Jun 28

Renewable News 29th July

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AGL
AGL Energy will recoup A$164m ($171m) of costs and bank a development fee of A$38m from the sale of its 67.2MW Oaklands Hill Wind Farm south of Glenthompson Victoria to an unidentified corporate buyer, the utility says.

The sale is positive outcome for AGL, analysts say, and may indicate an upward turn for the Australian wind sector, given that the company’s development strategy has so far been hampered by weak wholesale electricity and renewable energy certificate (REC) prices.

The payments made by AGL under the off-take arrangements will reflect a sharing of the risks associated with the wind speed variability at the site.

The utility will retain until 2036 the rights to all renewable energy certificates from the wind farm, according to the statement sent to the ASX.

The development fee will be received from the Australian buyer when construction is completed with about A$30 million to be paid in the financial year 2011 and the balance in 2012.

The project, currently under construction by Suzlon Energy Ltd., is scheduled to be completed in early 2012. The buyer will fund all remaining development and construction costs.

AGL has said it expects the REC market to remain “soft and soggy” until at least 2014, but the Oaklands Hill deal suggests it sees a firming in the market post 2014. “An initial A$98/MWh off-take price, rising to A$115.50/MWh in 2014, shows the company’s confidence in the outlook for Large-scale Renewable Energy Certificate (LREC) pricing,” said an analyst for the Deutsche Bank.

Credit Suisse has upgraded its rating on AGL from neutral to outperform, after the sale news.

Dong Energy
Dong Energy, the largest operator of offshore wind farms, is seeking to lower the cost of developing power projects by signing a long-term supply contract for turbine foundations that will be made by Bladt Industries.

The agreement gives the energy company the option to buy as many as 600 of the structures, the industry’s first foundation supply deal that covers multiple offshore wind farms, Skaerbaek, Denmark-based Dong said today in a statement. Terms weren’t disclosed.

solar flagship

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Apr 19

Renewable News 20th April

General, Wind No Comments »

Roaring 40s
Hydro Tasmania is to end its 6 year Roaring 40s wind farm development joint venture with China Light and Power (CLP).

Hydro Tasmania says there will be some redundancies (up to 40) as result of the announcement. Chief executive Roy Adair says the state-owned company remains committed to developing the Musselroe wind farm and he hopes construction will start on the project this year.

Under an agreement, the Roaring 40s assets will be divided with Hydro Tasmania taking ownership of the wind farms at Studland Bay and Bluff Point (previously known as Woolnorth) in Tasmania’s North-West together with a share of development opportunities, including Musselroe in the North-East.

CLP subsidiary TRUenergy will take over the South Australian wind farm at Waterloo and assume the Roaring 40s share in the Cathedral Rocks wind farm, as well as a share of mainland development opportunities.

This news comes after Liberal Opposition demanded to know if the State Government has already sold wind farming company Roaring 40s on earlier in April.

Liberal energy spokesman Matthew Groom told Parliament that Hydro Tasmania appeared poised to enter into a new agreement to develop wind and solar energy resources in Tasmania with another Chinese company, as recently announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The split will require approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

woolnorth wind farm

Transfield
Transfield Services, is feeling some local pressure on their proposed 74 turbine Mt Emerald wind farm near Atherton QLD. Transfield already has a wind farm at Windy Hill at Ravenshoe.

EDF
EDF Energies Nouvelles, has agreed to buy Mexican two wind projects totaling 324 megawatts in the south of Mexico. The first project 164 MW, Eoliatec del Istmo, and the second, 160MW Eoliatec del Pacifico.

woolnorth wind farm

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Apr 18

Renewable Energy News 19th April

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CBD Energy
CBD Energy says it has partnered with China’s second-largest state-owned utility to develop $6 billion worth of wind and solar energy projects in Australia.

CBD Energy says it yesterday finalised a joint venture with the China Datang Renewable Power Co and solar equipment maker Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric Co.

The companies will form a new entity called the AusChina Energy Group, which aims to develop $3 billion worth of wind and solar power plants in Australia within three years and $6 billion over eight years.

Under the deal, the Chinese firms would provide equipment and funding for the projects, lowering project costs. CBD general manager Gerry McGowan has said that as a result of this structure, he was confident the company’s wind energy assets could reach grid price parity with coal-fired power within three years.

The cost of coal-fired power is currently around $45 per megawatt hour (MWh), Mr McGowan said, but wind power costs $95 per MWh, or $70 to $85 per MWh when renewable energy certificates are factored in.

AusChina will make a final investment decision this week on its first 100 megawatt wind farm project at Taralga in NSW. CBD Energy will project manage the developments, negotiate approvals and power purchase agreements.

Victoria
A Victorian government incentive to encourage the installation of solar panels isset to be the latest scheme effected by the Federal governments extremely popular rebates for energy generators.

Acciona
Acciona, agreed to sell two highway concessions in Chile to Italy’s Atlantia SpA as part of its plans to sell mature assets.

Acciona, based in Madrid, sold its stakes in Chilean concessions to Atlantia for 293 million euros ($418 million), the Spanish company said in a statement.

cbd energy

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Mar 16

Renewable News 17th March 2011

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Happy St Patricks Day!

Yass Valley Wind Farm Activity
Wind Prospect is investigating the Yass Valley region and has submitted a preliminary application in to the Department of Land and Planning for at Bango near Bowning. The company installed a monitoring mast near Wargeila Road in July 2009.

Once the full development application is lodged for the Bango wind farm, the state government will assess if the specific wind farm is to be considered a major project. The WindProspect also have the approved 122 turbines Boco Rock wind farm near Nimmitabel south of Cooma.

Locals councils in the Yass Valley are concerned on their lack of influence during the planning process of a large wind farm project. Yass Valley Council’s General Manager David Rowe said there needed to be some changes to the way these significant developments are administered. “There are no requirements to listen to local government at all,” Mr Rowe said. “Council can lodge a submission in relation to state significant development however there is no guarantee it will be listened to.”

Incumbent member for Burrinjuck Katrina Hodgkinson said Part 3A of the planning legislation has been grossly misused and that applications, especially in relation to wind farms, should be put on hold until after the election. “It is very important that local communities be given a say about what is to be built in their area,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

Other proposed projects in the Yass area are:

  • Epuron’s Birrema wind farm, 60 - 80 turbines, 30km west of Yass, near Bookham between the Benangaroo and Childowla Raods,
  • Epuron’s Yass Valley wind farm, up to 200 turbines, 2okm south west of Yass on the Coppabella & Marilba hills and Carrolls Ridge,
  • Suzlon/Windlab Rugby wind farm, up to 90 turbines 40km north of Yass,
  • Epuron’s Rye Park wind farm, 80 - 100 turbines, near Rye Park running south east to the north of Yass.

GWEC
Wind turbine installations may rise 20 percent this year worldwide and double by 2015, the Global Wind Energy Council said in a statement today.

Capacity to produce electricity from the wind may rise by 40 gigawatts in 2011 from 294.4 gigawatts at the end of last year, the lobby group said in a statement from Brussels. By 2015, it forecasts 450 gigawatts.

“2010 was a tough year for our industry, but 2011 is looking up,” said Steve Sawyer, secretary general for GWEC. “We’ve paid the price for the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis. Now we’re back on track.”

GE
GE has unveiled a 4.1MW wind turbine specifically designed for offshore applications, which the company said will improve reliability and efficiency. The new turbine is a direct drive model, in which the blades directly drive a generator, in contrast to the gearboxes used in most other turbines.

GE said this design, which cuts the number of moving parts in the turbine, minimises the need for maintenance, which is costly and complicated for offshore turbines. It is based on the company’s 3.5MW onshore direct drive model, and will be installed in the harbour at Gothenburg in Sweden in the second half of 2011 through a contract with Göteborg Energi.

ABB
ABB Ltd.has agreed to buy 35 percent of the concentrated sun-power technology developer Novatec Solar, which is a subsidiary of Transfield Holdings. ABB also has an option to acquire the rest of the German company.

ABB also agreed to cooperate with Novatec on solar power projects, the Zurich-based company said today in a statement. It did not give a price. Concentrated solar systems reflect sunlight, usually with mirrors, to heat liquids and produce steam to generate electricity.

ABB’s acquisition “comes at the tail end of a couple of years of strategic consolidation in the solar thermal industry through acquisitions by major power equipment companies. Recent solar thermal acquisitions:

  • Siemens AG acquired Israeli parabolic trough leader Solel Solar Systems and a 45 percent stake in Italian receiver maker Archimede Solar Energy in 2009,
  • Areva SA (CEI) bought the U.S. Linear Fresnel CSP firm Ausra Inc. in 2010, and
  • Alstom SA (ALO) took a stake in the tower and heliostat technology and project developer BrightSource Energy Inc. in 2010, Chase said from Zurich.

Novatec, of Karlsruhe, is currently building the world’s first commercial 30-megawatt Linear Fresnel power plant in Spain.

NextEra Energy
NextEra the largest U.S. operator of wind power, is in discussions with a utility to build a solar-thermal plant at an existing natural gas generator to reduce fuel costs and pollution, said Chief Executive Officer Lew Hay. He declined to name the utility.

NextEra’s Florida Power & Light utility last year completed a 75-megawatt solar steam system to feed its Martin natural gas plant, part of a plan to add 110 megawatts of solar energy to the utility’s supply in the state. That plant was completed under budget and ahead of schedule, he said.

Solar thermal technology could also be added to coal plants as a way to reduce pollution and fuel costs when the sun shines, without the loss of reliability that can come from intermittent sources of energy.

hybrid solar plants

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Mar 08

Renewable News 9th March

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Shams CSP Plant
Shams Power Company said it has reached financial close on the 100MW Shams 1 concentrated solar power (CSP) project, after a heavily oversubscribed bidding process from banks. Masdar, Total and Abengoa plan, build, operate and maintain the plant which is located 120km southwest of Abu Dhabi

The joint venture of Masdar, the developer behind what will be the world’s first carbon-neutral city, oil group Total and Abengoa, said a limit of US$600 million from 10 regional and international lenders was placed on the funding of the project from more than $900 million of commitments.

The investment is a 22-year non-recourse loan fully amortised, and comprises funding from French banks BNP Paribas, Natixis and Societe Generale; Japanese banks Mitsui, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, National bank of Abu Dhabi, KfW, Union National Bank and West LB.

The plant will be constructed on an area of 2.5 km2, and developed under a 25 year Build, Own, Operate (BOO) basis. Comparison Rates: US$6/MW, 40MW/km2 or 25000m2/MW.

csp plant shams 1

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Jan 27

Renewable News 27th January

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Atlantis Resources
Atlantis will meet Australian investors next moth as it looks to raise $150 million next year. Atlantis is a tidal power technology provider and tidal farm developer.

Transfield
Transfield Services proposed Collector wind farm is feeling the heat of opposing neighbours after a billboard was erected on the Federal Hwy.

Netherlands
Van Oord Groep NV, the Rotterdam- based marine services company, agreed to build a 600-megawatt offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, the nation’s largest clean energy project.

Romania
Vestas has said that Romania has the greatest potential for growth for the wind energy industry in eastern Europe during the next five years.

Siemens
Siemens will work with Prysmian SpA, an Italian cable manufacturer, to install the 160-kilometer undersea line to connect a 288-megawatt wind farm, named DanTysk, with 80 Siemens turbines. Located near the German island of Sylt, with a forecasted operation date early 2014.

Abengoa
Abengoa, Spain’s biggest developer of solar-thermal power plants, has said that it signed an agreement with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. to build projects in India.

tidal power generator

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Jan 24

Renewable News 24th January

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Green Power
Household green power participation is declining with the surges in electricity prices. Over the last 12 months up to June 2010, green power customers fell by 15%. Business have increased their consumption of renewable energy by 21%, but it was not enough to offset the fall in residential customers.

green power

TrustPower
The major project status has been revoked for the Sellicks Hill wind farm, just south of Adelaide. South Australian Planning Minister Paul Holloway refused an extension of the development approval after several years of delayed development. The project was originally approved in 2003 for 20 wind turbines.

Areva
Areva SA and the Saudi Binladin Group will sign a partnership agreement tonight in the nuclear and solar power industries, the French company’s Chief Executive Officer Anne Lauvergeon said today in Riyadh.

“We are in a major energy evolution in the region,” Lauvergeon told a conference in the Saudi Arabian capital. “In the past, it was oil and gas, and that was it. Now it’s oil, gas, renewables, and nuclear. We are very excited about this evolution, and we would like to be a long-term partner of these developments.”

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Jan 21

Renewable News 21st January

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Infigen
The proposed $150 million Capital solar farm to be built near the town of Bungendore east of Canberra has received planning approval. The solar panels will cover 100 hectares and produce enough energy to power 10,000 homes. The project is being built alongside the Capital Wind Farm to utilise the existing connection infrastructure.

The development of the Capital Solar Farm and Infigen/Suntech’s other proposed solar farms in New South Wales remains conditional on several significant project milestones being achieved including, but not limited to, the consortium being successful under Round 1 of the Solar Flagships Program and the receipt of necessary Commonwealth Government and New South Wales Government funding for the projects.

Suzlon
Suzlon, said it won an order from Portugal’s Martifer Group to build a 218-megawatt wind farm in Brazil.

BP Says World Energy Demand to Increase 40% by 2030
Global energy demand growth is forecast to average 1.7 percent a year to 2030, the London-based company said in its Energy Outlook 2030 report, which estimates energy trends for the next 20 years.

Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels will be the fastest-growing source of supply, with their contribution to energy growth expected to increase to 18 percent in 2030 from 5 percent, BP said. The use of renewables will “continue to grow strongly,” expanding to 6 percent of total energy use by 2030 from 2 percent. “We expect demand for biofuels to more than triple in that period,” BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said at a press conference in London.

capital solar farm

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Jan 17

Renewable News 17th January

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TRUenergy
TruEnergy received planning approval to build a second power station at Tallawarra, Wollongong, of up to 450 megawatts.

TRUenergy is considering either a 400MW combined-cycle gas-fired power station costing $330 million, or two or three 150MW units totalling 300MW-450MW of an open-cycle gas-fired station estimated at $200 million.

Given the location, it is more likely that a combined-cycle station will be developed. TruEnergy already operates the 400MW combined-cycle Tallawarra A unit on the site, which previously hosted a coal-fired power station.

“A final investment decision on the timing for a new power station development and the type of development will depend on a number of factors, including a study into the future electricity demand of our customers and the energy market in NSW, and policy settings such as any carbon price signal,” TruEnergy’s director operations and construction, Michael Hutchinson, said.

The increased role of wind power in the national electricity market (NEM) is boosting demand for peaker units, which supply power when other renewable sources such as wind are operating below capacity.

Moorabool Wind Farm
Last-resort legal action against the Moorabool wind farm has been dropped because residents say it will cost too much.

Dianne Kirk of Mt Wallace said she had received advice the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to set aside the decision by former Planning Minister Justin Madden. Ms Kirk said the Moorabool wind farm was approved using 1998 New Zealand noise measurement standards. She said this was “inadequate” for the proposed much taller turbines that would be operated locally.

Westwind’s Moorabool wind farm, comprising 107 turbines, and Pacific Hydro’s 14turbine Yaloak South wind farm were both given the green light by the former Victorian government in November 2010.

2010 the planet’s wettest year and equal hottest
LAST year was the world’s wettest on record, and tied 2005 as the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880.

The new US figures confirm that 2010 will go down as one of the more remarkable years in the Earth’s climate. It featured prodigious snowstorms in the US and Europe; a record-shattering summer heat wave that scorched Russia; massive floods that have driven people from their homes in Pakistan, California, Tennessee, and Australia; and a severe die-off of coral reefs.

Two agencies, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reported that the global average surface temperature for 2010 had tied the record set in 2005. It was the 34th year running that temperatures have been above the 20th century average; the last below-average year was 1976. The figures show nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.

Experts blame a combination of a La Nina weather pattern and global warming for the magnitude of the Queensland flood disaster. The La Nina effect, the inverse of the drought-inducing El Nino effect, results in higher sea temperatures in the Pacific Ocean leading to heavy rain.

truenergy

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Jan 13

Renewable News 13th January

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Algae Tec
Algae.Tec that uses algae to produce biofuels and store carbon dioxide will make its debut on the stock exchange today after raising $5.1 million from investors.

Algae.Tec, an Australian-US collaboration, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the ethanol producer Manildra for a demonstration algae production plant at Manildra’s starch and ethanol facility at Nowra on the NSW south coast.

Leighton Contractors has a non-binding commitment to build and operate the Nowra plant, which Algae.Tec hopes will begin commercial production of algae biofuels by early next year.

Suzlon
Suzlon Energy Ltd. signed an agreement with western Indian state of Gujarat to develop 1,000 megawatts of wind power capacity.

suzlon

Gamesa
Syria awarded Gamesa Corp. of Spain a contract to build the country’s first wind farm and Germany’s Sunset Energietechnik GmbH another for a solar plant. Gamesa out of five bidders to build a 60-million euro ($78 million) 50MW wind farm. Vestas, will also develop a wind energy project with generation capacity of 50 to 100 megawatts south of Damascus.

Department of Climate Change
The department of Climate Change (DCC) has just released draft legislation on carbon farming initiatives and invites responses. The responses on the draft legislation are required in a ludicrous time period of just two weeks.

CBD Energy
Gerry McGowan is getting frustrated like the rest of the renewable industry with inconsistent government policy. In an AFR article McGowan goes onto to attached the duopoly of AGL and Origin the market.

Revised MRET
The revamped REC scheme started earlier this year on the 5th Jan. Despite the introduction of the revised scheme the REC spot price is still around $29.00 for large scale certificates, which is close to last years low of $27.25.

The renewable industry is hoping the REC prices will firm when Origin and TRUenegry start buying for the longer term to cover their new retail books acquired in the NSW energy privatisation.

carbon farming

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