CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC

CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC, formerly known as Nexen, is a Chinese-owned oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta.
Originally the Canadian subsidiary of US-based Occidental Petroleum (known as Canadian Occidental Petroleum or CanOxy), it became an independent company, Nexen, in 2000. Nexen was acquired by Hong Kong-based CNOOC Limited in 2013, and was rebranded under the current name at the end of 2018.
It has three growth strategies : oil sands and shale gas in western Canada as well as conventional exploration and development primarily in the North Sea, offshore in West Africa, and deepwater exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
History.
Nexen started in 1971 as Canadian Occidental Petroleum (CanOxy), and was 80% owned by Occidental Petroleum, an oil company based in Los Angeles. In the first decade of its existence, CanOxy was fairly Canadian-oriented. During the 1980s and 1990s they increased their international holdings, first in the Gulf of Mexico, then into places like Yemen and the North Sea. Further Canadian assets were also acquired.
In the 1990s, CanOxy purchased the assets of what once was the first state-owned oil and gas company in North America; Wascana Energy Inc., formerly known as SaskOil. Founded by Saskatchewan New Democratic Party Premier Allan Blakeney in 1973, Saskoil was privatized in 1986 by Progressive Conservative Premier Grant Devine.
In 2000, the company partnered with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to buy back Occidental Petroleum's shares. The newly independent company changed its name to Nexen and moved into the former headquarters of NOVA Corporation, what is now known as the Nexen Building.
Acquisition by CNOOC Limited.
In July 2012, CNOOC Limited, a major subsidiary of CNOOC headquartered in Beijing, announced its intention to acquire Nexen for C$15.1 billion. The proposal was accepted by shareholders in September under interim chief executive Kevin Reinhart, but was a matter of significant public and political debate in Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper approved the deal in December 2012 but simultaneously announced more stringent guidelines for foreign acquisitions of Canadian oil sands companies.
The acquisition closed in February 2013, representing China's largest-ever foreign acquisition. Nexen's common stock shareholders received cash proceeds of US$27.50, without interest, whereas preferred stock shareholders of Nexen received cash proceeds of CAD$26, plus accrued and unpaid dividends without interest. In April 2014, Fang Zhi replaced Kevin Reinhart as the firm's chief executive. Two years after the deal, in 2015, about 14% of the company's workforce (300 in Calgary and 40 in the field) was fired in a move the drew concern in relation to Chinese ownership, but which at the time was consistent with layoffs at other companies in the industry in response to global oil price depression.
The Nexen name disappeared from both legal and practical perspectives on 31 December 2018, and it became known as CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC henceforth. Simultaneously and with the same date of effectiveness, related Nexen subsidiaries and affiliates changed both their legal and branding names. Its American depository receipts remained concurrently traded on the TSX and its ultimate parent company, CNOOC Limited, remained a foreign reporting issuer in Canada.
 the company had "shrunk considerably" since the CNOOC acquisition, having gone through multiple rounds of layoffs amid a difficult Canadian oil and gas industry as a whole. In 2019 the company moved its headquarters within downtown Calgary from its former namesake Nexen Building to The Bow, subleasing 8 floors from Cenovus and reducing its office space from approximately 620,000 sq ft to approximately 300,000 sq ft.
Energy operations.
Nexen has interests in Canada (including the Athabasca oil sands through a 7.23% ownership of Syncrude and the Long Lake project), the UK North Sea (including the Buzzard oil field), the United States, and offshore West Africa. Beginning in February 2013, Nexen took accountability for managing approximately $8 billion in CNOOC Limited assets located throughout North and Central America.
Long Lake.
The Long Lake project in the Athabasca Oil Sands was initiated in 2001, as a 50/50 partnership between Nexen and OPTI Canada. It was started in order to develop the Long Lake site using steam-assisted gravity drainage and OPTI's OrCrude process for on-site upgrading. Production capacity at Long Lake was estimated of bitumen per day which could be upgraded to of synthetic crude. The proved reserves at the Long Lake site are 310,000,000 bbls. In 2017, the site produced approximately of bitumen.
The Long Lake site has had a troubled history, including OPTI's near-bankruptcy in 2011 (with Nexen growing its ownership stake to 65% and eventually 100%), a significant oil spill in 2015, and an explosion in 2016 that resulted in two deaths and the permanent shutdown of the upgrader.
In 2018, Nexen announced a $400 million expansion project, which is expected to begin production in late 2020.
Marketing.
Nexen also has an Energy Marketing division that trades and markets proprietary and third-party crude oil, natural gas, liquid natural gas, and electrical power.


Country Energy

Country Energy, an Australian energy retail subsidiary of Origin Energy, provides natural gas and electricity to retail customers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.. Since its establishment in 2001 and until 28 February 2011, Country Energy was owned by the Government of New South Wales.
History.
On 1 July 2001 Country Energy was formed by the merger of New South Wales rural-based energy retailers, Great Southern Energy, Advance Energy and Northpower - all statutory owned by the Government of New South Wales. In addition to electricity retailing, Country Energy operated Australia's largest electricity distribution network by area, covering 95% of the area of New South Wales as well as extending into small parts of Queensland and Victoria. It was one of developers of Directlink, a high voltage direct current electricity transmission line between New South Wales and Queensland transmission grids.
In October 2010, Country Energy sold its natural gas network to Envestra Limited for 108.6 million, which includes of transmission and of distribution pipelines.
On 15 December 2010, the New South Wales Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, announced that the retail division of Country Energy (including the Country Energy brand) was sold to Origin Energy as part of a A$3.25 billion deal. As part of the sale of the retail business the electricity distribution division was separated from Country Energy and re-branded as Essential Energy on 1 March 2011.
Operations.
Country Energy has 870,000 customers, and annual revenues of $2.3 billion. It provides natural gas and electricity to retail customers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. The two contact centres are located in the New South Wales cities of Port Macquarie and Leeton.


Solar controller

A solar controller is an electronic device that controls the circulating pump in a solar hot water system to harvest as much heat as possible from the solar panels and protect the system from overheating. The basic job of the controller is to turn the circulating pump on when there is heat available in the panels, moving the working fluid through the panels to the heat exchanger at the thermal store. Heat is available whenever the temperature of the solar panel is greater than the temperature of the water in the heat exchanger. Overheat protection is achieved by turning the pump off when the store reaches its maximum temperature and sometimes cooling the store by turning the pump on when the store is hotter than the panels.
Most commercial controllers display the temperature of the hot water in the store and provide general status information about the system, including overall energy production.
Components.
The simplest solar controller circuit uses a comparator with two temperature inputs, one at the solar panel and one at the thermal store's heat exchanger, and an output to control the pump. Commercial controllers use a microprocessor usually with a LCD display and simple user interface with a few pushbuttons. Power for the controller and the pump can come from a mains electric supply or from a photovoltaic (PV) module.
Function.
The controller's main function is to switch the circulating pump on or off. The pump is usually switched on when the solar panel is hotter than the water in the store's heat exchanger and off when the panel is colder. Switching the pump on transfers the heat in the panel to the store. Switching it off when the panels cool prevents a reversal of the process and loss of heat from the store. The controller measures and compares the temperatures in the panel and the heat exchanger every few seconds.
Commercial controllers do not turn on the pump until the difference in temperature between the panels and the water in the heat exchanger is sufficient to provide significantly more energy than is consumed by the pump. This temperature difference is called the "on differential" (usually 4–15 °C. They turn off the pump when the panels no longer are hot enough to provide significant heat to the store (the "off differential"). The wider the difference between these differentials, the fewer pump on-off cycles will take place. These factors are usually set by the solar installer in relation to the particular installation, especially dependent on the efficiency of the heat exhchanger and production capacity of the panels.
Controllers provide an overrun time to extract some of the heat energy left in interconnecting pipes after the panels cool off. They may also implement certain safety features such as cooling the store when it exceeds a preset temperature such as 65 °C, by sending excess heat back to the panels to be given off to the environment.
Photovoltaic powered solar controller.
A photovoltaic (PV) powered solar controller uses solar electricity produced on-site to run the pump that delivers the solar-heated transfer fluid to the hot water store.
One claimed advantage of PV power is that it reduces the overall carbon emissions associated with operating the system since it avoids the need to supply this energy from fossil sources. However, the energy required to operate the system is very small in comparison to the energy produced by the system and the carbon emissions reduction of adding PV power fractional.
The most practical benefit of a PV powered controller is the resultant simplicity of the overall system. Rather than using complex algorithms based on store and panel temperatures, the pump is driven directly by the PV panel: when the sun shines, the pump runs. In practice this is nearly (90-99%) as efficient a practical control algorithm as most others achieve and has obvious advantages for reduced system complexity.
A disadvantage to the PV powered approach is that the pump stops immediately after the sun is occluded. With vacuum tube and heat pipe solar panels, these can have an appreciable amount of energy stored in each tube at the moment the sun goes in. To avoid overheating the tubes it is necessary to either pump the circuit for a short time after the sun, or else to provide a large reservoir of fluid in the header above the tubes. Neither of these options is really compatible with the simple direct-PV pump approach and so such systems are limited to using the less efficient flat panel collectors.
A PV powered controller may contain a small electricity store to allow the controller to remain powered and display temperatures at night when there is no sunlight. This electricity store is usually in the form of supercapacitors, since these have a much longer life than batteries.
The benefits of a PV powered solar controller comes at a cost in reduced system performance in the range of 1-10%. This is due to heat losses at times when the panel may be hotter than the water store but there is insufficient sunlight to power the pump. This happens mainly on hot days when hot water is likely to be in excess so the potential reduction is less significant than it would be at times when the store was cooler.


Irkutskenergo

Irkutskenergo () is a power company in Russia. It mainly focus on the generation of hydroelectricity.
The company's hydroelectric facilities are located on the Angara River: Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric power plants. In addition, the company owns 13 coal-fired combined heat and power plants. The total installed capacity of Irkutskenergo is 12,879.9 MW of electric power and 13,002 Gcal/hour of thermal power.
Ownership.
Irkutskenergo is controlled by EuroSibEnergo, a subsidiary of Oleg Deripaska owned En+ Group, which owns a 90.8% share in the company. The rest of shares is traded on the Moscow Exchange.
Inter RAO previously owned 40% of shares. RusHydro had shown its interest to acquire stake owned by Inter RAO.


Solar power in Jamaica

Jamaica's electricity sector is dominated by non-renewable generators that use petroleum products, primarily Bunker C fuel oil and automotive diesel which generated 93% of the annual output for 2014. There is a small contribution from a few small hydroelectric plants and a couple of wind farms, one of which, Wigton Wind Farm, contributes a very small amount despite being the largest wind farm in the Caribbean.
In 2005, Jamaica embarked on the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called "Vision 2030" which encompassed the National Energy Policy 2009–2030. The policy was adopted in late 2009 and followed in 2010 by a National Renewable Energy Policy 2009–2030. According to the message from the then minister responsible for energy, "Since 2005, Jamaica has embarked upon the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called "Vision 2030" which is expected to put the country in a path to achieve developed country status by 2030. One of the expected outcomes of the plan is the diversification of Jamaica’s energy supply to increase energy security and to contribute to the cost efficiency of the country’s energy sector."
After the National Energy Policy was approved the authorities set about creating a regulatory and technical framework for the interconnection of solar PV systems to the national grid in consultation with the grid operator. The result was the formulation of a Standard Offer Contract for the sale of electricity to the grid under a net billing arrangement. Under the net billing arrangement any electricity not consumed on the premises it is produced, is delivered to the grid and is purchased by the grid operator at a price set by the Office of Utilities Regulation to be close to the avoided cost of generation by the existing suppliers. That price is available at the regulators web site. Any electricity consumed from the grid is billed at the regular retail prices and at the end of the month the difference between the delivered and consumed amounts is settled. Technical guidelines for the interconnection to the grid are also now available and the Government Electrical Inspectorate is prepared to perform inspection of installations. This is the basis on which most major installations have proceeded.
Installed Capacity.
The following are some of the larger installations currently connected to the grid:
More than 20,000 Jamaican homes are expected to be powered by clean, affordable, renewable energy to be generated from the US$61 million solar electricity plant, being built in Content District, Clarendon.
Electricity produced by this 20-megawatt plant, the largest of its kind in the Caribbean, will replace approximately of fossil fuel per year.
Construction of the state-of-the art facility will now get underway, following an official ground breaking ceremony at the site, on July 9 (2015).
Rural Electrification.
In June 2012 Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell disclosed that, approximately 16,000 homes in remote parts of the island which do not have electricity are to be supplied with solar or wind electricity through the Rural Electrification Programme (REP). At a USAID-funded Analysis and Investigation for Low Emission (AILEG) project symposium, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, on Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell stated that the REP has also been mandated to complete its target of providing electricity to 100 per cent of rural areas. “Those three per cent that now remain are in areas that are so far from the grid, it is too expensive (to provide), and we are going to be deploying photovoltaic systems in these areas,” he explained. In March 2015 he told a newspaper that, by 2017, "we should no longer have REP in the way we do now", adding that if the Government finds it too challenging to run power lines into communities, it will use solar."


Texas Genco

Texas Genco was a power generation company that came about as part of the deregulated Texas electricity market and owned numerous power plants in the Houston area that serve area power needs. The Company was created in 2001 as part of the Texas electricity market deregulation. Incumbent utilities were required to separate their business functions into a retail electric provider (REP), a transmission and distribution service provider (TDSP), and a wholesale generator.
In 2000, Reliant Energy announced that it was splitting its business into separate regulated and unregulated businesses.
This split formed Reliant Resources, an unregulated electricity and energy company, and Centerpoint Energy, the remaining mostly regulated energy delivery company. Reliant Energy's power plants became a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerpoint Energy. The new company was known as Texas Genco.
When the state of Texas deregulated the electricity market, the former Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P) was split into several companies. In 2003 HL&P was split into Reliant Energy, Texas Genco, and CenterPoint Energy.
Seeking opportunities arising out of the deregulation of the electricity industry in Texas, in late 2004 four private equity firms—the Texas Pacific Group, the Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Hellman & Friedman of San Francisco—combined forces to purchase Texas Genco from the transmission & distribution provider utility Centerpoint Energy for Houston.
This coalition of firms acquired Texas Genco—which was the second largest operator of power generation facilities in the state—for a price of approximately $1.9 billion and using just $900 million in cash.
In late 2005, these private equity firms announced the sale of Texas Genco to NRG Energy of Princeton, N.J., for a price of roughly $5.9 billion. The investors achieved a gain of almost $5 billion over the space of an investment holding period of less than 18 months, a return that will mark one of the most lucrative private equity investments in recent years.


Juan de Fuca Cable Project

The Juan de Fuca Cable Project is a proposed 550 MW, 150 kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine power cable connection running under the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles, Washington, and Victoria, British Columbia. The project's final environmental impact statement (required by United States law) was completed in October 2007, and a presidential permit issued in June 2008.
Sea Breeze Pacific Juan de Fuca Cable LP is proposing to install a high voltage direct current electric power transmission line between Vancouver Island in Canada and Port
Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula in the United States. This 550-megawatt transmission line would cross the international border beneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and
would be constructed using a combination of underground and submarine cables.
A benefit of the interconnection is relieving congestion on the US–Canada interconnect. Under the Columbia River Treaty, in return for regulating the flow of the Columbia River in BC, the United States is obliged to return some of the additional electricity generated in Washington to BC.
Two converter stations would be built for connection to power grids in the United States and Canada. One would be at Port Angeles adjacent to an existing Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) substation. One would be at the Pike Lake substation near Victoria.
If built, it would be the third HVDC system in the Pacific Northwest, along with the Pacific DC Intertie and HVDC Vancouver Island. The system would enable a more stable renewable energy supply by allowing bidirectional exchange of power based on renewable sources such as wind, hydro and solar, for which both supply and demand vary across wide areas based on seasonal and other factors. British Columbia's wind power is considered an underdeveloped resource.
As of late 2013, the project was waiting for completion of a $69 per megawatt hour power purchase agreement with BC Hydro, and would need recertification by Canadian energy regulators. At the same time, the provincial government was considering a plan from BC Hydro to supply energy at $83 per megawatt hour.


JERA

Brief outline.
JERA is 50-50 joint venture between TEPCO Fuel & Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo Electric Power Company, and Chubu Electric Power, founded in April 2015. The company assumed ownership and operation of all of Tokyo Electric and Chubu Electric thermal power stations, giving it a total output of approximately 67 million kW (including capacity under construction), which made it Japan's largest power generation company. The electricity generated is wholesaled to retail electric utilities such as TEPCO Energy Partner and Chubu Electric Power, and is not supplied directly to consumers.
Background.
The concept of JERA was floated immediately after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster by a group of young managers within Tokyo Electric, who sought to separate the thermal power generation portion of the company from the nuclear sector (together with the legal and fiscal responsibility for the accident) to ensure Tokyo Electric's survival. The idea was vehemently opposed by Tokyo Electric's chairman; however, by 2012 Tokyo Electric was facing imminent bankruptcy over damage compensation claim and the costs of decommissioning the Fukushima nuclear plants, as well as high costs for fossil fuel to make up the power generation shortfall from its 17 idled nuclear reactors. In addition, many of its thermal power plants were obsolete, and with Tokyo Electric's plummeting credit rating, it was deemed unlikely and the necessary funding could be secured for revamping or construction.
From March 2014, Tokyo Electric began to solicit partners for a strategic alliance. Meanwhile, Nagoya-based Chubu Electric was eager to expand into the Kanto region and had been receiving many enquiries from Kanto-based users unhappy with Tokyo Electric's increasing rates. However, efforts to enter the Kanto region and to compete against Tokyo Electric were hampered by the Japanese government's unwritten regulations creating regional electric generation monopolies. Chubu Electric initially attempted to circumvent these regulations by building a new 650,000 kW coal-fired power generation facility on the premises of TEPCO's Hitachi Naka Thermal Power Station, with power generated by this plant to be sold by Tokyo Electric on its behalf. This led to further discussions in September 2014 for a comprehensive alliance on thermal power generation, and JERA was launched in April 2015.


China Wind Systems

China Wind Systems, Inc. (Public, OTC:CWSI) is composed of two wholly owned subsidiaries, Wuxi Huayang Dye Machine Co., Ltd. (Huayang Dye) and Wuxi Huayang Electrical Power Equipment Co., Ltd. (Huayang Electrical Power). Wuxi Huayang Dye Machine Co., Ltd. is engaged in textile dyeing and manufacturing finishing machines. Wuxi Huayang Electric Power Equipment Co., Ltd. is involved in the manufacture of equipment for electrical generation. High precision forged rolled rings for use in the wind power industry and other industries are manufactured by the Wuxi Huayang Electric Power Equipment subsidiary. They also manufacture equipment used in the production of coal generated electricity.
China Wind Systems was founded in Wuxi City, Jiangsu province in 1995 by Jianhua Wu. The company went public through a reverse merger transaction in November 2007. After the reverse merger transaction, the name was changed to China Wind System. This name change was accompanied by the launch of its wind energy business supplying forged rolled rings to the wind industry. In August 2008, the company formed a new wholly owned subsidiary, Wuxi Fulland Wind Energy Equipment Co., Ltd.
By April 2010, China Wind Systems expects to finish a new $6 million expansion at its facility that will allow it to produce steel through a process called electro-slag remelting (ESR). A $14 million deal to supply wind tower flanges to Chengxi Shipyard was recently signed by China Wind Systems.
References.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190125131011/http://ww7.chinawindsystems.com/


Kenya Power and Lighting Company

Kenya Power and Lighting Company, commonly referred to as Kenya Power or KPLC, is a public liability company which transmits, distributes and retails electricity to customers throughout Kenya.
Location.
KPLC headquarters are at Stima Plaza, Kolobot Road in Parklands, Nairobi. The coordinates of the company headquarters are: 01°16'18.0"S, 36°49'14.0"E (Latitude:-1.271668; Longitude:36.820552).
Overview.
Kenya Power is a public company listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The company is a national electric utility company, managing electric metering, licensing, billing, emergency electricity service and customer relations.
In addition to electricity distribution to industry, offices, schools, hospitals, and domestic users, KPLC also offers optic fiber connectivity to telecommunication companies through its optical fiber cable network that runs along its high voltage power lines across the country mainly to manage the national power grid.
History.
Kenya Power traces its origins to 1875 when Seyyied Barghash, the Sultan of Zanzibar, acquired a generator to light his palace and nearby streets. This generator was acquired in 1908 by Harrali Esmailjee Jeevanjee, a Mombasa-based merchant, leading to the formation of the Mombasa Electric Power and Lighting Company whose mandate was to provide electricity to the island. In the same year, Engineer Clement Hirtzel was granted the exclusive right to supply Nairobi city with electricity. This led to the formation of the Nairobi Power and Lighting Syndicate.
In 1922, the Mombasa Electric Power and Lighting Company and Nairobi Power and Lighting Syndicate merged under a new company known as East African Power and Lighting Company (EAP&L). The EAP&L expanded outside Kenya in 1932 when it acquired a controlling interest in the Tanganyika Electricity Supply Company Limited (now TANESCO) and later obtaining a generating and distribution licenses for Uganda in 1936, thereby entrenching its presence in the East African region. EAP&L exited Uganda in 1948 when the Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) was established to take over distribution of electricity in the country.
On February 1, 1954, Kenya Power Company (KPC) was formed and commissioned to construct the transmission line between Nairobi and Tororo in Uganda This was to transmit power generated at the Owen Falls Dam to Kenya. KPC was managed by EAP&L under a management contract. In the same year, EAP&L listed its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Making it one of the first companies to list on the bourse.
EAP&L exited Tanzania in 1964 by selling its stake in TANESCO to the Government of Tanzania. Due to its presence in only Kenya, EAP&L was renamed the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) in 1983.
Kenya Power Company de-merged from KPLC in 1997 and rebranded to Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and in 2008, the electricity transmission infrastructure function was carved out of KPLC and transferred to the newly formed Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO). Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) was re-branded Kenya Power in June 2011.
Shareholding.
The 20 largest shareholders in the stock of KPLC, as of 31 August 2015, are illustrated in the table below:
Note:
Subsidiary.
In 2015, KPLC elevated its wholly owned school, "Kenya Power Training School" to the Institute of Energy Studies and Research (IESR), to "provide training solutions for the power sector in the areas of generation, transmission, distribution and inter-connectivity". The primary target population are the countries of the Northern Corridor.
Means of Contact.
You can reach KPLC on phone (+2542032010000) or by sending them an email (customercare@kplc.co.ke) or via Twitter @KenyaPower_Care. The official mailing address is Stima Plaza, Kolobot Road, Parklands, P.O. Box 30099, 00100, Kenya.
Controversy.
The company has been faced with a lot of controversy regarding making of loses. At the moment the company has a commercial debt of Ksh 65.5 billion


HTR-PM

The HTR-PM is a small modular nuclear reactor under development in China.
It is a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed generation IV reactor partly based on the earlier HTR-10 prototype reactor.
The reactor unit has a thermal capacity of 250 MW, and two reactors are connected to a single steam turbine to generate 210 MW of electricity.
Work on the first demonstration HTR-PM power plant, composed of two reactors driving a single steam turbine, began in December 2012 in Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant.
The pressure vessels of the two reactors were installed in 2016. The steam generator shell, hot gas duct shell and reactor pressure vessel shell of the first reactor in the HTR-PM demonstration project were successfully paired on 28 April 2020, paving the way for the installation of the main helium fan and lays a solid foundation for cold performance tests, which are due to be completed in 2020.
There is some scientific critics on HTR-PM with respect to safety and waste disposal.
The HTR-PM is expected to be the first generation IV reactor to enter operation.


Solar power in Canada

Historically, the main applications of solar energy technologies in Canada have been non-electric active solar system applications for space heating, water heating and drying crops and lumber. In 2001, there were more than 12,000 residential solar water heating systems and 300 commercial/ industrial solar hot water systems in use. These systems presently comprise a small fraction of Canada's energy use, but some government studies suggest they could make up as much as five percentage of the country's energy needs by the year 2025.
Photovoltaic (PV) cells are increasingly used as standalone units, mostly as off-grid distributed electricity generation to power remote homes, telecommunications equipment, oil and pipeline monitoring stations and navigational devices. The Canadian PV market has grown quickly and Canadian companies make solar modules, controls, specialized water pumps, high efficiency refrigerators and solar lighting systems.
Grid-connected solar PV systems have grown significantly in recent years, and reached over 1.8 GW of cumulative installed capacity by the end of 2014.
Solar potential.
Canada has plentiful solar energy resources thanks to its large area. Regions of high solar potential based on global horizontal irradiation being located in the British Columbia Interior, southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, southern Nova Scotia, and western Prince Edward Island. The regions of highest solar potential are located in southern extremes of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
However, the country has a relatively low level of solar irradiance due to its high latitude. This, combined with cloud cover, results in a low 6% capacity factor, compared to a 15% capacity factor in the United States.
The northern territories have a smaller solar potential, and less direct sunlight, because of their even higher latitude. The National Energy Board predicts that solar electricity will grow to be 1.2% of the country's total energy production by 2040.
By region.
Ontario.
With the introduction of a Feed-in tariff (FIT) in 2009, Ontario became a global leader for solar energy projects. The program was the first of its kind in North America.
Thanks to the FIT program, Ontario was the home of what was temporarily the largest solar farm in the world (in October 2010) until surpassed by larger farms in China and India. Located in Sarnia, Ontario, the 97 megawatt Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant can power more than 12,000 homes.
Ontario has several other large PV power plants, other than the Sarnia plant. The 23.4 MW Arnprior Solar Generating Station was built in 2009, and is expected to expand to 80 MW.
Additionally, a 68 megawatt solar farm can be found in Sault Ste. Marie, and a new 100 megawatt solar farm was built in Kingston, Ontario in 2015.
The most recent concentrated solar thermal power and storage technologies were barred from the FIT. The reason offered was that the technologies are not proven in Ontario climate.
The FIT program is intended for installations over 10 kW, while the microFIT program is to encourage the development of micro-scale renewable energy projects, such as residential solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. The microFIT program provides a rate of $0.802/kWh for rooftop mounted solar panels.
On July 2, 2010 the microFIT's program rate (for ground-mounted systems only) was lowered to $0.642/kWh by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
This new rate means consumers investing in solar energy through the Ontario microFIT Program will experience a drop in profit margin from a 25% range to 10%. On April 5, 2012 the rate was reduced to $0.549/kWh. The 2012 target is for 50 MW to be installed. As of August 7, 2012, 9,764 applications for the FIT have been submitted, totaling 8,504 MW. 1,757 applications have been submitted for the microFIT program, totaling 16 MW. Ontario plans to end coal generation by 2014.
Ontario is expected to reach 2,650 MW of solar PV by 2015.
As of December 2016, Ontario's solar energy installations have the capability of generating 1,947 MW.


7AK7

The 7AK7 is a pentode vacuum tube (thermionic valve). According to its manufacturer, Sylvania, it was "designed for service in electronic computers".
The tube was developed in 1948, designed at the request of L. D. Wilson for use in the Whirlwind computer.
Significant attention was directed towards its manufacturing process in order to ensure the part's
reliability. Dubbed the "computer tube", it became the standard tube for all computers into the late 1950s.


Field-reversed configuration

A field-reversed configuration (FRC) is a type of plasma device studied as a means of producing nuclear fusion. It confines a plasma on closed magnetic field lines without a central penetration. In an FRC, the plasma has the form of a self-stable torus, similar to a smoke ring.
FRCs are closely related to another self-stable magnetic confinement fusion device, the spheromak. Both are considered part of the compact toroid class of fusion devices. FRCs normally have a plasma that is more elongated than spheromaks, having the overall shape of a hollowed out sausage rather than the roughly spherical spheromak.
FRCs were a major area of research in the 1960s and into the 1970s, but had problems scaling up into practical fusion triple products. Interest returned in the 1990s and , FRCs were an active research area.
History.
The FRC was first observed in laboratories in the late 1950s during theta pinch experiments with a reversed background magnetic field.
The first studies were at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the 1960s. Considerable data were collected, with over 600 published papers. Almost all research was conducted during Project Sherwood at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 1975 to 1990, and during 18 years at the Redmond Plasma Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, with the large "s" experiment (LSX).
Later research was at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Fusion Technology Institute (FTI) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the University of California, Irvine.
Private companies now study FRCs for electricity generation, including General Fusion, TAE Technologies, and Helion Energy.
The Electrode Lorentz Thruster (ELF) developed by MSNW was an attempt to design a space propulsion device. ELF was a candidate in NASA's NextSTEP advanced electric propulsion program, along with the X-3 Nested-Channel Hall Thruster and VASIMR before MSNW dissolved.
Applications.
The primary application is for fusion power generation.
The FRC is also considered for deep space exploration, not only as a possible nuclear energy source, but as means of accelerating a propellant to high levels of specific impulse (Isp) for electrically powered spaceships and fusion rockets, with interest expressed by NASA.
Comparisons.
Producing fusion power by confining the plasma with magnetic fields is most effective if the field lines do not penetrate solid surfaces but close on themselves into circles or toroidal surfaces. The mainline confinement concepts of tokamak and stellarator do this in a toroidal chamber, which allows a great deal of control over the magnetic configuration, but requires a very complex construction. The field-reversed configuration offers an alternative in that the field lines are closed, providing good confinement, but the chamber is cylindrical, allowing simpler, easier construction and maintenance.
Field-reversed configurations and spheromaks are together known as compact toroids. Spheromaks and FRC differ in that a spheromak has an extra toroidal field. This toroidal field can run along the same or opposite direction as the spinning plasma. In the spheromak the strength of the toroidal magnetic field is similar to that of the poloidal field. By contrast, the FRC has little to no toroidal field component and is confined solely by a poloidal field. The lack of a toroidal field means that the FRC has no magnetic helicity and that it has a high beta. The high beta makes the FRC attractive as a fusion reactor and well-suited to aneutronic fuels because of the low required magnetic field. Spheromaks have "β" ≈ 0.1 whereas a typical FRC has "β" ≈ 1.
Formation.
In modern FRC experiments, the plasma current that reverses the magnetic field can be induced in a variety of ways.
When a field-reversed configuration is formed using the theta-pinch (or inductive electric field) method, a cylindrical coil first produces an axial magnetic field. Then the gas is pre-ionized, which "freezes in" the bias field from a magnetohydrodynamic standpoint, finally the axial field is reversed, hence "field-reversed configuration." At the ends, reconnection of the bias field and the main field occurs, producing closed field lines. The main field is raised further, compressing and heating the plasma and providing a vacuum field between the plasma and the wall.
Neutral beams are known to drive current in Tokamaks by directly injecting charged particles. FRCs can also be formed, sustained, and heated by application of neutral beams. In such experiments, as above, a cylindrical coil produces a uniform axial magnetic field and gas is introduced and ionized, creating a background plasma. Neutral particles are then injected into the plasma. They ionize and the heavier, positively-charged particles form a current ring which reverses the magnetic field.
Spheromaks are FRC-like configurations with finite toroidal magnetic field. FRCs have been formed through the merging of spheromaks of opposite and canceling toroidal field.
Rotating magnetic fields have also been used to drive current. In such experiments, as above, gas is ionized and an axial magnetic field is produced. A rotating magnetic field is produced by external magnetic coils perpendicular to the axis of the machine, and the direction of this field is rotated about the axis. When the rotation frequency is between the ion and electron gyro-frequencies, the electrons in the plasma co-rotate with the magnetic field (are "dragged"), producing current and reversing the magnetic field. More recently, so-called odd parity rotating magnetic fields have been used to preserve the closed topology of the FRC.
Single particle orbits.
FRCs contain an important and uncommon feature: a "magnetic null," or circular line on which the magnetic field is zero. This is necessarily the case, as inside the null the magnetic field points one direction and outside the null the magnetic field points the opposite direction. Particles far from the null trace closed cyclotron orbits as in other magnetic fusion geometries. Particles which cross the null, however, trace not "cyclotron" or circular orbits but "betatron" or figure-eight-like orbits, as the orbit's curvature changes direction when it crosses the magnetic null.
Because the particle's orbits are not cyclotron, models of plasma behavior based on cyclotron motion like magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) are inapplicable in the region around the null. The size of this region is related to the s-parameter, or the ratio of the distance between the null and separatrix, and the thermal ion gyroradius. At high-s, most particles do not cross the null and this effect is negligible. At low-s, ~2, this effect dominates and the FRC is said to be "kinetic" rather than "MHD."
Plasma stability.
At low s-parameter, most ions inside an FRC follow large betatron orbits (their average gyroradius is about half the size of the plasma) which are typical in accelerator physics rather than plasma physics. These FRCs are very stable because the plasma is not dominated by usual small gyroradius particles like other thermodynamic equilibrium or nonthermal plasmas. Its behavior is not described by classical magnetohydrodynamics, hence there are no Alfvén waves and almost no MHD instabilities despite their theoretical prediction, and it avoids the typical "anomalous transport", i.e. processes in which excess loss of particles or energy occurs.
, several remaining instabilities are being studied:
Spacecraft propulsion.
Field-reversed configuration devices have been considered for spacecraft propulsion. By angling the walls of the device outward, the plasmoid can be accelerated in the axial direction and out of the device, generating thrust.


Loewe 3NF

The Loewe 3NF was an early attempt to combine several functions in one electronic device.
Produced by the German Loewe-Audion GmbH as early as 1926, the device consisted of three triode valves (tubes) in a single glass envelope together with two fixed capacitors and four fixed resistors required to make a complete radio receiver. The resistors and capacitors had to be sealed in their own glass tubes to prevent them from contaminating the vacuum.
The only other parts required to build a radio receiver were the tuning coil, the tuning capacitor and the loudspeaker. The device was produced not to enter the integrated circuit era several decades early, but to evade German taxes levied on a per valveholder basis. As the Loewe set had only one valveholder, it was able to substantially undercut the competition. The resultant radio receiver required a 90 volt HT plus a 4 volt LT (A and B) battery (the HT battery provided not only 82.5 volts for the HT, but also two grid bias supplies at −1.5 volts and −7.5 volts).
One major disadvantage of the 3NF was that if one filament failed, the whole device was rendered useless. Loewe countered this by offering a filament repair service.
Loewe were to also offer the 2NF (two tetrodes plus passive components) and the WG38 (two pentodes, a triode and the passive components).


Pandri, Purulia district

Pandri is a small village situated in the Purulia district in the state of West Bengal, known for being the first decentralized solar-powered village in India.
Geography.
Pandri is situated in the foothills of the Ajodhya Hills in the district Purulia. The village is located about eighteen kilometers from Jhalda. The village has about eighty households which are basically mud huts in three clusters. The approach to the village is a dirt road that winds through hilly terrain. The source of water supply to Pandri village is a dam situated close to the village.
First solar-powered village in India.
Pandri is the first decentralized solar-powered village in India. An initiative by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation which is a non-profit organization and by the Sri Sri Rural Development Program in West Bengal, set up the solar plant at a cost of about 4,500,000 Indian rupees. Pandri was chosen for this project as it had all year water supply due to its proximity to a dam situated near the village. Logistically, it was hard to set up the solar power plant due to bad roads and the steep climb for the supply trucks to reach Pandri. The other issue in setting up the solar plant was that labor (which included masons) and electricians initially refused to work in the area and around the village, as it was an area affected by Maoists. Covering about 2,000 square feet with about 75 solar panels, the solar power project was completed in 2015, generating about 1.2 kilowatts per panel of solar-power supplying clean energy to about 80 households.


Edison International

Edison International is a public utility holding company based in Rosemead, California. Its subsidiaries include Southern California Edison, and unregulated non-utility business assets Edison Energy. Edison's roots trace back to Holt & Knupps, a company founded in 1886 as a provider of street lights in Visalia, California.
History.
The company was first incorporated in 1909 as Southern California Edison Company after Southern California acquired the assets of Edison Electric Company; it was known as Southern California Edison until 1996 when it adopted its current name in recognition of its growing business abroad and in other industry sectors. Edison first became a holding company in 1988 when it made a small change to its original name, becoming known as SCEcorp.
Edison International became the naming rights holder for the Anaheim Angels' stadium (which was previously known as Anaheim Stadium) in 1998 in a deal running for 20 years. The company backed out of the naming rights deal after the 2003 season, and the stadium is now called Angel Stadium.
In 2001 Edison's main holding, Southern California Edison faced bankruptcy after a state senate bill regarding financial assistance came up short (by $1 billion).
On August 6, 2002, Edison International recorded core earnings per share of 56 cents in the second quarter of 2002.
Recent moves.
In November 2010 Edison sold its 48% interest in the Four Corners coal-fired power plant in New Mexico (units 4 and 5 while units 1,2 and 3 will be closed because of being older) for $294 million to Pinnacle West Capital Corp (of Arizona Public Service). The move was the direct result of a new California law requiring utility companies to exit coal-fired power production (even the renewing of contracts is disallowed), and forces Edison to purchase more power from the market.
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
Unit 2 shut in early January 2012 for refueling and replacement of the reactor vessel head.
Both reactors at San Onofre have been shut since January 2012 due to premature wear found on tubes in massive steam generators installed in 2010 and 2011.
In April 2012, in a sign of mounting concern over the shutdown, the top U.S. nuclear official, Gregory Jaczko, toured the facility with Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican. In June, 2013, the company announced it would permanently shut down operations at the plant, the beginning of a multi-year decommissioning process at the site.
Energy production mix.
At least 46% of the fuel Southern California Edison uses to generate power comes from clean energy (6% of that nuclear power, the others renewable energy sources ranging from biomass to wind). The group is a major player in Southern California where it provides 13 million people with electricity.
Southern California Edison began to focus on renewable energy in 1980.


Ashuganj Power Station

Ashuganj Power Station is located near to the Titas Gas field and at the bank of river Meghna, Bangladesh. It consists of 1627 megawatt units. An agreement was signed in 1966 with a foreign construction company to establish a Thermal Power Plant in Ashuganj. It is owned and operated by Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd.
Plant status.
Installed Capacity.
Present Capacity (Net Output)
On Going Projects :
Ashuganj 400MW CCPP (East)
Land Acquisition, Land Development and Protection for Patuakhali 1320 MW Super Thermal Power Plant Project.
Corporate Office.
Navana Rahim Ardent (Level-8)
185, Shahid Syed Nazrul Islam Sarani
Paltan, Dhaka