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Category: Europe

Siemens to supply 21 wind turbines for Baltic 1 wind farm

April 21st, 2009 | Posted in Wind

Image credit: Siemens

Siemens signed a contract with Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) today, at the Hannover trade show, for a total of 48.3 MW of installed wind capacity at the Baltic 1 offshore wind farm. The total capacity will be spread out over 21 SWT 2.3-93 units. No amounts have been disclosed but it's in the mid-range double digit millions.

Baltic 1 wind farm will be located about 16 km north of Darss/Zingst peninsula, and will cover an area of roughly 7 km2. Construction is to begin in early 2010 and the wind farm is expected to start full capacity operation in the last quarter of 2010.

The new wind farm is an important first step towards harnessing otherwise untapped wind power potential of the Baltic sea. Until now, only about 1.5% of the total potential has been developed. Baltic 1 is only one of four projects, whose total capacity will be about 1200 MW. These projects, totalling about three billion euros in investments, are expected to be developed over the course of the next few years.

Trina Solar to deliver 42 MW of PV modules to Germany during 2009

April 20th, 2009 | Posted in Solar

Trina Solar has signed three sales contracts in the first quarter of this year, totalling in about 42 MW of PV modules to be delivered during 2009 to three customers in Germany. The company says this is indication that its high quality products are in demand, hoping to be able to capture more market share in both established and newly emerging PV markets in Australia, the Benelux countries, China, France, Greece, Korea and the US.

There was no mention of the amounts involved in these sales contracts.

Sunfilm and Applied Materials get certification for world's first tandem junction Sunfab Line

April 20th, 2009 | Posted in Solar

Sunfilm AG and Applied Materials, Inc. announced factory acceptance for the world's first tandem junction Sunfab Thin Film line, installed at Sunfilm's Grossroehrsdorf facility. Using 5.7 m2 substrates, the line made it through the final acceptance test certification, which verifies the process has met specifications for solar PV module production with up to 8% efficiencies. The line is now going to begin high volue production.

SunFab (Image credit: Sunfilm)

Applied Materials is very pleased to have demonstrated the success of tandem junction technology, scalable to large size panels, which can produced in high volumes, ideal for utility scale solar intallations. According to Mike Splinter, Applied Materials CEO, the ramp of SunFab tandem junction lines is an "important achievement which brings the solar industry closer to dramatically change the way the world generates energy".

Thin film tandem junction panels use about 2% of the amount of silicon per watt of produced electricity, compared to traditional solar modules made from crystalline silicon wafers. The combination of tandem junction and ultra-large 5.7 m2 substrates and high volume manufacture, Sunfilm expects the be able to provide for a wide range of customer applications for
full, half and quarter size panels. This can all substantially reduce cost of solar generated electricity. More specifically, the quarter size panel generates up to 115 Wp, while the full size panel generated about 450 Wp.

Sunfilm is hoping to start a second production line this year, which should put them in a very good position to answer market demand.

Hannover Messe – industrial technology showcase April 20-24

April 20th, 2009 | Posted in General

hannover_messe One of the leading industrial technology shows is happening in Hannover, Germany from April 20 until April 24. This year's accents on Hannover Messe are on improvements, efficiency and effectiveness in industrial technology. One of the core segments of the show will focus on wind energy, the currently most talked about in the energy industry, certainly the industry sector with the most political and economic buzz. Numerous companies from all over the world will feature new products, technologies and concepts, for example REpower who will officially present their new 6M wind turbine to the public.

REpower Systems AG presents the world's most powerful wind turbine

April 20th, 2009 | Posted in Wind

6M's in Project Westre (Image credit: REpower Systems AG)

It's called 6M, and it has a guaranteed power output of 6.15 MW. The previous big turbine from the company, the 5M, is already in series production, while the company has waited until the Hannover Messe show to officially unveil their latest product. Considered by many to be the world's most important industry exhibition, the Hannover Trade Fair seemed like the right place and time to show off the new 6M turbine. REpower will be demonstrating their new wind turbine until April 24, when the fair closes.

REpower recently erected a load validation plant on the German-Danish border. The continuous power production values (6.15 MW) have now been verified, which makes the 6M, with the extra 150 kW of power, theworld's most powerful wind turbine, according to REpower CTO Matthias Schubert.

Here are some of the specs for the new turbine:

rotor diameter: 126 meters
hub height: 80-95 meters for offshore, 100-117 meters for onshore installations
power output: 6.15 MW

The dimensions correspond to the lesser turbine, the 5M, so the new unit can be used in place of the 5M in almost all projects, bringing more generated power to the system. Over the next years, the company plans to develop several test farms on land. Later on, the 6M will be used in offshore wind farms.

Scottish & Southern Energy formes new consortium for Round 3 UK offshore wind projects

April 15th, 2009 | Posted in Wind

Scottish & Southern Energy PLC (SSE) division Airtricity has joined forces with US based Fluor Limited, the UK operations division of Fluor Corporation, to create a new consortium for winning exclusive rights for the development of wind farms under Crown Estate's Round 3 Offshore Windfarm Development Programme.

The new consortium, Seagreen Wind Energy Limited, combines the two companies' experience in offshore wind operations and project delivery, engineering and construction, as well as maintenance services. The two companies have developed the 500 MW Greater Gabbard Offshore Windfarm located near Suffolk, which is to be completed in 2011. The two companies have also received an exclusive agreement for the development of the Bell Rock Offshore wind farm in Scottish territorial waters.

It is useful to point out that this is the second consortium formed by SSE for the purpose of bidding for the Round 3 projects. Back in February, the company said it was joining forces with RWE Innogy and two Norwegian groups – Statkraft and Statoil Hydro, to form a consortium called Forewind.

Trina Solar supplied its largest rooftop installation so far

April 15th, 2009 | Posted in Solar

Trina Solar, an integrated manufacturer of solar PV products ranging from ingots, wafers and cells to PV module assembly, announced the completion of its largest rooftop installation yet. The company has supplied 4.7 MW in total of photovoltaic modules for an facility developed by ErgyCapital, completed at the end of February this year.

The facility is located in Serravalle Scrivia, in the Piedmont region, northern Italy. TrinaSolar was the sole supplier of PV modules for the facility. This is Italy's largest rooftop installation yet, and involved about 38,000 square meters of solar panels. It is expected to generate about 5 GWh of electricity annually.

Iberdrola Renovables production up 20% in Q1 2009

April 14th, 2009 | Posted in Hydro Wind

The Spanish company has increased production by 20% in the first quarter this year to reach 5.4 GWh. Wind power accounted to 96.8% of this amount, while other renewable energy sources like hydropower accounted for the rest. Iberdrola Renovables' total installed capacity has reached about 9.6 GW, of which about 9.3 GW comes from wind power installations.
Most of the company's wind power generation comes from facilities in Spain, about 48%, while the next largest source is the US facilities with about 32% take in total. UK facilities follow with about 8.6 percent.

While most of the company's power generation facilities are located in Spain, the US and the UK, there is a growing number elsewhere in Europe and South America.

Elisa is now first mobile network in Finland powered by wind energy

April 11th, 2009 | Posted in Wind

Image credit: Elisa

Elisa, the Finnish telecommunication company, is now the first mobile network operator who uses wind energy to power its mobile network. They have installed vertical axis wind turbines on their mobile tower in Hyvinkää. The wind turbine was supplied by Cypress Wind Turbine Oy, a Finnish renewable energy company.

The move was part of a new strategy to reduce purchased electricity. Wind power is an expanding renewable energy industry and the vertical shaft turbines are ideal for installation on mobile network towers. Since a significant part of network costs come from electricity consumption, this move could eventually reduce operating costs by as much as ten percent.

Cypress Wind Turbine Oy has designed a range of wind turbines especially for the needs of mobile network operators.

The concept of mobile networks powered by renewable energy is not that new. In fact, there are plenty of examples of this elsewhere, like in this case in Austria. Another useful aspect of independent power supply for mobile networks is that this approach allows coverage of remote areas, as described here, where there is no infrastructure, for example in deep forest areas or mountainous and desert areas.

Nordex is going to supply 15 wind turbines for a wind farm in Italy

April 10th, 2009 | Posted in Wind

N80/2500 installation (Image credit: Nordex)

Falck Renewables Plc has ordered 15 units – N80/2500 – which amounts to a total of 37.5 MW for "San Sostene" project located in Calabria, south of Italy. This is part of a larger agreement that should see about 250 MW of installed capacity by 2011. The installation of the initial 15 turbines begins in July this year. Nordex has signed the contract with Eolica Sud Srl, a Falck subsidiary. The contract also covers premium service for a minimum period of nine years.

The wind farm itself is near a village called San Sostene, in the Catanzaro province in Calabria. The new 15 turbines are an extension of an already ongoing first construction phase. The turbines will be installed in a mountaineous region between 950 and 1200 meters altitude. These heights provide formidable wind conditions with superior wind speeds. The installed turbines will be able to generate about 80 GWh of energy, which is sufficient to provide electrical power for some 20,000 households in the area, while helping to eleminiate about 80,000 tons of greenhouse gases.