This week, WindEnergyUpdate's news round up includes: The list of Crown Estate development partners for Round 3 zones; Iberdola; Beauly-Denny power line; Nordic Windpower; LM Glasfiber’s laser-based wind sensory systems; AMSC & Dongfang venture; and Vestas & Nordwind Handels.

The Crown Estate names development partners for all nine Round 3 zones

The Crown Estate has named the successful bidders for each of the nine Round 3 offshore wind zones within UK waters.

The UK has taken a major initiative towards boosting its renewable energy capacity as it shared its plans to develop 32 GW of new offshore wind energy. Round 3 offshore wind energy generation aims to deliver a quarter of the UK’s total electricity needs by 2020.

All parties have now signed exclusive Zone Development Agreements with The Crown Estate. The developers who have signed exclusivity zone agreements are:

• Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75 percent owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25 percent owned by SeaEnergy Renewables – 1.3 GW
• Firth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor – 3.5 GW
• Dogger Bank Zone, the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft – 9 GW
• Hornsea Zone, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction – 4 GW
• Norfolk Bank Zone, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft – 7.2 GW
• Hastings Zone, Eon Climate and Renewables UK – 0.6 GW
• West of Isle of Wight Zone, Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW
• Bristol Channel Zone, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy – 1.5 GW
• Irish Sea Zone, Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES Group – 4.2 GW

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says this new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity.

He notes that the offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion (€83bn;US$120bn) and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.

The Crown Estate estimated that around £75 billion would be required to develop the wind farms, £15 billion (€16.7bn; US$24bn) for transmission infrastructure, and between £5-10 billion to expand the offshore wind industry supply chain.

Iberdola to build five wind farms in the US

Wind power company, Iberdola Renovables, has begun construction on five new wind farms in the US boasting a combined 813 MW.

The firm’s expansion plans were encouraged by nearly US$600 million (€416.5mn; £374.5mn) in stimulus funds that it received from the US government last year.

Iberdola hopes to receive an additional $430 million (€298mn; £268mn) in 2010 as its wind farms come on stream. The company will reinvest all current and future grants in the US.

The grants, which temporarily replace production tax credits, offer direct funding of around 30 percent of the investment in renewable energy facilities coming on stream, or whose construction is begun in 2009 and 2010.

Iberdola Renovables is currently building a 300 MW Cayuga Ridge plant in Illinois; a 202 MW Peñascal II plant in Texas; and a 99 MW Star Point plant in Oregon (99 MW).

It completed the construction of its 149 MW Rugby plant in North Dakota in December and the 63 MW Dry Lake plant in Arizona in September last year.

The company’s installed capacity in the US has increased by 50 percent in one year to 3,459 MW.

Beauly-Denny power line to be upgraded

The Scottish government approved an upgrade to the Beauly-Denny power line between the Beauly substation near Inverness and Denny North substation near Falkirk.

Energy Minister Jim Mather told Parliament that the Beauly-Denny upgrade is the most significant grid infrastructure project in a generation.

The scale of the investment in developing the overhead line proposal is estimated by Ofgem to be around £330 million (€367mn; US$529mn).

According to Mather, approval is subject to a detailed and comprehensive range of conditions to protect the vital interests of communities, the environment, cultural heritage and the tourism sector.

The overhead line will be 137 miles / 220 kilometres long and will replace the existing single circuit 132kV overhead transmission line with a 400kV double circuit overhead line providing more reliable capacity. The replacement line will have 25 percent less pylons. In addition, more than 86 kilometres of associated wirescape feeding in to the line can be removed or improved.

One circuit will operate at 400kV to provide a high capacity circuit between Beauly and Denny. The other circuit will operate at 275kV, and would provide a circuit onto which much of the generation in the area between Beauly and Denny could be connected.

The new 400kV line will be able to transmit 2.5 GW of electricity. There are around 50 potential projects at varying stages in the planning and consenting processes, representing some 4GW of renewable generation, in the north of Scotland.

The scheme would help to achieve the Scottish government’s target to meet 50 percent of the country’s electricity needs through renewable power by 2020.

Nordic Windpower raises equity funding

Berkeley, California-based wind turbine maker Nordic Windpower has raised US$38 million in a new financing round led by Khosla Ventures.

Joining Khosla Ventures in the Series C equity financing are New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Novus Energy Partners and existing investor Impax Asset Management, a London-based fund. Other participants include I2BF Management and Pulsar Energy Capital.

Through the sale of new shares, US$30.1 million (€20.9mn; £18.8mn) has been raised with the balance arising from the conversion of notes issued in 2009.

Nordic will use the funds, of which US$12.1 million (€8.4mn; £7.5mn) has already been received, to scale up its business activities involving the sale, manufacturing and service of its 1 MW, N1000 wind turbines.

Tom Carbone, CEO of Nordic Windpower, said as the first and only wind power company to receive a commitment from the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program, his company is now in a position to meet its equity requirement, which combined with the Series C corporate funding, will further strengthen its growth plans.

Nordic’s operations and manufacturing facility is located in Pocatello, Idaho. The Berkeley, California headquarters handles marketing, sales, and finance.

LM Glasfiber to develop laser-based wind sensory systems

Wind turbine blades maker, LM Glasfiber, has entered into a three-year research project supported by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation to develop laser-based wind sensory systems as an integrated part of future wind turbines.

This joint venture with Risø DTU and NKT Photonics aims to improve the load control of the wind turbine in operation thereby enhancing the efficiency and reliability of the turbine.

Energy production may be increased by up to 5% over the wind turbine’s 20-year life-time with the integration of Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) into the blades.

A prototype of the new application of the LIDAR technology in wind turbines will be available in 2012. LM Glasfiber expects to supply its customers with LIDAR-enabled intelligent blades by 2014.

AMSC to jointly develop 5MW wind turbines with Dongfang

American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) has signed a follow-on contract with Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Dongfang to design and jointly develop 5 MW full conversion wind turbines for the offshore wind power market.

Dongfang will soon commission its first prototype 2.5 MW wind turbine designed under a prior agreement with AMSC Windtec and will enter volume production of these wind turbines in the second half of 2010.

Dongfang has exclusive rights to the 5 MW full conversion wind turbine designs in China and plans to begin supplying the wind turbines for the worldwide offshore market in 2012.

AMSC has the right of first refusal to supply the core electrical components for Dongfang’s 5 MW wind turbines.

Nordwind Handels continues to favour Vestas’ turbines

Vestas has bagged an order for 40 V90-2.0 MW wind turbines from Beiersdorf-Freudenberg-based Nordwind Handels.

The contract includes delivery, installation and commissioning of the turbines, a VestasOnline Business SCADA solution, as well as a 10-year service agreement.

Installation of the turbines will begin during the fourth quarter of 2010 and the project is scheduled for completion by the beginning of 2011.

The contract marks a continuing tendency for Norwind, which favours Vestas turbines over other makes.