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Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category

Sweden gives green light for huge wind farm with more than 1100 wind turbines

March 12th, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

The Swedish government has recently given the go-ahead to Markbygden Vind AB, a Swedish wind energy company, to build 1101 wind turbines with a height of no more than 200 meters, to be used at a wind farm (comprised of interconnected smaller wind farms) in the Piteå Municipality (northeast of Sweden). The wind farm will have anywhere from 2500-4000 MW of installed capacity, depending on the final decision on which wind turbines to use. It will cover an area of about 450 square kilometers. Enercon became part owner of Markbygden Vind in 2008, so it is expected the wind turbines will come from Enercon. Wind turbines will have capacities of 2-6 MW, depending on the final decision on the best technology to use.

The wind farm, when fully operational, will produce 12 TWh of electrical energy annually, which is four times more than what the country currently produces from wind power, but more significantly, this production is equivalent to the energy output of two Ringhals nuclear power reactors, produced in 2005-2008.

Sweden is expanding its renewable energy portfolio, with wind as one of the main sources of renewable energy. The country has formidable wind potential. In order for the project to move forward, it has to comply with several necessary terms, such as health and environment standards, but also satisfy the interests of defence and industries such as the reindeer industry.

[source: Swedish Ministry of Energy, image: Energy Technology Centre]

Phase one of offshore Belwind wind farm completed

March 12th, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

Van Oord announced last week the completion of the first phase in the construction of the offshore Belwind wind farm, off the coast of Belgium. The wind farm now has the foundations for each wind turbine installed. The foundations, consisting of a monopile and a tower platform (TP), weigh from 410-660 tons each, with each TP weighing at more than 160 tons. Additionally, as part of this phase, the company has also installed the offshore transformer station.

Everything is now ready for the 55 wind turbines to be placed on top of the foundations. Each wind turbines will have 3 MW of capacity, which will total in 165 MW of installed capacity at the Belwind wind farm, once completed.

[source: Van Oord]

Statkraft opens first solar park in Italy; Announces deal with Siemens Energy for further solar plant developments

March 11th, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Statkraft opens first solar park in Italy

Norwegian power generator Statkraft opened its first solar power plant Casale in Aprilia, Italy. At the same time, the company announced an agreement with Siemens Energy to build more solar power plants in Italy.

The new plant has a capacity of 3.3 MW and an annual power production of 4.5 GWh, which is enough for energy needs of about 1200 Italian households.

As for that agreement with Siemens Energy, the two companies plan to build up to 40 MW of new solar power capacity in Italy during 2010. The agreement covers Statkraft's project pipeline in the country and construction of the next solar plant is expected to commence in spring 2010.

Siemens Energy will act as a Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractor, handling engineering, project management and turnkey construction of the PV plants. The German giant will also be responsible for operation and maintenance for the first five years.

Statkraft's goal is to develop 75 MW of solar power generating capacity by 2012. Their geographical focus is Italy, Spain and France…

[source: Statkraft]

Nordex launching new Gamma generation wind turbine

March 11th, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

Nordex N100 wind turbine.

Nordex announced the launch of its new generation Gamma wind turbine. The new turbine has 2.5 MW of capacity, and it will be unveiled at the European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) in Warsaw, April 20-23, 2010.

The Gamma generation brings new technological advancements to the existing N80, N90 and N100 wind power systems, resulting from the latest research and development and a decade of production and operational experience with multi-megawatt wind turbines.

All the models are manufactured to be modular, with a maximum weight of 50 tons. The units' modularity will make it easy for the company to speed up installation and service of the wind turbines. The new units also have built-in control of reactive power, thus enabling power companies to stabilize the frequency of the power grid during transient voltage dips or power surges.

The new nacelles and hubs are larger, allowing uninterrupted working areas with enough space for faster and safer servicing. All the wind turbine components can be directly accessed, with each weighing no more than a ton, allowing for easy extraction using a new crane system.

[source: Nordex]

SunPower and K6 to build two 1 MW solar PV plants in Casamassima and Conversano, Italy

March 10th, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

SunPower and K6 have signed an agreement to build two 1 MW PV solar power plants in Casamassima and Conversano, Puglia region, Italy.

The plants will be completed by August 2010, when the producing electricity will be provided locally, and contribute to Italy's national electric grid.

SunPower will install SunPower panels along with its SunPower T20 Tracker technology, which follows the sun during the day and delivers up to 30% more energy than fixed-tilt systems. Moreover, the SunPower TMAC Advanced Tracker Controller will be used for real-time, remote monitoring and control…

[source: SunPower]

Vestas to supply 34 MW of wind turbines to Italy

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

Vestas is to supply 17 of its V90-2.0 MW units under a supply contract signed with Camas Energy S.r.l. and W3 S.r.l., for the Maida wind farm, which is being developed in the Calabria region of Italy. Along with the wind turbines, Vestas will also provide service and maintenance for five years, as well as its VestasOnline Business SCADA system.

Delivery of the wind turbines is scheduled for the second half of 2010, while the wind farm is to be completed by the end of 2010. The Maida wind farm is located in one of Italy's best regions for wind energy – Calabria. This region is now seeing wind energy development, previously usually associated with Italian regions in the south. Once completed, the Maida wind farm will produce enough clean electricity to supply about 37,000 average Italian households.

[source: Vestas]

UK wave and tidal industry get a boost from the SEA

March 5th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro | No Comments

From the SEA report - map showing wave energy potential around the UK.

Tidal and wave energy in England and Wales are have received a push forward as the first full wave and tidal assessment document was released – the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report.

According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the report will additionally clear the way for carbon dioxide storage, as well as offshore wind and oil and gas activities in the country, at the same time ensuring environmental concerns have been answered with progress of UK offshore development.

DECC hopes the new document will help identify opportunities for new development with respect to the environment. Having included wave and tidal energy in the assessment for the first time, the government is supporting commercial deployment of these technologies. The SEA document, together with another forthcoming document – the Marine Action Plan – are hoped to be able to generate the kind of safe investment environment that will attract investors to put their money into UK renewable energy projects.

England and Wales will be getting the most benefit from SEA. Both regions are welcoming new wave and tidal developments, both for the many megawatts of clean electricity that will come with them, but also for the fact that these projects will bring many jobs.

Wave and tidal energy have already begun their course in the UK, with the establishment of research and development centers, such as the one in Orkney, Scotland. The SEA document, and the upcoming Marine Action Plan, will add significant momentum for the development of marine energy in the UK.

You can read the entire SEA report here.

[source: DECC]

Petratherm Spain and Enel Green Power sign MoU for development of geothermal projects

March 4th, 2010 | Posted in Geothermal | No Comments

Petratherm Spain signed a memorandum of understanding with Enel Green Power for joint assessment and development of the company's geothermal projects in Spain, with plans for further expansion of the company's project portfolio in Spain.

Enel Green Power is a leading geothermal developer, with more than 800 MW of operational geothermal capacity, and about 300 MW lined up for development. Exploration and development costs for all upcoming joint projects will be split on a 50/50 basis between the two companies with special purpose vehicles (SPV).

The more advanced Tenerife geothermal project is subject to different conditions however, with Enel Green Power contributing 50% of all exploration costs to date, as well as ongoing costs, for a majority stake in the project in return. Enel will also fund the first production well.

[source: Petratherm]

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]

Infrastructure Planning Commission will improve renewable energy development in the UK

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

Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has officially started receiving applications for energy projects having potential to provide about GBP 50 billion worth of international investment in the UK energy sector, resulting in electricity supplies for 22 million UK homes.

The new body has been set up to consider and possibly approve major energy and transport projects in a more efficient manner. Included in the project pipeline are 17 energy schemes that combined could quite easily produce about three quarters of the total energy needs of homes in the UK, as well create a large number of jobs.

The total amount of capacity waiting for consideration by the IPC is about 22 GW, a large portion of which is to come from renewable energy sources.

The IPC is a new development consent process for large scale projects like wind farms, power stations and major roads. Eight former planning systems have been combined into one process, reducing the time needed to reach a decision about a project from seven years, to only one year. This represents about GBP 300 millio annually in savings for the country.

With no more "red tape" obstacles, the UK is poised to progress along its path to achieving reductions in carbon emissions, and reach the renewable goal by 2020.

Some of the renewable energy projects to be considered by the IPC in the first wave of projects are two wind farms and a biomass power plant – Atlantic Array wind farm project (RWE npower, in the Bristol channel), Irish Sea offshore wind farm (Airtricity, in Ceredigion, Wales) and Blyth biomass power plant (RES New Ventures, in Northumberland).

The IPC is currently appointing more staff to ensure it has all the resources necessary to start work.

[source: UK Infrastructure Planning Commission]