Sorry for the lack of EPi News Room transmissions in December. It is that time of year and the Elemental Power team is flat out developing and constructing Commercial, Industrial and Renewable projects, “the paying jobs”.

The EPi team hope you have a great Christmas and start to 2011.

NSW Power Sale
A 13-year headache that began when Bob Carr first proposed a power privatisation and which later brought down his immediate successor, Morris Iemma, which ended with more resignations. Yes, it was ugly, but Roozendaal got it through.

The price the government received for the retail assets - Integral Energy, Country Energy and EnergyAustralia - was not wildly generous but not out of kilter with similar transactions over the past few years.

Origin Energy bought Country Energy and Integral Energy and the Eraring gentrader contract for $3.25 billion.

TRUenergy bought the states biggest retailer, Energy Australia, the Delta West gentrader contract and two Marulan development sited for $2.04 billion. As part of the deal it will also pay $240 million to upgrade the Wallerawang power station.

The hitch and the reason there has been such a backlash, is that the long-term supply contracts with gentraders Eraring (acquired by Origin) and Delta Electricity (bought by TRUenergy) went for bargain basement prices.

The NSW government was not concerned with the sale prices of individual assets - it just wanted to maximise the proceeds from the package of assets. In a sense it used the gentrader deals as a loss leader to get a bigger price for the retail assets.

The question remains as to why Origin’s biggest competitor in the NSW electricity market, AGL, put in a bid that was much lower than that from Origin.

Maybe AGL will bid on the last two gentrader contracts next February, worth an estimated $2.47 billion.

Queensland Solar Grant
The Queensland state government in Australia will provide as much as A$100 million ($99 million) in funding to develop two commercial-scale solar projects. The funding amount is based on the condition that both projects under consideration for the federal government’s Solar Flagships Program are developed in Queensland. The state funding will be for projects selected under the federal solar program, which is intended to support the construction of large-scale sun-powered plants in Australia.

Acciona
Acciona SA, Spain’s biggest wind farm operator, pulled out of Australia’s A$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion) solar funding program, saying it’s unable to forecast whether a proposed venture would be profitable. The Acciona joint venture was among the projects chosen in the solar thermal category with Parsons Brinckerhoff, Transfield Holdings and Wind Prospect CWP.

Acciona has been busy commissioning a solar thermal power plant near Cordoba in the south of Spain to become the biggest producer of solar power from curved mirrors. The 50-megawatt second phase of the Palma del Rio plant raises Acciona’s total capacity to 214 megawatts ahead of Abengoa SA with 181 megawatts. Boston Consulting Group Inc. said last month. Solar thermal power costs around $288 per megawatt- hour.

Goldwind
Goldwind of China Gets Power Supply Agreement for U.S. Wind Project to sell electricity from its 71 turbine, 106.5-megawatt Shady Oaks wind-energy project in Illinois to local utility Commonwealth Edison Co.

Vestas
Vestas won a 50.4 megawatt order for 28 V100-1.8 megawatt wind turbines from Element Power for the first phase of the 99 megawatt Macho Springs Wind Energy Project in Luna County, New Mexico.

Vestas also won an order for 30 turbines of its V52-850 kilowatt model for a project in Cape Verde, Randers.

Gamesa
Gamesa to Supply 60 Turbines to Western Wind Energy for California Park.

Repower
Repower Systems AG has signed a contract to deliver 25 MM92 turbines, with a total power output of 51 megawatts, to a wind farm project in the United States of the company EverPower.