KL Energy Corporation and Petrobras have entered into a joint development agreement under which Petrobras is to aid KL Energy in further development and optimization of the company's cellulosic ethanol production process technology. KL Energy's previous demonstration project in Wyoming uses Ponderosa Pine feedstock, but the new and improved process will allow multiple feedstock sources at the same time, optimizing the production process.
Río do Fogo wind farm in Brazil.
Iberdola Renovables and Neoenergia, a Brazilian energy holding company, partly owned by Iberdrola Group, have signed an MoU vowing to explore joint venture development of wind energy projects in Brazil. These projects would include both onshore and offshore wind farms.
The future joint venture will be equally owned by both companies, and will bid on tenders issued by Agencia Nacional de Energía Eléctrica, Brazil's state energy agency. These will include the 2010 Reserve Energy and A-3 2010 programs. Currently, Iberdrola Renovables owns and operates one wind farm in Brazil, with 49 MW of installed capacity.
[source: Iberdrola Renovables]
Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical have announced the start of prodcution operations at the second methanol plant in Venezuela, at Metanol de Oriente, METOR SA. The new METOR plant will be capable of outputting 850,000 tons of methanol annually.
Construction of the plant began in 2006, and was completed in March 2010. New production capacity will increase METOR's annual production capacity from 750,000 tons to about 1.6 million tons.
Even though methanol is used primarily for the production of downstream products such as chemicals – formalin, acetic acid – it is also used as fuel, and it is expected methanol is going to be widely used in the biodiesel industry in the future, which will result in growing demand for this product. Methanol production is heavily dependent on good access to natural gas sources, which is one of the reasons Mitsubishi chose Venezuela as the location for the production plants.
[source: Mitsubishi Corporation]
Sinohydro announced a signing of an MoU between Sinohydro and Energia Argentina, which happened in mid-July in China, for cooperation in energy. Emphasis was put on clean energy technologies such as hydropower and wind energy. A work group is being planned, which will carry out related works and practices.
This MoU is significant as it marks the beginning of Sinohydro's involvement in energy development projects in Argentina, representing a base for future expansion of the company's presence in the South American country.
[source: Sinohydro]
Isolux Corsan has been awarded a contract from Bioenergy (Colombia), for building an industrial complex, part of which is to be a bioethanol production plant, which will be using sugar cane as the material source. The new plant will be able to process about 2.1 millino tons of cane annually. Additionally, as part of the complex, Isolux will be building a 40 MW cogeneration plant bagasse or sugar cane waste as fuel. Other facilities include milling, distillation and vinasse production using the same raw material. The new complex will be located in the Meta Department of Colombia, on former cattle ranch land. The total value of the contract is about USD 140 million.
This will be the first bioethanol project for Isolux Corsan, outside of Europe.
[source: Isolux Corsan]
Vestas announced the opening of a company office in Chile last week. The new office is based in Santiago de Chile, the capital of Chile. The company is making a move into the Chilean wind energy market, and wants to have an office to support its sales and services in the country. The South American continent is very active regarding renewable energy development in the recent years. More and more projects are being developed, a lot of which are wind energy projects. Chile has significant wind energy resources, being a coastal country bordering the Pacific Ocean on the west.
In 2009 alone, Chile increased its installed wind capacity by 140 MW, but there is another 2000 MW of wind capacity under development, as the country progresses on its path to achieve the set goal of 20% renewables by 2020.
[source: Vestas]
Argentina has concluded the public offer for renewable energy capacity by awarding 895 MW (of the planned 1000 MW) to 21 companies, spread out over 32 projects (of the 51 submitted in total), under its program called GENREN. The projects include wind, solar and biomass renewable energy power plants, and were considered and awarded by the Argentine state-managed company Enarsa (Energía Argentina SA). These awards are the results of the bidding process initially started in May 2010.
Of the total capacity awarded, most has been awarded for wind energy projects (17 projects) with 754 MW, while the remaining 15 were awarded for solar PV (6 projects, 20 MW), small hydro (5 projects, 10.6 MW) and biofuels (4 projects, 110.4 MW). Project locations are spread out all over the country, both on the eastern coastal areas, and in the mountainous western areas.
Enarsa further announced bidding for another 195 MW of renewable energy capacity, or more specifically, 120 MW for wind, 30 MW for geothermal, and 20 MW for biogas combustion power plants.
Enarsa's award result document outlines several benefits of this round of bidding, such as 7000 new jobs, promotion of clean energy in the country, and growth for local economies. The new capacity, once added, will contribute to a more diversified power supply in Argentina.
See Enarsa's document for more detail on the awarded projects here.
[source: ENARSA]
Alstom has entered into a contract with Desenvix, a Brazilian renewable energy company (part of Engevix), to develop a 90 MW wind farm in Brazil. This will be Alstom's first such project in Brazil, marking the company's entry into the Brazilian wind energy market. The contract represents an investment of EUR 100 million.
The contract actually covers three wind farms in Bahia. The Brotas wind farm complex will consist of three wind farms – Macaubas, Novo Horizonte and Seabra. The projects will be using 57 ECO 86 1.67 MW units, to be delivered and installed by Alstom by summer 2011. The wind turbines will be manufactured in Spain and Brazil. Total capacity of the complex will be 90 MW.
Alstom and Engevix have collaborated on energy projects in Brazil, in the hydro sector. The total hydropower capacity between the two companies in Brazil is at about 12 GW. It is no wonder Brazil's energy sector relies mostly on hydroenergy with 77% of the total installed power generation capacity coming from hydropower.
[source: Alstom]
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]
Iberdrola has reaffirmed its plans to invest USD 1.13 billion in Brazil in the period from 2010-2012. The company plans to invest in mainly in expansion of hydroelectric capacity, but also in improvements for the electricity distribution infrastructure.
So far, Iberdrola has invested about USD 3.6 billion in Brazil, ever since the 1990s when the company first entered the Brazilian energy market. The new investment plans should result in an additional 710 MW of hydropower capacity by 2013.
[source: Iberdrola]
