Petratherm Spain and Enel Green Power sign MoU for development of geothermal projects

March 4th, 2010 | Posted in Geothermal | No Comments

Petratherm Spain signed a memorandum of understanding with Enel Green Power for joint assessment and development of the company's geothermal projects in Spain, with plans for further expansion of the company's project portfolio in Spain.

Enel Green Power is a leading geothermal developer, with more than 800 MW of operational geothermal capacity, and about 300 MW lined up for development. Exploration and development costs for all upcoming joint projects will be split on a 50/50 basis between the two companies with special purpose vehicles (SPV).

The more advanced Tenerife geothermal project is subject to different conditions however, with Enel Green Power contributing 50% of all exploration costs to date, as well as ongoing costs, for a majority stake in the project in return. Enel will also fund the first production well.

[source: Petratherm]


Ocean Power Technologies receives cash grant for marine energy project in Spain

March 4th, 2010 | Posted in Hydro | Comments (1)

OPT's PowerBuoy deployed on open sea.

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has received a EUR 2.2 million cash grant from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program (FP7). The amount is part of a larger EUR 4.5 million award for a consortium of companies, including OPT, working on the implementation of a PowerBuoy wave energy device, under a project called WavePort. The project is to installed in Spain, at the Santoña site, where OPT has been working on the project contracted by Iberdrola.

OPT's job is to provide the design, supply and deployment of the PowerBuoy and Underwater Substation Pod. The remaining funding will go to the other companies involved in the project for steel fabrication, wave monitoring equipment, wind resource research, system monitoring and project management. The companies involved are the Wave Energy Center (Portugal), Fugro Oceanor (Norway), DeGima (Spain), University of Exeter (UK) and ISRI (UK).

The PowerBuoy uses proprietary wave energy conversion, allowing for wave-by-wave tuning of the device's performance to achieve optimal electrical output. The work on the project is expected to be happening over the course of the next two months. OPT will be seeking additional funding necessary for the completion of the WavePort project.

[source: OPT]

Infrastructure Planning Commission will improve renewable energy development in the UK

March 4th, 2010 | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has officially started receiving applications for energy projects having potential to provide about GBP 50 billion worth of international investment in the UK energy sector, resulting in electricity supplies for 22 million UK homes.

The new body has been set up to consider and possibly approve major energy and transport projects in a more efficient manner. Included in the project pipeline are 17 energy schemes that combined could quite easily produce about three quarters of the total energy needs of homes in the UK, as well create a large number of jobs.

The total amount of capacity waiting for consideration by the IPC is about 22 GW, a large portion of which is to come from renewable energy sources.

The IPC is a new development consent process for large scale projects like wind farms, power stations and major roads. Eight former planning systems have been combined into one process, reducing the time needed to reach a decision about a project from seven years, to only one year. This represents about GBP 300 millio annually in savings for the country.

With no more "red tape" obstacles, the UK is poised to progress along its path to achieving reductions in carbon emissions, and reach the renewable goal by 2020.

Some of the renewable energy projects to be considered by the IPC in the first wave of projects are two wind farms and a biomass power plant – Atlantic Array wind farm project (RWE npower, in the Bristol channel), Irish Sea offshore wind farm (Airtricity, in Ceredigion, Wales) and Blyth biomass power plant (RES New Ventures, in Northumberland).

The IPC is currently appointing more staff to ensure it has all the resources necessary to start work.

[source: UK Infrastructure Planning Commission]

Iberdrola Renovables created wind division to deal with large portfolio of wind energy developments

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

As part of the company's major offshore wind energy developments, coming mostly from the 7.2 GW of capacity lined up as part of Round 3 offshore development in the UK, and an additional 2.8 GW of capacity planned around the world, Iberdrola Renovables has decided to create a wind division. This new business division will deal with the oncoming large scale developments and will be incorporated into ScottishPower Renewables, headed by Keith Anderson.

Wind energy is one of the companies pricipal business areas for the future. A single large scale offshore wind project may have contributed to this greatly, the East Anglia Array, part of Round 3 UK offshore wind energy development, which Iberdrola is going to develop in collaboration with Vattenfall. The total capacity is going to be 7.2 GW, a represents a truly giant offshore project, even for a company the size of Iberdrola.

In addition to this mega-project, Iberdrola Renovables also has in its project pipeline several offshore wind energy projects in Europe (Germany, Spain and the UK), which total about 2.5 GW of capacity. This total includes about 1700 MW in the UK, 500 MW of which are to be installed at West of Duddon Sands, beginning in 2012.

In Spain, Iberdrola has submitted applications for zones under reserve for feasibility studies, which are all necessary steps to go through, prior to obtaining permits for a total of six projects near the coast of Cádiz, Castellón and Huelva.

Financially, Iberdrola is making major investments in the wind energy sector worldwide, as we've covered recently, totalling in about EUR 9 billion for wind energy.

[source: Iberdrola Renovables]

Toshiba signs to order 32 MW of solar panels from SunPower this year

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Toshiba will order 32 MW of high-efficiency solar panels from SunPower in 2010. The panels ordered will form the cornerstone of Toshiba's new residential solar offering in Japan, to be launched on April 1st.

Commenting on the announcement, Toshiba's Shoji Takenaka said: "Toshiba's residential solar power business will offer homeowners the most efficient solar power systems available, with a focus on quality and reliability. We are very pleased to work with SunPower, as their solar photovoltaic panels achieve high levels of performance and reliability, and their excellent efficiency supports space-saving solutions that directly meet the needs of consumers in Japan."

[source: SunPower]

SolarWorld acquires 29% of Qatar Solar Technologies to establish the first silicon production on the Arabian Peninsula

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Rashid Al Naimi, Vice President (Administration) of Qatar Foundation for Education Science and Community Development, Vorstandsvorsitzender der SolarWorld AG Frank H. Asbeck

SolarWorld announced that it has acquired a 29% stake in the newly founded Joint Venture Qatar Solar Technologies (QST) headquartered in the Emirate of Qatar. The Joint Venture will establish the first production facility for poly-silicon on the Arabian Peninsula. Partners are the Qatar Foundation (70%) and the Qatar Development Bank (1%).

QST will invest a total of more than $500 million in the construction of the new production facility with a planned annual capacity of around 3,600 tons of high-purity polysilicon in its first stage of expansion. Start of production is planned for Q3 2012. At the Ras Laffan Industrial City location in the North East of Qatar the Joint Venture has access to an excellent chemicals infrastructure with favorable energy prices.

With this project, SolarWorld is further securing its supply of solar-grade silicon in addition to the company's own production, its own raw materials recycling activities and its long-term delivery contracts.

[source: SolarWorld]

Mitsubishi Electric expands production of PV cells, modules and inverters

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Mitsubishi Electric has completed construction of PV Cell Plant #2, a new PV cell production facility at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory in Nagano Prefecture. By March 2011, the company will raise its annual PV cell/module production capacity by 50 MW to 270 MW, and ultimately plans to reach an annual capacity of 600 MW at an early stage.

In addition, to respond mainly to the large increase in demand for PV inverters for residential-use in the Japanese market, Mitsubishi Electric will raise its monthly PV inverter production capacity at its Nakatsugawa Works by 50% from 4,000 units to 6,000 units in May 2010.

At the same time, they will build new production lines to manufacture monocrystalline silicon PV modules at its Nakatsugawa Works Kyoto Factory in Kyoto Prefecture.

The company's expansion of production capacity is in response to the sharp increase in global demand for PV systems.

[source: Mitsubishi Electric]

Showa Shell Solar to open new offices in California and Germany (Munich); Announces new name and brand – Solar Frontier

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

Showa Shell Solar announced that it will open two overseas offices this April in Northern California and Munich, as part of its plan to facilitate 1 GW per year of sales and delivery of its proprietary CIS solar panels to customers worldwide. The move will be accompanied by a global branding consolidation under a single name, Solar Frontier, and a new logo.

Commenting on the announcement, Solar Frontier's CEO Shigeaki Kameda said: "We chose Solar Frontier as the name of our international division a few years ago because we knew we stood at the frontier of the photovoltaic industry in terms of research and development. With CIS solar technology, our PV modules today combine compelling economics, non-toxic materials, lower energy consumption in production, increasingly higher efficiency, and greater potential for tomorrow. With this announcement we signal our commitment and capacity to set and supply the new global standard for photovoltaic panels into the future, starting with the European and North American office expansions."

[source: Showa Shell Solar]

Mitsui, Inbicon sign licensing agreement to refine biomass into ethanol

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Biomass | No Comments

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Inbicon have signed a licensing agreement for the Inbicon Biomass Refinery technology, granting the Japanese company the right to build a number of biomass refineries in Southeast Asia using Inbicon's technology. Mitsui intends to apply the technology in the palm oil industry, where wastes from palm oil production can be converted into ethanol, solid biofuel for energy production, and animal feed.

According to Inbicon's CEO, Niels Henriksen, the licensing agreement is the culmination of year-long cooperation with MES. Throughout 2009, the two companies developed the relationship, and Inbicon sees the deal as a significant step forward into a long-lasting collaboration.

And in case you wonder, this is the first time Inbicon is licensing the technology.

[source: Mitsui]

PlanetSolar's solar boat gets its power from SunPower's solar cells

March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Solar | No Comments

PlanetSolar unveiled the world's largest solar boat, which will be powered exclusively by SunPower's solar cells. The company's plan is to launch its catamaran for testing in late March and then embark on a round-the-world tour in early 2011.

The boat will get its power from approximately 38,000 of SunPower's next generation cells, with each cell offering an efficiency of at least 22%. The catamaran is expected to be the fastest solar boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first to cross both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Stopovers include Hamburg, London and Paris in Europe, New York and San Francisco in the U.S., and Singapore and Abu Dhabi. The solar boat will be available for public display during each of its stops, offering an educational opportunity to all visitors…

[source: PlanetSolar]

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