Mozambique is planning to expand power generating capacity at the Cahora Bassa hydropower project, currently with 2075 MW of installed capacity, to 3220 MW of capacity. The country, as well as the whole southern African region, is facing a rising demand for electricity.
Siemens has increased its ownership stake in the marine energy specialist Marine Current Turbines (MCT). The German company now owns 45% of MCT, and strengthens its activities in this renewable energy sector. Having split its former Renewable Energy Division into two separate divisions, one dealing with wind, and another with solar and hydro, Siemens Solar & Hydro, the company has decided to get more involved in the marine energy sector, as MCT progresses from a pioneer to one of the leading marine energy technology companies. Siemens originally invested in MCT in early 2010.
ABB will be delivering and installing new automation systems for power generation at the Aswan hydropower project in Egypt. The USD 20 million contract was signed with Hydro Plants Generation Company (HPGC), the company that manages the project. ABB will be providing extensive plant automation and control systems, as part of a major rehabilitation program being carried out.
Ocean Power Technologies will work with a consortium of European companies and institutions on advancing its PowerBuoy wave energy conversion system. The PowerBuoy is to be enhanced with the addition of a new wave prediction technology, which will allow the system to adjust its performance with the oncoming waves.
Energy Technology Institute (ETI), based in the UK, is to produce a model of UK's tidal energy resources, as part of a project which aims to improve the possible interactions between tidal energy harnessing technologies which are to be deployed from now until 2050. The Tidal Modelling Project will run until the end of 2012, and will be executed by Black & Veatch (engineering and construction) supported by hydrodynamic modelling specialists HR Wallingford, as well as by the University of Edinburgh.
Toshiba Corporation and Meidensha Corporation have signed a memorandum of undestanding on the formation of a business and technology alliance between the two companies, to support their respective small and medium sized hydropower plant system businesses. Under the MoU, Toshiba is to supply its hydropower turbines and provide service support, while Meidensha would be supplying generators and corresponding service support for that aspect of the collaboration.
Voith Hydro has been awarded the contract to modernize the Saratovskaya hydropower plant in Russia. The contract was awarded by RusHydro, one of Russia's leading hydropower developers. This contract represents one of the largest ever for Voith Hydro St. Pölten, with a EUR 140 million value for the first five units alone. The company is to produce and deliver 10.3 m diameter Kaplan turbines for the project. The turbines will be modernized (replaced) in stages.
A consortium of companies made up of Alstom, CESBE and Areva Koblitz, has been awarded the EPC contract by Consorcio Amapa Energia, for the 373.4 MW Santo Antonio do Jari hydroelectric plant which is to be built on the Jari River in Amazon region of Brazil. The power plant is to be commissioned in late 2014. The contract represents a EUR 310 million value for the companies, of which Alstom's share is EUR 100 million. Alstom will supply Kaplan turbines and electricicty generators, hydromechanical equipment and other systems. The power plant is of the run-of-river type, and won't rely on an accumulation reservoir, but rather will convert the energy of the river flow directly.
RusHydro announced the company has successully dammed the Kolyma River, in the Magadan region of Russia. This is an important milestone in the development and construction of the 570 MW cascade Ust'-Srednekanskaya hydropower plant. Construction of the dam began in 1991.
Statkraft is going to build the Cetin hydropower plant in Turkey, on the Botan River in southeast Turkey. This will be Statkrafts third hydropower project in Turkey, and the company's largest outside its home country of Norway. The project is estimated to represent an investment of about EUR 500 million.
