Advanced meters are the most visible component of recent smart grid deployments, dominating much public and media attention. However, industry members recognize even greater opportunities and imperatives for modernizing distribution infrastructure and operations further up the line. Distribution automation (DA) is a hot topic in the utility industry, encompassing (more…)

In addition to the high legal fees and exposure to potentially hefty damages payouts that accompany allegations of intellectual property infringement, such lawsuits can also be dark clouds over defendants, hampering their ability to do business.

A salient example of this in cleantech is the news that (more…)

I’ve written extensively about the patent infringement and antitrust litigation between wind power rivals GE and Mitsubishi (see, e.g., previous posts here and here).

While that legal battle spans multiple venues, encompasses several different patents, and includes (more…)

Duke Energy is a large energy company with headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Duke Energy has assets in the United States as well as Canada and Latin America. This energy company has been providing businesses and residents with gas and electric services that are reliable, clean, as well as (more…)

Duke Energy has announced its intention to build a large-scale wind farm in Willacy County.

When the 200-megawatt facility comes online, it will generate enough electricity to power roughly 60,000 homes.

Duke Energy’s Los Vientos I wind power project, (more…)

In August of 2007, North Carolina because the first Southeastern state in the United States to adopt the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. In this, all investor- owned North Carolinian utilities are mandated to meet a minimum of 12.5 percent of their energy requirements via renewable (more…)

The industry has been abuzz this past week over the announced acquisition (ahem – merger) of Progress Energy by Duke Energy. The combined entity will become the largest electric utility in the U.S. by revenue and generation capacity if approved by the various regulatory bodies, which is no sure thing. Like most mergers, the promised benefits, for shareholders and (more…)

The drive to extract and store CO2 from coal-fired power plants is gaining momentum, with the Obama administration backing the technology and the world’s first capture and sequestration project now operating in the U.S. Two questions loom: Will carbon capture and storage be affordable? And will it be safe?

On a placid bend of the Ohio River in West Virginia sit two coal-fired power plants. The Philip Sporn Plant boasts four boilers from the 1950s, surrounded by mountains of coal and a series of man-made lakes to contain the toxic residue of its coal-burning.

A faint haze emanates from its main smokestack, the only visible sign of the thousands of tons of acid-rain-forming sulfur dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and climate-warming carbon dioxide it emits each day, a consequence of the plant’s complete lack of pollution-control technologies. The 1,100 megawatts of electricity it produces will never benefit from such controls, as they are too expensive to install on the multiple small boilers, according to the plant’s owner, American Electric Power.

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The US EPA and Duke Energy have reached a settlement in another New Source Review enforcement action.

Duke Energy, one of the largest electric power companies in the nation, will spend approximately $85 million to significantly reduce harmful air pollution at an Indiana power plant and pay a $1.75 million civil penalty, under a settlement to resolve violations of federal clean air laws, the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. The settlement also requires Duke to spend $6.25 million on environmental mitigation projects.

The agreement, filed in federal court in Indianapolis, resolves violations of the Clean Air Act’s new source review requirements found at the company’s Gallagher coal-fired power plant in New Albany, Ind., located directly across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. (more…)

Last week the EPA proposed that carbon dioxide be considered one of six greenhouse gases which endanger the public health and welfare of US citizens. Well, it’s about time! The EPA is now seeking public comment on the proposed ruling, which consists of two parts: that the six greenhouse gases contribute to a litany of climate-related problems, and that motor vehicle emissions send four of those gases into the atmosphere.  What could this mean for CO2-intensive energy sources, and what are some implications for clean energy?

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