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NuScale Power Achieves Standard Design Approval from NRC for 77 MW SMR

LCG, May 30, 2025--NuScale Power Corporation (NuScale), a leading provider of advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology, yesterday announced that it has received design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its uprated 77 MW power modules. NuScale states that it remains the only SMR technology company with design approval from the NRC, and the company remains on track for deployment by 2030, with 50- and 77-MW SMR options.

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EIA Presents Analysis of California's Solar and Wind Power Curtailment Challenges

LCG, May 29, 2025--The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released an analysis yesterday showing that the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the grid operator for most of the state, is increasing its curtailment of the rapidly growing solar- and wind-powered generation facilities in order to balance electricity supply and demand, which is necessary to maintain a stable electric system.

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Industry News

Interior Department Approves 1,000 MW Solar Project in the Mojave Desert

LCG, October 27, 2010--The U.S. Interior Department on Monday approved The Blythe Solar Power Project, a mammoth $6 billion facility with an electric generating capacity of 3,000 MW. The Interior Department will provide a right-of-way grant for over 7,000 acres of public lands in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, California for 30 years to the developer, Solar Mellennium.

Four solar-thermal power plants are planned at the Blythe location, and the combined capacity will be nearly 1,000 MW. With approval from the Interior Department, construction is scheduled to start for the first two plants by the end of 2010, the deadline for qualifying for the U.S. Treasury Department grant, which equates to 30 percent of the project's cost. The first plant is scheduled to be connected to the grid as early as 2013.

The facility will employ a parabolic trough system that uses mirrors to focus solar energy onto collector tubes, with the hot fluid used in a boiler to generate steam, which is in turn used to drive a steam turbine to generate power.

Solar Millennium has power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE) for the first two plants that were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last July.

Solar Millennium envisions an equity ratio of 20 to 30 percent and a debt ratio of 70 to 80 percent for the first two plants and states it has sufficient resources for financing the first construction measures.

With the Treasury Grant requiring projects to start construction by the end of this year, the Interior Department recently approved a number of other large solar projects, including a 709-MW project in Imperial County and a 664-MW project east of Barstow.

The increase in variable output, non-dispatchable solar power creates a corresponding need for energy storage capacity. Last month, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger approved Assembly Bill 2514, which is designed to set targets for electric utilities to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems.

The new law requires the CPUC to initiate a proceeding to determine appropriate targets for each load-serving entity to procure energy storage systems by March 1, 2012, and to adopt such targets by October 1, 2013.

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