This week’s news round up includes: E.ON’s Dungavel wind farm, Santee Cooper, COWI USA, Dong Energy and E.ON, National Grid USA, RWE and Innogy, EWEA, Shanghai Electric Wind and Germanischer Lloyd,LM Glasfiber and REpower, PG&E, GE and EDP.

Dungavel wind farm receives planning consent

Renewable energy heavyweight, E.ON, has received planning consent for its 29.9MW Dungavel wind farm in South Lanarkshire.

The proposed wind farm, which was approved by South Lanarkshire Council, will be located on land at Dungavel Hill. The site lies within a “Potential” area for wind farms as designated by the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan and South Lanarkshire Local Plan. It will have 13 turbines with a capacity to produce up to 29.9MW and is located about 8km from the nearest town of Strathaven.

E.ON's Community Fund will provide a minimum of £60,000 per year to the Council's renewable energy fund over the life of the wind farm. The project could trigger investment of roughly £4 million into the regional economy.

Initial discussions have been held with Scottish Enterprise to identify suitable contractors in the region. Operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts will also be open for tender throughout the project’s lifespan.

Grontmij wins projects in Egypt and Thailand

Design and engineering consulting firm Grontmij has won two contracts for wind farm projects, located in the Gulf of El-Zayt, Egypt and Lam Thakong, Thailand.

With a total project contract value of €4.39 million (US$6.5mn; £4mn), Grontmij’s revenue will gross €2.15 million (US$3.2mn; £1.9mn) for the duration of the two projects.

Grontmij’s role will involve project management, project and conceptual design, developing the electrical grid, foundations and access roads, handling the infrastructure tendering, and carrying out requisite inspections during the guarantee period. The company will also be responsible for building facilities to accommodate project employees. Grontmij will be associated with these projects over the next 6-7 years.

The contract value of the 200 MW Egyptian project is €3.24 million (US$4.8mn: £2.9mn) and Grontmij’s revenue will amount to €1.35 million (US$2mn; £1.2mn). The company’s mandate includes the supply of contract design management documentation and also managing the implementation of avoidance measures with respect to migratory birds passing through the region.

The 500 MW project in Thailand is one of the first large-scale onshore wind farms in the country with a contract value of €1.15 million (US$1.7mn; £1mn), with Grontmij’s estimated revenue at €800,000(US$1.18mn; £722,000). The site is situated on a plateau 600-700 metres above sea level in Lam Thakong, 200 km north east of Bangkok. The local developer is Ringergy Ltd.

Santee Cooper to work with COWI USA

South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility Santee Cooper has selected COWI USA as its offshore meteorological tower consultant for the first phase of building an ocean-based anemometer tower, part of the Palmetto Wind Research Project.

Phase I of the project, to be completed in February 2010, includes an alternative analysis and concept design for the wind data collection system.

COWI USA, a part of the COWI Group based in Lyngby, Denmark, will select appropriate anemometry equipment, platform, and foundation for an offshore meteorological tower. The design will consider cost, bankability of data, system dependability, ease of installation, and environmental considerations.

Future phases of the Palmetto Wind Research Project will include construction, permitting, and installation of an offshore platform and data gathering equipment, followed by data collection and analysis.

U-turn on Scarweather Sands project

Dong Energy and E.ON, the partners in the Scarweather Sands offshore wind farm project, will not proceed with its construction due to challenging seabed conditions and relatively poor wind speeds at the location.

E.ON has concluded that Scarweather Sands is not the best place to build a small scale offshore wind farm and the project is no longer considered commercially viable.

A lease for the project was awarded to the partners by The Crown Estate as part of the first round of developments of offshore wind in UK waters.  It was viewed as a demonstration scale site to allow companies to gain experience for future, larger developments.

The two companies are also partners, together with Masdar, in the 1GW London Array project, which is due to be built in the Thames approaches in 2012.

Deal boosts Cape Wind’s prospects

National Grid USA is negotiating a long-term contract to buy the electricity generated by Cape Wind.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said this is a tremendous step forward for the Cape Wind project, which has been challenged repeatedly in the Legislature, Congress, and the courts. A long-term contract is critical to obtaining financing for the project planned for Nantucket Sound, Gov. Patrick’s office said.

National Grid USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the London-based National Grid, will soon file with state regulators to begin negotiations with Cape Wind. Developers still await a decision from the US Department of Interior, which is seen as the project’s last major hurdle.

Key Massachusetts officials, including Democratic US Representative Edward J. Markey, urged President Obama to push for federal approval of Cape Wind before United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen.

SSE, Dong Energy to jointly develop three wind farms

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Dong Energy have formed a 50:50 joint venture to develop three offshore wind farms in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

The consented projects are Den Helder I, Breeveertien II and West Rijn wind farms with a total capacity of just over 1,000 MW, which SSE has the right to develop.

The timing of any future investment decision and developments will be dependent upon, amongst other things, the extent of the financial support for offshore wind farms available from the Dutch government through its renewables support mechanism.

RWE Innogy completes Rhyl Flats offshore wind farm

RWE Innogy has completed the 90 MW Rhyl Flats offshore wind farm within 14 months.

The wind farm is situated five miles off the north Wales coast, in Liverpool Bay. In all, 25 Siemens wind turbines, each with a capacity of 3.6 MW, were mounted in an area of roughly four square miles.

The company intends to have projects with a volume of 10,000 MW in operation by 2020 and is investing €1 billion (US$1.5bn: £904mn) annually.

RWE Innogy is also planning to promote the offshore wind business off the continental European coast. In Belgium, the company is involved in building the Thornton Bank Wind Farm, of which the first development stage comprising 30 MW has already come on stream.

RWE Innogy is currently developing two wind farms in the North Sea off the German coast, with 300 and 950 megawatts of installed capacity, respectively.

EWEA calls for swift allocation of funds

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has warned that the European Union (EU) must speed up its stimulus package if funds are to make any impact on wind project developement.

EWEA says the €565 million (US$835mn; £511mn) allocated to new offshore wind projects could be highly effective if the funds are allocated quickly. However, it warns that the EU’s slow legislative process is holding up the release of funds destined for upgrading and building new electricity grids.

Shanghai Electric Wind, Germanischer Lloyd ink contract

Shanghai Electric Wind-power Equipment and Germanischer Lloyd (GL) have signed a contract for type certification of a 3.6 MW offshore wind turbine. 

The wind turbine will be certified according to the “GL Guideline for Certification of Offshore Wind Turbines”.

Type certification comprises design assessment, implementation of the design requirements in production and erection, evaluation of quality management and prototype testing.

LM Glasfiber and REpower sign agreement

LM Glasfiber will deliver up to 954 MW, or blades for up to 477 wind turbines, for REpower Systems’ five wind farm projects in Quebec, Canada.

The turbines are to be installed during 2011-2015 and the blades will be manufactured at LM Glasfiber's existing factory in Gaspé, Canada from 2011.

The facility in Gaspé, Canada, was LM Glasfiber's second North American facility when it opened in 2006. Since then, the company has doubled its overall capacity in the region with the opening of its third facility in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2008.

PG&E to purchase and operate Manzana Wind Project

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has contracted with Iberdrola Renewables to purchase and operate the proposed Manzana Wind Project in Southern California.

The 246 MW project would be the first wind project owned by PG&E. The total capital cost of the Manzana project will be just over US$900 million (€609mn: £550mn) including payments to Iberdrola Renewables to develop and build the facility.

The project could begin producing power by December 2011. The projected annual output is up to 670 GW-hours per year.

Rates for customers who receive electric generation, transmission and distribution services from the utility would increase 1.1 percent in 2012 compared to 2009. The average residential customer, who consumes 550 kilowatt-hours per month, would pay $0.25 more per month—from $74.13 (€50.16; £45.35) to $74.38 (€50.33; £45.50).

GE invests Oklahoma wind farm

GE Energy Financial Services along with EDP Renewables’ Horizon Wind Energy is investing US$117 million (€79mn; £71.6mn) into a wind farm in Oklahoma.

Horizon Wind Energy’s Blue Canyon V wind farm is a 99 MW expansion of a 225 MW wind farm built with GE 1.5 MW turbines.

In addition to Blue Canyon, GE Energy Financial Services invested US$111 million (€75mn; £68mn) to join a previously closed transaction, Vento III, which comprises three wind farms, generating a total 604 MW: Rattlesnake Road (103 MW), in Oregon, west of Arlington in Gilliam County; Meridian Way (201 MW), in north central Kansas in Cloud County; and Pioneer Prairie (300 MW), in north-eastern Iowa in Howard and Mitchell Counties.

EDP Renewables recently announced that it is aims to commit approximately US$4 billion (€2.7bn: £2.4bn) to building new wind farms in the United States through 2012.