Last week, California’s Glendale Water & Power (GWP) received approval from the Glendale City Council to move forward with a plan to repower the aging Grayson Power Plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage and a limited amount of thermal generation.

It may be time to start building power plants in Texas again.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), on behalf of the Australian government, has announced up to $40 million in funding towards the deployment of a pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project in South Australia.

Brazil has included four hydropower plants among the projects that will receive support as part of the country's investment partnerships program, called Programa de Parcerias de Investimentos or PPI. 

The Uruguayan government agency Instituto Antarctico Uruguayo (IAU) is collaborating with ABB, Uruguayan utility company UTE and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) to provide a second solar power installation at the IAU’s research base in the Antarctic.

Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. announces that the 290-MW Nam Ngiep 1 hydropower plant has begun commercial operations.

The Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LSBA) has granted €235,000 (US$267,500) to support development of an experimental floating solar photovoltaic power plant at the existing 900-MW Kruonis pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Lithuania.

This week JinkoSolar held an opening ceremony at its new manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida. The facility made headlines when it was announced due to the fact that the Chinese company decided to set up manufacturing in the U.S. in response to solar tariffs that are put on solar cells and modules imported from China. To date, Jinko is the only Chinese-owned solar manufacturer to set up a facility in the U.S.

Thailand plans to build the world’s largest floating solar farms to power Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy and to boost the country’s share of clean energy.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) this week announced plans to build four new solar power plants this year that are expected to begin powering customers in early 2020:

After announcing nearly a gigawatt of new clean-energy projects in February, APS is now seeking proposals to build two of them in different parts of the state. The first request for proposals (RFP) seeks partners to add batteries to existing APS solar plants in rural Arizona, storing their power for use after the panels stop producing each day. A second partner is being sought to develop a large (100-MW) solar plant paired with an equal amount of storage, to bring more clean energy to customers after dark. Both of these projects will provide APS customers with more solar after sunset, serving their evening energy needs with an even cleaner resource mix.

This week, diversified real estate acquisition and development firm Commercial Development Company and transmission developer Anbaric said they plan to build a renewable energy center at Brayton Point Commerce Center in Somerset, Massachusetts. The site is the former home of the Brayton Point Coal Plant, the cooling towers for which were demolished two weeks ago. (video of demolition at the end of article at this link).

On July 1, Public Service of New Mexico filed a plan with regulators in the state for how it plans to get to a 100 percent emission-free power by 2040. The utility reviewed four scenarios, all of which involved the early retirement of the San Juan Coal Plant, to arrive at its recommended path forward.

Last week, California’s Glendale Water & Power (GWP) received approval from the Glendale City Council to move forward with a plan to repower the aging Grayson Power Plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage and a limited amount of thermal generation.

It may be time to start building power plants in Texas again.

The Trump administration is weighing a broad array of strategies for keeping coal and nuclear power plants online as a matter of national security, with options ranging from invoking a 68-year-old law to a three-year-old one, according to a senior Energy Department official.

Tesla Inc. is planning a factory in China with a capacity for 500,000 vehicles a year, its biggest step beyond the U.S. so far, according to people familiar with the matter. Tesla is due to sign a memorandum of understanding with local entities in Shanghai, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk was to be in the city for an event with the government on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported earlier. A Tesla representative in China didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an Australian first, Origin will install a 4-MW/4-MWh grid scale battery at its Mt Stuart Power Station in Townsville. Mt Stuart Power Station is a 414-MW open cycle gas power station, designed to supply electricity at times of peak demand and is the largest such facility in North Queensland. In the U.S., these plants are called “peakers.”

This week Autogrid announced that it entered into a partnership with Swell Energy to provide software for managing Swell’s growing fleet of distributed energy resources (DER).

The Gentleman coal plant was once the linchpin of Nebraska’s electricity grid, its twin smokestacks visible for miles across the prairie. Now, the state’s biggest power source is routinely pushed aside to make room for more wind and solar energy.

This week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that rather than investing in the Haynes, Harbor and Scattergood natural gas power plants to meet the requirements of a 2010 law related to a practice known as once through cooling, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) will phase them out in favor of renewable energy.

Thailand plans to build the world’s largest floating solar farms to power Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy and to boost the country’s share of clean energy.

This week, diversified real estate acquisition and development firm Commercial Development Company and transmission developer Anbaric said they plan to build a renewable energy center at Brayton Point Commerce Center in Somerset, Massachusetts. The site is the former home of the Brayton Point Coal Plant, the cooling towers for which were demolished two weeks ago. (video of demolition at the end of article at this link).

Last week, California’s Glendale Water & Power (GWP) received approval from the Glendale City Council to move forward with a plan to repower the aging Grayson Power Plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage and a limited amount of thermal generation.

It may be time to start building power plants in Texas again.

With the potential for disaster at hydropower projects around the world, the lack of organized training programs becomes a prominent consideration in how companies manage their assets.

In many countries, needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have led to increased installation of intermittent renewables such as wind and solar.

One or two new runners for the units at the 355-MW Brazeau Power Station in Alberta, Canada, would allow owner TransAlta Corp. to better optimize revenue and provide valuable ancillary services. Modeling of the various upgrade options allowed the utility to arrive at the most valuable solution.

Germany’s utilities, battered by the country’s shift to wind turbines and solar panels, would be glad to sell you a power plant on the cheap. They’ll even pack it up and ship it to another country.

The U.K. company planning the world’s first tidal-lagoon power station said its next plant may generate electricity at almost half the price.

Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China’s national standard last year, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants next year.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said 13 percent of power stations burning lignite, a cheap form of coal, would be phased out by 2021 under a program to cut power industry pollution. The government abandoned talks on proposals to impose a climate-change fee that the industry said would have forced mines and plants to close, threatening jobs.

On Aug. 27, Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure government announced it has leased 22 small hydropower projects located in the northern and western provinces to private investors to spur the country’s hydroelectric energy program. According to energy experts at the ministry, the plants would add about 24.6 MW of hydroelectric energy to the national grid. 

The government of Argentinian province San Juan signed an agreement with PowerChina earlier this week for financing of the 75-MW El Tambolar hydropower project.

On Nov. 11, Germany-based Aquila Capital announced it has signed an agreement with four Norwegian utility companies -- Statkraft AS, Agder Energi, BKK and Skagerak Energi -- to acquire all shares of Smakraft AS, Norway's largest small-hydro company.  

Test operations are under way at Norte Energia's 11.2-GW Belo Monte hydropower plant, developer Norte Energia said in a statement.

Italian construction and civil engineering firm Salini Impregilo has been awarded a US$2.8 billion contract to build the 2,200-MW Koysha hydropower plant in Ethiopia.

American Municipal Power and the city of Hamilton held a dedication ceremony for the 105-MW Meldahl hydroelectric plant on June 2.

Hydroelectric power developer Gilkes Energy has begun construction on a trio of small hydro projects, all of which are to be located on the Attadale Estate near Loch Carron, Scotland.

Infrastructure investment firm Connor, Clark & Lunn has announced it will help finance the 12-MW Hunter Creek hydroelectric project near Hope, British Columbia.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed a memorandum agreement with the Southeastern Power Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority and Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, Inc., to perform a variety of work at Corps hydropower projects.

Electricite de France (EDF) and the World Bank are joining with the government of Cameroon to fund the €$1.2 billion (US$1.3 billion), 420-MW Nachtigal hydropower plant.

The 382-MW Ulu Jelai hydropower project, which began construction in 2011, is 95% complete and expected to be fully-commissioned in the third quarter of this year, in the district of Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia, according to state-owned power utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), Malaysia's largest utility company and the project’s owner.
 

A Brazilian federal court has suspended an operating license for the 11.2-GW Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, stating that its developers have failed to provide water and sewage services to areas near the project.

Ivanhoe Mines announced today in a press release that the Mwadingusha hydropower plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has begun supplying an initial 11 MW of power to the national grid after upgrading and rehabilitating the first of six turbine-generators at the plant.
 

The World Bank has approved US$390 million in additional financing to be used by Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority for extensions of its Tarbela hydroelectric plant.

Chile's Schwager Energy and China-based Shenyang Yuanda Commercial & Investment Co. signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 3 to build the 3-MW Los Pinos run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant in southern Chile's Lagos region, according to BN Americas.
 

The Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) released a report today saying its US$133.4 million 10.6-MW Pulanai hydropower plant being constructed in the southern province of Bukidnon on the Island of Mindanao, was attacked by armed individuals on Feb. 25.

The partnership between Manitoba Hydro and four First Nations via the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership (KHLP) announced a significant increase in its control budget and a revised commissioning date for the 695-MW Keeyask Generating Station in a statement on March 7.
 

Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure (CC&L Infrastructure) and Regime de Rentes du Mouvement Desjardins, Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company, and Certas Home and Auto Insurance Company (together, Desjardins) have acquired Regional Power Inc. from The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife).