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News
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LCG, December 30, 2025--Duke Energy announced today its submission of an early site permit (ESP) application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The site is near the Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County, North Carolina. The submittal follows two years of work at the site, and the announcement states that the submittal is part of Duke Energy's strategic, on-going commitment to evaluate new nuclear generation options to reliably meet the growing electricity needs of its customers while reducing costs and risks.
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LCG, December 29, 2025--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today issued a summary of its 2025 accomplishments to highlight its commitment to "enabling the safe and secure use of civilian nuclear energy and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation to benefit society and the environment."
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Industry News
DOE Selects BrightSource for $1.4 Billion Loan Guarantee
LCG, February 23, 2010--The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday conditional commitments for over $1.37 billion in loan guarantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to BrightSource Energy, Inc. to support the construction and start-up of a utility-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) complex in the Mojave Desert.
According to the DOE, the loan guarantee is conditioned on financial and environmental requirements BrightSource must meet before closing on the loan, including local, state and federal regulatory approvals. The Bureau of Land Management will continue leading a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Complex will be built approximately 50 miles northwest of Needles, California, and about five miles from the California-Nevada border. The complex will consist of three solar fields and use thousands of heliostats, each with two mirrors that track the sun and focus the solar energy on a receptor atop a tower. When the sunlight hits the receptor, the water inside is heated and creates high temperature steam. The steam is then used in a conventional turbine to generate electricity. An air-cooling system will be used to convert the steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle designed to minimize water consumption. The total electric generating capacity will be 400 MW.
The site footprint was recently reduced from 4,000 acres to approximately 3,500 in order to reduce the impacts on rare plant species and the number of desert tortoises that will need to be relocated.
The first facility is scheduled to start construction in the latter half of this year, with electric generation to commence in 2012. The second facility is scheduled to commence commercial operations in mid-2013, with the third facility by the end of 2013. The project will be interconnected to the electricity grid via an upgraded SCE transmission line.
The power from the facilities will be sold under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Company (SCE). PG&E will purchase approximately two-thirds of the power generated at Ivanpah, and SCE will purchase approximately one-third.
California passed a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Program that requires utilities like PG&E and SCE to increase their electric supply procurement of eligible renewable generating resources by one percent of load per year. In September 2009, the Governor signed an Executive Order that increased the requirement to 33 percent by 2020 and that now applies to all utilities, including publicly-owned municipal utilities.
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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