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Gwynt y Mor substations to be built by Harland & Wolff

September 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

One of the largest offshore wind farms under development in the UK, Gwynt y Mor, is to have two offshore substation platforms. Siemens, one of the developers of the wind farm, has awarded the contract for building these platforms to Harland & Wolff (Northern Ireland, UK). The platforms are to be completed by June 2012.

Gwynt y Mor will have 576 MW of installed capacity, and is located off the northern coast of Wales. It is part of Round 2 projects, awarded by the Crown Estate, to RWE Innogy, Siemens Energy and SWM for development. Siemens Energy is providing and installing 160 turbines for the project.

[source: Harland & Wolff, image: Place Northwest]

Origin Energy wins geothermal exploration concession in Northern Sumatra

September 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Geothermal | No Comments

Origin Energy announced the company, as part of a consortium of companies, has been granted the concession for exploring geothermal potential in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The consortium, made up of Origin Energy (Australia), Tata Power (India) and PT Supraco (Indonesia), are going to be exploring potential in the Sorik Marapi concession, estimated to have between 200 and 300 MW of power geothermal capacity.

LDK Solar ramps up solar cell production – starts up Xinyu City production line

September 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

LDK Solar announced the company has expanded its vertical manufacturing operations by completing installation of the company's latest production line for solar cells in Xinyu City, China. At the moment the new production line has an annual capacity of 60 MW, but this is to double to 120 MW by the end of Q3 this year.

LDK Solar's growth strategy includes the goal of achieving about 50% of the company's solar cell needs from in-house production capacity. This way, the company hopes to reduce the cost of solar modules, which will create a significant advantage for the company in the global solar energy market.

[source: LDK Solar]

European power grid to be connected to Turkey

September 3rd, 2010 | Posted in General | No Comments

This september Turkey will be connected to the European power grid, through a link established by GE using the company's smart grid technology. This is going to create a range of new oppoortunities, especially for renewable energy power plant operators in Turkey, while Europe stands to get a significant supply of clean power in its power grid.

The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) will soon be able to buy and sell power in the European electricity market. The European electricity market is one of the largest in the world, and has one of the highest demands worldwide. In order to ensure constant and uninterrupted supply of power, Europe needs to secure more power supply links with other energy generation markets.

GE's smart grid technology will perform status monitoring at grid connection points and automate control of power generation and load in Turkey. The result should be higher power quality and optmized power sharing, with improvements in reliability. The project is in its final stages of testing.

[source: GE]

OSD to being testing of tidal energy device in Humber estuary

September 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Hydro | No Comments

UK based Offshore Ship Designers (OSD) are going to commence testing activities at the Humber estuary site where Neptune Renewable Energy's (NRE) Proteus NP1000 tidal energy conversion device it to be installed. OSD is the company that brought NRE's technology into life through a catamaran like device, measuring 20 meters in length and 14 meters in width. It weighs more than 150 tons, and was built in Sunderland, under supervision of OSD, then transported to Hull, where performance trials are to take place.

Asian Development Bank issuing first clean energy bond

September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in General | No Comments

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced it is issuing its first clean energy bond, in order to support its renewable energy projects in Asia and Pacific. The bond is expected to have four tranches, two denominated in Brazilian reals, one in Turkish lira and one in Australian dollars. ADB has committed to providing at least an equal amount of funding as raised by the clean energy bond. The issuance is targeted at Japanese retail investors, and will distributed in Japan by more than 20 securities companies.

Integrated Electrical Services building transmission line for Minnesota wind farm

September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | Comments (2)

Integrated Electrical Services (IES) has been awarded the contract to build a substation and transmission line for the Lakefield wind farm in Minnesota, USA, being developed by enXco (an EDF Energies Nouvelles company). The wind farm will feature 137 GW 1.5 MW wind turbines, amd IES' substation and line will be responsible for transporting a total of 205 MW to the power grid.

Power produced at the Lakefield wind farm is to be sold to Indianapolis Power & Light, and will account for about seven percent of the utility's power supply.

[source: IES]

Phoenix Solar to build 2.2 MW solar power plant in Slovakia

September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Phoenix Solar announced an agreement with green energy slovakia, an investor partnership between German and Slovakian investors. The solar park will be located about 80 km from Bratislava, the country's capital.

Phoenix Solar has already started with preparations for the construction phase of the project. Some 29,000 modules will be installed at the power plant.

[source: Phoenix Solar]

SWAY creates SWAY Turbine – main focus on next gen 10 MW turbines

September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

SWAY, the Norwegian wind energy developer and turbine manufacturer, has created a new business unit called Sway Turbine. The new company will deal primarily with the development of a the prototype for a new 10 MW offshore wind turbine, which will also make use of the company's concept of a floating foundation.

The CEO of SWAY Turbine will be Eystein Borgen, the founder of SWAY, to be replaced by Michael Forland, as the new CEO of SWAY.

Greater Gabbard wind farm foundations all installed

September 1st, 2010 | Posted in Wind | No Comments

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) announced all the wind turbines foundations at the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm have been installed. This marks an important milestone on this project. A total of 140 foundations have been installed, and thirty wind turbines have already been erected.