This week's news round-up includes: Carbon Trust, Gifford, BMT, Freyssinet, Glosten Associates, Keystone Engineering, Offshore Wind Power Systems of Europe, Ballast Nedam, MBD Offshore, Suction Pile Technology, Wood Group, Western Area Power Administration, GC China Turbine, Infigen Energy, Suzlon, Dong Energy, Iberdola, Enbridge, Renewable Energy Systems, CORE, DeepCWind, E.ON and KBR.

Carbon Trust shortlists seven foundation designs

The UK’s Carbon Trust has unveiled new foundation designs that could transform the offshore wind industry.

Seven designs have been short listed by the government-backed Carbon Trust, as part of a multi-million pound competition, launched in May. The objective was to come up with wind turbine foundation designs suitable for depths of 30-60m, at which next generation of offshore wind farms will be built.

The criteria on which the winning designs were selected included: manufacturing costs; transport and installation costs; potential for volume cost savings; structural design and durability; maintainability and turbine accessibility; and decommissioning and removal costs. 

The current price tag is up to £75 billion (€83bn; US$124) with deepwater foundations accounting for 20 percent or more of a wind farm’s total project costs. The goal of the new designs is to reduce the current costs of foundations by at least a quarter.

From the seven short listed, three winning projects will have their designs built and installed in large scale demonstration projects in 2010-2012 with funding from a consortium led by the Carbon Trust. The designs will receive up to £100,000 (€111mn; US$165mn) support for concept development, engineering analysis, commercial feasibility and technical assistance.

Names, locations and technical descriptions of each of the shortlisted designs are as follows:

• Gifford/BMT/Freyssinet (UK / France) - Large concrete gravity base structure, transported to site by a submersible transport and installation barge

• Glosten Associates (USA) - Floating wind turbine foundation based on Tension Leg Platform (TLP) technology, comprising a buoyant hull, tendons, and novel anchors

• Suction Pile Technology / Wood Group (Netherlands/UK) - Asymmetric suction bucket tripod foundation which can be transported from the quayside with the turbine already installed

• Keystone Engineering (USA) - Inward battered guide structure – three supporting legs angled around a central pile in a twisted jacket approach

• Offshore Wind Power Systems of Europe (USA)  - Titan – Platform floated into position then its three legs are lowered to the sea floor, similar to a jack-up drilling rig

• Ballast Nedam (NL) – Drilled concrete monopile

• MBD Offshore (DK) - Suction bucket monopile, primary material is steel, using buoyant installation and delivery

FERC approves a plan for Montana-Alberta Tie project

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a plan for the construction of a transmission line using a grant from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Western Area Power Administration will help finance construction of the 214-mile, 230 kilovolt Montana-Alberta Tie Ltd. Project (Montana-Alberta) from Great Falls, Mont., to Lethbridge, Alberta, through a US$161 million (£97mn; €108mn) loan made available under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

Under the arrangement, Western will have a one-twelfth ownership interest in the line, comprising approximately 18 miles of the line, and a conditional right to 50 megawatts of southbound capacity. The right to the 50 megawatts of capacity is subject to pre-existing arrangements for the southbound capacity with current interconnection customers.

Western’s use or sale of its transmission rights is subject to its open access tariff. Any capacity not used or sold by Western will be released back to Montana-Alberta to be marketed under Montana-Alberta’s tariff, with Western receiving 75 percent of the revenues.

The project is expected to begin commercial operation by the fourth quarter of 2010.

GC China to produce utility scale offshore turbines

GC China Turbine has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Yancheng regional government of Jiangsu province to develop a local manufacturing base for building large utility scale turbines for offshore and coastal use in the area.

Preliminary plans call for the development of several local offshore wind farms, each offering 500 MW capacity. Initial estimates by the company place the value of potential orders for a project of this scale at approximately $US 732 million (€490mn; £442mn).

GC China’s launch product is a 1 MW utility scale turbine. Designs for a 2.3MW and a 3.0MW utility scale turbine are also under development.

Infigen’s Capital windfarm now operational

Infigen Energy has completed the construction of its Capital Wind Farm at Bungendore in New South Wales.

According to the company, the project is almost five times the size of any other comparable wind farm in New South Wales. It is also the largest renewable electricity generator commissioned in New South Wales since the Snowy Hydro Scheme.

The project will play a crucial role in helping Sydney Water to secure the water supply for Sydney. Sydney Water’s decision to use 100 percent renewable energy means that the desalination plant’s power needs will be fully offset when it starts supplying water this summer. Sydney Water has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2020.

Comprising 67 Suzlon S88 2.1MW machines with a total installed capacity of 141MW, it can power 60,000 homes.

Dong Energy focuses on green energy production

Dong Energy is transitioning to green energy production in an effort to combat declining demand in the gas and power markets.

Dong Energy acknowledged that the gas and power markets are still suffering from declining demand and low prices. Adjusting to this situation, the company is shelving development projects for coal-fired power stations in Scotland, the UK and Germany.

The company is turning its focus to making steady progress with its renewable energy portfolio. The wind farms Horns Rev 2 in Denmark and Storrun in Sweden were inaugurated in the third quarter, and test production started from Gunfleet Sands 1 and 2 in the UK and Karnice in Poland.

Iberdrola signs PPA with Modesto

Portland, Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with Modesto Irrigation District (MID) for at least half the output from its 99-MW Star Point Wind Project now under construction near Moro, Oregon.

MID, the Modesto, California area’s public power utility, will purchase the wind energy from Iberdrola Renewables. The utility aims to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2017. Energy deliveries to MID are expected to start in 2010.

The project is located in Sherman County, Oregon.

Enbridge, RES, to develop wind energy project

Enbridge and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Canada have entered into an agreement to develop a 99 MW wind energy project near Chatham, Ontario in which Enbridge will have a majority interest.

The total investment in the Talbot wind energy project is approximately $285 million. Construction of the project will be undertaken by RES Canada.

RES Canada will construct the project that is expected to be completed in December 2010. It will feature 43 Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines.

The project will deliver energy to the Ontario Power Authority under a Renewable Energy Supply (RES) III 20-year power purchase agreement.

CORE to get stimulus funds from DOE

The University of New Hampshire’s Center for Ocean Renewable Energy (CORE), as part of a University of Maine-led consortium, will receive US$700,000 (€468,000; £423,000) in federal stimulus funds from the US Department of Energy. 

The consortium, DeepCwind, received a total of US$8 million (€5.3mn; £4.8mn) to develop three deepwater wind energy test sites in the Gulf of Maine.

CORE will deploy and test the first prototype floating structure with a wind turbine as its contribution to the project. CORE will install a 10-KW wind turbine with a 25-foot diameter on a 60-foot tower floating in 170 feet of water just south of the Isles of Shoals, where a mooring grid is already in place.

The University of Maine selected UNH to join the DeepCwind consortium because of its expertise in ocean engineering as well as its existing mooring grid with a 10-year history of data collection.

The CORE team’s first step will be to test small models, developed by UNH seniors in an undergraduate ocean research projects course, in UNH’s indoor wave tank. The 10-kilowatt turbine deployed at the Isles of Shoals is still about one-tenth the size of fully operational energy-generating turbine, but “it’s the size that makes sense for this process,” according to CORE director Ken Baldwin, professor of ocean and mechanical engineering.

EDP Renewables to invest US$4bn in the US

EDP Renewables plans to invest US$4 billion (€2.7bn; £2.4bn) in building new wind farms in the US by 2012.

The company has already invested more than US$1.5 billion (€1bn; £90mn) in the US. EDP has a presence in 21 states and operates more than 2,500 MW of wind energy capacity.

Its domestic operations in the US have grown from 60 employees to nearly 300 in just three years.

Bulgaria to increase its wind capacity to 3,000 MW by 2020

Bulgaria plans to boost its wind power capacity from 330 MW to 3,000 MW by 2020, enabling wind to account for 13.5 percent of the country’s electricity production.

Currently, 9.4 percent of the power generated in Bulgaria is derived from renewable sources. According to Bulgarian Association of Producers of Ecological Energy (APEE), Bulgaria is in a position to generate revenues by selling excess Bulgarian renewable energy production to Member States struggling to meet their targets. This could create revenues of €7.5-10 billion (US$11-15bn: £6.7-9bn) by 2020.

E.ON completes Stony Creek wind farm project in Western Pennsylvania

E.ON has completed its Stony Creek wind farm, bringing company’s installed wind power capacity in the US to nearly 1,700 MW.

The project comprises 35 General Electric wind turbines with an installed capacity of approximately 53 MW. Twenty-six of these have been built on specially designed foundations given their location on a filled-in former coal strip mine.

Recently, E.ON Climate & Renewables, which is responsible for renewable energies and climate protection projects within the E.ON group, completed the fourth and last section of the world’s largest wind farm (782 MW) in Roscoe, Texas.

KBR expected to make a decision on the Nigg yard next month

US construction and engineering firm, KBR, is expected to make a decision on the Nigg yard in Easter Ross next month.

The decision is expected between December 17 and 19, according to a report filed by The Press and Journal.

The yard, which is jointly owned by KBR, the Wakelyn Trust of the Nightingale family and Dow Chemical Company, has been reserved as a potential fabrication centre for the burgeoning offshore wind farm industry, and has the potential to create thousands of jobs.