Best of POWER

Welcome to the mid-October issue of the Best of POWER, a bi-monthly e-newsletter from POWER magazine that provides important news and information that many in our audience have found to be must-reads.

Sign up to have future issues of Best of POWER delivered directly to you via email.

POWER Magazine | Jobs | White Papers | Webinars | Events | Store

Severe Solar Storm Threatens Power Grid Amid Hurricane Helene, Milton Recovery | UPDATED (Oct. 11): The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has upgraded its G4-level “severe” geomagnetic storm watch to a G3-level “strong” geomagnetic storm warning after an anticipated coronal mass ejection (CME) arrived at Earth at 11:15 a.m. EST on Thursday, traveling at nearly 1.5 million miles per hour.

DOE Finalizes $1.52B Palisades Loan for First-Ever U.S. Nuclear Plant Recommissioning | Marking the first-ever revival of a nuclear power plant in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 30 finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec International to support the recommissioning of the 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Michigan.

Billions in Federal Funding Earmarked for Power Plant CCS Projects: Here's a Snapshot | The Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled plans on Sept. 27 to inject $1.3 billion into its portfolio of federally funded carbon capture demonstration and large-scale pilot programs by the end of the year—including up to $400 million to support one commercial-scale coal power plant carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration.

Helene’s Historic Devastation Spurs Largest-Ever Mutual Aid Response, Signals Power Sector Reckoning | Electric cooperatives across the Southeast describe Hurricane Helene’s devastation as vast and unprecedented, warning that restoring some crucial infrastructure serving the not-for-profit entities’ customers will take a long and arduous process.

$1.5B Federal Boost for Four Major Transmission Projects as DOE Unveils National Grid Study | The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded capacity contracts of up to $1.5 billion to?four major transmission lines under its Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP) to aid the transfer of 7.1 GW of new capacity throughout Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

In Case You Missed It: A Brief History of GE Gas Turbines | July marks two important milestones that set gas-fired generation on its course to becoming a dominant form of power generation: commercial operation of the world’s first industrial gas turbine in Neuchatel, Switzerland, in 1939, and commercial operation of the first gas turbine in the U.S. used to generate electric power—a 3.5-MW General Electric (GE) unit at the Belle Isle Station in Oklahoma City in 1949.

Experts Say Gas-Fired Power Key to Reliable U.S. Electricity Supply | Energy analysts have said the increasing need for reliable baseload power generation means natural gas-fired power plants will become even more important as demand for electricity increases.

Supreme Court Clears Way for Limits on Power Plant Mercury, Methane Emissions | The U.S. Supreme Court has said that rules requiring power plants burning fossil fuels to reduce emissions of toxic substances can stand, dealing a blow to several Republican-led states and some power generators that had challenged the regulations.

Space-Based Solar Power for U.S. Energy Independence | Space-based solar power (SBSP) could prove transformative to global energy demand by providing price-efficient, continuous clean energy from orbit (Figure 1). Recent developments, including low-cost space access, mass-produced satellites, robotics, and other commercial-led innovations, will unlock this capability within the next 10 to 20 years.

Google Could Use Small Nuclear Reactors to Power Data Centers | Google’s top executive confirmed the company is working on large-scale data centers that would use more than 1 GW of power. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a speech last week at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could possibly be used to generate the needed electricity.