As another example of renewable energies working together, RAG and RWE have announced plans to build power plants on old spoil heaps combining wind energy and pumped storage (hydropower) as the power generation solution. RAG Montan Immobilien and RWE Innogy have signed a letter of intent (LoI) to pursue this plan jointly, and have already identified a potential location for the first of these projects at the Sundern spoil heap, near Hamm-Pelkum, Germany.
We're going to need a bigger turbine! (Blade manufacturing facility in Miranda de Ebro, Burgos, Spain)
Do you think 10 MW wind turbines are big enough? Gamesa lead consortium doesn't think so. The Azimut. Offshore Wind Energy 2020 project gathers eleven companies with the goal to develop a 15 MW offshore wind turbine, made using Spanish technology solely. The project is being coordinated by Gamesa, while other participants include big names such as Alstom Wind, Acciona Windpower, Iberdrola Renovables and Acciona Energía, along with 22 research centers.
The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) published a report called Green Jobs through Geothermal Energy, which shows some optimistic outlooks for the geothermal industry. According to the report, announced at the closing of GEA's 2010 Geothermal Energy Expo, held in Sacramento, California, the geothermal industry is creating more jobs than the conventional energy industry, jobs that are permanent, full time, and with better wages.
E.ON announced its P2 wave energy conversion device, currently being tested in UK waters, has generated power for the first time. The Vagr Afterd ("wave power") has 750 kW of capacity, and is being tested at EMEC, in Orkney, Scotland. This is the first P2 device to be tested in the world. E.ON announced preparation for this test phase back in August this year.
The US Department of Energy (DoE), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), and the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are awarding funding for eight joint research projects, supporting responsible siting and permitting of offshore wind energy facilities and ocean energy (wave, tidal, current, thermal gradient). The research will deal with information gaps that exist regarding environmental effects of renewable energy development on the ocean environment.
Energy Technologies Institute (UK) stated offshore wind turbines could be located in deep waters close to the shore in the UK, to take advantage of more consistent wind speeds. ETI looked at feasibility and costs of generating electricity with floating offshore wind turbines, anchored at water depths between 70 and 300 meters. Usually, wind turbines are mounted on fixed structures (i.e. pilons), which restrict installation in waters up to about 40 meters.
more »
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operating under the US DoE, published a report called Large-Scale Offshore Wind Power in the United States: Assessment of Opportunities and Barriers, in which it lays out a more detailed picture of the state of the offshore wind energy sector in the United States. Basically, the report advises action in the domain of reducing risks, which at the moment are the reason for a very slow offshore wind energy deployment rate. After all, the first offshore wind in US coastal waters, Cape Wind, just got approved days ago.
Gamesa signed an agreement with Northrop Grumman Corporation for collaboration on offshore wind technology. Under the agreement, the two companies will cooperate on the launch of Gamesa's latest product, the G11X-5.0 MW wind turbine prototype, designed especially for operation in a marine environment. The prototype is to be installed and launched in the United States, according to the companies announcement.
Green Star announced the company has entered into a contract to build a biodiesel facility on the US west coast. At the heart of the new facility will be Green Star's proprietery technology for producing biodiesel from processed algae oil. The company uses a technology process to boost algae production. This facility contract is one of many the company plans in the future, as it pushes its strategy for expanding its Algae-to-Biodiesel project on the west coast. Initially, the company was supposed to auction national rights for its algea growth technology, but gave up on that idea, to pursue a new strategy, which includes building the largest closed vertical algae bioreactor in the world. The bioreactor is to have an initial 10 million liters of continuous culture. The company's algae growth technology which increases algae growth by more than 200% with a six day growth cycle.
Statoil and Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) are now in a wide-ranging strategic partnership for production of ethanol produced using microalgae grown off the coast of Norway.
Under the terms of the newly adopted agreement, Statoil will provide funding for BAL's research activities in this area, but also finance demonstration projects, and further fund commercialization of BAL's technology, should it prove to be successful. The idea is to eventually offer the product in the Norwegian and European market.
