World:
¶ India has offered Cuba lines of credit and expertise for developing renewable energy projects, as the Caribbean nation seeks to diversify energy mix for reducing its dependence on oil imports. [Cuba Headlines]
¶ The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has decided to call for storing high-level radioactive waste in ways that make it accessible in the future, instead of the burying it underground for good, according to informed sources. [The Japan Times]
¶ France will introduce a carbon levy and a law to cap nuclear-power capacity next year under plans to boost renewable generation that will cost about €20 billion ($27 billion) a year, according to President Francois Hollande. [Businessweek]
¶ Britain’s nuclear prospects received a boost yesterday after details of a multi-million pound deal emerged. Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba, is preparing to buy into one of the consortia looking to build reactors in the UK. [This is Money]
¶ Five loose bolts discovered on the bottom of a storage tank are believed to be the cause of the leak of 300 tons of radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, TEPCO said on September 20. [Asahi Shimbun]
¶ Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering a plan that would give the government sole responsibility for containing and cleaning up contamination from Fukushima Daiichi, allowing TEPCO to focus its dwindling resources more efficiently on decommissioning the facility. [Wall Street Journal]
US:
¶ The US DOE has issued a new report, “Revolution Now – The Future Arrives for Four Clean Energy Technologies.” The study says costs for wind and solar power and clean energy technologies, such as LED lights and electric vehicles, have dropped their deployment has soared, leading to an active historic shift. [Main Line]
¶ Preliminary construction work is speeding up at the site of a proposed $350 million tires-to-energy plant in Crawford County, Pennsylvania after a settlement in a longstanding legal dispute. Major work on the Crawford Renewable Energy plant is expected to being in 2014. [WCN]
¶ Vestas announced today it has received another large North American order. This one is for 30 wind turbines that would generate 60 megawatts from affiliates of Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. Vestas could ultimately supply RES Americas up to 610 MW overall. [My Windsor Now]
¶ The governor of Connecticut announced that two renewable energy projects have signed long-term contracts to provide the state with power. One is a wind farm in Maine; the other is a solar farm in Connecticut. [Mondaq News Alerts]
¶ The US EPA proposed rules that aim to reduce carbon emissions from new coal and natural gas power plants. The agency revised a proposal made last year after getting public comments and power industry reactions. The new proposal sets different limits for coal and natural gas plants. [Forbes]
¶ A few months from now, a source of uranium that the U.S. has relied upon for 20 years will dry up. Russia will end a 20-year treaty to supply uranium, and once this enormous foreign supply dries up, US nuclear reactors will need to find a new source to keep up with demand. [NASDAQ]
¶ Small cracks found in the shield building at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio pose no danger to the integrity or ability of the structure to operate, according to the plant’s owner FirstEnergy Corp. The cracks had been invisible to previous inspection technology. [Reuters]
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