Hansen
Hansen Transmissions, which manufacturers gearbox parts for wind turbines, almost doubled in market value after saying it agreed to a 444.8 million-pound cash offer from ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a German manufacturer of auto-parts and agricultural machinery,
Hans-Georg Haerter, chief executive officer of ZF Group, said the acquisition of Hansen, whose plants in Lommel, Belgium, Coimbatore, India and Tianjin, China have an annual production capacity of 7,600 MW for wind turbine gearboxes, “represents a natural extension of our strategic decision to enter the growing and exciting field of wind energy.”
Hansen’s two largest shareholders, Suzlon Energy Ltd. and Ecofin Ltd., which hold 38.4 percent of the company, gave “irrevocable undertakings” to accept the offer, according to the statement. Suzlon Energy is said to get about 115 million pounds from the deal.
FirstSolar
First Solar has sold a 9.9 MW project in northwest Spain to an investment fund managed by KGAL GmbH & Co. First Solar will supply panels for the plant near Zamora, which is currently being built by Gehrlicher Solar Espana.
KGAL’s European Solar Power Fund paid about 35 million euros.
Nordex
Nordex, will supply 21 turbines to Norway’s Statkraft AS for its 52.5 MW Baillie wind farm on the north coast of Scotland. Nordex will install the 2.5 MW machines at the site near Thurso in August 2012. Nordex has already installed about 800 MW of projects in Britain and Ireland, U.K.
Siemens
Siemens said it received an order for 63 2.3-megawatt wind turbines spread over five wind parks from Florianopolis, Brazil-based utility Tractebel Energia SA.
Gamesa
Gamesa has said it agreed to supply Aldesa with 80 megawatts of turbines for two wind farms in southern Spain.The deal will include supplying 25 G-97 2-megawatt generators and 15 G-90 turbines with the same capacity. The equipment is due to be delivered in the final quarter of this year.
RePower
Repower Systems rose last week in Frankfurt trading after Indian parent Suzlon Energy offered to buy the 5 percent in the wind turbine maker it doesn’t already own.
AGL
AGL Energy signed A$1.2 billion of loans last week. One revolving facility of A$400 million matures in July 2016 while another term facility of A$600 million matures in July 2014, the data show. Proceeds of both will be used to refinance debt.
Separately, the company signed a A$200 million term loan due July 2031 to help fund its 50 percent interest in the Macarthur wind farm, the data show.
Alstom
Alstom has said its quarterly orders rose 44 percent, boosted by the acquisition of a power-transmission business and greater demand for gas and coal turbines.
Orders for thermal-power equipment such as gas and steam turbines rose 77 percent to 2.81 billion euros in the quarter, and orders for renewable energy systems such as wind turbines and hydroelectric dams fell 9 percent to 328 million euros.
Renova Energia
Renova Energia SA, a Brazilian renewable energy company, may become the nation’s biggest producer of wind power by 2016. Renova may develop as much as 1.3 GW of wind farms over the next five years
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The new projects may catapult it to the top spot in Brazil’s wind market, ahead of its largest competitor CPFL Energias Renovaveis SA, with a newly formed joint venture that combines the renewable energy assets of utility CPFL Energia SA and developer ERSA-Energias Renovaveis SA.
Wind projects are, right now, the most competitive projects for Renova with the company receiving power contracts averaged 121 reais a megawatt-hour in a government-organized auction last year for new renewable energy projects.
GE
General Electric will supply 18 turbines to two power companies that are building a 45 MW wind farm in northwest Estonia. GE is supplying their 2.5 MW machines.
Q-Cells
Q-Cells has sold the Zerbst II solar power plant with a total output of 12 MW-peak to the Berlin investment group MCG Management Capital Group.
Siemens
Siemens AG is set to commission its first solar-thermal power plant within two months and is seeking financing for projects that will triple its capacity, said the company’s head of solar energy for Spain.
Europe’s largest engineering company will start feeding power into the Spanish power grid from its 50-megawatt plant at Lebrija near Seville, a joint venture with the Spanish construction firm Sacyr Vallehermoso SA (SYV).
Siemens acquired its stake in the plant when it bought Israel-based Solel Solar Systems Ltd. in 2009 to boost its offerings in concentrating solar power. The Lebrija plant deploys 170,000 curved mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on pipes containing thermal oil that will reach temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius. Siemens plans to begin construction of two additional 50- megawatt plants at the site once Spain passes legislation to govern the next wave of solar-thermal plants.
The new plants will cost about 300 million euros each and include a heat storage mechanism to extend the amount of time that they will produce power each day, Moran said. Siemens has held talks with potential partners to help with costs of the project.
Kenya
Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, plans to spend as much as $50 billion over the next 20 years to cope with 13.5 percent annual growth in electricity demand, the Energy Regulatory Commission said. Electricity demand is forecast to reach 16.9 GW by 2031 from 1.52 GW in 2012.
Under the plan, about 27 percent of electricity generated will be from geothermal sources by 2031, 24 percent from nuclear plants and 24 percent from coal-fired plants. Imported electricity will provide another 13 percent of power, while hydropower plants account for 5 percent, down from 50 percent at present. The plan also includes the construction of 10,345 kilometers of transmission lines.
