North America | Renewbl.com

Category: North America

AMSC and HHI working on 5 MW wind turbine

June 10th, 2010 | Posted in Wind

American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) have expanded their strategic alliance to include a joint development effort for a new 5 MW wind turbine. The new unit is aimed at the growing offshore wind energy market. The turbine is being developed by AMSC WindTex and HHI, while AMSC will be making electronic components. Full-scale production of the new units is expected to begin by the end of 2011.

AMSC and HHI already collaborated on the 1.65 MW and 2 MW wind turbines which HHI has been successfully marketing for onshore applications over the past couple of years. HHI sees the offshore wind market as a superb opportunity for the company to expand its wind turbine manufacturing sector.

[source: AMSC]

Panama reviewing 25 applications for 3.144 GW of wind energy capacity

June 10th, 2010 | Posted in Wind

The Panamanian Public Services Authority is reviewing 25 applications for wind energy development, which if accepted, could total in 3144 MW of installed wind energy capacity in this Central American country, effectively doubling the amount of power produced from wind energy.

Two major projects under review are 600 MW Donoso wind farm (also the largest of the group), proposed by Fersa Panamá, and the 500 MW Eólico Bocas Bay wind farm in Bocas del Toro.

[source: Central America Data, image: Merriam-Webster]

Italian investment in Honduras bringing a new hydropower project

June 10th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro

Italy is investing USD 31 million in the Nacaome Region of Honduras, which will result in a new hydropower plant, the José Cecilio del Valle power plant. Along with the power plant, the project will include irrigation.

According to the Italian spokesperson in Honduras, efforts are now under way to organize the project, communicate it to the local communities and to government entities. There was no mention of the amount of capacity to be installed at the new hydropower plant, but judging from the investment amount, the plant will be a small to medium sized facility.

[source: Central America Data]

Review begins for 5 proposals for Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project

June 8th, 2010 | Posted in Wind

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has officially begun a review process for five proposals for the development of offshore wind farms on Lake Erie and Ontario, near the coast of New York. The wind farms are part of the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project (GLOW), and could result in hundreds of megawatts of clean electricity if the state's assessment of the proposed projects has a positive outcome.

The review process will happen over phases, involving a multi-disciplinary approach. GLOW is regarded as a 1-2 punch project, since it will bring clean energy to the power grid, and much needed jobs and investments in the local economy. Once the initial phase of the review process is complete, the public will be included in further phases of the process. New York State has set a goal to achieve 15% renewables by 2015, and the GLOW project would be a significant contributor to this effort, if adopted and completed. According to NYPA's plans, GLOW will reach construction phase in 2013, and begin exporting power to the grid in 2015/2016.

[source: NYPA]

Honduras planning 800 MW of RE for 2016

June 7th, 2010 | Posted in General

Honduras has recently awarded contracts for renewable energy development, which will bring about 800 MW of clean energy to the nation's energy portfolio. The planned capacity is to be developed and installed by 2016. Investors have promised some USD 2.1 billion in RE project investments over the next six years.

In total, 52 renewable energy projects are to be built totalling in 800 MW of capacity – 250 MW of which is already reserved for purchase by ENEE. It is estimated that some 50,000 jobs will be created as a result of new developments over the next six years.

[source: Central America Data]

BlueChip Energy commences development of 10 MW Rinehart Solar Farm in Florida

June 7th, 2010 | Posted in Solar

BlueChip Energy announced it has started stage one of the Rinehart Solar Farm, a 10 MW utility-scale solar PV facility in Central Florida.

The project, located in Lake Mary, will have an annual generation of approximately 15,000,000 kWh, which is equivalent to the annual energy use of roughly 1,100 area homes. It will cover a portion of the 380,000 square foot rooftop space and surrounding acreage of BlueChip Energy's Lake Mary facility.

The solar farm is being built in stages, starting with a roof top plant totaling 120 kW. It will feature 520 monocrystalline 230 Watt panels and two state-of-the-art 60 kW Fronius inverters. The first stage is expected to be completed by July, 2010. Stage two is a roof top plant consisting of 500 kW. Subsequent stages will consist of a third, 1.4 MW rooftop system and 8 MW of ground-based systems.

The company has a power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply Progress Energy Florida with renewable solar power from the Rinehart Solar Farm.

[source: BlueChip Energy]

ITOCHU and GE in agreement over renewable energy investment and collaboration

June 4th, 2010 | Posted in General Wind

ITOCHU Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and General Electric have entered into a collaboration and cooperation agreement to explore worldwide renewable energy investment opportunities. Under this agreement, GE Financial Services, ITOCHU International and Tyr Energy (hodling company of ITOCHU), are in discussions over co-investing in wind power, particularly the Keenan II wind power project (in Oklahoma, with 152 MW capacity), and another wind energy project, also in the US.

ITOCHU and GE have a history of collaboration, mostly through Tyr Energy.

[source: ITOCHU]

NextEra raises USD 78 million financing for Peace Garden Wind energy project

June 4th, 2010 | Posted in Wind

NextEra announced its subsidiary Peace Garden Wind Funding has successfully closed a USD 78 million variable rate loan agreement with a maturity of about five years. The funding will be used to finance the Peace Garden Wind project in North Dakota, which is to have 170 MW of installed capacity.

[source: NextEra]

Kyocera commences manufacturing of solar modules in San Diego, California

June 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Solar

Kyocera has begun manufacturing solar modules in San Diego, California, to serve the U.S. market's growing demand. The U.S. module production line will support a new milestone for Kyocera's solar energy business to reach 1,000 MW of solar cells per year by March 2013.

The new solar manufacturing line has an initial production target of 30 MW per year, with modules ranging from 210 watts to the company's latest flagship 235-watt modules.

In addition to the new production operations in San Diego, Kyocera currently has solar module production facilities in Japan, China, the Czech Republic and Mexico.

[source: Kyocera]

SDG&E unveils two new solar power demonstration projects that aim to boost power efficiency

June 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Solar

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) introduced two new solar power demonstration installations that concentrate the light and heat from the sun to generate power in two distinctively different ways.

The concentrated solar power technology employed by the utility's El Cajon, California, operations center include:

The PowerDish, which is built by Infinia of Kennewick, Washington, a mirrored disc 15 feet in diameter that concentrates and focuses the sun's energy onto a compact Stirling engine that converts that energy into electricity. Each PowerDish produces up to 3,000 watts of electricity, enough to power a typical home;
Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) Technology, built by SolFocus of Mountain View, California, uses a reflective optical system to concentrate sunlight 650 times onto very high-efficiency PV cells up to twice as efficient as traditional silicon PV cells. The rectangular system is 24 feet wide, 18 feet tall and is capable of generating 8,400 watts, enough to power three homes.

The total cost for both projects is $80,000 and will be funded by SDG&E's research and development group.

The demonstrations are expected to continue for 12 to 18 months, after which SDG&E will share the results with the manufacturers.

[source: SDG&E]