility to continue functioning as originally designed, says energy control company Encorp LLC.

It’s time to blow our own horn here at Alberta Oil. Every June, the Canadian Business Press and Magazines Canada recognizes excellence in Canadian business journalism by producing the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards. This is an important program for business publications in Canada and each year the staff of Alberta Oil dutifully submits what it [...]

Expect sales as oil price spread grows and natural gas sinks

The Chinese market for Canadian exporters is one-third the size of Michigan's

Imperial Oil Ltd. is taking a hard look at stuffing western Canadian gas from its Horn River assets on tankers for export to lucrative Pacific markets, its chief executive said this week. But in signaling that his company would join Apache Canada Ltd., Encana Corp., EOG Resources, Shell, Progress, Nexen and the rest in examining [...]

May 3,2012 --

Carnegie Wave Energy has secured a $10.3m grant from the federal government to support its $32m grid-connected CETO wave energy project which will be located at Garden Island, near Perth in Western Australia.

May 3,2012 --

Independent power provider Hydro Alternative Energy Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding with renewable energy developer Energreen, SA de C.V of Mexico to partner in developing hydrokinetic projects

May 2,2012 --

New Zealand power company Contact Energy has decided not to pursue any options for hydroelectric generation on the country's Clutha River at this time.

May 2,2012 --

The Maine Public Utilities Commission has approved the primary contract terms of a power purchase agreement with tidal energy producer Ocean Renewable Power Company.

Talisman Energy Inc. may be back in the black, but it is increasingly “under the gun” to deliver better results to investors. That, at least, is the assessment of CIBC World Markets Inc. analyst Andrew Potter. Talisman yesterday reported a first-quarter profit of $291 million, or $0.28 per share, compared to a $326-million loss, or $0.32 [...]

TransCanada's mainline struggles to stay relevant amid new supply forces

An opportunity in our Edmonton office

Environment and infrastructure top national priorities

May 1,2012 --

A program created by the Global Village Energy Partnership International aims to jumpstart small hydroelectric development in Tanzania.

First it was Pioneer, the carbon capture retrofit planned by TransAlta Corp. for its Keephills 3 coal plant in Alberta. Now Ottawa-based Iogen Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have scrapped plans for a cellulosic ethanol plant in Manitoba. Taken together, the decisions add up to a bad week for carbon abatement in Canada, writes [...]

May 1,2012 --

China's Sinohydro Corporation has begun construction on a new 210-MW hydropower plant in western Georgia, sources report.

Canadian crude discounts aren’t going away any time soon

An exclusive Alberta Oil national poll shows Canadians support a national energy strategy, even if they aren't sure what, exactly, it entails

Canadians support it, but don't know what it is

Innovators are paying more attention to a critical ingredient

Canadians have mixed views about foreign ownership

More focus needed on green tech

Academic community more trusted than governments, companies

What exactly does being a global energy “superpower” mean in the Canadian context? In the traditional sense, being a global superpower means having the ability to influence world events in your own favor and projecting your values around the world. Canadians want to control their economic destiny, but not many of us seek to project [...]

Canadians want a more inclusive discussion about new markets

The energy industry can no longer afford to keep its head down

You may be able to see them from space, but Fort McMurray-area strip mines occupy a smaller footprint in Alberta than the province’s agriculture sector, according to the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. As of September 2011, the Alberta government had listed roughly 66,000 hectares of disturbed land in the oil sands mineable area. “This is [...]

April 30,2012 --

GL Renewables Certification will certify a Kawasaki Heavy Industries tidal energy converter prototype, the consulting group announces.

April 30,2012 --

Power and automation group ABB has received orders worth about US$20 million to refurbish generators at two Axpo-managed hydroelectric facilities.

Production shut-ins, asset sales, price hedging, liquids – such is the lingo that fills corporate balance sheets this reporting season. Add dividend sustainability to the lexicon, as the continued slump in natural gas prices forces producers facing thin margins on expensive resource plays to trim capital forecasts and stock up on cash ahead of an [...]

Know thy market, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives urges

One subject I’ve been wanting to blog about since Alison Redford and the Progressive Conservatives won Monday’s (April 23) Alberta provincial election is what the outcome might mean for the oil and gas industry. It’s no secret that some companies in downtown Calgary, still feeling sore over former premier Ed Stelmach’s failed 2007 “Our Fair [...]

Can an upstart firm find its way in the bitumen belt?

The market had to like what it heard from Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd. this morning as it reported profits of $1.015 billion or $1.19 per share for the first quarter of 2012. Those earnings were up 30 per cent from the first quarter of 2011, when Imperial Oil posted a profit of $781 million. The [...]

Brussels — The EU’s energy chief Thursday deemed an almost year-long study on nuclear plant safety in Europe as short on detail and numbers and demanded further work before publication of the critical report. “Going deep is more important than being fast,” Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told journalists, saying that a final report would be available [...]

Work to assemble the giant arched structure that will protect the ruined Chernobyl unit 4 and enable its dismantling has officially begun on the 26th anniversary of the accident. After laying flowers at the memorial near the plant’s north gate that commemorates the work of those that took early action during the accident, Ukrainian President [...]

London, April 26: Nuclear energy should be considered a clean energy source, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, said that at the end of the 23-Government Clean Energy Ministerial meeting that took place in London this week. Mr Ahluwalia, who represented India at the third CEM conference, said that nuclear energy was “one [...]

Ukraine is making plans to rebuild civil society in the areas affected by the Chernobyl accident, as the man responsible for the Exclusion Zone announces most of the affected towns could be resettled. A round of comments have come from Ukrainian leaders today ahead of tomorrow’s 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Speaking to parliament, [...]

Paris (AP) — France’s state-controlled nuclear power company Areva on Thursday reported a small increase in sales in the first quarter of 2012 after a dismal year that saw a global rethink of atomic energy and investigations into a troubled mining venture. Areva said that its revenue rose to €2 billion ($2.6 billion) for January [...]

Nuclear industry workers will get career advice and re-training as part of a £4m scheme for north-west Wales. It comes as the end of generating electricity at Wylfa Reactor 2 on Anglesey was brought forward by five days on Wednesday. The Welsh government said help would be available for more than 1,200 staff at Wylfa [...]

(Reuters) – Niger’s uranium workers union on Thursday threatened to shut down all of the West African state’s uranium production if a labor dispute at French nuclear power giant Areva’s Imouraren mining project was not solved soon. Niger is the top supplier of uranium to France’s nuclear power industry. Workers constructing Areva’s new Imouraren mine [...]

Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov has stated that Ukraine should develop nuclear power industry under conditions of overcoming an economic crisis, as it has no other alternatives. “We don’t have alternatives to nuclear energy in the near ten to twenty years, moreover we will develop it and this year we will start the construction of two [...]

Power-starved South Africa plans to increase its nuclear reactor capacity and energy companies from around the world are lining up to be involved. The project has an estimated cost of 300 billion rand (more than $40 million), South African Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said, but it is still unclear what contracts will be offered or [...]

Chinese demand is no panacea for Canadian oil producers facing steep price discounts in the American Midwest, a Calgary oil conference heard this week. Deliveries of diluted bitumen along Enbridge Inc.’s proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline will have a tough time competing on a price basis once they reach Asia-Pacific markets, says David Knapp, senior [...]

April 26,2012 --

Jeffrey Chain L.P. has won a contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work at the 100-MW Old Hickory hydroelectric plant.

April 26,2012 --

GE Energy will supply power conversion technologies to Voith for use on the new Frades II pumped-storage hydroelectric plant.

(Reuters) – China on Wednesday issued a veiled warning to neighboring North Korea not to carry out what is widely expected to be an imminent nuclear test. North Korea has almost completed preparations for a third nuclear test, a senior source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing told Reuters, an act that would draw [...]

Iran is considering a Russian proposal to halt the expansion of its nuclear program in order to avert new sanctions, the country’s envoy in Moscow said. “We need to study this proposal and to establish on what basis it has been made,” Ambassador Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said in an interview at the Iranian embassy in Moscow [...]

Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan successfully tested an improved intermediate-range ballistic missile early on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Pakistani military. The test launch came six days after India, the country’s regional archrival, test-fired an Agni 5, a long-range ballistic missile that is also capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Pakistani military and defense [...]

(Reuters) – A nuclear plant in northwestern Japan may be sitting right on top of an active geological fault, the country’s nuclear watchdog has said, raising the risk that the facility may never resume power generation for fear of an earthquake. For the first time in more than 40 years, Japan faces the prospect of [...]

April 25 (Bloomberg) — Electricite de France SA, Europe’s largest power producer, may get a boost from front runner Francois Hollande’s backing off from a nuclear pact with the Greens, who flopped in the first round of the elections. Socialist candidate Hollande has distanced himself from an accord with the Greens to shut 24 of [...]

From oil fields to wind turbines to coal mines, size and scale rule the economics of energy. But the nuclear industry is thinking small these days. The latest evidence came last week when Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. announced plans to pursue a $452 million federal subsidy to advance development of small modular reactors [...]

For six months, protesters in Koodankulam, India have physically stopped construction of a nuclear plant. On March 19, 6,000 armed policemen descended on Koodankulam, a small village near the southern tip of India, to suppress a local protest that, although peaceful, had threatened to derail the establishment of a nuclear plant there. The policemen rapidly [...]

An Ohio-based public power supplier is now interested in taking a minority interest in Santee Cooper’s share of the two new reactors under construction at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. A wholesale electricity supplier in Mississippi is already discussing buying into the new units. American Municipal Power (AMP) has signed a non-binding letter of intent [...]

According to a Tuesday release, Gen4 Energy (previously Hyperion Power) will not pursue the DOE’s Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), designed to establish cost-shared agreements with private industry to support the design and licensing of SMRs. Gen4 will continue to work under the Memorandum of Agreement with the DOE on their advanced reactor at the Savannah [...]

April 25,2012 --

Finnish electric utility Kemijoki Oy has selected technology supplier Metso for automation work at two hydroelectric plants.

Encana Corp. | Encana Corp. reported a profit through the first quarter of 2012, buoyed by US$358-million in after-tax gains resulting from commodity price hedging and asset sales. The Calgary-based natural gas driller earned US$12-million through the three months ending March 31, compared to a net loss of US$361 million the year prior. Operating earnings [...]

Two plays driving a U.S. oil renaissance have very different economics

Tepco, owner and operator of the plant, said it had made the decision because of the extent of the damage to the reactors. As a result, Tepco said that as of 20 April 2012 it now operates 13 nuclear reactors, with 50 in the entire country. In December 2011 the government said complete decommissioning of [...]

The German energy industry will invest more than €60 billion ($79 billion) by 2020 in constructing and modernizing power plants, partly to compensate for the phase-out of nuclear energy in the country, according to a utility lobby group. The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft, BDEW) says that some [...]

A new report on the world’s changing energy architecture from high-level policy organization the World Economic Forum (WEF) warns Japan risks jeopardizing its energy security if it turns its back on nuclear power. The WEF report, New Energy Architecture: Enabling an Effective Transition, looks at the readiness of 124 individual countries for a transition to [...]

A Senate committee proposed letting U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu begin the process to build temporary storage sites for nuclear waste in communities that seek such a facility. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said the provision in the legislation adopted the “consent-based” recommendation of a presidential commission that studied the disposal of used fuel [...]

April 24,2012 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth US$41,000 to General Power Engineering Associates Inc. for work at the 320-MW Fort Randall hydroelectric project.

Exelon executive Carol Peterson named director of CENG April 24, 2012- Exelon Generation Co., LLC today announced the appointment of Carol Peterson, Vice President, Project and Asset Management, Exelon Nuclear, to the board of directors of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC (CENG). Following the close of the Exelon and Constellation merger on March 12, 2012, [...]

Partnership Supports Construction at Savannah River Site and Jobs in SC April 24, 2012 – NuHub has partnered with Holtec International, Inc., a diversified energy technology company supplying equipment and systems for the nuclear, solar, geothermal and fossil power generation sectors of the energy industry, to compete for one of two federal grants from the [...]

South Africa needs to diversify its energy sources and develop a new mix to its current predominantly coal base, that would include more nuclear energy, the country’s president said Tuesday. The country still struggles to meet energy demand, President Jacob Zuma said at the National Council of Provinces, South Africa’s upper house of Parliament. “To [...]

The China Post news staff–Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) yesterday explained the approximately NT$100 million quoted for the replacement of anchor bolts at nuclear power plants amid criticisms that the products can be sourced at a fraction of that price.  Wang Chung-hsien, deputy director of Taipower’s nuclear power generation department, said anchor bolts on nuclear reactors [...]

Energy may perhaps be the single most essential commodity for a society to survive and thrive. It is evident in its use in heat, transport and power, however scientists argue that the current means of generating energy is not a maintainable process. The growing dependence on energy has led to the burning of cheap and [...]

Alison Redford is pretty good at this comeback thing. In October, Redford came from behind to upset frontrunner Gary Mar to win the Progressive Conservative (PC) leadership race. And last night (April 23), she defied the predictions of just about every pollster (and me), as we were preparing to write her political epitaph, as well [...]

The federal government’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty, created a stir when he delivered the 2012 budget. In his budget address, Flaherty said the ruling Progressive Conservatives would institute a “one project, one review” regulatory regime and put fixed timelines on the reviews of major energy infrastructure projects. The urgency to speed up the review of [...]

A $1.3 billion contract to manage and operate the US Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for up to ten years has been awarded to Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC. The five-year contract, which contains an option to extend for an additional five years, will see newly formed limited liability company Nuclear Waste Partnership take [...]

Nations are rushing to boost firepower and strength as U.S. beefs up its military role in the region It’s a good time to be an arms salesman in Asia. India’s successful launch on Thursday of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of dropping a nuclear warhead on Beijing or Shanghai is the latest move in a [...]

Toshiba has secured the right to a “significant portion” of the output from the planned Madaouela uranium mine in Niger under a convertible debt-financing agreement with exploration and development company GoviEx. I The agreement sees Toshiba providing a total of some $40 million of funding to GoviEx to support operations through to the start of [...]

GDF Suez (GSZ) SA is urging the Belgian government to make a decision as quickly as possible as to whether the utility has to close three atomic generators, Vice- Chairman Jean-Francois Cirelli said. The utility wants to know whether it has to invest to dismantle the Belgian reactors operated by its Electrabel unit or to [...]

The first unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power project in India is expected to start generating electricity in the next 40 days, Minister of State V Narayanasamy said Monday. “We are fast moving into the direction of generating electricity from Kundankulam Nuclear Power Project,” he said. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is currently inspecting [...]

Johannesburg, April 23 (Reuters) – South Africa wants to see its firms eventually being awarded the bulk of the contracts in its $50 billion plan to build six nuclear plants to power Africa’s biggest economy, the head of its electric utility said on Monday. Firms from France, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and [...]

Construction projects in China have moved forward with the dome of unit 1 of the Fangchenggang plant being lowered into place and heavy components for the primary reactor coolant system of the first EPR at Taishan have been delivered from France. In an operation lasting just over two hours, the dome of the containment building of [...]

April 23,2012 --

Voith Hydro has signed a contract with Metrostav a.s. and Zakladani staveb a.s. as general contractor for electromechanical equipment at the Steti hydropower station.

April 23,2012 --

Rurelec PLC has increased its Latin American presence by investing in Peru's 255-MW Santa Rita hydropower project.

In October 2011, Alison Redford won the leadership race for Alberta’s ruling Progressive Conservative Party, casting herself as an agent of change. But she probably didn’t envision that six months into the job as party leader and provincial premier, she would witness the biggest change of all – the end of a 41-year-old political dynasty. [...]

Researchers in Saskatchewan hope tiny critters can boost recovery rates

Turkey has ambitious plans to build plants over the next 10 years Istanbul – Canada’s CANDU Energy, a unit of SNC-Lavalin Group, is in talks with the Turkish government to build a nuclear power plant with a 3,000 megawatt installed capacity on the Black Sea coast, the company’s vice-president told Reuters on Friday. Energy Minister [...]

Baker Lake Kiggavik project continues despite dip in price of uranium Areva Resources says plans for a mine near Baker Lake, Nunavut, are on track despite the drop in the price of uranium since the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan last year. Areva hopes to open its Kiggavik mine as early as 2017. “Spot prices [...]

Leaked document seen by Guardian reveals plans to subsidize nuclear through electricity bills, despite assurances otherwise Ministers are planning to subsidize nuclear power through electricity bills, despite their promises not to, a secret document seen by the Guardian reveals. The leaked document clearly lays out plans to use “contracts for difference” for nuclear energy, which [...]

India’s test firing of an Agni-V ballistic missile this week is a potent signal of the country’s growing nuclear capabilities. The weapon – with a range of more than 5,000km (3,100 miles) is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the Chinese capital Beijing. The Agni-V is the latest in a series of Indian-developed missiles [...]

Jefferson City • Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. are teaming up to seek more than $450 million in federal money to license and develop small-scale, next generation nuclear reactors at the Callaway plant site outside of Fulton. Gov. Jay Nixon joined executives from the companies as well as other Missouri utility officials and state [...]

Sofia, April 20 (Reuters) – A consortium, led by France’s EDF and Russia’s Rosenergoatom, has signed a contract to draw up plans to extend the lifespan of Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear plant, the government said on Friday. The 2,000 megawatt nuclear plant produces over 35 percent of Bulgaria’s electricity. Sofia is looking into ways to ensure [...]

April 20,2012 --

Vattenfall will invest about US$1.93 billion into modernizing and increasing production in its hydroelectric plants until 2013, the European energy conglomerate announces.

Another day, another joint venture for Calgary-based Encana Corp. The natural gas driller, who, like its peers, has been busy carving up so-called “non-core” assets in its portfolio to cope with rock-bottom natural gas prices, yesterday booked a $600-million deal with a subsidiary of Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corp. The joint venture will see Toyota gain a [...]

April 20,2012 --

Kongsberg Maritime Ltd. received a contract to conduct underwater noise studies for an offshore renewables project that could eventually lead to 400MW being installed in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth.

This year is so far shaping up to be an awful one for having rational conversations about energy issues. It’s a shame, since 2011 was actually a good year for having productive energy conversations. I can think of two particular ideas that deserve more discussion in 2012 – ideas that are having a tough time [...]

Defuelling operations have been completed at two of the UK’s oldest nuclear power plant sites. Meanwhile, one of the most hazardous legacies from the country’s early nuclear research has been destroyed in an operation that has exceeded expectations. A five-year defuelling operation has been completed at the Dungeness A nuclear power plant with the shipment [...]

Tehran, Iran — Iran’s oil minister on Thursday raised the prospect of more cutoffs in oil sales to the European Union if the bloc failed to show some flexibility toward Iran ahead of a second round of nuclear talks next month. Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi said that while Iran has cut sales to Britain and [...]

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama will renominate Republican Kristine Svinicki to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, defying opposition from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a White House official told Reuters on Thursday. Republicans want Svinicki, whose term as a commissioner expires in June, to stay on the panel and believe the process is being held up [...]

Bhubaneswar, India — India successfully test-fired on Thursday a nuclear-capable missile that can reach Beijing and Eastern Europe, thrusting the emerging Asian power into an small club of nations with intercontinental nuclear weapons capabilities. Footage showed the rocket with a range of more than 5,000 kilometres blasting through clouds from an island off India’s east [...]

By now you know that Chesapeake Energy Corp. is back in the news. Reuters yesterday reported that the company’s chief executive, Aubrey McClendon, has borrowed as much as $1.1-billion using his personal stake in the firm’s oil and natural gas wells as collateral. If you missed it, you can link to the article here. Briefly, it [...]

(Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy backpedalled from a denial and acknowledged on Wednesday that he had discussions with Muammar Gaddafi about selling a nuclear reactor to Libya some four years before Paris helped topple the late dictator in 2011. France’s readiness to provide a reactor to Gaddafi’s Libya has become a hot issue ahead [...]

Baton Rouge, La., Apr 19, 2012- The Shaw Group Inc. /quotes/zigman/133847/quotes/nls/shaw SHAW -0.47% , along with its AP1000 Consortium team member, Westinghouse, today announced it received full notice to proceed from South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA Corp., on its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for two Westinghouse AP1000(R) nuclear [...]

According to new reports, energy giants E.ON and RWE have decided to scrap their plans to build new nuclear power plants in the UK. This could mean very bad things for the UK’s future energy plans. As many people already know, E.ON and RWE had been working on a proposal that would have seen £15 [...]

Switzerland’s decision not to build any new nuclear generating capacity will cost the country some CHF 30 billion ($33 billion) up to 2050, according to the country’s Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). The department has undertaken a modeling of Switzerland’s energy future to 2050 which will be used in formulating the [...]

Yerevan, Armenia (AP) The Armenian government has decided to extend the operation of the country’s sole nuclear power plant until a new nuclear reactor is built. The landlocked and impoverished ex-Soviet nation depends on the Medzamor plant for nearly half of its energy consumption. The Soviet-built plant was to be shut down in 2016, but [...]

India is planning the maiden test flight this week of its first inter-continental nuclear-capable ballistic missile “Agni Five”. And its launch could be as early as Wednesday. This longest-range ballistic missile is said to be able to travel more than 5,000 kilometers within 18 to 20 minutes. Theoretically, it has the potential to reach all [...]

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) has welcomed a new chairman and announced the resignation of its director general. CEO and president of Cameco Tim Gitzel today began a two-year term as chairman of WNA, taking over from the president and COO of Exelon, Chris Crane, who moves into the vice-chair position. Gitzel’s first duty as [...]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has announced it will use a robot Wednesday at Fukushima to check for damage to the suppression pool at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel, the company said Tuesday. “We want to check whether there is no deformation or damage in the suppression pool. And, with [...]

Japan’s government wants to restart two nuclear plants to avert summer power shortages, but public skepticism of nuclear safety and the industry remains high. The prospect of power shortages in Japan this summer, of stifling city apartments and manufacturing slowdowns, has divided a country still reeling from the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl over whether [...]

Japan is evaluating a wide range of nuclear fuel cycle options as part of the larger review of the future role of nuclear power within energy policy, a government minister told the annual meeting of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum. Goshi Hosano holds a range of positions in the Japanese government: Minister for the Environment, [...]

Nuclear energy in Negros is not an option, several groups in the province said yesterday in reaction to Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco’s call Monday for the establishment of nuclear power plants in the country, including Negros Occidental, to ensure cheaper electricity and to save the country from power shortages that will cripple its economic [...]

In an operation lasting just over two hours, the dome of the containment building of Fangchenggang 1 was raised 65 meters above the ground and lowered into place on 13 April, which officials said was 17 days ahead of schedule. The dome has a diameter of 37 meters, a height of 11 meters and a weight [...]

AREVA announced the arrival in China, at the beginning of April, of the first two steam generators and the pressurizer for Unit 1 on the site of the Taishan EPR power plant. After leaving the port of the AREVA Chalon-St Marcel plant, these heavy components were first transported to Fos-sur-Mer in the South of France, [...]

18 Apr (NucNet): Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom says it intends to fulfill its obligations under a contract signed to supply two 1,000-MW VVER units at the Belene nuclear site in Bulgaria and talk of possible compensation for the abandoned project is premature. Rosatom deputy director-general Kirill Komarov said the Bulgarian side had signed [...]

There’s more on oil prices today from Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney. Yesterday, the bank acknowledged what Canadian oil producers know all too well: a combination of pipeline constraints and soaring light oil production in the United States means much of what they sell into the American Midwest is fetching a price that is [...]

April 18,2012 --

Judge Angela Minkin recently decided to dismiss Nevada Hydro Co.’s application to build a transmission line for the 600-MW Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage project.

A handful of Canadian firms zero in on renewable energy's biggest challenge

Westinghouse has been awarded a contract to apply the Underwater Laser Beam Welding process (ULBW) at Progress Energy’s (NYSE: PGN) single-unit, 724 MW Robinson Nuclear Plant in Hartsville, S.C.  This will be the first application of the ULBW process, which has been applied previously in Japan, at a U.S. nuclear plant. Developed jointly by Westinghouse [...]

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday his country has never promised the United States it would hold off from attacking Iran while nuclear talks were taking place. The comments, in which Mr. Barak said that a diplomatic push to reach a compromise with Iran was a waste of “precious time,” further exposed a rift [...]

Denison’s American mining division will be combined with the uranium development company Energy Fuels to create the largest “pure-play” uranium producer in the USA. Toronto-based Energy Fuels and Denison Mines have agreed that Energy Fuels will acquire all of Denison’s US-based mining assets and operations in exchange for over 425 million Energy Fuels shares which [...]

KHNP is the state-owned utility that operates 23 nuclear power reactors. The move by Kim was announced to journalists by the responsible minister, Sukwoo Hong, who added that the resignation is expected to be accepted by President Lee Myung-bak. According to that expected schedule, Hong will now consider a range of candidates for Kim’s replacement. [...]

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy denied on Tuesday, April 17 an allegation by the former head of French nuclear group Areva that he had sought to sell a nuclear reactor to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi until mid-2010, Reuters reported. “There was never any question of selling a reactor to Mr. Gaddafi,” Sarkozy told France Inter radio, [...]

Moscow, April 17 (Xinhua) — Russia has called on Tehran to fulfill its obligations in order to regain international trust in its nuclear program. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a media conference Tuesday Moscow was concerned over some aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, but had no information to confirm military components in Iran’s program. [...]

French power giant GDF Suez warned Monday that it needs more “incentives” to build a nuclear power station at Sellafield. Gérard Mestrallet, CEO of GDF, said he wanted talks with the government about the right fixed or minimum price for producing nuclear energy. “We are, with our partners, going to make a decision in 2015 [...]

The qualification testing of the reactor coolant pump (RCP) for the first Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, under construction in China, has been successfully completed in the USA. The first two such pumps will now be shipped to the construction site for installation. The main pumps circulate the reactor coolant through the core, loop piping and steam generators. [...]

Look for Canadian crude oil discounts to return as a “major theme” as first-quarter results trickle out later this month, CIBC World Markets Inc. analyst Andrew Potter says. Discounts against synthetic crude oil and Western Canada Select, which hit US$23 and US$35.50, respectively, in February, could last until 2014, the analyst says. “We believe that Q1 [...]

The leaders respond to questions about jobs, small business, taxes, energy and the environment

To the list of foreign players busy gobbling up minority stakes in North American energy assets you can add Russia. ExxonMobil Corp. confirmed today that it had reached an agreement with Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft. The deal gives the Irving, Texas-based giant access to exploration blocks in the Russian Black Sea and Kara Sea. [...]

April 16,2012 --

Construction of 10 new small hydropower plants along Serbia's Studenica and Ibar rivers will begin this summer, according to a release from the city of Kraljevo.

April 16,2012 --

The United Kingdom will fund up to two pre-commercial ocean power devices as part of its US$32 million Marine Energy Array Demonstrator Scheme, with a deadline of April 20 to register for a pre-submission briefing.

A surge in crude oil production from the Bakken formation has exacerbated a bottleneck at the Midwest oil hub of Cushing, Oklahoma. A decade ago, few outside the oil and gas industry had ever heard of the Bakken shale play, which encompasses North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But production from the U.S. portion of [...]

April 16,2012 --

India's power ministry has set a goal of adding 10,000 MW of hydroelectric power generation within the next five years, sources report.

Amid modest growth prospects, western province looks to diversify exports

April 13,2012 --

The 111-year-old Stuyvesant Falls hydroelectric plant is on the verge of reactivation as an eight-year rehabilitation project draws to a close, sources report.

South Korea may expand record imports of power-station coal as a nuclear-plant failure that was hidden for a month stokes opposition to atomic energy a year after Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEP), the nation’s electricity monopoly, says it may boost coal purchases to replace nuclear power generation if the Kori 1 reactor [...]

South Korea is planning a sweeping overhaul equipment at its nuclear power plants in order prevent serious accidents and restore public confidence, the government announced Friday. The plan, by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, will check the operating systems of the country’s nine reactors that have been operation for more than 20 years. Korea has [...]

Pyongyang/Seoul — North Korea said its much hyped long-range rocket launch failed on Friday, in a very rare and embarrassing public admission of failure by the hermit state and a blow for its new young leader who faces international outrage over the attempt. The isolated North, using the launch to celebrate the 100th birthday of [...]

April 13,2012 --

Chilean power producer AES Gener is seeking a loan of up to US$200 million for its 531-MW Alto Maipo hydroelectric project, according to a proposal submitted to the Inter-American Development Bank.

A transportable plant that aims to demonstrate a process to recover uranium as a by-product from the phosphate fertilizer industry is about to start operations in the USA. The PhosEnergy process is being commercialized by Australian company Uranium Equities (UEQ) and Canadian uranium producer Cameco, under a strategic alliance agreement. Developed by 63% Cameco-27% UEQ-10% [...]

After years of failure, Iran and the six world powers may finally make some progress on nuclear negotiations when they meet again Saturday if each side shows willingness to offer concessions the other seeks. But even if the two sides find enough common ground, they may have a tougher time in any potential second round. [...]

Germany’s emissions of carbon dioxide edged down by 2.2% last year, even while those from its power sector grew in the wake of post-Fukushima reactor closures. The main effects from the shutdowns have been a cut in exports previously supported by nuclear and the financial impact of this on utilities.  Official figures from the Federal [...]

The amount of electricity generated by nuclear power plants worldwide fell by just over 4% in 2011, primarily due to reactors being idled in Japan following the Fukushima accident and Germany’s reflex reaction to close its older units. Total nuclear electricity generation in 2011 was 2518 TWh, 4.3% less than the 2630 TWh generated in [...]

13 Apr (NucNet): British prime minister David Cameron has signed an agreement that opens the country’s nuclear market to “Japanese companies’ technical expertise in new plant design and construction”. In return, British companies could be called upon to help the clean-up at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in the wake of last year’s earthquake and tsunami. [...]

Brussels- Renewable energy does not have more right to an EU target than other fuels, according to pro-nuclear states and coal-intensive Poland, as debate heats up over updating a 2020 goal to have a 20 percent share of green fuel in the energy mix. The comments from Britain and France, as well as Poland, have [...]

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty might be a Toronto guy, but as a skilled politician, he knows how to tailor his message to the crowd he’s talking to. So as he visited Alberta’s capital Thursday to speak at an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce luncheon, he made the attendees feel good at the expense of Canada’s [...]

Rule one for corporate boards: avoid complacency

Dan the baboon sits in front of a computer screen. The letters BRRU pop up. With a quick and almost dismissive tap, the monkey signals it’s not a word. Correct. Next comes, ITCS. Again, not a word. Finally KITE comes up. He pauses and hits a green oval to show it’s a word. In the [...]

Oil prices inched above US$103 a barrel Thursday, tracking a rise in financial markets, while traders turned their attention to negotiations this weekend over Iran’s nuclear program. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil for May delivery was up 50 cents to US$103.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New [...]

Falls Church VA–(Marketwire – April 12, 2012) – Curtiss-Wright Flow Control’s business unit, Scientech, has reached an agreement with URS Corporation and with Paul C. Rizzo Associates, Inc. (RIZZO) to jointly provide seismic, flooding, other external hazard evaluation and Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) Services to the US commercial nuclear power market. These world-class organizations are [...]

A world climate change expert has said the UK should not build any more coal-fired power stations. Nasa scientist Dr James Hansen was speaking to BBC Scotland ahead of being awarded the prestigious Edinburgh Medal at the city’s Science Festival. Plans have been put forward for coal-fired facilities at Grangemouth and Hunterston in Ayrshire. Dr [...]

Geneva, April 12 (Reuters) – India has vaulted to the top of the list of Iran’s oil customers, overtaking China, in a first-quarter buying surge ahead of tighter sanctions against Tehran this summer, data published by a leading industry consultant showed. Direct imports to India from Iran were 433,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the [...]

The team mandated to develop the country’s nuclear power plant is seeking an additional Sh300 million every year in budgetary allocation, to fund staff training. This will bring the amount allocated annually to the Nuclear Electricity Project Committee to Sh500 million. The committee has a secretariat of 42 staff, and is in the process of [...]

NuScale Power has partnered with NuHub – an economic development initiative in South Carolina – to pursue the deployment of a demonstration unit of its small modular reactor (SMR) at the Savannah River site. The partners propose to team up with one or more utilities to assist NuScale in its design certification process with the [...]

Namibian state mining company Epangelo is set to take an active role in the development of the Etango uranium project after Bannerman Resources agreed to sell it a 5% stake in the project for which a definitive feasibility study has just been completed. Australian company Bannerman has signed a binding agreement allowing Epangelo to acquire [...]

Ministers formally agreed to authorise the country’s minister of economy and energy to submit a report to the Council of Ministers on the merits and legalities of the project. Construction cannot begin until the necessary licences and permits are obtained under national and European Union law. The announcement follows a recent government decision not to [...]

Goodbye cautious optimism. As the impact of a warm winter, record storage levels and slack demand begins to register on corporate balance sheets, market watchers are taking an increasingly dim view of natural gas in the short term. Kurt Hallead, co-head of global energy research at RBC Capital Markets, this morning slashed his outlook for [...]

April 12,2012 --

The town of Saint-Etienne has awarded a contract worth about US$870,000 to SPIE Sud Est and Hydreo mandataire Sud Est for work on Lavalette Dam.

April 11,2012 --

Sdruzení firem MVE Roudnice nad Labem has been awarded a contract worth about US$11 million for work on the Czech Republic's 4.2-MW Roudnice hydroelectric project.

April 11,2012 --

A recent study conducted by the Joint Research Commission and University College Cork has produced a new method to identify Europe's potential for pumped hydropower storage, a release says.

NB Power has finished reloading fuel at the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station as part of the facility’s refurbishment. Officials are calling the successful manual loading of 4,560 new fuel bundles a “milestone” and say they are on track to restart the reactor by the fall after three years of delays. The power utility will [...]

Beijing — A joke circulating among officials in Beijing pretty much underlines the bind China is in over North Korea’s plans to send a satellite into space. North Korea’s young ruler Kim Jong-un phones a Chinese leader to tell him about timing of the planned rocket launch. “When will it be?” asks the Chinese leader. [...]

On eve of French election, political rival accuses Sarkozy of trying to sell nuclear reactors to Gaddafi Paris — Nuclear warfare has broken out between France’s two main political parties 11 days before the first round of a presidential election, with a woman known as “Atomic Anne” launching a strike on President Nicolas Sarkozy. Anne Lauvergeon, [...]

Later this week, Iran is scheduled to meet with representatives of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – plus Germany (the so-called “P5+1”) in an effort to decide the fate of Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, North Korea is reportedly preparing its [...]

(Reuters) – Henri Proglio’s role as head of French state-owned power group EDF will be reviewed if Francois Hollande wins the presidential elections, one of the socialist candidate’s top advisers said. Proglio’s opposition to Socialist Party plans to reduce France’s use of nuclear power make his position at the head of the company delicate, said [...]

(Reuters) – Bulgaria’s government decided to Wednesday to start the process leading to construction of a 1,000 megawatt reactor at its Kozloduy nuclear plant on the Danube river after quitting the Belene nuclear project. The Balkan country will check whether it can install the reactor, already ordered from Russia’s Atomstroyexport, at the existing 2,000 MW [...]

British prime minister David Cameron met with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda in Toyko today as part of a trade mission. The leaders renewed their commitment to nuclear cooperation as begun in the 1960s. The two countries promised to continue working on nuclear safety, with the UK welcoming Japan’s efforts to create a new regulatory [...]

Unit 4 at China’s Qinshan Phase II has begun commercial operation. The announcement marks the successful conclusion of the project to add two more indigenously-designed units at the plant in Zhejiang province. At 9.05am on 8 April, the head of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Sun Qin, declared to workers and officials gathered in the [...]

The Financial — With the U.K. government looking at ways to address its growing stockpile of civil plutonium, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Nuclear Laboratory. NNL will provide expert technical input to the potential U.K. deployment of GEH’s innovative PRISM reactor, which would be specifically designed to disposition [...]

Washington lacks 'political comfort' with energy exports, API economist says

On CBC’s Edmonton AM radio show this morning, co-host Lydia Neufeld asked Alberta journalist and author Andrew Nikiforuk how Wiebo Ludwig, who died on his farm just north of Hythe, Alberta on April 9 from esophagal cancer, would be remembered by Albertans. Nikiforuk, the author of Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, replied that he thought Ludwig would [...]

April 9,2012 --

Arcadis has signed a deal worth US$146 million with Norte Energia S.A. to provide owner’s engineering services for Brazil's massive Belo Monte hydroelectric project.

Suddenly everyone is lowering expectations for Canadian crude oil. Last week CIBC World Markets analyst Andrew Potter revised his Brent-West Texas intermediate (WTI) differential outlook to $10 per barrel, up from $3 previously, through to 2014. That disconnect is likely to evaporate by late 2013, he says, with the start-up of the southern leg of [...]

April 9,2012 --

The Bureau of Reclamation has issued a temporary directive and standard for Lease of Power Privilege requirements and processes effective for no longer than one year.

Millions earmarked for bio-energy would be better spent elsewhere, critics say

Rating agencies are vying to be the arbiters of good

April 5,2012 --

Welsh water agency Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig has awarded four contracts for hydro-electric generation services as part of its assessment management program.

Operation and maintenance work at the Robinson nuclear power plant will be supported by three new robots, recently purchased by plant owner Progress Energy. Robots and remotely operated vehicles can make a big difference to some complex maintenance tasks at nuclear facilities, as well as decommissioning. Being able to travel into areas that are inaccessible [...]

Tokyo, April 5 (Reuters) – Japan’s trade minister is set to visit Fukui prefecture, home of Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi nuclear plant, as early as Sunday to ask for local approval to restart the plant’s No.3 and No.4 reactors, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Thursday. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Trade Minister Yukio Edano, who [...]

India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has become the 11th member of the Multinational Design Evaluation Program (MDEP), which pools resources of national regulators for reviewing new nuclear power reactor designs. Administered by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), MDEP is a program through which national regulators are working to share technical data and standardize [...]

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is operating again after its winter break. Early on Thursday, opposing stable beams of protons were smashed into each other at four observation positions. The total collision energy in these bunches of sub-atomic particles was eight trillion electron volts – a world record. Scientists expect the big boost in capability [...]

Areva, the world’s largest maker of atomic reactors, predicted the market for uranium will suffer from a glut before nuclear fuel demand rebounds from 2014 as the industry reels from last year’s meltdown in Japan. “In two years, there will be very strong demand on the market, as new reactors start operating, and as new [...]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on April 5 provided an update on the progress of construction at the Watts Bar 2 nuclear power plant near Spring City, Tenn. Expected to be completed by 2013 with a total cost of $2.49 billion, TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said the estimates on both cost and time [...]

Officials push for more collaboration with domestic businesses by bidders With less than four months to go until bids are due in the tender to expand the Temelín nuclear power plant, competition is heating up, and bidding companies are battling not only to stand out as the most qualified and cheapest, but also the most [...]

Construction has started on an integrated test facility for the passive core cooling system for the CAP1400 reactor under development by China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC). A groundbreaking ceremony and the pouring of first concrete for the test facility – known as the Advanced Core-cooling Mechanism Experiment (ACME) – took place on 28 [...]

We’ve written a lot about the Kitimat LNG project here at Energy Ink. But the focus is usually on how lead proponent Apache Canada Ltd. feels about the $5 billion export scheme aimed at shipping the chilled fossil fuel from British Columbia’s West Coast to Asian markets. Today, I bring you the perspective of one [...]

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) laid down the hammer today (April 4) on Suncor Energy Inc., slapping the oil sands heavyweight with three charges for “alleged offences related to a spill of synthetic based mud from the mobile offshore drilling unit Henry Goodrich operating in the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area.” In [...]

Jim Ferland has resigned as president and CEO of Westinghouse to take up the same title at Babcock & Wilcox instead. Ferland had led Westinghouse for only a few days since previous head Aris Candris retired. The “personal decision” to make the sudden move came as a surprise, Westinghouse told World Nuclear News. The reactor [...]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that a nuclear-armed Iran or a conflict over its program would both destabilize the region as she pressed Tehran for clear commitments in forthcoming talks. As Israel voiced growing impatience over Iran, Clinton credited US sanctions with inflicting pressure on the Islamic republic but she warned of a [...]

April 4,2012 --

Energy producer Fortum has completed a deal that transferred ownership of 14 small hydropower plants to Kosienergia Oy effective March 30.

India has introduced a nuclear-powered submarine into its navy, becoming the sixth country in the world to operate such a warship.The submarine has been leased from Russia. Defense Minister A.K. Antony formally commissioned the 8,140-ton nuclear submarine into the navy at a ceremony Wednesday in the eastern port of Vishakhapatnam. He says the ship will [...]

Grafenohr, Germany — Two high-ranking U.S. senators have criticized the Chinese government for failing to halt counterfeiting of military parts, citing a Government Acccountability Office report that found bogus components were easy to obtain on the Internet from suppliers in China. The GAO report was commissioned by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate [...]

Prague – German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Czech leaders Tuesday their decision to reject a new EU fiscal treaty would not pose a threat to the plan to limit government overspending in Europe. The Czech Republic, along with Britain, were the only two European Union countries not to sign the accord last December. The other [...]

Electricite de France SA, the world’s biggest operator of atomic plants, remains committed to developing nuclear reactors in the U.K. even after Germany’s two biggest utilities abandoned projects in the country. EDF has no intention of following EON AG and RWE AG (RWE), which announced last week they’ll scrap a plan to build reactors in [...]

“India needs to develop nuclear energy in addition to all other forms of energy to meet its ever-growing demand. With a large pool of talented engineers and scientists, India can confidently manage a large nuclear energy program safely and efficiently,” M.R. Srinivasan, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, and expert committee member on Kudankulam Nuclear [...]

Project to build a plant that reuses UK’s stores of plutonium waste moves closer after US giant signs agreement with national lab A plan to reuse the UK’s enormous stockpile of plutonium waste as fuel for a new nuclear power station at Sellafield moved a step closer today, after GE Hitatchi (GEH) signed an agreement [...]

Korea Electric Power Corporation will hold detailed discussions with United Arab Emirates about building four more nuclear reactors. Korea Electric Power, or Kepco, is keen to build on its success after it headed a consortium that won a $20.4 billion contract in 2009 to build four nuclear reactors in the U.A.E. The company expects the first [...]

April 4,2012 --

Trustees of the New York Power Authority have approved a US$1.6 million contract to Ferguson Electric of Buffalo to assist in the Life Extension and Modernization (LEM) program at NYPA's Niagara Power Project’s Lewiston Pump-Generating Pl.......

Cost inflation and the prospect of LNG cargoes departing from American shores have some analysts questioning the viability of Australian proposals that together would pump some 70 million tonnes of the super-cooled product per year onto global markets. Noelle Leonard, a Perth-based consultant with Facts Global Energy, suggested yesterday that North American exports could undercut [...]

April 4,2012 --

Kenya's Ministry of Energy has awarded a six-month contract to Economic Consulting Associates for an economic and feasibility study.

Small-cap oil and gas stocks feel the brunt of investor anxiety

Liability issues continue to slow commercial projects

Derided as 'government waste' in Alberta, CCS finds a foothold in the North Sea

The need to break a natural gas supply glut has proponents rushing to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects in the United States and Canada. It’s easy to understand why the interest is high. Natural gas prices in North America are in the tank and producers are anxious to sell their product to Asian [...]

Twin developments yesterday spell bad news for TransCanada Corp. as it looks to rejig the cost of shipping natural gas from Western Canada along its beleaguered mainline. Spectra Energy Corp. chief executive Greg Ebel surprised no one by indicating yesterday that Union Gas Ltd., the firm’s Canadian-based subsidiary, is keen to bring U.S. shale gas [...]

Pragmatism trumps politics in new monitoring apparatus

April 2,2012 --

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$132 million loan for Cameroon's 56-MW Lom Pangar hydropower project.

Fracking has unlocked large quantities of oil and natural gas, but the method takes a lot of water to get the fossil fuels to the surface

'Any good business wants more than one good trading partner'

It's 'the biggest challenge we have right now,' Talisman vice-president says

March 30,2012 --

Recent leaking at Nigeria's 760-MW Kainji hydroelectric plant has led the country's government to shut the facility down indefinitely and reaffirm its commitment to rehabilitating and improving it, sources report.

March 30,2012 --

Green energy advocate RenewableUK says the United Kingdom and Scotland must increase their investments in wave and tidal power in order for the energy sector to ever reach its full potential, according to a recent release.

March 30,2012 --

Peruvian utility Energia Azul and the China Gezhouba Group have signed a memorandum of understanding that will advance development of the 750-MW Santa Maria hydropower plant, reports say.

Every spring it happens – the frozen earth in Western Canada thaws, turning dirt roads and drill sites into soupy messes and rigs across the region stop operations and wait it out. It’s called spring breakup and during April and May drilling activity in much of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin comes to a standstill [...]

Two leaders aren't that far apart on some critical issues

London  — Britain’s plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors suffered a serious setback Thursday when two German energy companies decided to abandon a multibillion-dollar nuclear power project because of costs. RWE and E.On said they would not proceed with a £15 billion, or $24 billion, joint venture to build nuclear power plants in [...]

One year after Fukushima stalled its nuclear program, the Chinese government is preparing to restart the engine. During China’s parliamentary season this month, the government put out a number of signals that the moratorium on approving new nuclear-power plants may soon be lifted. Wen Jiabao’s government work report mentioned the “safe and efficient development of [...]

French-Algerian Adlene Hicheur accused of conspiring to organize attacks with north African wing of al-Qaida A former nuclear scientist at Switzerland’s Cern laboratory, famous for its Hadron collider that aims to recreate the conditions of the big bang, has gone on trial for allegedly plotting terror attacks in France. Adlene Hicheur, 35, who is French-Algerian, [...]

On March 28, 2012, Chinese President Hu Jintao left Seoul for New Delhi after attending the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit. In New Delhi, Hu will attend the fourth summit of BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. At the Nuclear Security Summit, Hu delivered an important speech with the title of Deepening [...]

(Reuters) – A radical lowering of Poland’s shale gas estimates strengthen the need to develop nuclear energy in the European Union’s largest eastern member, the head of Poland’s top utility PGE, Krzysztof Kilian, said on Thursday. Poland has embarked on a number of energy projects including shale gas, nuclear energy or liquefied natural gas, to [...]

Bulgaria’s former President Georgi Parvanov (2002-2012) has expressed his deep disappointment with the fact that his country abandoned the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project. Bulgaria´s centrist-right GERB government announced on Wednesday it has abandoned plans to build the new, 2000 megawatt nuclear power plant on the Danube River for which it had contracted Russian state [...]

The nuclear energy industry is facing international and domestic challenges and competition, even though several new American plants will likely get their final approval this week, Westinghouse Electric Co.’s new president and CEO said. Jim Ferland, who takes over at Westinghouse April 1, said the nuclear industry is in the middle of a renaissance, but [...]

Iran’s nuclear program and energy are among Turkey’s top priorities during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Tehran. Ahead of the talks, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said: “We don’t have a common goal with Iran on the subject of nuclear power plants.” Iran is among several nations which want to build a nuclear [...]

A battle could be brewing between natural gas firms seeking export deals with overseas buyers as a means to lift prices at home and domestic chemical companies counting on bargain basement commodity prices to drive growth plans. Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, is worried that exporting domestic supplies of natural gas “indiscriminately” [...]

President Obama has not had much luck with microphones.  The President’s unscripted exchange with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday in Seoul became the latest “whisper heard round the world.” Unbeknownst to either leader, microphones caught Obama’s assurance that he would have more “flexibility” after the November presidential election to resolve tough issues like [...]

The Cold War may have long since ended, but France still maintains a fleet of nuclear-armed submarines and strike planes – and more than 300 warheads. Why? And are the French people still comfortable with being a nuclear power? At the end of January Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party’s candidate for the French presidency, visited [...]

Tehran – Long-stalled talks between Iran and world powers are to be revived on April 13 at a place yet to be agreed, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Wednesday. “The date has been set, but the negotiations for the venue are still ongoing,” Salehi told AFP. “Turkey has announced its readiness to [...]

UAE takes concrete steps in pushing for international cooperation to ensure weapons don’t fall into wrong hands The world is inevitably moving to rely more on nuclear power, as the population continues to grow and get richer. As more people seek ever more energy to power their better lifestyles, it is clear that fossil fuels [...]

The Canadian oil and gas industry’s push to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas is an issue we’ve written about often. But the focus has been on how companies like Apache Canada Ltd., Progress Energy Resources Corp. and the B.C. LNG Export Co-operative plan to get natural gas supplies from northeastern British Columbia to those [...]

Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday hailed his country’s relations with China as being “stronger than steel” when he made a brief stopover in the northeastern port city of Tianjin near here on his way home from the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul. Mr. Gilani met with the Mayor of Tianjin, Huang Xing [...]

Sofia, March 28 (Reuters) – Bulgaria has abandoned plans to build the 2,000 megawatt Belene nuclear power plant on the Danube River and will construct a new gas power plant instead, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Wednesday. The Belene project has failed to attract serious foreign investors in the past three years after Germany’s [...]

The owner of Finland’s Olkiluoto nuclear plant has announced the bidding and engineering phase of a project to construct a fourth reactor at the site. Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj  (TVO) announced in a release that it expects bids by early 2013 from Areva, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toshiba. [...]

28 Mar (NucNet): India is pushing ahead with plans to increase its nuclear energy generation capacity to 62,000 megawatts by 2032, up from 4,391 MW today, the country’s prime minister has said. Manmohan Singh also reiterated that India plans to create an “independent and autonomous” body, to be known as the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of [...]

March 28,2012 --

Renewable energy company Euro Hydro Power (Asia) Holdings Inc. will launch a feasibility study for its 5-MW Lake Sebu hydropower plant in the Philippines, sources report.

Kinder Morgan Canada said yesterday it would extend an open season as it seeks firm commitments from shippers for an expansion to its Trans Mountain pipeline to Canada’s West Coast. The Canadian arm of Dallas-based Kinder Morgan aims to double capacity on the Pacific-bound line, from 300,000 to 600,000 barrels per day. Among other products, [...]

'It's the third-largest pressure pumping market in the world,' Trican boss says

The synergies between nuclear safety and security were highlighted at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, where world leaders concluded that the right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes must not be hampered by measures to strengthen nuclear security. The two-day Seoul meeting saw leaders from 53 countries gather to review [...]

Seoul — A defensive President Obama said Tuesday he wasn’t guilty of “hiding the ball” when an open microphone caught him pleading with the president of Russia to delay missile shield talks until after this year’s elections. “The only way I get this stuff done is If I’m consulting with the Pentagon, with Congress, if [...]

March 27,2012 --

India's government has appointed a committee tasked with expediting the identification of small hydropower production sites, sources report.

India’s prime minister has told a gathering of world leaders that nuclear safety is of utmost concern but the country needs nuclear energy. Manmohan Singh was speaking at a summit on nuclear security in Seoul. Although the summit is about how to tackle the threat of nuclear terrorism, India’s nuclear energy plans have faced protests [...]

Unit 1 of China’s Sanmen nuclear power plant has been connected to a nearby substation to provide offsite power for testing electrical systems. The reactor is set to begin operating next year. China National Nuclear Corporation said that the unit was successfully connected to the substation, which will supply it with medium-voltage power (220 kV), [...]

Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr affirmed on Monday 26/3/2012 that Egypt is keen on a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, Amr who is leading Egypt’s delegation to the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul told Yonhap news agency that nuclear security is of vital importance at this time of [...]

The good news if you’re in the natural gas business is that utilities are beginning to respond to low prices. With the commodity’s forward curve slumping closer to US$2 per MMBtu in the past two weeks, market watchers have noticed an uptick in natural gas-fired power generation compared to coal. ARC Financial Corp. chief economist Peter [...]

March 26,2012 --

Investments estimated at more than US$53 million will help pay for 21 new small hydropower facilities in Macedonia, according to the country's ministry of economy.

It’s on. Today, Alberta Premier Alison Redford called an election and part-time Alberta Oil columnist Graham Thomson predicts it will be a nasty one. As Thomson notes, Redford is not only facing the prospect of a testy 28-day campaign, but one where for the first time since 1993, the ruling Conservative Party faces the prospect [...]

March 26,2012 --

A historic hydropower plant near England's Yorkshire Dales is producing electricity for the first time in more than six decades following an eight-year restoration, sources report.

A centralized power systems makes inroads in remote locales

March 23,2012 --

The Isle of Wight Council wants to construct a multi-million dollar tidal energy facility off St. Catherine's Point, the BBC reports.

March 23,2012 --

Three new hydropower plants representing an investment of US $2.91 billion will be constructed in Indonesia, sources say.

March 23,2012 --

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved a US$400 million fixed spread loan for use on Pakistan's Tarbela IV Extension hydropower project.

The Department of Energy announced the availability of $452 million in federal funding for small modular reactor research Thursday, and Westinghouse was quick to jump on the chance to further development of its SMR design. The Toshiba subsidiary announced the same day that it would apply for money from the funds – appropriated by Congress [...]

Where does one of the world’s richest men put his money when it comes to powering the future?  When you’re Bill Gates, you go nuclear. The Microsoft Corp chairman and founder of the software giant touted a developing nuclear technology that wouldn’t need to replenish its fuel supply for more than half a century, thus [...]

The Obama administration wants China, India and 10 other nations to present plans detailing how they will curtail Iranian oil imports, saying past cuts aren’t enough to win them an exclusion from new U.S. sanctions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week granted Japan and European Union countries six-month, renewable exemptions from the measures that [...]

Areva, the Paris-based nuclear energy giant, said Friday that Korean nuclear companies have become more aggressive competitors while also serving as customers of the firm. “I think the Korean industry is a competitor and a customer and we respect both,” said Areva’s president and chief executive Luc Oursel in a press conference on the sidelines [...]

The unit is described as an integral design because the steam generators and reactor core both sit in the same pool of coolant – lead-bismuth at temperatures in the range 340-490 deg C.  It would be factory assembled and shipped to site in a module measuring 4.5 metres in diameter and 7.5 metres high ready [...]

Almost 200 experts and leaders from 36 states met at an industry summit in Seoul to discuss ways to ensure safety of nuclear energy one year after Fukushima’s atomic disaster in Japan A top industry leader on Friday defended nuclear power as the only realistic way to reduce global warming despite Japan’s atomic disaster last [...]

(Reuters) – French nuclear reactor builder Areva said it expected a recovery soon in global interest in nuclear projects following Japan’s Fukushima disaster, adding it will bid this year with EDF for Poland’s first nuclear project. Some countries announced plans to quit the nuclear industry after an earthquake and tsunami in March last year triggered [...]

Moscow, March 23 (Reuters) – Russia doubled foreign orders to build nuclear reactors last year and has a $50 billion order book for the next decade despite jitters over atomic power following the Fukushima disaster, its nuclear power chief said on Friday. State-owned Rosatom says it builds more nuclear plants worldwide than anyone else and [...]

A string of breakdowns, aging reactors and aftereffects of the Fukushima meltdown have come together to trigger the biggest crisis in Korea’s nuclear industry since its birth. With a parliamentary election less than three weeks away, some opposition candidates are joining forces to call for the scrapping of atomic energy plants. The intensifying political onslaught, [...]

Project-level regulation is similar in Australia and Alaska

March 22,2012 --

Emerging markets energy developer Joule Africa and the Republic of Cameroon have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of a new 450-MW hydroelectric plant.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said that next week’s nuclear summit to be hosted by South Korea will present a good opportunity to help countries around the world prevent the threats of nuclear terrorism. Yingluck also said that, in a joint interview with Korean correspondents on Wednesday ahead of the second biennial Nuclear Security Summit [...]

Takeover activity is poised to heat up in the Canadian uranium sector as energy-hungry China hunts for feedstock to fuel its growing family of nuclear reactors. The state-controlled China Daily recently reported that the country plans to buy more uranium mines abroad, and is looking in Canada. China also expects to import more uranium this [...]

Ottawa — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has left for a week long, three-country tour of Asia, the focus of which will be trade and nuclear security. The prime minister will begin his trip in Thailand, where he is expected to announce the launch of a study into whether a free-trade agreement between that country and [...]

South Korea and the U.S. are expected to reach a compromise soon to allow Seoul to develop longer-range ballistic missiles, President Lee Myung-bak was quoted Thursday as saying. The allies’ talks over revising the bilateral missile pact apparently gained momentum after North Korea unveiled its plan last week to launch a satellite on a long-range [...]

According to Nuclear Energy Insider, with £1.3 billion of the NDA’s annual £3 billion budget entering the supply chain at various levels below the SLCs, decommissioning service providers of every tier hope to grab a slice of the action at this year’s Nuclear Decommissioning Conference, April 17-18, Manchester. They’ll be in good company, too, with [...]

Bulgaria’s government has made it clear it is not daunted by the risk of being taken to arbitration by the Russian contractor in Belene nuclear project, should it decide to abandon it. “Bulgaria will not have to pay damages if it withdraws from Belene project. Formally the project is based on an intergovernmental agreement between [...]

The U.K. is considering a plan that uses General Electric’s PRISM fast reactors to deal with 100 metric tons of plutonium waste, according to an article by Scientific American. The fast reactors would transmute the plutonium and make it unusable for nuclear weapons purposes. “If they really want to get rid of plutonium, a fast [...]

As the Legislature enters the last month of the session a bill aimed at fostering construction of a nuclear power plant in Iowa is the subject of stepped up lobbying by opponents who want to kill the measure, while the utility company backing it has launched its own campaign. Consumer advocacy groups, joined by nuclear [...]

South Africa’s nuclear program will be included in the country’s 20 year Multi-Year Price Determination, the department’s deputy director general for nuclear, electricity and clean energy Ompi Aphane said Tuesday. The 20-year plan will replace the current practice of using three-year tariff determination cycle and should be finalized in June. South Africa introduced the multi-year [...]

Clean energy isn’t just for environmentalists

Alberta will have a single regulator for oil and gas development by next summer, Premier Alison Redford said yesterday. Addressing a dinner crowd at Calgary’s Westin Hotel last night, Redford said that the province’s so-called regulatory enhancement project will be complete by June 2013. The overhaul was undertaken as part of the Competitiveness Review launched [...]

De-risking a new play is never easy. The Duvernay shale is no different. We’ve written about the growing interest in this natural gas-prone reservoir before, but as companies big and small attempt to open up the Duvernay, they are encountering growing pains. As Calgary-based investment house Peters & Co. points out in a March 20 [...]

Vienna, March 21 (Reuters) – More still needs to be done to safeguard nuclear and radioactive materials given the scores of security incidents the U.N. atomic agency hears about each year, a senior official said on Wednesday. Khammar Mrabit, a director of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, said much had been achieved in the [...]

Ottawa — A month after engaging in some high-profile panda diplomacy in China, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is heading back to Asia, this time to talk trade with Thailand, Japan and, to a lesser degree, South Korea. The visit will seek to highlight Canada’s desire to engage not just China and India, which have figured [...]

Toronto - New nuclear reactors won’t be built in Ontario unless it’s good for the bottom line, Energy Minister Chris Bentley said Tuesday. “We’re working very hard on the question of any new build,” Bentley said. “We’re working very hard to make sure if we make a decision, it’s in the best interests of Ontario ratepayers [...]

Washington — The United States exempted Japan and 10 EU nations from financial sanctions because they have significantly cut purchases of Iranian oil, but left Iran’s top customers China and India exposed to the possibility of such steps. The decision means banks in these countries have been given a six-month reprieve from the threat of [...]

President Barack Obama will meet with China’s President Hu Jintao next week in Seoul as the United States seeks to keep up pressure on North Korea to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons program. North Korea and the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear development will be the backdrop for Obama’s meetings with world [...]

Milestones have been reached in the preparatory work for the international next generation fusion reactor, Iter, as Chinese and Italian suppliers complete the construction of key manufacturing facilities and trial versions of parts for the superconducting magnets. In late February China completed and shipped its first major component for the project – 660 meters of [...]

As the deadline for bids to construct two more units at the Czech Republic’s Temelin nuclear power plant approaches, local engineering and construction companies continue to sign cooperation agreements with the three shortlisted reactor vendors. In November 2011, Czech utility CEZ formally invited Areva, a Škoda JS/AtomStroyExport/OKB Gidropress consortium and Westinghouse to place their bids by [...]

Nuclear policies in Poland and other Eastern European countries appear to be conflicting with the hard-line approach taken by Germany and the anti-nuclear power sentiment seen in Switzerland and Italy. Poland’s state-run energy company PGE expects to be accepting technology bids for construction of the country’s first nuclear power station before the summer. The nuclear power plant [...]

A day after work resumed at a large nuclear power plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, anti-nuclear protesters are up in arms against the state government’s decision to begin work at the site. The construction of the nuclear power plant in Kudankulam was halted in September following protests from locals over safety concerns [...]

Aboriginal northerners want more from frontier exploration

According to Calgary-based investment house Peters & Co., Imperial Oil Ltd.’s Kearl oil sands project was 87 per cent complete at the end of 2011. And it was expecting the Imperial Oil to provide more definitive timing on the start-up of the $10.9 billion, 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) Kearl Phase 1 during its investor [...]

Soreq, Israel, March 20 (Reuters) – Israel is phasing out a civilian nuclear reactor to which it has admitted foreign inspectors while keeping a second reactor, widely believed to have produced atom bombs, off-limits, officials said on Tuesday. The small facility at Soreq, which began operations in 1960 with a one-time stock of uranium fuel [...]

Pyongyang makes overture to International Atomic Energy Agency as it announces plans to launch satellite on rocket North Korea has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to return, three years after expelling its nuclear monitors, the agency says. Without disclosing North Korea’s terms, the IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said it had received the invitation [...]

Libya’s deputy prime minister is meeting with authorities in Mauritania to urge them hand over Moammar Gadhafi’s intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, who has been in custody there since last week.  Libya is likely to face a diplomatic tug of war with France and the International Criminal Court over custody of the fugitive Libyan leader. Mauritanian [...]

Life in a small English town was brought to a standstill as two massive boilers from the decommissioned Berkeley nuclear power plant started their journey to Sweden where they will be recycled.   Local roads were closed to traffic as the boilers, each 21.3 metres long, 5 metres wide and weighing in at 310 tonnes, [...]

French chemicals makers urged President Nicolas Sarkozy and contenders in the election to reconsider their objection to shale gas and preserve nuclear power as energy costs are key to the industry’s competitiveness. “If we’re told no shale gas and less nuclear, and if we have to pay 50 percent more for energy, that’s a huge [...]

South Korea will invest 1.08 trillion won (around $1 billion) on research and development on the energy sector this year to explore fresh resources, the government said Tuesday. The funds will be spent for 19 energy projects divided into four divisions, including the development of energy resources, renewable energy development, nuclear power generation and radioactive [...]

Beijing: Ahead of a key global summit on atomic security, China today defended its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan as “mutually beneficial” and in accordance with international safeguards.Luo Zhaohui, the Director-General of Department of Asian Affairs, told reporters that China-Pak nuclear cooperation was being conducted under the supervision of International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear [...]

Pittsburgh, March 19, 2012 — Westinghouse Electric Co. completed fabrication of all 157 fuel assemblies and related components needed to operate the first-ever AP1000 nuclear power plant, Sanmen Unit 1, in Zhejiang province, China. Completion of fabrication is a major milestone for Westinghouse and its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Columbia, South Carolina, where the [...]

While the deadline for the signing of the project agreement for Bulgaria’s planned Belene nuclear power plant approaches, the government continues to seek partners to help finance the project. Russia’s AtomStroyExport (ASE) warned that it will stop work on the project unless the agreement is signed. OMZ Izhora announced that it had finished manufacturing the reactor vessel for [...]

A new study out today by Statistics Canada should be required reading for Dalton McGuinty. The Ontario premier last month suggested Alberta’s resource wealth had “knocked the wind out of” his province’s exporters and manufacturers by inflating the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. greenback. Alberta Premier Alison Redford demanded an apology. Jason [...]

Graham Corp., a designer and manufacturer of equipment for the oil refining, petrochemical and power industries, including the supply of components and raw materials to nuclear energy facilities, said it has been awarded $9.5 million in orders for nuclear energy facilities and an oil sands upgrader. Two orders received from Westinghouse Electric Co. were awarded [...]

Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe’s biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale. Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from [...]

Israel views the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran with greater urgency than the rest of the world, Israel’s defense minister said Monday. Ehud Barak also reiterated recent Israeli assessments that Iran’s nuclear program is on the verge of becoming immune to disruptions by a possible military strike. The remarks are likely to fuel already [...]

Throughout the past year, international government and state utility officials have said what happened in Fukushima, Japan, could never occur at any other nuclear power station in the world.  In Osaka Japan, a joint prefectural committee has recommended that the city issue a demand to Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to shut down its nuclear [...]

Unit had been readying to resume operation after 17 years The Unit 2 nuclear reactor at Bruce Power was shut down over the weekend because of a leak as it was being restarted after a refurbishment. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says there was no release to the environment because of a moderate leak Saturday, [...]

New Delhi: The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Monday gave the green light for work to start on a massive nuclear power station stalled for months amid protests over safety concerns, a report said. Tamil Nadu’s chief minister announced the decision to begin work on two 1000-megawatt nuclear reactors in Koodankulam with Russian [...]

Global use of nuclear energy could increase by as much as 100 percent in the next two decades on the back of growth in Asia, even though groundbreakings for new reactors fell last year after the Fukushima disaster, a UN report says. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has not yet [...]

India is looking towards the commissioning of two Russian-designed reactors at Kudankulam after the cabinet of Tamil Nadu gave its go-ahead.  ) The two Kudankulam reactors have a long and somewhat chequered history. First mooted as a project in the late 1980s under Indian prime minister Rajiv Ghandi and Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, work finally [...]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is reducing the number of contractors working on its Bellefonte project as it resets its priorities following recent rescheduling at Watts Bar 2. TVA formally decided in August 2011 to complete the partially built Bellefonte 1 reactor at Hollywood, Alabama, rather than building a brand new reactor at the site. [...]

March 19,2012 --

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) announces that the last remaining berth at its wave energy testing site has been taken.

In the third quarter of 2011, Canada exported an average of 2.19 million barrels of crude oil per day to the United States. That was the highest total exported to the U.S. in any quarter since 2009 and it illustrates how addicted the world’s biggest oil consumer is to Canadian crude. Many Americans still don’t [...]

March 19,2012 --

Enel Green Power announces its 85-MW Palo Viejo hydroelectric plant has been connected to the national grid.

March 19,2012 --

Representatives from the Basse-Normandie Region, the Ports of Normandy Authority and naval technologies manufacturer DCNS have signed a memorandum of understanding that allocates areas of the Port of Cherbourg for tidal turbine operations.

March 19,2012 --

A proposed change to a Washington state law could open the door for a US$2.5 billion pumped-storage station, sources report.

The Bakken shale play has become a household name among the energy industry’s cognoscenti. Bakken production on the United States portion of the play crossed the 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) threshold in November, 2011. And Bakken crude, coupled with increased production from the oil sands and tight oil in Saskatchewan, is largely responsible for [...]

Hal Kvisle is big on mentoring. Too bad other CEOs aren’t following his lead

Contractors are 'already finding it difficult to find people,' observer says

As the proxy war at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. lurches into spring, the Calgary-based firm is quietly expanding its toehold in the energy sector. The embattled railroad announced plans last week to provide exclusive service to transport frack sand from an operation Unimin Corp. expects to open in Wisconsin by 2013, Reuters reports. The move [...]

How would you rate Canada’s regulatory system? Joe Oliver, Canada’s Natural Resources Minister, is fond of citing the long-delayed Mackenzie Gas Project when he decries the current apparatus as an “unpredictable” and “needlessly complex” labyrinth of permits and approvals. Yet a very different picture emerged in a “bizarre” speech, as one astute watcher put it [...]

March 16,2012 --

Wave energy company Eco Wave Power will soon begin tests of a medium-scale power plant on a pier in the Black Sea.

This Thursday, TVA announced it will lay off about 430 contractors working on the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant project, citing the slow place of work at Watts Bar unit 2. “With construction at Bellefonte not beginning until fuel is loaded at Watts Bar 2, we are resetting priorities at Bellefonte,” said David Stinson, vice president of [...]

Brussels – Dozens of Iranian banks were blocked from doing business with much of the world as the West tightens the financial screws on a country it wants to prevent from developing nuclear weapons. The Belgium-based company that facilitates most international bank transfers on Thursday took the unprecedented step of blocking 30 Iranian banks from [...]

Global use of nuclear energy could increase by as much as 100 percent in the next two decades on the back of growth in Asia, even though groundbreakings for new reactors fell last year after the Fukushima disaster, a U.N. report says. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has not yet [...]

The Czech Republic’s $10 billion plan to build two atomic reactors near the German border that could supply electricity to the Bavarian industrial heartland is unraveling over financial and pricing disputes. CEZ AS (CEZ), Europe’s only utility with an atomic project out to bid, is beset by falling power prices and predictions that its financial [...]

Toronto - Federal regulators have given Bruce Power the go-ahead to restart a refurbished nuclear reactor 17 years after it was shut down. “It’s with a high degree of confidence today that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is authorizing the safe restart of Unit 2 at the Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station,” Ramzi Jammal, CNSC’s executive [...]

A little over a week before South Korea hosts the 50-nation Nuclear Security Summit, the government is trying to reassure the public over the safety of nuclear power following a blackout at a nuclear plant on the south coast and a public backlash about alleged cover-up attempts by officials. The Feb. 9 blackout at the [...]

Installation of the rebar counts as construction work related to nuclear safety, but for a nuclear plant the official start of construction doesn’t come until the pouring of first concrete – expected in several weeks’ time. The 1107 MWe Westinghouse AP1000s are expected to be completed and operation by 2016 and 2017. Plant owner Southern [...]

Tecnatom, an engineering company that provides services to the nuclear industry, has been awarded a contract by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) to develop emergency plans for Braka units 1 and 2 in the United Arab Emirates. The contract stipulates the developing of the site’s emergency plans, procedures supporting the plans, associated training programs, [...]

Sofia, March 16 (Reuters) – Bulgaria is set to abandon its plans to build a new, 2000 megawatt nuclear power plant on the Danube River for which it has contracted Russian state firm Atomstroyexport, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Friday. Borisov told state national BNT channel that he had sent ministers to Moscow last [...]

Growth eyed beyond industrial lodging

March 15,2012 --

BC Hydro has taken the next step toward a US$1.35 billion overhaul of its 126-MW John Hart Generating Station.

In another signal that South African authorities are warming to the need to exploit local reserves of shale gas, the National Planning Commission said yesterday that it saw natural gas providing “a rising share” of the energy mix because it was likely to be cheaper than exploring nuclear power options. It warned, however, that steps [...]

The European Commission is inviting comment from interested parties on whether a reduced scope non-compete agreement between Siemens and Areva continues to infringe anti-trust rules. The non-compete obligation was originally signed by the two companies in 2001 as they merged their reactor businesses together in a joint venture aimed at winning nuclear new build projects [...]

Abu Dhabi / The UAE is the “gold standard” on which other countries should model their quest for nuclear power, an international industry expert says. The Emirates has applied a “logical, well thought-out approach” to building the country’s first four reactors, said Dr Dale Klein, a former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The [...]

London/Rifts are developling in Europe over the future of nuclear energy after the Fukushima meltdown in Japan a year ago. While some nations, including Germany, Italy and Switzerland, have decided to pull out of nuclear energy altogether, others – notably France, Britain and Poland – are pushing ahead with plans to construct new reactors. Martin [...]

Areva has announced an alliance with risk-consulting company Etranco as a way to assist utilities deal with the new orders issued by the NRC as part of their post-Fukushima review. Released earlier this week, the orders require specified plants to implement various safety upgrades by 2016. The agreement is part of a global Safety Alliance [...]

The UK should rely on nuclear energy not offshore wind power to meet its electricity needs without spending too much money, a former chief scientist has suggested. Professor David King says in a report published today by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University that if the UK is going to [...]

Brussels — It has been evident for years that Europe needs an energy system that can cut dependence on fossil fuels, bring down future energy costs and fight climate change. But the Fukushima accident in Japan one year ago underscored the need for an energy source that will fill the gap left by declining nuclear [...]

The head of Poland’s largest power utility has said the company will begin taking bids for the country’s first nuclear plant in the coming weeks. Reuters quoted Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA chief executive Wojciech Ostrowski as saying it will tender bids within two months. The company has been planning to build two Generation III reactors [...]

Kazakhstan has not given up on its aim to build a nuclear power plant and intends to clarify its plans over the coming year, according to the country’s ministers. First Deputy Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov made the pledge during the presentation of a vision for the development of Kazakhstan’s power industry to 2030 to the country’s [...]

General Electric said today that its wastewater evaporation technology has been selected for use at a Fort McMurray-area in situ oil sands operation. The technology works in concert with once-through steam generators to reduce the volume of liquid waste from a facility plus increase the volume of boiler feed water available for steam generation. (Elsewhere, researchers are [...]

A majority of Americans would back a US strike against Iran if given evidence that Tehran was building nuclear weapons, even if it led to a surge in fuel prices. ­A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Tuesday that 56 per cent of Americans would support US military action against Iran if it was proven that the country [...]

During the year that has passed since the earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, many have questioned the future of nuclear energy in nations around the world. While a few nations have decided in the wake of Fukushima to move abruptly away from nuclear energy, many others have taken this opportunity [...]

(Reuters) – A U.S. non-proliferation expert said on Tuesday he has identified a building at the Parchin military site in Iran suspected of containing, currently or previously, a high-explosive test chamber the U.N. nuclear watchdog wants to visit. David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, said he studied commercial satellite imagery [...]

(Reuters) – Germany’s Siemens and France’s Areva have offered commitments to the European Commission in an anti-trust case over their former nuclear power joint venture, the EU’s competition regulator said. The case concerns a non-compete clause signed by the two firms as part of joint venture Areva NP – formed in 2001 – which still [...]

(CNN) — The massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan one year ago understandably raised questions about the safety of America’s nuclear energy facilities. Americans should know that all U.S. nuclear energy plant safety systems have been verified by the companies operating them as well as deemed safe by the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Equally important, [...]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) will host a nuclear industry suppliers conference in West Cumbria, England to meet face-to-face with potential U.K. business partners in support of GEH’s proposal to offer its PRISM technology to help address the country’s plutonium waste management challenges. GEH will hold the conference on April 4 at the ENERGUS center [...]

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) The head of the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said Wednesday he did not believe Taiwan’s yet-to-be-completed fourth nuclear plant could operate smoothly as stated by its constructor recently. Atomic Energy Minister Tsai Chuen-horng made his remark when asked by Kuomintang Legislator Chiang Nai-hsin whether he believed the fourth nuclear power plant [...]

Four veteran environmentalists have warned that the government’s plans for the UK’s nuclear power sector could see the country’s climate and energy policies under French control. The four environmentalists - Jonathon Porritt, Tom Burke, Charles Secrett and Tony Juniper - have written to Prime Minister David Cameron pointing out that the majority stakes in the UK’s energy major EDF and [...]

March 14,2012 --

Spanish-based construction firm Copisa has been awarded a contract for construction of a new hydroelectric plant, sources report.

March 14,2012 --

The Jamaican Public Service Company Ltd. (JPS) has formed an internal team designed to fast-track the addition of more renewable energy to the electrical grid.

Take a hard look at China, Ian Nathan, a senior research analyst and specialist in global natural gas, LNG and national oil companies at Energy Intelligence in New York, urged a morning audience at an Arctic oil and gas conference in Calgary yesterday. The market widely viewed as a sop for excess North American natural [...]

When Canadians think of nation-building, they think back into history – the Transcontinental Railway, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Trans-Canada Highway. Now in the 21st century, we are on the threshold of a new era of nation-building. Canada has enormous untapped resource wealth, and planned energy megaprojects – oil, natural gas, hydro – that hold [...]

Researchers look to biofilms for help with reclamation

Iran on Tuesday rejected allegations it attempted to clean up radioactive traces possibly left by secret nuclear work at a key military site before granting UN inspectors permission to visit the facility. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in Tehran that the allegations were misleading and false, and insisted that such traces could not [...]

Vienna — Eighty per cent of the world’s nuclear power plants are more than 20 years old, which could impact safety, a draft U.N. report says a year after Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Many operators have begun programs, or expressed their intention, to run reactors beyond their planned design lifetimes, said the International Atomic Energy Agency [...]

Environmentalists said Taipower wasted taxpayers’ money promoting nuclear power and falsely claimed Taiwan would face power shortages without it Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) released misleading information to the media and public that power rationing would have to be implemented if nuclear power plants were shut down, environmentalists said yesterday. Saying the misinformation was a bid [...]

Seoul: US President Barack Obama will visit the tense military border between the two Koreas and address a message to the communist state during a trip to South Korea this month, a report said on Monday. Obama will tour the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) during his visit to attend the March 26-27 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, [...]

The fuel pond of Fukushima Daiichi 4 will be inspected by an underwater robot this month as an early step in the program of work to remove the used nuclear fuel from the building. Unit 4 had been out of service at the time of last year’s natural disasters; its reactor vessel open and emptied [...]

Determined to develop its nuclear industry to meet its booming energy needs, Poland is tired of lectures from its environmentally conscious neighbor Germany. After all, Poles argue, the Germans have benefited from nuclear power for decades. The differing energy philosophies threaten to strain ties between the two countries. The street that will lead into Poland’s radiant future [...]

“Nuclear power provides 20 percent of America’s energy needs via 104 reactors in 31 states, from California to Arizona, Texas to Michigan, and Florida to New York.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave permits last month to build two nuclear reactors, the first time since 1979 when the partial reactor meltdown occurred at Three Mile [...]

‘There is no alternative’ nuclear advocacy allows energy companies to manipulate UK policy Aside from the pro-nuclear zealots, most protagonists in favour of nuclear power rely on “there is no alternative” advocacy – because of climate change, energy security, the “lights going out”, we need nuclear, the argument runs. Such thinking is alive and well [...]

South Korea’s plan to install smart meters in half the country’s households by 2016 could cut electricity consumption equivalent to the cost of one nuclear power plant. “We want to make the utility industry intelligent and efficient,” said Choi Kyu Chong, director of the Smart Grid & Electricity Market Division of the Knowledge Economy Ministry. [...]

Expect China’s national oil companies (NOCs) – PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC Limited, et al. – to continue to scout the globe for M&A opportunities. That is the view of Erica Downs, a Chinese energy expert with the Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank Brookings Institute. And while it’s not breaking news, some of the factors driving [...]

March 13,2012 --

Rolls-Royce subsidiary Tidal Generation Limited has surpassed the 200-MWh mark of electrical power generated and fed into Scotland's national grid with its 500-kW tidal turbine prototype.

March 13,2012 --

Alstom Power Inc., has been awarded a US$12 million contract by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the replacement of turbine runners and overhaul units at the Trinity hydroelectric project.

Who would have thought a simple fundraiser could go so wrong? This weekend’s story that Gary Mar – who was hand-picked by Alberta Premier Alison Redford to be the province’s Asian envoy in Hong Kong last October – has been suspended without pay from his job, has me scratching my head. How could Mar, who [...]

EDF Group is set to become the fifth nuclear power plant operator to join the FTSE4Good index, having fulfilled the business index’s criteria for the nuclear industry. During a semi-annual review of the FTSE4Good index, its policy committee approved the inclusion of EDF following an in-depth analysis based on the inclusion criteria for nuclear power companies. [...]

A new major player has joined the US energy market after the merger of Exelon and Constellation received its final regulatory go-ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The closing of the merger concluded a process launched nearly 12 months ago, when the two companies announced their intention to come together in a $7.9 [...]

Industry leaders remain bullish on nuclear power’s prospects in coming decades, in part because of the high priority that has been placed on identifying and addressing potential weaknesses such as were revealed last year at Fukushima Daiichi. “Very little has changed… in respect of the future utilization of nuclear in the energy mix,” said the [...]

Protesters link arms worldwide on anniversary of Japanese disaster Tens of thousands of anti-nuclear protesters across the globe called for an end to nuclear power as they marked the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. In Japan, tens of thousands rallied near the crippled plant, demanding an end to [...]

Fledgling green industries could be hit as document reveals move to put nuclear power on equal footing with renewable energy The UK government wants nuclear power to be given parity with renewables in Europe, in a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation, according to a leaked [...]

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have reaffirmed their commitment to build a new nuclear power plant serving the Baltic states and have promised to work together to make sure progress is maintained. Prime ministers Andrus Ansip (Estonia), Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia) and Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania) confirmed their support for the construction of the [...]

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) has received the go-ahead for additional civil works at the site of the first nuclear power plant to be built in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ) The UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) plus environmental regulator the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) have approved amendments to the [...]

China Power Investment Corp signed an agreement with Duke Energy on Friday for nuclear power development, China Power President Lu Qizhou said Saturday. According to MarketWatch, specific details were not revealed, but Lu said China’s cooperation with the United States in the clean energy sector is increasing. On Thursday, Duke Energy also signed a memorandum [...]

A year after meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following a tsunami, the Polish government claims citizens have nothing to fear from the nation’s planned atomic plant. “Polish power plants are being created in keeping with the most stringent requirements of nuclear and radiological security,” assured Hanna Trojanowska, deputy minister of the economy and [...]

High prices and new tech unlock a budding oil play

March 9,2012 --

International technology group Andritz has obtained a majority share in Norwegian ocean power producer Hammerfest Strom AS.

March 9,2012 --

Representatives from the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ocean Energy Association of Japan (OEAJ) to develop a marine energy test center in Japan.

March 9,2012 --

Norwegian engineering and design firm Norconsult plans to re-open a branch in Nairobi in order to support an increasing number of Kenyan development projects.

A glimpse at a central Canadian powerhouse

'Hydro power is Manitoba's oil,' one executive says

Novel technologies for extracting heavy oil and oil sands are more easily promoted than implemented, it turns out. A third-party reserve report conducted by McDaniel and Associates Consultants has cut year-end proven reserves at Petrobank Energy and Resource Ltd.’s THAI Kerrobert project to zero from three million barrels, Dan Healing reports at the Calgary Herald. In [...]

Damage to a fractionation unit at Canadian Natural Resource’s Horizon oil sands project was found to be “significantly more severe than anticipated” following a shutdown early last month, company president and chief executive Steve Laut said today. Production at the oil sands project averaged 103,000 barrels daily through the fourth-quarter of 2011, an 11 per [...]

March 8,2012 --

Mavel has been selected to provide four Pit Kaplan turbines for the new Marseilles Hydroelectric Power Plant.

March 8,2012 --

The Bureau of Reclamation will give two lease of power privilege (LOPP) permits for the non-federal development of hydroelectric power on Reclamation's Uncompahgre Irrigation Project in Montrose County, Colo.

Tiverton, Ont. — The president of Bruce Power says the refurbishment of its Unit 2 nuclear reactor should be completed in the next few weeks. Duncan Hawthorne says the reactor at its Lake Huron site will undergo extensive testing before being returned to service. Hawthorne says work is continuing on Unit 1, which is a [...]

U.S. authorities have identified a supply chain that may have allowed fake cancer drugs to reach U.S. clinics and Canadians are connected to the investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The dealings of two Canadian businessmen, one in Winnipeg and one living in Barbados, are being examined by federal officials, the newspaper reported. One [...]

Paris, March 7 (Reuters) – French nuclear group Areva mishandled the $2.5 billion acquisition of Canadian start-up mining company UraMin in 2007, the outcome of a parliamentary probe said, sharing the conclusion of an earlier internal company inquiry. The parliamentary report’s authors, like Areva’s internal investigation, did not uncover any fraud, as some had feared, [...]

South Africa is waiting to divulge details about its pending nuclear project, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said Tuesday. “To date no directive has been given on the issue of the nuclear program,” she told reporters at the launch of energy month. Currently, no price has been set. According to the review, the nuclear project “in the [...]

Paris, March 7 (Reuters) – France voiced skepticism on Wednesday that a planned revival of talks between six world powers and Iran would succeed, saying Tehran still did not seem sincerely willing to negotiate on the future of its contested nuclear program. The EU’s foreign policy chief, who represents the United States, Russia, China, France, [...]

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNZ) sold debt yesterday at the lowest yield since 2008, even before the government ends a moratorium on building new atomic projects. CNNC Nuclear Power Co., a unit of China’s biggest operator of such plants, sold 1.5 billion yuan ($238 million) of five- year bonds at 4.86 percent, the lowest for [...]

Changsha – A company based in the city of Changsha has started building the first China-made reactor to process radioactive nuclear power plant waste, researchers said Wednesday. Changsha Boiler Plant Co Ltd (CBP) started building the plasma furnace on Tuesday at its base in the capital of central Hunan province, said Huang Wenyou, director with [...]

A newly released satellite image shows that North Korea has made progress in building a light-water reactor to expand its nuclear program, a private non-proliferation group has said. The 3 February image of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon was taken nearly a month before North Korea agreed to freeze major nuclear activities in return for [...]

Russia has offered Jordan a deal under which it will construct four nuclear power reactors. The proposal – similar to that offered to Turkey – is separate to the tender to supply the country’s first power reactor, the winner of which is set to be selected by the end of this month. Rosatom’s reactor export [...]

Canadian Pacific eyes West Coast bitumen deliveries modeled on business in Dakotas

New  York— Oil prices retreated on Tuesday as data showing a shrinking eurozone economy fuelled fears of curbed demand for petroleum, while news that major powers accepted Iran’s offer for more talks on its nuclear program eased concerns about supply disruptions. Oil, global equities and the euro came under pressure from worries about a global [...]

What’s the price tag of renewing Ontario’s nuclear generating fleet? The multi-billion-dollar answer is no clearer – and perhaps murkier – after Friday’s announcement of the first contract to overhaul the four reactors at the Darlington nuclear station. Consider: • There is no over-all price tag for the massive Darlington overhaul project. • There is no price [...]

President Barack Obama pushed back on Tuesday against suggestions that Washington was on the cusp of making a decision about possible military action against Iran, pledging to take a ’sober’ approach to dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. Amid mounting speculation that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear sites in coming months, Obama said that American politicians [...]

Washington — The United States, the European Union, China and Russia have agreed to resume long-stalled negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, the European Union said on Tuesday. The announcement comes amidst rising tensions fueled by tightening sanctions designed to compel Iran to suspend a uranium enrichment effort that the United States, other powers [...]

Washington – Last week’s agreement between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program – the first negotiated progress on the issue in four years – has spurred debate about whether the new deal will stick. While there has been widespread speculation about whether North Korea will really suspend work at its uranium [...]

Eight locations within Savannah River Site have been identified as venues for the development of small, portable nuclear reactors that could become commercially available in 10 to 20 years. We have the land and the expertise,” said Jim Giusti, a U.S. Energy Department spokesman at the 310-square-mile site. “They’re going to tell us what their [...]

Washington — North Korea has made progress in recent months on a home-built reactor that experts fear could be used to bolster the communist state’s nuclear weapons program, satellite images showed. The images, released this week by a private Washington-based think-tank, were taken on February 3, nearly a month before February’s surprise nuclear deal between [...]

Germany’s abrupt change in nuclear policy has put a dent of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in RWE’s results for FY2011. It also boosted power prices and raised carbon dioxide emissions, the company said in its annual report to shareholders. that saw declines in all its operating areas. Overall, electricity generation was 9% lower than FY2010, due [...]

The Scottish government will not oppose life extensions at the country’s two operating nuclear power plants provided safety and security are assured, according to a newly released policy statement. The draft Electricity Policy Generation Statement (EGPS) released by the Scottish government sets a number of targets and requirements, including a pledge to deliver “at least” [...]

A mismatch between oil supply and refinery demand on the U.S. Gulf Coast could “pose some problems for profitability” at the mega-plants designed to process heavier slates of crude, new research by Barclays Capital says. Gulf Coast refiners have spent big on coking additions – necessary to process heavy, sour grades of crude like Canada’s [...]

March 5,2012 --

State-owned utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has signed agreements to purchase power from 130 small hydropower plants, sources report.

March 5,2012 --

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved plans for a 300-KW tidal energy project near Maine's Cobscook Bay, according to members of the state's congressional delegation.

March 5,2012 --

State utility Latvenergo AS has awarded a contract to Sweco for work at the Plavinas and Kegums 2 hydroelectric plants.

Buying through authorized channels is supposed to reduce the risk of receiving counterfeit components, yet franchised distributors are among the most active adopters of counterfeit prevention measures. Counterfeit parts can enter authorized channels, and distributors are doing whatever they can to plug holes in the system. Say a “customer” orders 100 parts from an authorized [...]

First Uranium has announced the sale of its principle South African operating assets to AngloGold Ashanti and Gold One, while Cameco is to secure majority ownership of the Millennium Project in Canada through the purchase of Areva’s interest. Toronto-based First Uranium has entered agreements to sell its Mine Waste Solutions (MWS) tailings recovery project to [...]

The final feeder tubes have been installed at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, the last major construction hurdle associated with the refurbishment project that is now three years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget. NB Power and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. have been working on the installation of the 760 [...]

March 5,2012 --

The International Finance Corporation has agreed to buy an 11% share in PT Medco Power Indonesia, sources report.

The owner of Minnesota’s two nuclear power plants says it is preparing to spend $20 million to $50 million on safety upgrades and studies based on the lessons of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan a year ago this month. Like other U.S. nuclear plant owners, Xcel Energy is buying more diesel pumps and portable generators [...]

Canadian nuclear regulators have renewed the operating licences for Cameco’s nuclear fuel cycle facilities at Port Hope and Blind River. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has granted ten-year licence renewals for Cameco’s uranium refinery at Blind River and its fuel manufacturing plant at Port Hope. Both licences will be valid from 1 March 2012 [...]

Three significant developments took place in the world of nuclear energy recently. In Nairobi, the United Nations Environment Program UNEP released its 2012 Yearbook which includes a treatise on the closing and decommissioning of nuclear power reactors at the end of their lifespans. In London, the U.K and France signed a deal to strengthen co-operation [...]

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced three public-private partnerships to develop deployment plans for small modular reactor (SMR) technologies at its Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The DoE said that it had signed three separate memorandums of agreement (MoA) with Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale Power and Holtec International’s SMR LLC subsidiary. [...]

Areva, the French state-owned nuclear power group, faces the threat of a competition investigation by the European Commission if it wins a hotly-contested contract to build UK reactors. Detailed legal documents drafted by a competitor and seen by the Guardian state that Areva will secure a market monopoly which should trigger a sector inquiry if [...]

Mexico has announced energy goals for 2026 that would see a combination of nuclear and wind power make up 23% of electricity. At the same time it wants to connect the entire population to the grid, decrease transmission losses and develop abundant shale gas reserves. Energy minister Jordy Herrera publicly presented the government’s national energy [...]

The rapid ascension of hydraulic fracturing as the drilling method of choice to free up oil and gas from shale and tight rock formations across North America has been followed almost as swiftly by public concerns about the environmental impacts of the practice. Critics contend the drilling technique poses a risk to groundwater. Others have [...]

March 5,2012 --

RusHydro's JSC Institute Hydroproject has begun designing an all-inclusive modernization project of the 458-MW Kamskaya hydroelectric project.

Canada’s natural resources minister is wilder for bitumen than some Albertans are

A crop of entrepreneurs takes advantage of new opportunities

Targets were fuzzy, benchmarks absent and financial commitments from member companies unclear as 12 major oil sands producers agreed yesterday to partner on environmental initiatives as part of the new Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, or COSIA for short. Herewith are a few observations from yesterday’s announcement at the Hyatt in Calgary. → Few on hand talked [...]

It’s that time of the year. The time when Colombia’s National Agency of Hydrocarbons (it’s official name is the Agencia Nacional De Hidrocarburos, or ANH for short) travels around the world promoting the South American country’s oil and gas potential. This week, the ANH and it’s CEO, Orlando Cabrales, are in Canada pitching their nation’s [...]

Look beyond doom and gloom for long-reserve life, liquids-rich buying opportunities

SNC-Lavalin Nuclear and Aecon Construction have been awarded a $600-million contract for the overhaul of the four reactors at the Darlington nuclear plant. Ontario Power Generation, which owns the reactors, said the two companies will remove and replace the pressure tubes and calandria tubes for all four units at Darlington. The tubes hold the uranium [...]

NB Power and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. are suing an insurance company for $524 million to help cover some of the costs related to the delayed refurbishment of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. The companies have filed documents in a Saint John court claiming they’re entitled to payments for damage and delay during [...]

Never mind 10-cent fluctuations in the price of natural gas. As production shut-ins and curtailed capital forecasts continue unchecked this withdrawal season, anxious market watchers and industry participants are beginning to suspect that the current funk is no ordinary trough in an otherwise normal cycle. Such was the chatter at an annual natural gas conference held [...]

March 1,2012 --

Hydroelectric developer Riverbank Power and renewable energy conglomerate enXco (an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company) have entered into a joint venture agreement to develop pumped-storage facilities in North America.

March 1,2012 --

The Scottish government recently approved the installation of two Oyster wave energy converters at Billia Croo on the Orkney mainland, manufacturer Aquamarine Power announces.

Coastal wariness of Northern Gateway runs deeper than fear of spills

Photographer Phillip Chin visited the coastal community this winter. Here's what he saw

During a recent interview with retired Manitoba Hydro CEO and president Bob Brennan, I thought the 47-year veteran of the energy sector summed up the bad old days of relationship-building – or lack thereof – between the industry and Western Canada’s aboriginal people quite well. The sage summation came after I asked him how the [...]

The naysayers are wrong on Keystone XL

Lower rig counts and production shut-ins needed to lift prices, analysts agree

February 29,2012 --

Panama's 67.2-MW El Alto hydroelectric plant is scheduled for completion in April 2013, sources report.

SNC Lavalin Group Inc. has launched an internal investigation into $35-million worth of unexplained payments, raising questions about the company’s compounding problems over its operations in Libya. The Montreal-based engineering firm has been fending off allegations for months about its work in Libya and its close ties to the family of Moammar Gadhafi. The company [...]

North Korea has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests in a breakthrough in negotiations with the United States. The joint announcement Wednesday by the two nations comes little more than two months after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong-il, and suggests North Korea has met the [...]

Okuma, Japan—Nearly a year after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked triple meltdowns at reactors here, the taming of Fukushima Daiichi has become in large part a quest to control water. Foreign journalists on a tour of the Fukushima Daiichi compound Tuesday saw fields of squat, gray water-storage tanks; miles of orange, black and [...]

(Reuters) – The world’s oldest running nuclear reactor is due to shut at 1100 GMT on Wednesday after 44 years of operation, starting the countdown to 2025, by when a new British nuclear station is expected to open on a site just a few hundred meters away. Some local residents who have lived in this [...]

Infrastructure constraints bedevil an oil boom

With Saskatchewan targeted to host a nuclear waste dump, a group of anti-nuclear advocates plan on putting their neighbors in the know. “People need to know what’s going on in our environment,” Committee for Future Generations president Max Morin said. “It’s all about the water … It’s going to kill our water and kill our [...]

The withdrawal of lands in northern Arizona from mining activities is unconstitutional, unlawful and violates the National Environmental Policy Act, said organizations representing the US mining and nuclear industries in a lawsuit against US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The suit has been filed with the US Federal District Court in Arizona by the National Mining [...]

What with all the news yesterday about the Pat Daniel’s retirement , the verbal sparring between Alison Redford and Dalton McGuinty over Alberta’s oil sands, and TransCanada Corp.’s refiling an application to build the Alberta-to-Cushing, Oklahoma portion of the controversial Keystone project, industry observers probably had little time to consider an interesting development in the [...]

Israel said it will not warn the U.S. if it decides to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, American intelligence has revealed. Officials said they would keep America in the dark so that the U.S. would not be held responsible for failing to stop the attack. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of [...]

Okuma, Japan—Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima power plant remains fragile nearly a year after it suffered multiple meltdowns, its chief said Tuesday, with makeshift equipment — some mended with tape — keeping crucial systems running.  An independent report, meanwhile, revealed that the government downplayed the full danger in the days after the March 11 disaster and secretly [...]

Geneva — Iran, facing growing international pressure over its nuclear program, called for more talks with the UN nuclear watchdog on Tuesday and condemned production of atomic weapons as a “great sin.” Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful but negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have stalled and Western powers have grown [...]

(Reuters) – South Africa plans to allocate more funds towards the construction of nuclear power plants as it aims to boost electricity supply in Africa’s biggest economy, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday. South Africa, which runs the only nuclear power plant on the continent, allocated 300 billion rand ($39.55 billion) for its nuclear [...]

February 28,2012 --

State-owned news agency Agencia Brasil has announced that the first turbine at the 3,150-MW Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant should be operational by March.

The Alberta government won’t support Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s toll restructuring application to the National Energy Board (NEB), Energy Minister Ted Morton says. “We’re looking for a long-term solution, not a quick fix,” he told an energy conference in Calgary Monday. TransCanada applied last September to the NEB to re-jig the way it charges shippers. The [...]

The Alberta government won’t support Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s toll restructuring application to the National Energy Board (NEB), Energy Minister Ted Morton says. “We’re looking for a long-term solution, not a quick fix,” Morton told an energy conference in Calgary this morning. “We want a solution that protects Alberta producers.” TransCanada applied last September to the [...]

February 27,2012 --

French naval technologies provider DCNS and British tidal current company Alderney Renewable Energy (ARE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop ocean power turbine farms in the English Channel.

Pat Daniel will not be around to see the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline through to its conclusion – whatever conclusion that might be. This morning, Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge Inc. announced that the 65-year-old Daniel will retire at some point in 2012, although the company didn’t give an exact date when that would happen. Al [...]

February 27,2012 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth US$776,234 to Pick Electric Inc. for work at the 42.6-MW Albeni Falls hydroelectric project in Idaho.

Today's shortfall is 'deeper,' more 'systematic' than ever before, Ernst & Young says

As Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Alberta Premier Alison Redford exhaled after the EU rejected – for now – its proposed fuel quality directive, I wonder if they have been paying attention to Venezuelan politics lately. If they haven’t, they should, because the smell of a regime change is in the air in Hugo [...]

Unorthodox materials help a St. Albert-based firm thrive

February 23,2012 --

JSC RusHydro has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Government of the Krasnoyarsk Region to develop the greenfield Nizhne-Kureyskaya hydropower plant.

During a brief Thursday morning press conference, Alberta Premier Alison Redford told reporters she’s going to be “kind of busy over the next seven weeks.” (Translation: expect an election to be called soon). But she wasn’t so busy that she couldn’t speak about the results of the European Union’s (EU) vote on its proposed fuel [...]

February 22,2012 --

Malaga Inc. and its partners Emerging Power Developers and Stucky S.A. will build a new 20-MW hydropower plant on Malaga's Pasto Bueno property in Peru.

Proponents say fine-grained charcoal can store carbon safely for centuries

An opportunity in Calgary

February 21,2012 --

Energy corporation Siemens has acquired the majority stake in Britain’s Marine Current Turbines Ltd. (MCT).

February 21,2012 --

Scottish and Southern Energy Renewables is planning a new 600-MW pumped-storage facility, sources report.

It’s no secret Alberta is dealing with a shallow labor pool. In the oil and gas sector especially, business owners are increasingly confronted with the challenge of retaining a solid employee base. At first glance, the problem seems simple enough to reverse: get more young people into training programs. Yet despite higher enrollments in post-secondary [...]

Alberta’s petroleum sector has always depended heavily on exporting what it produces to the United States. But the continued success by operators at freeing trapped natural gas from dense rock formations south of the border has severely undercut the province’s traditional export markets. As a result, producers active in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin are [...]

February 20,2012 --

syndicated loan facility worth 2.25 billion renminbi (US$354 million) should help the Voith Group further its hydroelectric presence in China, the company says.

February 20,2012 --

Synex International Inc. has completed commissioning of the 4.4-MW Barr Creek hydroelectric plant, which is now delivering electricity to BC Hydro and Power Authority.

Collaboration is the new norm for overcoming environmental challenges

Don’t expect junior and mid-cap producers to be at the vanguard of innovation

It’s taken eight months, but EnCana Corp. has found a new, deep-pocketed Asian partner to help it develop its tight gas assets in northeastern British Columbia’s Montney play. In a press conference held Friday in Vancouver, EnCana announced it has struck a partnership with the Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corporation. Mitsubishi will pay $2.9 billion for a [...]

February 17,2012 --

BHP Billiton has abandoned its plan to construct an aluminum smelter in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's energy minister says, potentially causing problems for the Inga 3 hydroelectric project.

February 17,2012 --

A report released by the Canadian Electricity Association says Canadian utilities will collectively spend nearly US$350 billion on power generation and transmission projects by 2030 if it hopes to keep up with the demands of the nation's electr.......

February 17,2012 --

Hydroelectric equipment manufacturer Mavel, a.s. has successfully commissioned two of five South Korean projects the company secured in April 2010.

As Canada’s political and business elite descended on Beijing last week to drum up new business with China, I wonder if they were having nightmares of being devoured by a bear. If you’re not getting the bear reference, take a gander at this video segment from Platts Commodity Pulse feature. The bear I’m referring to [...]

Stacked 'buddy boards' are increasingly a thing of the past

Emerging oil companies require a good deal of upfront capital, unlike many other start-ups which can be started on modest initial expenditures. The oil business is expensive and risky; both in the finding of oil and in the developing it. Very few people have the ability to fund such an endeavor personally, so they must [...]

Kitimat LNG would be a “step change” for Canadian natural gas markets, executives at Apache Corp. said today as the Houston-based firm released fourth-quarter results. While the firm has yet to commit to building the $5-billion plant on Canada’s West Coast, negotiations with overseas buyers are at an advanced stage, said company chairman and chief [...]

Apache Corp. this morning reported fourth-quarter and year-end results for 2011. Fourth-quarter earnings hit $1.2 billion, or $2.98 per diluted share. That’s up from $670 million or $1.77 a share in the same period for 2010. The firm’s Canadian oil production fell year-on-year to 14,882 barrels per day in the fourth-quarter compared to 15,557 bpd [...]

February 16,2012 --

Tidal power equipment manufacturer Ocean Energy Limited has been selected to install a generating unit at Ireland's Wave Hub test facility.

February 16,2012 --

Alstom-Comelex has signed a three-year, US$48.4 million contract with the government of Haiti to restore the Peligre hydroelectric plant, according to a release from the Inter-American Development Bank.

Still waiting: Bear with us, TransCanada Corp. seems to be telling investors. Yesterday, the pipeline and power giant upped its dividend five per cent to $0.44 per share per quarter after posting comparable earnings of $366 million or $0.52 per share through the fourth-quarter of 2011, down slightly from $384 million or $0.55 per share [...]

New pipelines are needed; oil sands will be challenged

February 14,2012 --

British green energy consortium Ecotricity offers a new wave energy device called Searaser.

February 13,2012 --

China Hydroelectric Corporation has entered into an equity purchase and sale agreement with the Fujian Dachuang Group to sell its 16-MW Yuanping project.

Western Canadian blends of crude oil have been battered in the U.S. Midwest amid surging production growth from oilfields in North Dakota and recent refinery outages. The price drubbing, which has seen Western Canada Select trade at a US$30-plus discount to benchmark West Texas intermediate, has  highlighted the fact that the oil glut at Cushing, [...]

February 13,2012 --

An application to build a US$13 million small hydroelectric plant near Zimbabwe's Lake Mutrikwi has been approved by the Masvingo Rural District Council, sources report.

Roughly 500 million barrels of proved and probable reserves identified nationwide

February 10,2012 --

A US$800 million upgrade to Michigan's Ludington Pumped-Storage Plant reached an important milestone recently after improvements to the Lake Michigan barge dock were completed.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s love affair with China has paid off. On Wednesday he announced during a Canadian trade mission to the Middle Kingdom that more than 20 commercial agreements valued at close to $3 billion (and involving dozens of Canadian and Chinese companies) were signed this week. However, as Matthew Fisher points out in [...]

As expectations mount that next week will see Apache Corp. sanction its Kitimat LNG project, Yuryi Humber at Businessweek wonders whether Japan is on the cusp of going nuclear free. The country has been shutting down its 54 reactors to allow for safety and maintenance checks for months, he reports, and nearly 70 per cent [...]

After an embarrassing hiccup, two rivals make nice

February 8,2012 --

New Zealand utility TrustPower has announced a new 3.8-MW hydropower generating plant, sources report.

It used to be that the West wants in. New Census figures from Statistics Canada underscore the fact that the balance of economic and political power has indeed lurched from Central Canada toward Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Canada’s population grew 5.9 per cent between 2006 and 2011, the highest among G8 countries. Alberta had [...]

February 8,2012 --

Ecuador's 26-MW Ocana hydroelectric facility is expected to begin commercial operations March 1, wire services have reported.

A bureaucratic shuffle leaves some grasping for a bygone era of innovation

A few oil and gas writers took note when in late January the United States’ Energy Information Administration (EIA) drastically reduced its shale gas reserve estimates for the country. The venerable EIA revealed that (whoops) the U.S. has 482 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of unproven, technically recoverable shale gas reserves instead of the 827 tcf [...]

February 7,2012 --

Alstom and its consortium partner, Hydrochina Huadong Engineering Corporation, have been awarded a contract worth about US$23.6 million by Vietnam Electricity (EVN) to provide electro-mechanical equipment and technical services for the Song Bun.......

February 7,2012 --

Strojirny Brno a.s. has won a contract to reconstruct a turbine at the 1.12-MW Tri Chaloupky hydroelectric project.

It’s baaack. Or is it? Steep price discounts leveled against Canadian crude oil relative to West Texas intermediate in recent days have injected fresh life into a bet on differentials. In a note this morning, FirstEnergy Capital analysts Martin King and Steven Paget predict the price gap between Western Canada Select (the primary heavy oil [...]

Pressure pumpers, large landholders close to West Coast provide investment opportunity

Markets appear to be waiting for some catalyst capable of lifting natural gas from its current funk. Bob Brackett of Bernstein Research believes one is on the way next week, when Apache Corp. releases its fourth-quarter earnings. The Houston-based firm reports Feb. 16. Calgary-based Encana Corp. and EOG Resources report the following morning. Brackett sees [...]

Nearly 40% of respondents say province should reduce U.S. dependence

GE partners with the University of Alberta on industrial ‘sieves’

An industry based on small science grapples with a big problem

John Wolodko turns to nanotechnology to improve equipment reliability

Exxon and the IEA bet on growth in the Middle Kingdom

In January, Alberta Oil published its annual C-Suite Awards issue. In this edition,  seven energy executives representing some of the best and brightest minds in the sector were profiled. (You can read all of the profiles here.) Thursday night in Calgary, the magazine held it’s annual C-Suite Awards gala with all the award recipients in [...]

February 3,2012 --

Wave energy technology company Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. announces the results of tests it performed with its PowerBuoy system for the U.S. Navy.

And then there were two. Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) has approved an export license for B.C. LNG Export Co-operative LLC to ship up to 1.8 million tonnes of the super-cooled gas per year for 20 years from British Columbia’s West Coast at Kitimat. At least 13 parties have signed on to become members of [...]

February 3,2012 --

The continued investigation of events leading to the deaths of 75 people at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant has led to a new round of charges for seven defendants, sources report.

February 3,2012 --

Cable manufacturer Tratos Cavi Spa has been awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to supply low- and high-voltage cable for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Marking distinctions between normal and abnormal temblors

Alberta's regulatory agency is prepping for large-scale shale gas development

February 2,2012 --

Alstom has won a contract worth US$26.25 million to provide turbines and generators for the 120-MW Itezhi-Tezhi hydroelectric project.

Are Republicans spooked by Northern Gateway? You might be inclined to say yes, given the amount of flailing on display in the GOP primary race. Or is that just Newt Gingrich, whose chances of actually reaching 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are, as Konrad Yakabuski at the Globe put it yesterday, “sinking faster than the bids on [...]

Step one, Ian MacGregor says, is to 'push the envelope' on refining

February 1,2012 --

The Pushihe pumped-storage hydropower facility is now online, China's National Energy Administration announces.

February 1,2012 --

Swiss contractor Berthol has been awarded a contract to supply equipment for redevelopment of the 725-kW Rivaz 2 hydroelectric plant on Forestay Creek.

Portfolio Manager, Clean Energy Carbon & Energy Management, AITF

Director, Renewable Energy Policy, Pembina Institute

Nexen Executive-in-Residence, Canada West Foundation

Managing Director, Trottier Energy Futures Project

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has a big idea. She calls it a national energy strategy. It’s an interesting, and for Redford, politically risky gambit: any talk of such a strategy brings back memories in Alberta of Pierre Trudeau’s reviled National Energy Program (NEP). But Redford’s vision is no NEP – The Sequel. The premier views [...]

Executive Director, International Energy Agency

President, Canadian Electricity Association

Chair, Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp.

The status quo never lasts long in the energy industry. Changing market conditions, breakthrough technologies, shifting social and political mores all play a role in shaping the way society uses energy. The past decade has seen the energy landscape in North America change fundamentally with the rise of the unconventional fuels, growing acceptance of renewables, [...]

NOTE: Content is published online in stages over the course of a month. To read the full edition, please subscribe here.  Cover Package: Bright Ideas What does the future hold for energy in North America? It’s a question that occupies the minds of experts throughout the continent. Unconventional gas, the oil sands and renewable energy [...]

Director, China Institute, University of Alberta

January 30,2012 --

Construction of Guyana's 165-MW Amaila Falls hydropower plant could begin soon, state news agency Gina reports.

January 30,2012 --

A unanimous decision by the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council will allow the tribe to move forward with its proposal to construct a US$144 million hydroelectric powerhouse at the W.D. Mayo Lock and Dam.

What a difference 10 years makes. A decade after PanCanadian Energy Corp. and Alberta Energy Co. were joined at the hip to create Encana Corp., the commodity that fueled the merger offers investors about as much certainty as a game of ring-toss at a small-town carnival. Certainly there are as many wild cards at play. [...]

Natural gas-powered vehicles (NGVs) have been rolling on Canadian roads for decades, yet they’ve never been able to establish much of a market share in the automobile sector. But rising volumes of the cleanest burning fossil fuel – leading to prices wallowing in the US$3 per mcf range – has industry leaders such as Encana [...]

As numerous companies look to advance liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects on British Columbia’s West Coast – with the aim to send the chilled fossil fuel to lucrative Asian markets – the conventional wisdom is that these companies need to worry about competition from the likes of Qatar and Australia. But Canada’s big neighbor to [...]

January 26,2012 --

The European Union (EU) will provide funding for a new 330-kW hydroelectric plant along Guyana's Chiung River, with the stipulation that the country construct a new secondary school first.

Applause rang out at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce as federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver yesterday denounced Canada’s regulatory apparatus as “unpredictable” and “needlessly complex.” “Bad processes do not produce good environmental outcomes,” he told a roomful of oilmen at an industry-sponsored cocktail event. Away from the podium and his prepared remarks, Oliver promised [...]

January 26,2012 --

Costa Rica utility Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) has awarded contracts to Andritz Hydro Gmbh and Sistemas de Potencia de Centroamerica S.A. for work on the 305.5-MW Reventazon hydropower project.

January 25,2012 --

State-owned utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has identified 96 potential hydroelectric power sites in Indonesia, sources report.

January 25,2012 --

Alstom Hydro and Andritz Hydro have been awarded a joint contract worth about US$102.2 million for work at the existing 1,424-MW Inga 2 hydroelectric project.

Five geo-technical hazards that could trip up northern exploration

'I don't even know if our guys could drill a vertical well anymore'

Edmonton was the epicenter of the Northern Gateway pipeline universe today. The Joint Review Panel’s community hearings roadshow looking into the controversial $5.5 billion pipeline came to the City of Champions on Tuesday. On the same day, Northern Gateway proponent Enbridge Inc. had its top executive on the file – executive vice-president of Western Access, [...]

January 24,2012 --

The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) has arranged a US$24 million senior loan for the financing of a 14-MW run-of-river hydropower plant in Uganda.

Don’t be fooled by high-profile production shut-ins announced this week by U.S. gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. and its smaller Canadian peers, Encana Corp. and Talisman Energy Inc. Indeed, shares of Calgary-based Encana may have jumped a dollar earlier this week on news that Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake would curtail some 500 billion cubic feet per [...]

Nova Scotians are used to economic disappointment. Despite its reputation as the most vibrant (business-wise) of the four Atlantic provinces (faint praise indeed), Canada’s Ocean Playground suffers from all the problems you would expect from an econ0mic backwater – high unemployment, bad roads and everyone in the 20-30 demographic leaving the province to work in [...]

A novel technology approaches commercialization

Hear that? It’s the sound of Alberta’s petrochemical producers heaving a sigh of relief. The release comes care of Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB), which this week approved a 580-kilometer pipeline proposed by Vantage Pipeline Canada ULC to connect North Dakota’s booming oilfields with Alberta’s ethane gathering system. At a cost of roughly $240 million, Vantage [...]

January 20,2012 --

Restoration of Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant took another step forward as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put a new unit into service during a recent ceremony.

January 20,2012 --

Ecuadorian utility Empresa Electrica Quito (EEQ) has awarded a US$6.53 million contract to Ensilectric to manufacture and install electromechanical equipment for the 10-MW Victoria hydropower plant in Napo Province, sources report.

January 20,2012 --

Waves and tidal currents could generate up to one-third of America's electricity usage per year, according to two reports released by the U.S. Department of Energy that assessed the potential for ocean power off the east and west coasts.

January 20,2012 --

International consulting firm Royal Haskoning will soon begin work on a hydropower project that will provide electricity to 350,000 people in Uganda's rural western region.

Transportation indicators watched closely as price barometer

Today, dear readers, I’m giving you a break from oil sands-related pipeline coverage. While plenty of newspapers and columnists continue to weigh in on the yesterday’s decision by the U.S. State Department to reject TransCanada’s Corp.’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline, not all the news is bad. That’s particularly true if you are [...]

January 19,2012 --

A $30 million loan to the Emerging Energy Latin America Fund II from the Inter-American Development Bank will help boost clean technologies and renewable energies, an IDB release says.

Republicans, it turns out, aren’t all that skilled at bluffing. As recently as this past Sunday, the party’s more ardent members were full of bluster, vowing to intensify their push to see TransCanada Corp.’s Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline built ahead of a Feb. 21 deadline they had set in exchange for agreeing to an extension to [...]

January 18,2012 --

Voith Hydro has been awarded a $3.3 million contract to provide parts and labor for Unit A8 at the 2,078-MW Hoover Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Look on the bright side, at least some aspect of the review of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline appears to be happening ahead of schedule. Although it hasn’t been confirmed yet, ( an announcement is expected at 3 p.m. Eastern time today) several news stories this morning are saying U.S. State Department will reject [...]

Liquids-weighted firms and LNG also present opportunities in new year

January 17,2012 --

Energy conglomerate Alstom and marine developer SSE Renewables have teamed up to develop a new 200-MW ocean power project off the coast of Orkney, Scotland.

Life for producers of “dry” gas – as opposed to the “wet” stuff chock full of much more valuable natural gas liquids – is poised to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. “Things have been less than rosy,” Martin King, vice-president of institutional research at Calgary investment bank FirstEnergy Capital told a roomful [...]

January 16,2012 --

A new 1.27-MW hydroelectric plant is being planned for Idaho's Deer Flat canal, sources report.

January 16,2012 --

Ebergiorijekt Hidroinzenjering Co. Ltd. has completed geotechnical studies for Reservoir Capital Corp.'s 58.4-MW hydroelectric plant in Brodarevo, the company announces.

There is more than one way to get your oil patch dream job

'When you become CEO, you're not done,' one boss says

“Marvin has made a valuable contribution to Nexen during his 13 years with the company.” That was how Nexen Inc. board chairman Francis Saville described Marvin Romanow, who had served as the company’s president and CEO since 2009, in a press release issued by the company on January 9.  But despite Marvin’s “valuable contributions”,  it [...]

January 13,2012 --

Construction of Sri Lanka's controversial Upper Kotmale hydropower plant is nearing completion, according to Sri Lankan news sources.

January 13,2012 --

Refurbishment of the 292-MW Turlough Hill pumped-storage plant is nearly complete, sources are reporting.

Open season has officially begun on Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd., Rebecca Penty reports today at the Calgary Herald. Analysts, frustrated at the firm’s inability to secure a joint venture partner for its Great Divide oil sands property and smarting from a spurned (and unsolicited) takeover offer late last year, now view the company as [...]

Environmental aspects of crude oil now factor in energy policy

Much about Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is new. If built, it would give oil sands producers access to Pacific tidewater and world prices for their exports. For Canada, the controversial pipeline would cement a break from a half-century reliance on the U.S. market at a time when that country is struggling to bounce [...]

January 11,2012 --

The first unit of the 96-MW Jinnah hydropower project has begun a 15 day trial commission, facility owner Jimah Energy Ventures reports.

January 11,2012 --

Scottish Water will soon embark on an ambitious US$31 million plan that will see the utility's existing water treatment plants partially converted to produce hydroelectric power.

John Manzoni strikes me as a great salesman. But I don’t think the news he delivered on Tuesday as Talisman Energy Inc. announced its 2012 capital plan was well received by the investment community. The plan will see the Calgary-based firm cut back on spending by $500 million c0mpared to 2011, attempt to shore up [...]

Innovative ethanol facility takes shape at Capital waste management center

Arthur Brisbane, public editor of the New York Times, raises an interesting question in the paper’s weekend edition from this past Sunday. He revisits five news themes from 2011 in need of “keen judgment” on the part of editors as 2012 unfolds. One of the them is shale gas. Brisbane sees a problem with the [...]

Water use is a serious issue for the oil and gas industry when it comes to the practice of hydraulic fracturing. But as if the sector didn’t have enough bad press to worry about in this realm, now earthquakes have emerged as a thorny issue. Recent quakes in England and Ohio have been blamed on [...]

January 9,2012 --

BKW FMB Energy Ltd. is acquiring five small run-of-river hydropower plants from Italian energy utility Sorgenia, the company announced.

January 9,2012 --

Honduras-based GeoConsult SA de C.V. has won a bid to supervise construction of a bypass at Nicaragua's 50-MW Centroamerica hydroelectric project.

January 9,2012 --

Ukranian utility OJSC UkrHydroEnergo has awarded a contract to JV Sitronics IT of Ukraine and Conim Group for the supply and installation of three turbines at the Kremenchuk hydroelectric facility.

As 2011 came to a close, the oil sands industry — loosely represented by those who make it their business to populate Twitter and all manner of blogs with morality tales about the resource’s extraction — found itself in the final stages of a superficial battle with the corporate descendent of the United Fruit Company. [...]

Shale gas, tight oil provide market opportunity

Oil sands, tight oil and NGLs drive growth in 2012

Optimism takes hold despite economic volatility

January 6,2012 --

Developer Mercator Energy a.s. has awarded a contract worth 179.8 million koruna (US$9.1 million) to Metrostav a.s. for construction of the Libechov hydropower project in Czech Republic.

January 6,2012 --

The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded contracts to Alstom Power and Basler Electric for work at the 8.64-MW Upper Molina and 4.86-MW Lower Molina hydroelectric plants.

January 6,2012 --

Iran's Energy Ministry has issued 2.7 trillion rials (US$240 million) in bonds for financing hydroelectric projects across the country, the Iranian Students News Agency reports.

January 6,2012 --

Hydro-Quebec has awarded Alstom a contract worth about 50 million euros (US$64 million) to modernize the 5,616-MW Robert-Bourassa hydroelectric facility, the power conglomerate announced.

Occupy movement 'won't have huge effect' on executive compensation

Venture Publishing Inc., publisher of Alberta Venture, Alberta Oil, Alberta Innovators, Aspire, Edmonton Commerce News, Eighteen Bridges, Grip, Hard Hat, Leap, Open Mind, Petroleum Services News, Signature, Tracks & Treads, We, and Well Construction Journal magazine, is looking for a full-time production technician to join our fast-paced environment. This individual will be responsible for preparing [...]

January 5,2012 --

Three of Britain’s biggest engineering groups are being sounded out in an effort to find a solution to the conundrum of how to finance one of the world’s most advanced suppliers in the fledgling wave energy sector, the FT reports.

January 5,2012 --

Voith Hydro Wavegen recently received an award from the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) for its wave power plant in Mutriku, Spain.

January 5,2012 --

TAHAL Consulting Engineers Ltd. and Bhundia Associates have been awarded a contract to perform assessments as part of Tanzania's Mara River Basin Project.

A new poll commissioned by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. says British Columbians are more likely to support the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project than oppose it, but that a majority of the province’s residents are unfamiliar with the multibillion-dollar export scheme. Results to the online survey of 1,000 B.C. residents can be found here. The poll [...]

People. It truly is all about the people.  As we begin the new year of 2012, I am reflecting on the experiences I have had in this business, the good and the bad. Running a company in this sector is no cakewalk. We are subject to the unpredictable volatility of commodity pricing, global political instability [...]

Former broadcaster knew how to spot landmines in media. In environment? Not so much

Former PC leadership contender sets his sights on selling Alberta in Asia

As the Republicans force Barack Obama to make a decision on the pipeline, its fate could be left to the courts

Venture Publishing, the publisher of Alberta Venture and Alberta Oil magazines, is seeking an experienced and high energy account executive to help us meet our exciting growth potential as we celebrate our 15th year of publishing. This opportunity is in our Calgary office. Major responsibility: to build relationships and serve the needs of our advertising [...]

Speculation about how Canadians view Chinese ownership of domestic energy assets is beginning to circulate once again. In the wake of two recent deals, one of which puts China in charge of an oil sands property for the first time, Claudia Cattaneo at the Financial Post wonders whether Canadians (read: Albertans) are entirely prepared for [...]

A level head and a long-term view keep these C-Suite Stars – and their companies – on the path to prosperity

New technology, green anxiety and market access to shape 2012

January 3,2012 --

Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (Cemig) has awarded a contract worth more than 60 million euros to a consortium led by Alstom Brazil for refurbishment of the 1,710-MW Sao Simao hydroelectric plant.

The government must get back in the business of being in business, Satya Das argues

'Increased opportunities bring increased risks'

New columns and design tweaks; same insight

Pipeline 'will be built,' David Robottom predicts

Strong relationships with First Nations bolster the bottom line

Architect of Horn River Producers Group builds connections in B.C.

Recent market manipulation blights an otherwise stellar career

Recasting a utility spin-off as a North American powerhouse

'You should be comfortably nervous about your risk,' engineering boss says

NOTE: Content is published online in stages over the course of a month. To read the full edition, please subscribe here.  Cover Package: C-Suites Stars It was a turbulent year for the energy sector. Prices were volatile. Infrastructure projects came under siege. The oil sands faced unprecedented scrutiny. But amid the uncertainty, Alberta Oil’s C-Suites [...]

December 28,2011 --

China Three Gorges (CTG) -- the corporation responsible for China's 22,400-MW Three Gorges hydroelectric project -- has acquired a stake in Portuguese utility Energias de Portugal, S.A. (EDP).

December 28,2011 --

Restoration of Haiti's Peligre hydroelectric plant took a step closer toward becoming reality after the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the approval of a US$20 million grant for the project.

After a wild 12 months in the energy sector, Energy Ink pauses (briefly)

December 22,2011 --

Icelandic utility Landsvirkjun has awarded four contracts for work on the 80-MW Budarhals and 9-MW Laxa 2 hydroelectric projects.

December 22,2011 --

The China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has bought a 29 percent share in a Chinese renewable energy group, according to a share purchase agreement issued by seller China Power New Energy Development (CPNED).

December 22,2011 --

Mavel has been awarded a US$6.98 million contract by developer Mercator Energy to equip the 4.59-MW Libechov hydroelectric project on the Elbe River in the Czech Republic.

December 22,2011 --

The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has announced plans to develop a new hydroelectric power plant in Maggotty, Jamaica.

December 21,2011 --

Reconstruction work continues at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant with operator RusHydro launching the facility's fifth hydropower unit. This is the first unit to be put on line that is not restored but instead entirely new.

December 21,2011 --

Ocean power developer Carnegie Wave Energy Limited announces its application for a Foreshore License for an offshore demonstration project near County Clare, Ireland.

December 21,2011 --

The Bureau of Reclamation has issued a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the John W. Keys III pump-generating plant's modernization project.

December 21,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a 45 million euro (US$59 million) loan to Serbia's state-owned utility for renovating and building small hydropower plants.

December 20,2011 --

Star Hydro Power Limited has been awarded a loan worth US$60 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for construction of the 147-MW Patrind hydropower plant in Pakistan.

December 15,2011 --

The Laotian government has agreed to suspend construction of the US$3.5 billion Xayaburi hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River, pending further evaluation of the facility's environmental impact.

December 14,2011 --

The Yukon Energy Corporation's Mayo B hydroelectric project is well ahead of schedule and should be producing power before the end of the year, according to a release from equipment supplier ABB.

December 14,2011 --

The Crown Estate has awarded nine contracts for the development of renewable energy sources, including wave and tidal energy sites.

December 13,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide a long-term loan of 8 billion roubles (US$256 million) to fund balance sheet optimization of RusHydro's subsidiary in Russia's Far East region.

December 13,2011 --

Swedish-based engineering firm Sweco has been awarded a contract to help modernize one of Romania's largest hydropower plants.

December 13,2011 --

Wales-based Tidal Energy Ltd. has awarded a contract to Converteam Ltd. to build a 1.2-MW prototype tidal stream power project off the Pembrokeshire coastline in Wales.

December 13,2011 --

Yichang's small hydropower agency has awarded contracts worth US$52.8 million to four Chinese groups to build 11 small hydroelectric projects in China's Hubei Province.

December 12,2011 --

The South Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) has struck a tentative deal with Laos for construction of a hydroelectric plant along the Mekong River, Korean news sources report.

December 12,2011 --

Germany's Thuringia State announced it has identified 13 potential sites for constructing pumped-storage plants that would total 5,130 MW.

December 9,2011 --

Plans for the 500-MW Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped-Storage (LEAPS) have come to a halt following a ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

December 9,2011 --

Cambodia's 193.2-MW Kamchay Dam was inaugurated this week and marks an important step in the country's effort to move away from oil-fueled electricity, according to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

December 9,2011 --

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) has named consultants to prepare engineering studies and tender documents, environmental-social studies, and resettlement plans for the rehabilitation of the 64-MW Mount Coffee hydroelectric project in Liberia.......

December 8,2011 --

Colombian power and engineering company HMV Ingenieros will add up to 200 MW in small hydroelectric capacity in the coming years, news sources report.

December 7,2011 --

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has approved a US$150 million loan to help finance construction of the 406-MW Chaglla hydroelectric project on Peru's Huallaga River.

December 6,2011 --

Ivory Coast will build a 275-MW hydroelectric power station in Soubre, according to the country's Ministry of Mines.

December 6,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is giving Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) a loan worth US$166 million for construction of the Ombla hydropower plant.

December 5,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a 3 million euro (US$3.9 million) loan to finance construction of the 5.1-MW Cerruje 1 and 2 hydroelectric projects on Albania's Benji River.

December 2,2011 --

Winners of the 2011 Tidal Today Awards were announced at the International Tidal Energy Summit that took place Nov. 21-23 in London.

December 1,2011 --

Developer Joule Africa announced that Lahmeyer International has begun a bankable feasibility study of expanding Sierra Leone's 50-MW Bumbuna hydroelectric project to a total of 389 MW.

November 30,2011 --

A consortium that includes Andritz Hydro has received an order to supply equipment for the 234-MW Foz Tua pumped-storage power station.

November 30,2011 --

Developer KSK Energy Ventures Ltd. of India and Russian designer JSC Institute Hydroproject have agreed to the main parameters of a downsized 1,800-MW Subansiri Upper hydroelectric project to be built on India's Subansiri River.

November 23,2011 --

The operation of a US$15 million, 6.5-MWIshasha hydroelectric plant in Uganda’s Kigezi Sub-Region should help reduce the country’s power outages, government officials say.

November 23,2011 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $1.5 million contract to Burke Electric L.L.C. to replace a substation at 2,457.3-MW Chief Joseph Dam, on the Columbia River near Bridgeport, Wash.

November 22,2011 --

Voith Hydro Wavegen has turned over the Mutriku wave power plant to Ente Vasco de la Energia, the Scottish marine energy company announces.

November 18,2011 --

The Esk Valley Community Energy Group will soon begin work on a small hydroelectric plant after selling more than 125,000 pounds in public shares, the group announces.

November 18,2011 --

AF AB of Sweden has received a contract to design and manage expansion of the proposed 628-MW Nant de Drance pumped-storage project in Switzerland to 900 MW.

November 17,2011 --

The city of Toulouse has named MJ2 Technologies SARL to supply electro-mechanical equipment to the 1-MW Cavaletade hydroelectric project, proposed for the Garonne River in Toulouse.

November 17,2011 --

The Department of Agriculture has awarded more than $8 million to four hydroelectric projects in Connecticut, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont under the Rural Energy for America Program.

November 16,2011 --

Hydro developers NHPC Ltd. and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (SJVN) have established a joint venture with India's Manipur State to develop the 1,500-MW Tipaimukh hydroelectric project on the Barak River in Manipur.

November 16,2011 --

Swiss utility Gruyere Energie SA has named three companies to refurbish generating units at the 4.5-MW Charmey hydroelectric project on Switzerland's Jogne River.

November 15,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to lend 65 million euros (US$88.4 million) to Macedonia for construction of the 70-MW Boskov Most hydroelectric project in western Macedonia.

November 15,2011 --

U.S. senators have introduced bills to provide tax credits for U.S. manufacture of clean energy technology and for investment in energy storage technologies including hydropower.

November 11,2011 --

The government of Malawi has named W.S. Atkins International Ltd. to help develop a framework and tools to advance a multi-purpose water infrastructure investment strategy in Malawi.

November 10,2011 --

The Andean development corporation has approved a US$380 million loan to upgrade six units of the 10,300-MW Simon Bolivar hydroelectric project on Venezuela's Caroni River.

November 10,2011 --

Norway hydro developer Smakraft AS has named two generator manufacturers to supply equipment for its portfolio of small hydroelectric projects.

November 10,2011 --

A consortium of Italy's Astaldi SpA and GyM-Grana y Montero S.A. of Peru has received contracts to construct the 510-MW Cerro del Aguila and 98-MW Santa Teresa hydroelectric projects in Peru.

November 7,2011 --

Experts anticipate double-digit growth rates for the marine current tidal sector through 2020, and technology conglomerate Siemens wants a piece of the action.

November 2,2011 --

Hydro developer RenoEnergie a.s. has awarded contracts to Czech firms to equip the Klastersky small hydroelectric project and to build the 180-kW Doudlevce project in the Czech Republic.

November 2,2011 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has named Knight Construction & Supply Inc. to rehabilitate an intake gantry crane at the 558-MW Second Powerhouse of 1,076.6-MW Bonneville Dam, on the Columbia River in Oregon.

November 1,2011 --

The U.S. House has endorsed legislation that would authorize a national park land exchange and construction of a 100-kW hydroelectric project in a non-wilderness area of Denali National Park in Alaska.

November 1,2011 --

SN Aboitiz Chief Executive Emmanuel Rubio said the developer is planning two new hydro projects on Luzon, 150- to 180-MW Matuno in Nueva Vizcaya Province, and a 110- to 120-MW Quezon project in Quezon Province.

November 1,2011 --

SN Aboitiz Power commissioned the rehabilitated and expanded 105-MW Ambuklao hydroelectric project October 27 on the Agno River in the Philippines.

November 1,2011 --

The Bureau of Reclamation has extended the deadline for comments on a draft directive and standard for performing feasibility studies of proposed water resources projects. Comments now are due Nov. 25.

October 27,2011 --

Egypt's Hydro Plants Generation Co. (HPGC) has awarded a US$20 million contract to ABB Ltd. to upgrade the automation of Aswan Dam's three hydroelectric plants totaling more than 2,600 MW.

October 27,2011 --

A Macedonia utility has awarded a contract to Civil Engineering Institute Makedonia to provide geological investigation services for construction of Lukovo Pole Dam on the Kosovo border and construction of the 5-MW Crn Kamen hydro plant.

October 26,2011 --

An official of Russian hydropower utility RusHydro announced the 160-MW Zelenchukskaya pumped-storage project will achieve its design capacity in 2013.

October 24,2011 --

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. will soon begin work on a new prediction model that is expected to boost the power output of the company’s PowerBuoy wave energy systems.

October 20,2011 --

The government of Ecuador has signed a credit agreement providing US$571 million from the China Export-Import Bank to build and equip the 487.8-MW Sopladora hydroelectric project in Ecuador.

October 20,2011 --

The United Kingdom's Crown Estate has approved an agreement for lease off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales, to Marine Current Turbines Ltd. (MCT) for development of the 10-MW Skerries Tidal Stream Array.

October 19,2011 --

The Snohomish County Public Utility District has officially opened a new hydropower project, the 7.5-MW Youngs Creek facility, near Sultan in the state of Washington.

October 18,2011 --

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and Norway's Sparebanken Vest have approved a 500 million kroner (US$88.9 million) loan for construction and upgrade of small hydropower projects in Norway.

October 18,2011 --

Oldcastle Precast has supplied 3,000 feet of precast concrete pipe, elbow, transition pieces and manholes for the out- and in-flow portion of PacifiCorp’s Lemolo No. 2 tailrace rerouting project in Douglas County, Ore.

October 14,2011 --

Russian power developer Inter Rao UES has signed a memorandum of agreement with the government of Ecuador to expand the proposed 281-MW Tortugo-Tigre hydroelectric project by the addition of three more hydro plants, all in the Guallabamba River.......

October 14,2011 --

Energy developer AltaGas Ltd. and the Tahltan Central Council have signed agreements to advance construction of the 66-MW McLymont Creek and 16-MW Volcano Creek hydroelectric projects in the Tahltan Nation's territory in British Columbia.

October 13,2011 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded contracts for work at several hydroelectric projects, including $6.5 million for fishway outfall modifications at 810-MW Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake River in Washington.

October 13,2011 --

The Asian Development Bank will provide $97 million to help fund a new private sector hydroelectric plant in Pakistan, which will ease power shortages and create thousands of new jobs.

October 12,2011 --

The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) reports Quebec could develop medium-sized hydroelectric projects that would generate 5,000 MW and several million dollars worth of private investment.

October 5,2011 --

Marine energy developer Aquamarine Power announced it closed a funding round of 7 million pounds (US$10.8 million) from its major shareholders and won a commitment of further investment over the next two years.

October 4,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced it is extending a 200 million euro (US$263.3 million) loan to Ukraine hydro utility UkrHydroEnergo for modernization of 28 turbine-generators at six hydroelectric projects on Ukrain.......

September 30,2011 --

Ocean Thermal Energy Corp. and Bahamas Electricity Corp. have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop two ocean thermal energy conversion plants in the Bahamas.

September 29,2011 --

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $106.6 million contract to Bauer Foundation Corp. to build a concrete seepage barrier in the main embankment of 135-MW Center Hill Dam on the Caney Fork River near Lancaster, Tenn.

September 29,2011 --

Norwegian consultant Norconsult AS awarded contracts to two Norwegian companies for construction and electro-mechanical equipment for the 5.6-MW Nye Folkedal hydroelectric project in Norway.

September 29,2011 --

Swiss-German hydropower utility Energiedienst Holding AG (EDH) began formal operations of the new 100-MW Rheinfelden hydroelectric project in ceremonies September 15 on the Rhine River dividing Germany from Switzerland.

September 28,2011 --

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded MWH a $25 million multi-year contract to modernize the 314 MW John W. Keys Pump Generating Plant in Washington.

September 28,2011 --

Norwegian power company Statkraft announced it will begin construction of the 517-MW Cetin hydroelectric project on the Botan River in Turkey's Southeast Anatolia Region.

September 27,2011 --

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to invest US$5 million in Georgia Urban Energy LLC, a unit of Turkey's Anadolu Group that is developing the 87-MW Paravani hydroelectric project on Georgia's Paravani River........

September 26,2011 --

Alstom, in a consortium with Brazilian engineering companies CESBE and Areva Koblitz, was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $418.5 million to provide power equipment for the 373.4 MW Santo Antonio do Jari.......

September 22,2011 --

Colombia utility Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) reports contractors have started preliminary work to begin construction of the 2,400-MW Ituango hydroelectric project on Colombia's Cauca River.