Siemens has received a followup order to build eight solar PV power plants in central Italy. The order comes from Viridis Energia, which is a JV between Echidna and L.a.G.I. The new solar parks will be built in the Marche and Abruzzo regions, and will result in 14 MWp of new solar PV capacity, which is enough to supply about 5000 average households with clean electricity annually.
OPDE and ArcelorMittal Construcción España, part of ArcelorMittal, world's largest producer of steel and iron, have entered into a commercial agreement which will result in the two companies collaborating in the solar PV sector. The companies will collaborate on developing rooftop mounted solar power installations on industrial buildings and car parks.
DTE Energy is planning to develop several PV solar power systems totalling in up to 12 MW of capacity, in the next four years. The solar power plants would be located at several locations in the company's Southeast Michigan service area. DTE will own and operate the facilities. The future power plants will be ground mounted installations, as well as rooftop installations on commercial, business and DTE Energy's own buildings.
[source: DTE Energy, image: Chandra Marsono]
The US Department of Energy (DoE) and Masdar are going to collaborate in testing a new special coating material to be used in the PV industry. PV solar installations suffer from numerous handicaps which are a result of real life operation conditions. One of these negative operational factors are moisture and cementation problems which occur on the surface of solar modules. Basically, dust sticks to the surface of the modules, and is glued to the surface with the help of moisture which accumulates as condensation from the surrounding air ("morning dew"), and creates a coating which grows over time reducing the amount of sunlight that gets through to the reactive layers in the solar modules. This significantly reduces PV module performance, and requires constant cleaning of the surfaces, a task that becomes quite a chore when you have to clean hundreds of thousands of modules at a large scale facility.
PNE Wind announced the company has submitted the documentation necessary for a binding agreement for the Gode Wind II offshore wind farm, to TenneT, the utility which is to connect the future wind farm to the continental power grid. With this milestone, PNE Wind has fulfilled all the necessary steps, required by the German Federal Network Agency. A binding agreement will be one in which TenneT, as the responsible grid operator guarantees the connection date for the wind farm, pending the results of a tender issued for the suppliers of interconnection equipment. This development of events has further secured the planned construction of the wind farm which is to begin in 2012. The company previously completed the ground survey in mid-2010 for the Gode Wind II project. more »
The Macedonian government (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) issued a tender inviting bids from developers for 44 smal hydropower projects in this Southeast European country. Water concessions will be awarded based on the design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) model.
UK based Minesto (Saab Group spin-off) has received a GBP 350,000 grant from the Carbon Trust for first seagoing trials of the company's seakite technology, called Deep Green. Basically, it's a kite, except it is tethered to the seabed, and it "flies" in a water environment, under the surface of the sea/ocean. The basic principle of its movement is the same as with normal kites, except the fluid that does the work has a much higher density (water), resulting in much greater force exerted on the kite. The tether is attached to a turbine, which spins using the kite's and current's pulling energy.
SkySails and Cargill (among other things, involved in ocean transportation; based in Switzerland) have signed an agreement under which Cargill is to use SkySails kite technology as a propulsion alternative on its vessels. The technology uses wind power to pull a ship along its course at sea, allowing bunker fuel consumption reduction of up to 35%, in ideal sailing conditions. Next december, the company will install a 320 square meter kite on a handysize vessel belonging to Cargill, with deadweight between 25,000 and 30,000 tons. This will be the largest vessel in the world propelled by a kite (or wind power). The new system is to be operational by 2012. Furthermore, Cargill is involved in helping SkySails develop the technology further and test it, and has identified a ship-owner as a partner on this project.
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) announced the company has completed the first utility-scale PowerBuoy PB150 device. The produced device has 150 kW of rated power output. It is designed to be deployed in arrays, in order to produce power on a utility scale.
Van Oord annnounced the company has been hired by RWE to build (plant) a 100 meter meteorological mast in the North Sea. This mast will have measuring equipment installed, and will record data having to do with maritime meteorological influences. It will be located about 75 km off the coast, from the IJmuiden offshore wind development region.
