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Archive for the ‘Corporate/Finance’ Category

Small wind development in US gets boost through Westerly Wind

March 9th, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

US Renewables Group has launched Westerly Wind, a company that will provide development capital for wind energy projects for small wind energy developers, who are currently struggling to advance projects due to difficult economic times.

Westerly Wind will focus at all stages of wind energy development, working with developers, communities and other stakeholders in the industry, with a goal to push these projects towards completion. One of the main changes in the current industry approach is that wind developers can no longer enter a wind energy project and "flip" it early on in the development process. Things are moving towards actually bringing projects very close to construction, before they can actually be sold to another company which will simply execute the project and start exporting power under a PPA.

[source: US Renewables Group]

Ocean Power Technologies receives cash grant for marine energy project in Spain

March 4th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro | Comments (1)

OPT's PowerBuoy deployed on open sea.

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has received a EUR 2.2 million cash grant from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program (FP7). The amount is part of a larger EUR 4.5 million award for a consortium of companies, including OPT, working on the implementation of a PowerBuoy wave energy device, under a project called WavePort. The project is to installed in Spain, at the Santoña site, where OPT has been working on the project contracted by Iberdrola.

OPT's job is to provide the design, supply and deployment of the PowerBuoy and Underwater Substation Pod. The remaining funding will go to the other companies involved in the project for steel fabrication, wave monitoring equipment, wind resource research, system monitoring and project management. The companies involved are the Wave Energy Center (Portugal), Fugro Oceanor (Norway), DeGima (Spain), University of Exeter (UK) and ISRI (UK).

The PowerBuoy uses proprietary wave energy conversion, allowing for wave-by-wave tuning of the device's performance to achieve optimal electrical output. The work on the project is expected to be happening over the course of the next two months. OPT will be seeking additional funding necessary for the completion of the WavePort project.

[source: OPT]

Iberdrola Renovables created wind division to deal with large portfolio of wind energy developments

March 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

As part of the company's major offshore wind energy developments, coming mostly from the 7.2 GW of capacity lined up as part of Round 3 offshore development in the UK, and an additional 2.8 GW of capacity planned around the world, Iberdrola Renovables has decided to create a wind division. This new business division will deal with the oncoming large scale developments and will be incorporated into ScottishPower Renewables, headed by Keith Anderson.

Wind energy is one of the companies pricipal business areas for the future. A single large scale offshore wind project may have contributed to this greatly, the East Anglia Array, part of Round 3 UK offshore wind energy development, which Iberdrola is going to develop in collaboration with Vattenfall. The total capacity is going to be 7.2 GW, a represents a truly giant offshore project, even for a company the size of Iberdrola.

In addition to this mega-project, Iberdrola Renovables also has in its project pipeline several offshore wind energy projects in Europe (Germany, Spain and the UK), which total about 2.5 GW of capacity. This total includes about 1700 MW in the UK, 500 MW of which are to be installed at West of Duddon Sands, beginning in 2012.

In Spain, Iberdrola has submitted applications for zones under reserve for feasibility studies, which are all necessary steps to go through, prior to obtaining permits for a total of six projects near the coast of Cádiz, Castellón and Huelva.

Financially, Iberdrola is making major investments in the wind energy sector worldwide, as we've covered recently, totalling in about EUR 9 billion for wind energy.

[source: Iberdrola Renovables]

Showa Shell Solar to open new offices in California and Germany (Munich); Announces new name and brand – Solar Frontier

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Showa Shell Solar announced that it will open two overseas offices this April in Northern California and Munich, as part of its plan to facilitate 1 GW per year of sales and delivery of its proprietary CIS solar panels to customers worldwide. The move will be accompanied by a global branding consolidation under a single name, Solar Frontier, and a new logo.

Commenting on the announcement, Solar Frontier's CEO Shigeaki Kameda said: "We chose Solar Frontier as the name of our international division a few years ago because we knew we stood at the frontier of the photovoltaic industry in terms of research and development. With CIS solar technology, our PV modules today combine compelling economics, non-toxic materials, lower energy consumption in production, increasingly higher efficiency, and greater potential for tomorrow. With this announcement we signal our commitment and capacity to set and supply the new global standard for photovoltaic panels into the future, starting with the European and North American office expansions."

[source: Showa Shell Solar]

Deere reviewing wind energy business strategy – retains Goldman, Sachs & Co as financial advisor

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

Deere & Company is reviewing strategic options regarding its wind energ business, and is relying on Goldman, Sachs & Co, as the its exclusive financial advisor, to reach a decision about the company's long-term investments in the wind energy sector. So far, Deere has several wind energy projects, either operational or in construction phase in several US states.

The company has been involved in various aspects of wind energy development, from financing to development and ownership of wind farms in the past five years. At the moment, Deere has 34 wind energy projects in seven US states totalling in 706 MW of operational capacity.

[source: Deere]

Siemens joins the marine energy development club

February 26th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro | No Comments

Siemens has purchased a stake in Marine Current Turbines, a marine energy developer based in Bristol, UK. Siemens has acquired just under 10% of ownership in the company, and has thus entered into a new energy development field, so far not visited by the company.

With this acquisition Siemens is hoping to enter and participate in what it regards as a "new market with good future prospects". Marine Current Turbines is an early stage company, with plenty of research and development ahead, so Siemens is this way securing access to an innovative promising technology.

The ocean power (marine energy) market is regarded as one of the future renewable energy markets which show the greatest growth potential in the industry. It is estimated that marine energy will experience double-digit growth by 2020. The UK has certainly made sure to promote and develop marine energy as one of the future sources of energy, by establishing a marine energy research center in Orkney (Scotland), and attracting investors and developer companies with incentives.This

Marine Current Turbines is not just sitting and waiting. The company has already had a successfull deployment of the SeaGen prototype in a demonstrator project in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Two axial turbines have been generating power since November 2008, outputting as much as 1.2 MW of power. At the moment, this is the most powerful working ocean current turbine in the world.

Future development include spreading the SeaGen concept around the world at various faborable locations in the UK, Ireland, Canada, France, and East Asia, where marine current conditions allow for an economically viable implementation. Siemens will use its international reputation and network to help push the new technology around the world.

[source: Siemens, image: Marine Current Turbines]

Iberdrola planning to invest EUR 9 billion into renewables from 2010-2012

February 25th, 2010 | Posted in General Hydro Wind | Comments (3)

Iberdrola has announced a strategic investment plan involving some EUR 18 billion in total to be invested over the period of two years, from 2010 to 2012. Of the total amount, EUR 9 billion is planned for renewable energy, while the the other half of the investment funding is to be used for networks (EUR 6.3 billion) and generation and supply (EUR 2.7 billion).

Broken down according to markets, the US market will receive about EUR 7 billion (39%), the UK market about EUR 4.5 billion (25%), Spain EUR 4.3 billion (24%), while Latin America and other markets will get about EUR 2.2 billion (12%).

Along with investment plans, the company plans to diversify further internationally. Iberdrola sees the investment plan as means to face the future with optimism, while at the same time offering a "valid option for driving economic growth and recovery".

The company's current strategic areas of focus are strengthening its position in the Atlantic Area (US, UK, Brazil), creating foundations for future growth in these areas. For example, Iberdrola has been awarded a development zone as part of Round 3 offshore development in the UK, one of the biggest ones, which will bring about 7.2 GW of new capacity to the company's portfolio. In the US, the company is taking advantage of the formidable development climate created by the US government, with more than 23.5 GW of capacity lined up for development. Along with wind energy projects, Iberdrola is also involved in major hydropower development around the world. In Spain alone, about 1 GW of hydropower capacity will come online by 2012, and in Brazil the company is also developing 1 GW of hydropower capacity through a dozen power station projects.

[source: Iberdrola]

ReFill Energy acquires International Green N-ergy – gets new gasification technology for making large volumes of biofuel

February 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Biomass | No Comments

Refill Energy Gasifier - turns biomass into synthetic gas.

ReFill Energy has acquired International Green N-ergy (IGN), a Utah based company involved in biomass conversion technologies. Along with the acquisition of IGN, ReFill Energy has also gotten its hands on the IGN's proprietary Downdraft Gasification Module, which the company fabricated for the purpose of achieving significant technological advantages. The patented technology allows for large volume production of biofuel, deriving from gasification of such biomass sources as sewer waste water, agricultural waste, coal and carcasses. The output is a combination of electricity, steam, ethanol, fuels, chemicals and hydrogen. According to the company, one ton of feedstock is equivalent to about 1 MWh of electricity, or about 100 gallons of usable fuels.

The produced gas, using IGN's technology, is mainly made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The Syn-Gas can be used in IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) processes and efficiently converted into electricity, or converted to fuels such as ethanol, gasoline, jet fuel or Diesel.

[source: ReFill Energy, image: ReFill Energy]

Texas to get two new wind farms totalling 400 MW

February 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

Map of areas with various wind speeds in Texas.

Two new wind farms will be developed in Texas by Energos (Spain), which will provide "greenfield" development capital, and Caprock Wind and Peak Wind. The agreements between the two companies were facilitated by Allegiance Capital.

Even though there is plenty of "leg work" to be done before the projects reach "construction ready" status, the plan is to have both plants operational by 2014. The wind farms are called Arranz Wind Caprock I and Arranz Wind Tuxedo I.

With the 600 MW wind farm to be developed by Shenyang, this is a total of 1000 MW of new wind power capacity lined up for development in Texas in the next couple of years.

[source: Allegiance Capital]

EDP Renewables NA signs PPA with Tennessee Valley Authority for 115 MW of wind energy

February 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

EDP Renewables North America has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the sale of 115 MW of power generated from the first phase of the company's Pioneer Prairie wind farm, located in Mitchell and Howard counties in Iowa (USA). Generated power will be delivered to customers in the seven southeastern states in the region.

Pioneer Prairie wind farm is planned to have a total of 300 MW of capacity at some point, which will be enough to supply some 90,000 average US households.

EDP Renewables has another PPA lined up through its subsidiary Horizon Wind Energy, for 102.3 MW from the second phase of the same wind farm, to be sold to AmerenUE.

[source: EDP Renewables, image: EDP Renewables]