Report: Wind Power Could Reach Parity with Gas Power by 2016

Report: Wind Power Could Reach Parity with Gas Power by 2016
POWERnews
Power costs from onshore wind turbines are expected to plunge 12% over the next five years due to the availability of lower-cost equipment and gains in output efficiency—and, in areas offering fair wind conditions, this could make wind power “fully competitive” with power produced from combined cycle gas turbines by 2016, new research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows.

The information analysis firm owned by Bloomberg Finance claims that “the best wind farms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators.” The manufacture of onshore wind turbines displays a 7% “experience-curve”— that is a 7% cost reduction for every doubling of installed…

EPA Grants First GHG Permit to Texas Facility

EPA Grants First GHG Permit to Texas Facility
POWERnews
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday issued the first greenhouse gas (GHG) permit in Texas. The move comes nearly a year after Texas refused to implement federal GHG regulations that require air permits for high-emission projects and the EPA seized the state’s authority to grant permits.

The permit issued on Thursday was granted to the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in Llano County, Texas. LCRA is modernizing and expanding its plant by replacing its 37-year-old 440-MW gas-fired unit with a new 590-MW combined cycle gas-fired plant. “The new plant…