Acciona has been awarded the tender for building a 49.5 MW wind farm in Costa Rica. The country's Instituto Costarricense de Energía (ICE) called upon wind energy developers to submit their proposals for new wind farm projects last September. The tender process involved proposals for projects between 20 and 50 MW of power generating capacity.
Cape Wind just can't seem to get a move on and enter its final development stages. The project has now been put on hold, as the US Court of Appeals has revoked the previously issued approval by the FAA. The ruling has to do with the no hazard determination put forth by the FAA in its approval, which has been assessed to have failed to consider the dangers and risks of operations and safety of some 400,000 flights that pass over Nantucket Sound annually.
GE and BP Wind Energy have entered into a supply contract under which GE is to deliver and install a total of 560 MW of capacity (350 1.6 MW wind turbines) for BP's wind farm projects to be built in 2011 and 2012 in the US. The total value of the contract is about USD 750 million.
Siemens unveiled its new steam turbine aimed at the geothermal power industry sector, at the GEA Geothermal Energy Expo in San Diego, California. The new SST-400 GEO model is rated at 60 MW of power generation capacity, and combines a casing and turbine-generator package (including gearbox, generator and base frame).
The US Department of Energy announced a USD 60 million investment, as part of its SunShot Initiative, into innovative concentrated solar power technology development. The aim is to reduce the cost of solar energy by 75%, and make it competitive with other sources of energy by the end of this decade.
Panama's Secretary of Energy, Juan Manual Urriola, recently announced the country is soon going to reach two major renewable energy milestones – a solar project that will be completed in mid-2012, and a tender for the first wind farm project in Panama to be issued on November 8, 2011. The announcement was made during the opening of the VI Regional Integratio Forum, being held in Panama City.
REpower will be supplying 12 wind turbines to Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA), for the first utility scale wind farm project in Alaska. The Eve Creek Wind Project is located near the community of Ferry. Once completed it will have 24.6 MW of installed capacity, becoming the largest single wind energy project in this US state.
NextEra Energy Resources has commissioned the Hatch Solar Center, a 5 MW concentracted PV facility in Hatch, New Mexico. This power plant is currently the largest CPV power plant in operation in the US. It features 84 Amonix 60 kW power generation units.
Suzlon's North American subsidiary has opened a traning center for wind technicians working in the North American wind market. The facility will provide training for about 300 technicians annually, who will be involved in service and maintenance of more than 1200 Suzlon wind turbines installed throughout the US and Canada.
Siemens will be delivering and installing 30 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines at the Kawailoa Wind Project, being developed by First Wind on the northern shores of Oahu Island, Hawaii (USA). The wind farm is to have 69 MW of installed capacity.
