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Category: Hydro

Hammerfest Strøm to develop HS1000 tidal turbines in Scotland

August 18th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Hammerfest Strøm (Norway) announced the company's has chosen the fabricator for its HS1000 tidal turbine, having 1 MW of capacity, which is to be installed at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. The fabrication contract has been awarded to Burntisland Fabrication, based in Fife, Scotland. Hammerfest Strøm announced the HS1000 turbine to ready for fabrication back in Februrary this year, after receiving GBP 4 million in funding from the Crown Estate for its tidal turbine project.

Voith Hydro to overhaul five Francis turbines at hydropower plant in BC

August 18th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Voith Hydro has received an order from BC Hydro (Canada) for the complete overhaul of five hydropower generators, including five Francis turbines, and accompanying equipment at the company's Gordon M. Shrum hydropower facility in British Columbia, Canada.

Voith Hydro is to supply five new 310 MW Francis turbines, install them and commission them upon successful installation. The first of the big machines is to be commissioned in 2012, while the remaining four will be commissioned each successive year after, until early 2017, when the whole process will be complete. At the moment, the power plant has five turbines each outputting 266 MW of power. The additional capacity to be achieved through the overhaul, will account for clean electricity for about 15,000 additional average homes in the area.

The Gordon M. Shrum facility was originally put into operation in the late 1960's, and represents about 12% of BC's total power generating capacity.

[source: Voith Hydro]

Atlantis unveils AK1000 tidal current turbine

August 16th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Atlantis Resources Corporation (ARC) announced the unveiling of its latest tidal current turbine, the AK1000, last Wednesday. The new turbine has been fully assembled and displayed at Invergordon, Scotland. It is now ready to be installed at the test site later this summer, at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. The company announced its intention to test this model last December, as we reported here.

Sanko inaugurates Cevizlik hydropower plant in Turkey

August 13th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Sanko officially inaugurated the Cevizlik hydropower plant in Turkey, with 100 MW of installed power generating capacity. The power plant uses two Fransic hydroturbines to power the electrical generators. The turbines and generators were supplied and installed by Alstom.

Plutonic Power and GE start exporting power from hydro project in BC

August 10th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Plutonic Power Company and GE jointly announced the start of power exporting at the East Toba River and Montrose Creek run-of-the-river power generating facilities in British Columbia, Canada. The projects have been developed under the Toba Montrose General Partnership, comprised of the two companies. All power generated at the plants is being exported to BC Hydro under a 35-year electricity purchase agreement (EPA). The power plant uses Pelton hydroturbines, fed through six nozzles.

The project has been completed after three years of construction, and is the first clean energy project in Canada for Plutonic Power and GE Energy Financial Services in operation. The project has been developed in collaboration with First Nation partners (Klahoose, Sliammon and Sechelt nations).

The project, including the construction of the power generators and the transmission lines, represents a USD 663 million investment.

[source: GE and Plutonic Power]

US DoE designates national marine renewable energy center

August 9th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

The US Department of Energy has designated the Center for Ocean Energy Technology (COET) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), as the national center for ocean energy R&D. The Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center (SNMREC) is now the third such research center, joining the existing two in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. DoE will provide funding for SNMREC operations involving research and development of advanced technologies for harnessing the energy from the ocean. These include ocean current and ocean thermal energy, among others. FAU has a very good location for research and testing these technologies, being near Florida Straits and the Gulf Stream, much like the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) is located in Orkney, next to prime marine energy locations, on the northern coast of Scotland.

SNMREC will collaborate with industrial partners in order to refine, investigate, produce and test next generation ocean power technologies. Initial work by the center will be the deployment of ocean current observation systems, with the goal to establish a reasearch baseline. At some point, SNMREC will be doing full-scale testing of prototypes.

[source: Florida Atlantic University]

Bilfinger Berger wins major order for hydropower project in Austria

August 7th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Bilfinger Berger announced the company has been awarded two major contracts in the energy industry. One contract is for preventive service and maintenance on a thermal power plant in Poland. The second contract is for the construction of pressure tunnel plating for the pumped-storage hydropower project Reißeck II in Austria, awarded by Verbund Austria Hydro Power.

Duke Energy upgrading Jocassee pumped-storage hydropower plant

August 5th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Duke Energy is in the process of upgrading and extpanding capacity of the Jocassee pumped-storage hydropower facility, in South Carolina. The facility will be receiving two new hydroturbines for units 1 and 2, upgrading the power generators and increasing installed capacity by 50 MW.

E.ON to test its wave energy device in Orkney soon

August 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

E.ON announced its Vagr Atferd wave energy conversion device has arrived at the EMEC in Orkney, and is now awaiting installation and the beginning of the testing period. This will be the first time the P2 machine, designed and made by Pelamis Wave Power, will be tested. The Vagr Atferd ("wave power" in old Norse) has 750 kW of capacity, and will be tested over the next months and years, with the goal to transition this technology from development to commercial phase. E.ON initially announced the completion of its first wave energy device in May this year.

Vagr Atferd is 180 meters long, weigh about 1300 tons. The "snake" produced electricity using the oscillatory motion of the waves, which help puch the water within the device through hydraulic "rams", mounted at the hinged joints on the device.

[source: E.ON]

Ocean Power Technologies receives GBP 1.5 million for more powerful PowerBuoy

July 31st, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) announced the company has been awarded a GBP 1.5 million grant from South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) for the development of OPT's 500 kW PowerBuoy, PB500, wave energy conversion technology. OPT is the first company to have commited to participating in the Wave Hub, a marine energy project being developed by SWRDA in Cornwall, England.

This is the second funding amount awarded to OPT for the development of PB500. The company was awarded USD 1.5 million from the US Department of Energy in April this year.

[source: Ocean Power Technologies]