Chase Energy Canada Limited

Hearings into four proposed new nuclear reactors in Ontario were derailed Tuesday when Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a table for several hours. The protest came a day after a request from environmental groups to postpone the hearings was daenied. Panel chairman Alan Graham said Monday night that the hearings would not be going ahead if the panel believed their mandate was unachievable in light of events in tsunami-ravaged Japan.

MacKay River went offline at 10:26 – 185MW.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. announced it has executed an asset purchase agreement with Kineticor Renewables Inc., near Morse, Saskatchewan, approximately 180 km west of Regina, to acquire all of the assets related to two proposed adjacent 10 MW wind energy development projects in Saskatchewan. The Projects were selected by SaskPower for award of power purchase agreements in accordance with the SaskPower Green Options Partners Program in May 2010. Upon SaskPower’s approval and execution of the PPAs, Kineticor will assign the PPAs to Algonquin Power Co. APUC’s electric generation subsidiary. The Projects will be developed with support from Kineticor during the development phase, which is expected to be completed in late 2013.

The provincial regulator has approved a plan that will allow a tenfold increase in the size of green power generators allowed to sell electricity back to Nova Scotia Power Inc. The program allows customers to generate electricity from small, renewable sources to meet all or part of their power requirements and any excess can be sold back to Nova Scotia Power – 1MW instead of 100kW. The power generated must be equal to the client’s total annual electrical consumption.

Sempra Energy says it is working on a 200-megawatt solar plant 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas adding to the existing 48MW farm dedicated last Friday. Boulder City, the community in which the plant is located, recently approved the 200-megawatt expansion. Sempra has stopped developing traditional gas-fired plants and is relying on low-cost thin-film photovoltaics for the solar farms it is building. Sempra’s project is built next to a traditional gas-fired power plant, and it relies on existing transmission lines.

Keephills#2 went offline at 16:00

Public hearings scheduled for next week into the construction of a nuclear generator at the Darlington plant should be delayed until the unfolding crisis in Japan has played out, an Ontario environmental groups say. The Ontario Power Generation is proposing up to four new nuclear reactors at the existing Darlington site near Oshawa along the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington — the first new Canadian nuclear generation site in decades. The hearings — to be held at the Hope Fellowship Churchm 1685 Bloor St. in Courtice — will also allow OPG to present an overview of the project and to offer clarifying information and additional technical information as required. Any person may attend the public hearing as an observer or may view the written transcripts of the proceedings or the hearing submissions on the online registry.

Constellation Energy Nuclear Group operates Ginna and two other power plants, Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station near Syracuse and Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland. Together, the facilities have five reactors. Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for CENG, said all the plants are designed and built to withstand a wide range of both natural and man-made disasters. David Lochbaum, the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Nuclear Safety Program, said the nuclear industry looked at what’s called station blackout, which is what the Japanese reactors faced. Station blackout is when there is a loss of electricity — from the electrical grid and by the emergency diesel generators — leaving only DC power from the batteries to run critical pumps and other systems.

Canada’s nuclear regulator said on Wednesday that demineralized water found leaking from the power plant in Pickering, Ont., caused by a pump seal failure, poses no threat to human health. The Ontario Power Generation notified the nuclear regulator late Monday evening that there was a release of about 73,000 litres of demineralized water at the Pickering A nuclear generating station earlier that day. OPG confirmed the leak Wednesday afternoon, adding that the leak has been stopped and the faulty pump seal is being replaced.

Utility officials in New Mexico and Arizona said Wednesday they are weighing the potential impacts a federal proposal to regulate mercury and other emissions might have on coal-fired power plants that supply electricity to millions of customers in the Southwest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the proposed mercury standard Wednesday. If approved, the agency said the standard would prevent more than 90 percent of the mercury in coal from being released into the air. Plants would have four years to comply. The San Juan plant is also being targeted by federal regulators who want PNM to install new equipment for meeting haze reduction standards. The state offered its own plan this week, but the EPA is already in the process of considering a separate plan that could cost the utility more than $750 million.

Flat power price for April in Alberta ran up $17/MWh yesterday but is back down today – no reason that I can see.

European electricity prices soared after Germany made seven reactors idle, or a third of the countries nuclear capacity in the wake of Japan’s atomic crisis.

Canadian Solar Inc. and SkyPower Limited announced a third engineering, procurement and construction agreement to build a 10.5 MW solar park in Thunder Bay, Ontario. SkyPower is Canada’s largest owner and developer of large-scale solar projects and most recently was awarded 148.3 MW through thirteen power purchase agreements by the Ontario Power Authority under the Feed-in Tariff Program. Speaking of Thunder Bay, the Ontario Power Authority announced a 10-year contract with AbiBow Canada Inc. for a 40MW biomass-fuelled combined heat and power electricity generating project at the Thunder Bay complex. The project is supported by a $9.6-million grant from Ontario’s Forest Sector Prosperity Fund.

Vancouver-based developer Concord Pacific has put a $70-million wind farm onto the Saskatchewan electricity grid. The wind farm, named Red Lily I, consists of 16 wind turbines capable of turning out 26.4 megawatts of electricity and is owned by Concord subsidiary Concord Green Energy.

Between 2000 and 2010, world wind electric generating capacity increased at a frenetic pace from 17,000 megawatts to nearly 200,000 megawatts. Measured by share of electricity supplied by wind, Denmark is the leading nation at 21 percent. Three north German states now get 40 percent or more of their electricity from wind. For Germany as a whole, the figure is 8 percent — and climbing. And in the state of Iowa, enough wind turbines came online in the last few years to produce up to 20 percent of that state’s electricity. In terms of sheer volume, the United States leads the world with 35,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity, followed by China and Germany with 26,000 megawatts each. Texas, long the leading U.S. oil-producing state, is now also the nation’s leading generator of electricity from wind.

Sheerness#1 went offline at 21:49 last night.

Greengate Power Corp. said it has received provincial approval to build Canada’s largest wind farm in Alberta. Construction on the Blackspring Ridge I project is expected to begin in 2012, with operation slated to begin in 2013. Once complete, the project is expected to be Canada’s largest operating wind energy project with a total generating capacity of 300MW and is located near the community of Carmangay, Alta., approximately 165 kilometers southeast of Calgary.

When negotiating with the developer of a big Imperial Valley solar farm, San Diego Gas & Electric didn’t just want green power – the cutting-edge solar panels to be used in the project should be made in San Diego. The factory will employ 450 people once built. The solar farm, featuring 100,000 of the arrays, will take 250 workers two years to erect. Concentrix Solar, the company building the factory, hasn’t decided exactly where in San Diego the plant will go. Construction of the factory won’t start until the solar farm is financed, and that financing depends on approval of a federal loan guarantee. Tenaska, the company building the solar farm, wouldn’t say how much it will cost, other than it’s several hundred million dollars.

PPL Corporation completed the sale of some of its non-core generation assets to LS Power Equity Advisors, an affiliate of LS Power, for approximately $381 million. The company disposed of the natural gas-fired, 244MW PPL Wallingford Energy plant located in Wallingford, Connecticut; another natural gas fired, 584 MW PPL University Park plant, located in University Park, Ill; and its 1/3 rd interest in Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation, owner of the 421MW Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Station.

A new report by the Solar Energy Industries Association found that 2010 was a banner year for solar in the United States. The total size of the U.S. solar market — which includes rooftop installations, hot water heating and utility scale projects — grew from $3.6 billion in 2009 to $6 billion, a 67 percent increase. California, with its abundant sunshine and leadership on renewable energy policies, remains the nation’s leading solar state. But other states, including New Jersey, Nevada and Arizona, are quickly becoming key markets. California installed 259 megawatts of solar power in 2010, far more than any other state, while New Jersey installed 137 megawatts. Photovoltaic installations, which represent the vast majority of the solar market, grew 102 percent in 2010 to reach 878 MW, up from 435 MW in 2009.

Sempra Generation’s Copper Mountain Solar project, currently the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the U.S., has been awarded “Solar Project of the Year” by Renewable Energy World as part of the 2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards. The 48MW solar installation, located in Boulder City, Nev., about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas, was completed in late 2010 and now generates enough renewable electricity to power about 14,000 average homes.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company announced its 911MW Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 2 in Shippingport was shut down for scheduled refueling and maintenance.

Edmonton-based Capital Power Corp. is buying yet another U.S. electricity generator, this time Bridgeport Energy’s 520-megawatt natural-gas-fired plant in Connecticut for $355 million. Capital reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1 million or four cents a share, compared with a profit of $7 million or 33 cents a share for the same period last year. Capital also announced it is launching its first corporate common share issue since its IPO in July 2009, when it was spun off from Edmonton’s Epcor Utilities. Capital aims to grow to 10,000MW of capacity by 2020 and has added 2,000MW to its portfolio since its IPO. In Alberta, it recently opened its 200MW Clover Bar facility and will shortly bring the Keephills 3 supercritical coal-fired plant on line, adding 248MW of power.

Policy-makers in British Columbia have made it clear they see wind energy as an important and growing player in the province’s future energy plans -driving job creation, new investment, and the delivery of clean energy. The introduction of the Clean Energy Act reflects the province’s strong support for investment in a clean, renewable and low-impact electricity system. The fastest growing source of new electricity around the world, wind energy proved its viability in the British Columbia market through BC Hydro’s 2010 competitive call for clean power, with contracts for six projects totaling 534MW of capacity. This new capacity will build on the $1.7 billion in new investment and 690 MW of new wind energy capacity installed across Canada in 2010. Ontario is the current provincial leader with roughly one-third of the county’s wind energy development. Alberta and Quebec combined follow with approximately another third of capacity and the remaining seven provinces share the rest.

Vancouver geothermal energy company Magma Energy has agreed to buy Plutonic Power in a share-swap deal worth about $190 million. The purchase will create a new entity, to be named Alterra Power Corp., with diversified operations and better access to capital markets, two key ingredients to grow the company. Alterra intends to develop new energy sources either within Canada or internationally, whatever provides the best return to shareholders. Magma operates geothermal plants in Nevada and Iceland and has a portfolio of properties in the western U.S., Iceland and Latin America. Plutonic operates a run-of-river hydro project at Toba Montrose near the head of Toba Inlet, which went into operation last year, and a wind farm at Dokie Ridge near Chetwynd, which has only just come onstream. It also has plans to acquire three solar projects in Ontario from First Solar Inc.

Ocean Renewable Power Co., a Maine tidal energy company says its prototype  150kwh underwater power system has passed all of its tests, paving the way for a commercial unit to be connected to the region’s grid by year’s end. Another tidal power company, New York-based Verdant Power, hopes this year to put new underwater turbines in New York City’s East River, where they’ll connect to the grid.

General Electric has been contracted to provide Masoneilan LincolnLog and SteamForm modulating steam control valves and auxiliary systems to Southern Company’s power plant in Kemper County, Miss. The 582-megawatt Integrated Combined Cycle owned and operated by Mississippi Power, will employ a high-efficiency process that uses lignite coal to generate electricity. The coal is converted to syngas which is used to fuel gas turbine-generators that drive downstream steam turbine-generators.

An Ontario court quashed a health-related objection to wind power generation, eliminating a potential obstacle to wind-farm development. Lawyers argued that the Ontario Environment Ministry, in setting a minimum distance of 550 meters (1,800 feet) between industrial wind turbines and dwellings, had failed to adequately consider possible health impacts. They contended that officials gave insufficient regard to annoyance, stress, sleep disturbance and other possible effects on residents.

Hearings into the fate of the massive Lower Churchill Falls hydroelectric project are slated to get underway Thursday, despite earlier attempts to stall the meetings. An environmental assessment panel is expected to hear submissions over the next 45 days from dozens of people in some nine communities. N.L.’s Crown-owned Nalcor Energy and N.S.’s Emera Inc. agreed in November on a $6.2 billion plan to generate 824 megawatts of power at Muskrat Falls on Labrador’s Churchill River.

Wind Works Power Corp. announced it has signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Premier Renewable Energy Ltd. to sell 5 wind energy projects in Ontario totaling 50 MW. The closing of the sale is subject to the approval of the Ontario Power Authority.

IPPSA’s 17^th annual conference held Mar 13-15 2011 at the Banff Springs will feature one-on-one debates on the leading issues facing Alberta’s power industry.   More information is available at www.ippsa.com.