It is then released through a number of turbines to generate electricity in the same way as hydro-electric power plants work.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | South West Wales | Wave power plan for Welsh coast
Central electric power plants, in particular, are highly dependent on vast quantities of cooling water that will become scarcer under climate change.
Google Earth for siting large-scale electric power plants in the United States.
As for the NRG and GenOn proposal, it is in the merchant energy space that is unregulated and where the electric power plants sell their product at market rates.
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It was a key element of the deal Washington made with Pyongyang to provide North Korea with fuel for electric power plants until two large civilian nuclear stations are completed.
The train also is expected to bring fuel oil from Umm Qasr to Baghdad to power electric plants in the Iraqi capital.
And the White House has been urging Congress to authorize greater government action to protect infrastructure such as the nation's electric grid and power plants.
Big mistake No. 1: Under the 1996 deregulation measure, investor-owned utilities such as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric were required to sell most of their power generating plants to other private companies, and to become buyers of wholesale electric power.
These markets allow companies to recover the costs of building power plants that provide electric power during periods of peak demand.
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Malicious software infecting the computers of electric utilities could cause turbines at power plants to spin out of control, potentially destroying them.
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In June, American Electric Power announced it would have to shutter five coal-fired power plants, at a cost of 600 jobs, in order to comply with new EPA rules.
Last year Djojohadikusumo's Batu Perkasa Hitam won a contract to build and operate, with Japan's Mitsui and America's General Electric, two 600-megawatt power plants in Paiton in eastern Java.
Apart from an ancient aluminium complex, Montenegro's main industrial hope lies on the drawing-board: a chain of hydro-electric plants that could supply power to Albania and Greece and across the Adriatic to Italy.
In a bid to help the struggling solar companies, the grid operator unveiled a number of measures last week to ease pressures facing solar project operators in connecting power plants to the electric grid.
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American Electric Power, meanwhile, said that it would close three coal-fired power plants in Ohio, part of an earlier legal settlement that also requires the company to build 200 megawatts of wind and solar.
American Electric will utilize the pipeline to fuel its power plants, which will be converted from coal-fired to natural gas in order to comply with tightening environmental standards.
Similarly, if the energy used to recharge the electric car comes mostly from coal-fired power plants, it will be responsible for the emission of almost 15 ounces of carbon-dioxide for every one of the 50, 000 miles it is driven three ounces more than a similar gas-powered car.
In meetings in recent days, representatives of electric power utilities that rely heavily on coal-fired plants, and some large unions, have taken their concerns to the White House.
Firms can propose anything that would cut greenhouse emissions, from distributing electric bulbs to substituting clean fuels for dirty ones at power plants.
In January GM (nyse: GM - news - people ) contracted to sell the Army a fleet of trucks powered by next-generation power plants like fuel cells and diesel-electric hybrids.
And if all fossil-fuel power plants were converted to nuclear or hydro-electric power, a 35% reduction in emissions would result.
The real culprits are diesel burning trucks and buses (many of which are still operating at Euro III emission levels), factories, and the coal-fired power plants that will supply the electricity for the electric vehicles.
To be certain, utilities that have long relied on coal are starting to raise the white flag, opting instead to close down some of the older plants that have long been controversial: American Electric Power and FirstEnergy Corp. in Ohio are doing just that.
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Conrad cites the recent news of Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs buying power plants as a sign that the smart money believes the electric generation business is still undervalued.
The government has also begun to fear that freer prices mean higher prices, and that new power stations will be unable to compete with old hydro-electric plants, whose initial costs have long been written off.
The eight companies with nuclear power plants (working or under construction) are: Chubu Electric Power Company, Inc.
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Nuclear plants provide about 20% of the U.S. electric power supply, but most of the 104 operating reactors date back to the 1960s and '70s.
Entergy, one of the nation's largest producers of electric power, says in a legal brief that it needs to plan now to build plants that will deal with an expected doubling in consumer demand for power over the next 50 years.
Because of their controversial nature, the Kyushu Electric Power Co. said that it would shelve plans to use the mixed-oxide fuels in its plants.
Still, the Exxon Mobil chief, who is regarded as one of the most frank and open oil executives, was hopeful that natural gas would be widely used by utility plants in the U.S. to create power for the coming revolution in electric cars.
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