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The article reports that Rocky Mountain Power Inc., the utility division of PacifiCorp. in Salt Lake City, Ohio, has applied for a permit to build a segment of PacifiCorp's Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion Project in Clark and Lincoln counties in Nevada, to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. PacifiCorp has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the first segment of the project to a joint venture of Black & Veatch Construction Inc., Henkels & McCoy Inc. and Kiewit Western Co.

This article reports that plume-abatement technology should be added to the cooling tower of a new powerplant at a cost of $1.3 million to reduce ground-fogging on a nearby highway, says the California Energy Commission's (CEC) staff. CEC officials say recent advances in technology make plume abatement feasible, but the owner, a municipal utility, claims that the costly safety addition is unnecessary. Commission staff evaluating Roseville Electric Department's application to build the$ 165-million Roseville Energy Park, a 160-MW, two-unit, natural-gas-fired, combined-cycle powerplant. In California alone, numerous projects, including Midway Power LLP's proposed 1,125-MW Tesla plant in Alameda County and Calpine/Bechtel Enterprises' almost completed 600-MW Metcalf Energy Center in San Jose, are using the technology.

A 25,000-customer utility district on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula has executed a purchase agreement for the nation's first offshore wave-generated power facility. Officials of Seattle, Washington-based AquaEnergy Group Ltd., an alternative energy company, say the 1-MW system is slated to produce power by mid 2004 from a site 3.2 miles off Makah Bay in Northwest Washington. It would be the world's first full-scale, installed commercial system. Such a system would power about 150 houses year-round in the mild climate of the Pacific Northwest. The AquaEnergy system is not tidal, but wave-driven. AquaEnergy is handling the Makah Bay installation in a joint effort with the Northwest Energy Innovation Center, Bonneville Power Administration, Energy Northwest, Washington State University and Batelle Memorial Institute.

he article reports on the wave-energy generation trials starting at Scottish Test Center. Aiming to use renewable energy for 40% of its electricity generation by 2020, Scotland's regional government has just completed state funding of what may be the world's first full-scale wave-device-testing facility of its type. Construction of the 8.8-million dollar European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) is due to start soon on Orkney Isles. EMEC ultimately will accredit new wave devices to ease their commercial acceptability, says Max Carcas, business development manager of Ocean Power Delivery Ltd., Edinburgh, which has just ordered construction of the first device to be tested at EMEC. With the U.K. relying increasingly on renewables to reduce greenhouse gases, wave power is attracting growing attention and the Scottish Executive has set a 40% target of electricity from green sources by 2020.

Introduces a series of article which appeared in the June 2002 issue of the journal 'Engineering News Record.' Increase of powerplant construction; Issues affecting the delivery of fuel sources and the transmission of electricity; Delivery of the natural gas needed.

Reports on government policies affecting the construction industry in the United States. Senate's approval of permanent normal trade relations with China; Estimated cost of the Department of Energy's National Ignition Facility in California; Outcome of the Senate probe on alleged pressure laid on by executive officials on the Corps of Engineers' study of upper Mississippi navigation improvements.

Presents a roundup of construction industry news from the United States, as of August 2000. Update on the construction of the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, the world's largest laser facility; Renovation of Detroit, Michigan's wastewater treatment plant; Energy Department grants for emissions reduction in powerplants; Trade-unions.

Focuses on a construction project for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a complex designed to study the physics of nuclear weapons blasts in California. Reason for the project's delay until 2006; Budgetary contingency.

Reports on the delays and cost overruns in the construction of the National Ignition Facility by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in Livermore Valley, California set to be opened in 2003. Comments from DOE Secretary Bill Richardson; Importance of the facility; Cause of the delays and cost overruns.

Reports the construction of the Tenaska Frontier Generating Station, a nonutility generating plant in Texas. Capability of the plants to supply customers from West Texas to Nova Scotia; Provision of engineering, procurement and construction by Gilbert/Black & Veatch-Texas LP; Schedule for the completion of the generating plant.