Dec 01

Renewable News 1st December

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Government
The federal government has defended its target of a 5 per cent cut to greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, saying Australia’s history of cheap, carbon-heavy coal electricity makes reducing emissions a tougher task than in other countries.

Yesterday the SMH revealed confidential climate change department advice suggesting the strength of emissions cuts pledged by other major economies, such as China, meant Australia should adopt a tougher 2020 emissions reduction target of between 10 and 15 per cent on 2000 levels.

Westwind
Gisborne company West Wind has erected a 10-metre MET tower on a private property on Dalrymple Road in Gisborne South to gather information about the wind resource. It’s considering developing a six-tower wind farm on the land, which overlooks picturesque Red Rock.

Sister Wind Farm
Wind Farm Developments went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in April this year after an application for its 12-turbine project near Terang was rejected by Moyne Shire.

VCAT upheld the project’s rejection due to the noise it was likely to generate but said turbines would not disrupt farming activity or wildlife. Wind Farm Developments asked that the matter return to VCAT and be heard by a new panel, with Moyne Shire requesting that the only issues considered be the wind farm’s noise and the impact of additional turbines at the nearby Mortlake South project.

AGL
AGL is proposing to build a small scale LNG plant at Tomago, near Newcastle by 2014. The $300 million peak shaving plant will produce up to 130,000 tonnes. On top of the gas reserves that AGL has already secured near Newcastle, it is continuing to explore in the Gloucester Basin area.

Marubeni
Marubeni Corp has decided to jump feet first into US power transmission, in the hope that the Obama administration’s renewable-energy push will boost demand for new power lines there.

Siemens
Siemens will supply 15 of its new SWT-3.0-101 direct drive turbines to Minnesota Power for its Bison 1 wind farm near Center, North Dakota.

siemens direct drive turbine

REpower
REpower will supply 21 of their 2.1 MM82 turbines to Energiekontor’s U.K. unit, Suzlon said today.

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Nov 03

Renewable News 3rd November

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Approval for Yaloak South and Morrabool Wind Farms
Two wind energy facilities south of Ballan at Yaloak South and Moorabool have received conditional approval with planning permits. The Department of planning and Community Development (DPCD) approved the Moorabool wind farm project under delegation and the Governor in Council has approved the Yaloak South permit.

The WestWind Energy Moorabool Wind Farm will comprise 107 wind turbines and have the capacity to produce up to 321 megawatts.

The Pacific Hydro Yaloak South Wind Farm, which comprises 14 wind turbines and has a total capacity of 29 megawatts, was ‘called-in’ by the Minister for Planning from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and referred to an advisory committee to ensure the cumulative impacts of these two projects could be considered in a coordinated manner.

wind farm planning approval

Carbon Price
The federal government has been warned electricity prices will rise further unless power generators get a clear carbon price by 2012, and that Australia’s greenhouse gas reduction targets are already ‘difficult to achieve’.

The ”incoming government brief” to the new Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said there was considerable evidence that uncertainty over climate-change policy was stalling long-term investment in efficient, cheaper power generation, which was resulting in sub-optimal investment and higher electricity prices with little environmental benefit. This news is similar to the noise all the power generators and developers have been making for the last 24 months.

Siemens
Siemens has beaten rival Vestas to sign a framework deal to supply 600MW in wind turbine capacity to Enel Green Power with an option to go up to a total of 1.2GW.

Vestas
Vestas adds to its order book with a deal to supply Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) with 32 V100-1.8MW turbines.

Gamesa
Gamesa has launched its new G97-2.0MW turbine platform for the North American onshore market and expects more than half of future orders to be for low velocity wind sites.

gamesa g97 turbine

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Oct 25

Renewable News 25th October

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RES Australia
The Victoria Planning Minister Justin Madden has given development approval to the $326 million, 75 turbine, 247.5MW Ararat wind farm. The Ararat wind farm and numerous others in Western Victoria have been slow to move through the independent panel process and Justin Maddens office.

Gamesa
Iberdrola SA increased its stake in Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA to 15.362 percent.

Siemens
Siemens AG has won an order to supply 80 wind turbines for the Dan Tysk wind farm off the northern German coast.

GE
General Electric Co. and Itochu Corp. will jointly invest $319 million in a wind-energy project in Oklahoma. The 152- megawatt wind farm will comprise 66, 2.3-megawatt turbines.

US
HSBC the London-based bank cut its U.S. forecast for wind project development by 14 percent to 6 gigawatts this year and by 33 percent to 5 gigawatts next year. It cited competition from cheap shale gas, uncertainty about federal clean energy legislation and a weak market for power purchase agreements, analyst James Magness said in an e-mailed note today. They also said Vestas is the best-placed turbine manufacturer worldwide to gain market share in the slump.

wind farm construction

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Oct 12

Renewable News 12th October

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ETS
THE federal government aims to legislate for a price on carbon late next year and have a scheme operating well before the next election in a bid to lessen the impact of a predicted fear campaign as voters go to the polls.

Cool nrg
Standard Bank (Africa’s largest lender), will today announce a multi-million investment in the Australian company Cool nrg to help advance the world’s first energy efficiency program targeting households under the Kyoto Protocol.

Cool nrg has been the subject of international attention for its plan to replace 45 million incandescent light bulbs in 12.5 million Mexican households under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism.

Enerji
Green power utility Enerji has signed an MoUagreement with WA state government owned power company Horizon Power to establish a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

The companies have agreed to work together to integrate Enerji’s Opcon Powerbox (waste to energy plant) into Horizon Power’s Canarvon power station.

Enerji is a partner of Opcon who developed the proprietary Opcon Powerbox product for production of new carbon-free electricity primarily from waste and surplus heat at temperatures as low as 55° C. Among other applications, Opcon Powerbox can be installed in large process plants, power stations, large diesel engines and large ships and can produce up to 6,000 MWh per year.

Siemens
Siemens strengthens its commercial ties with the Canadian province Ontario, securing a follow-up order for 72 of its turbines to be installed at the 166MW Comber wind farm in Essex County.

siemens wind turbine

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Aug 20

Renewable News 20th August

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Wind Prospect
The proposed Wind Prospect wind farm near Claire South Australia has been scrapped due to heritage issues.

Samsung
Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said it has started manufacturing wind turbines in South Korea. The plant has the capacity to produce wind turbines that can generate 500 megawatts annually, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

Vestas

Vestas Wind Systems A/S lost almost a quarter of its value in Copenhagen trading after the world’s largest wind-turbine maker reported a larger-than-expected loss and cut forecasts, blaming delayed orders.

Vestas cut its sales forecast for this year to 6 billion euros from 7 billion euros on delays in expected orders in the U.S., Spain and Germany. The credit crisis has prompted banks to restrict loans to wind-park developers that buy turbines from Vestas and competitors including Germany’s Siemens AG, Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA and General Electric Co.

German Solar
German solar power developers including Phoenix Solar AG and S.A.G. Solarstroem AG are expanding their businesses abroad in anticipation of slowing demand at home.

S.A.G. almost doubled the proportion of sales abroad to 38 percent in the first six months of the year, the company said today. Phoenix Solar last week boosted overseas revenue by more than 10 times in the second quarter.

Germany, was forecasted to install about half of the world’s new solar energy capacity in 2010. Then the government cut the price sun-generated electricity receives by 13 percent for projects started from July 2010. This p[olicy change has sparked a surge in sales in the first half of the year for projects seeking to qualify for the old rate. With that boom past, companies are looking for growth elsewhere.

solar pv project

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Jul 30

World Renewable News 30th July

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Siemens
Posts US $1.9 Billion Quarterly Profit. Siemens, whose products include wind generators, high-speed trains and X-ray scanners, said sales in the three months through June rose 4 percent to 19.2 billion euros compared to the same period a year earlier, and new orders rose 22 percent to 20.1 billion euros compared to the same period in 2009.

Profit in Siemens’s energy business rose 7 percent to 925 million euros. Siemens said that while the market for equipment and services for fossil power generation was “challenging,” though still profitable, it recorded big gains in supplying equipment for offshore wind farms.

Siemens wind turbine

Brazilian Biomass
The Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency, Aneel, today approved the ceilings for two tenders. Power from the reserve tender will be bought by the government and will not count towards official supply needs of the grid.

Wind developers are extremely concerned that they will be unable to compete against biomass projects, seen to be much more competitive.

At the reserve tender, biomass plants will compete with a ceiling of R$156/MWh (AU$248); wind at R$167/MWh (AU$265); and small hydro at R$155/MWh (AU$246).

SunPower
SunPower is teaming with Solar Ventures to develop three solar power parks totaling 11.1MW in the Piedmont region of Italy. The plans call for SunPower to mount solar panels on fixed-tilt, systems over an area of 100 hectares.

SDE
Israel-based SDE has started building its first large-scale sea wave power plant with a maximum capacity of 50MW in Jaffa port. The new sea wave power project is the ninth plant to be built by SDE.

The initial phase of the project will produce 100kWh, with only one buoy under a fully automatic model, the company announces. Only 10% of the whole system will be submerged in water, hence minimising the risk of damage to the system under rough sea conditions.

Israel’s Electric Corporation is also willing to purchase the electricity from the plant at “a very attractive price of 12 cents per kW”, according to SDE.

The estimated erection cost of a 1MW SDE wave power plant starts from $650,000 while a comparable coal-fired station would cost $1.5m, natural gas plant at $900,000, solar plant at $3m and wind plant at $1.5m, SDE says.

SDE’s production cost per kW is estimated at 2 cents, compared to 3 cents from coal, 3.5 cents from natural gas, 12 cents from solar energy and 3.6 cents from wind.

wave power plant

BAE Systems Plc
BAE, Europe’s largest defense company, is also extending its diversification into civil engineering and technology contracts. The company was hired by Aquamarine Power Ltd. to help design and build wave-energy generators.

Energy Development Corp - Philippines
Energy Development to Boost Geothermal Generating Capacity 38% in 5 Years. The Energy Development Corp., the Philippines’ largest producer of geothermal energy, said it plans to boost generating capacity by 38 percent from 1,116 megawatts to 1,542 megawatts in five years starting 2011. It issued a statement in Manila before the company annual meeting.

geothermal

Unmistakable’ Evidence Shows World Getting Warmer, NOAA Says
Scientific evidence that the world is getting warmer is “unmistakable,” according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drawing on research from 48 countries, including Russia and China.

The past decade was the warmest on record and the past 50 years have been getting hotter, the researchers said, citing 10 main indicators, including surface and ocean temperatures, the amount of sea ice and glaciers and levels of humidity.

Globally, air temperature near the surface in the past 10 years was 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 Celsius) warmer than the 1960s and about 0.4 degree warmer than the 1990s, according to the report.

melting icebergs

See Bloomberg.com for the full articles

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Jul 15

La Florida Solar Thermal Plant Commissioned

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Spain has opened the world’s largest solar power station, meaning that it overtakes the US as the biggest solar generator in the world. The nation’s total solar power production is now equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station.

The new La Florida solar plant takes Spain’s solar output to 432MW, which compares with the US output of 422MW. The plant, at Alvarado, Badajoz, in the west of the country, is a parabolic trough. With this method of collecting solar energy, sunlight is reflected off a parabolic mirror on to a fluid-filled tube. The heated liquid is then used to heat steam to run the turbines. The mirror rotates during the day to follow the sun’s movement. The solar farm covers 550,000 square metres (the size of around 77 football pitches) and produces 50MW of power.

solar parabolic trough

Plant Configuration
Solar Field
Solar-Field Aperture Area: 552,750 m²
# of Solar Collector Assemblies (SCAs): 672
# of Loops: 168
# of SCAs per Loop: 4
SCA Aperture Area: 822 m²
SCA Length: 150 m
# of Modules per SCA: 12
SCA Manufacturer (Model): Ingemetal (SAMCA-Trough)
Mirror Manufacturer: Rioglass
# of Heat Collector Elements (HCEs): 24,192
HCE Manufacturer: Schott
Heat-Transfer Fluid Type: Diphenyl/Diphenyl oxide
HTF Company: Dow Chemical
Solar-Field Inlet Temp: 298°C
Solar-Field Outlet Temp: 393°C
Solar-Field Temp Difference: 95°C
Power Block
Turbine Capacity (Gross): 49.9 MW
Turbine Manufacturer: Siemens (Sweden)
Output Type: Rankine
Power Cycle Pressure: 100.0 bar
Cooling Method: Wet cooling
Turbine Efficiency: 38.13% @ full load
Annual Solar-to-Electricity Efficiency (Gross): 13.81%
Fossil Backup Type: HTF heater
Backup Percentage: 12%
Thermal Storage
Storage Type: 2-tank indirect
Storage Capacity: 7.5 hour(s)
Thermal Storage Description: 29,000 tons of molten salt. 60% sodium nitrate, 40% potassium nitrate.

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Jul 14

Renewable energy world news 13th July

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Ocean Power Technologies
Ocean Power Technologies Inc. will seek government funding in the U.S. and abroad as it develops buoys that generate electricity from waves, Chief Executive Officer Charles Dunleavy said.

The company in April said it had won a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help scale up its 150-kilowatt buoy to 500 kilowatts. In the first half of 2010, wave power companies raised $21.6 million in venture capital and private equity and no money on the public markets, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.

Siemens
Siemens AG is negotiating to sell its 35 percent stake in Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co., a hydro- electric power plant maker, to Voith AG, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Siemens plans to focus on solar power, tidal power technology and wind energy; it and Voith have agreed on the transaction in principle and are talking about the selling price.

Suzlon Energy
Suzlon Energy Ltd. won an order to set up, operate and maintain two wind energy power plants in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, it said yesterday in a statement to the stock exchange.

Suntech Power
China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co., the world’s largest maker of polysilicon solar-power modules, fell the most in two months in New York after Citigroup Inc. recommended selling the stock and said next year’s earnings may miss analysts’ estimates.

Suntech has dropped 36 percent this year, while Yingli Green has fallen 25 percent and Trina Solar lost 24 percent.

FirstSolar
Thin-film PV maker and project developer FirstSolar says it has completed the acquisition of solar development company NextLight Renewable Power for $297m in cash.

FirstSolar, says the deal boosts its utility-scale solar project development pipeline to 2.2GW in North America. The company has purchased solar projects in the past 16 months from OptiSolar and Edison Mission Group.

The first NextLight project to be built by First Solar is the 290MW Agua Caliente Solar Project in Yuma County, Arizona. Ground-breaking is expected later this year. The California Public Utilities Commission on 3 June approved the project’s power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric.

solar PV

General Electric
GE puts up $200 Million in Contest Seeking Ideas for Smart Power Grid.
General Electric Co. called for entries in a 10-week contest to speed global power-grid upgrades, promising investment and marketing help for the best submissions from a $200 million fund.

Gamesa
Groundwork laid for Spain’s Gamesa to open turbine factory in Brazil. Gamesa has been approved for financing by Brazil’s development bank, BNDES, which paves the way for the group to establish a local wind turbine manufacturing plant.

Gamesa wind turbine

Gamesa’s G80, G87 and G90 machines, all 2MW, have been approved by BNDES. Wind farms opting to use Gamesa’s Brazilian-made goods will be able to finance 80% of those purchases.

Enercon’s Wobben Windpower and Argentina’s Impsa, which already have factories in operation in Brazil, also qualify for 80% financing. GE, which has announced plans to build a factory, also has BNDES approval.

Gamesa began turbine manufacturing by producing Vestas machines under licence. The initial agreement allowed Gamesa to sell their turbines in Spain and some Latin American countries and incorporated technological support by Vestas. With their success in the Spanish market, Gamesa grew rapidly and in 2002 the two companies announced that they would end their agreement citing differences in opinion on the strategic direction of the partnership. The phasing out of technical support by Vestas ended in December 2003 with the V80 2 MW model. As such, Gamesa does not have the licence for Vestas’ newer technology such as the V90 3MW. Under the terms of the split, Gamesa is free to sell all models developed under the Vestas agreement which range from 600 kW to 2 MW.

Visit Bloomberg.com for more information on the articles.

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Jun 11

The perils of picking the right solar technology

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Eight projects are short listed under the governments plan to get two power plants up and running by 2015.

The shortlisted consortiums so far have attracted a fair bit of controversy, given the government is choosing the technologies and not the market.

The short listed solar flagship companies will share $15 million in public funding to prove their bids through feasibility studies. The study results will be used to select two succesful projects.

The government will choose one PV project and one solar thermal project and will have to juggle potential risk against support for technologies when it makes its final decision.

SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC
• AGL Energy proposes a multi-site project using thin film cadmium telluride solar photovoltaic technology generating up to150MW at multiple sites across Australia including ACT, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. AGL, FirstSolar and Bovis Lend Lease;
• TRUenergy proposes a single site near Mildura with CSIRO and Bovis Lend Lease, using thin film cadmium telluride solar photovoltaic technology to generate up to 180MW;
• Infigen Suntech’s crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic technology would be deployed at up to three sites in New South Wales or Victoria to generate up to 195MW; and
• BP Solar proposes a single axis tracking photovoltaic system to generate 150MW from plants constructed at several locations in New South Wales.

SOLAR THERMAL
• ACCIONA Energy Oceania proposes to generate 200MW using solar thermal parabolic trough technology at a single site in either Queensland or South Australia. Acciona, Mitsubishi, BMD Constructions;
• Parsons Brinckerhoff proposes to construct a 150MW solar thermal parabolic trough power station at Kogan Creek in Queensland. Soalr Flair Alliance inc PB, Siemens, John Holland, CS Energy, Infrastructure Capital Group, QUT and Curtain University;
• Wind Prospect CWP proposes to use linear fresnel technology at Kogan Creek in Queensland to construct a 250MW power plant; and
• Transfield proposes to convert the Collinsville coal-fired power station in Queensland into a 150MW solar thermal linear fresnel power plant.

Elemental Power Industries - EPi - Elemental Projects
DESIGN / PROCUREMENT / TENDERING STAGE
We can tailor a procurement strategy to suit your risk level, finance options and time frame. A procurement strategy will outline various suppliers and contractors suitable for the work package(s) to be let for the project. From here the project managers will be responsible for managing the design specification through to completion, competitive pricing via calling of tenders or negotiated contracts; letting of contracts, supervising of the required construction works (off-site and on-site). Visit the website www.elementalpower.com.au for more information on our services.

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May 28

Wind Turbine Manufacturers Bet at Risk on Cheap Gas, Subsidy Loss

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Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Siemens AG and Suzlon Energy Ltd. may end up with underused U.S. factories as cheap natural gas and a lack of federal support reduce wind turbine deliveries this year by as much as 50 percent.

Vestas, the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, is spending $1 billion to expand annual production capacity in Colorado to 3,000 megawatts and hire 2,000 workers to sell and build turbines. Siemens plans to open a parts factory in Kansas this year, and already manufactures blades in Iowa.

Wind turbine blades

They’re betting that the U.S. will pass a law that requires utilities in every state to buy electricity from renewable resources. State support helped new wind farms match natural gas plant additions over the past two years even as gas prices sank 59 percent. Absent a federal mandate, wind turbine factories, touted as job creators by President Barack Obama, may sit idle.

“We’ve taken a leap of faith,” Siemens Wind Power Chief Executive Officer Jens-Peter Saul said at the conference. “There’s a lack of PPA’s available in this market.”

Siemens, the third-biggest supplier to the U.S., said utilities are won’t sign long-term power purchase agreements, or PPAs, because of a decline in electricity demand and because natural gas plants appear to be a cheaper means of generating power, based on current prices for the fuel.

At stake are investments in factories that produce steel towers, fiberglass blades and turbines spread throughout the U.S. and employing more than 85,000 workers in the world’s largest market for wind energy.

GE supplied 2,633 megawatts to U.S. developers last year, or about 26 percent of the market, the company said Jan. 22. Without a renewable energy standard, the market could drop by 50 percent, said Ed Lowe, manager of renewable market development for General Electric Co.

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