The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB); Scottish Enterprise, The Crown Estate, Samsung Heavy Industries; Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, Vattenfall, The Carbon Trust, Fugro Geoconsulting; Masdar, GIB; GL Renewables Certification; Georgia Power, EDP Renewables North America, Romax Technology 

Weekly Intelligence Brief: 6 – 13 May 2013

UK Green Investment Bank to become part of country's financial infrastructure, says Business Secretary

UK Government Business Secretary, Vince Cable, expects the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to become “a valued and integral part of the UK’s financial infrastructure,” playing a pivotal role in the financing of transition to a ‘green’ or low carbon economy. 

Cable stated the same as GIB announced the investment impact of its first five months of operation. It was launched in November of last year. With £3bn of funding from the UK government, it is the first bank of its kind in the world. 

Green Investment Bank chief executive, Shaun Kingsbury said the mission goes beyond “simply investing our own funds; our job is to crowd-in money from other sources”. The bank has managed to bring in almost £3 of private funding for every £1 it has committed, said Kingsbury. 

GIB has supported transactions in all of its priority sectors including offshore wind. It confirmed its first direct equity investment in offshore wind through the acquisition of a 24.95% stake in Rhyl Flats Wind Farm Limited (Rhyl Flats) from companies owned by RWE for a cash consideration of £57.5m in March this year.

At the time of writing it was reported that Stephen Crane, Managing Director Wind of the Green Investment Bank, was leaving his position at the end of this month, according to a Project Finance International news report. As more details come to light on his replacement and their objectives for the offshore sector we will offer more news.

Scotland grants Samsung Heavy Industries offshore turbine demo 

The Scottish government has granted consent for an offshore demonstration wind turbine with an installed capacity of up to 7MW at the Fife Energy Park in Methil.

The development for Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) will test new designs and models for offshore wind turbines to increase the reliability and efficiency of the power they produce. This development, which is being undertaken by Samsung Heavy Industries with support from Scottish Enterprise, will utilise newly developed technologies which have not yet been deployed offshore, said Finance Secretary John Swinney.

For its part, Scottish Enterprise shared that it has awarded SHI £6.04m POWERS funding to support the development of its turbine prototype in Fife. This award will support an intended total investment of £100m in Scotland, which SHI announced last year, to launch a test demonstration project followed by turbine manufacturing facilities in Scotland in the longer term with the development of the market. 

Subject to the conclusion of commercial negotiations, SHI will begin construction of the 7MW prototype turbine later this year. The turbine will be placed on the sea bed around 35 meters from the shore. The Crown Estate will provide the area of sea bed to allow the project to proceed.

Offshore works for EOWDC planned 

A major programme of offshore works for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) was scheduled to get underway last week. The initiative could lead to pioneering turbine foundation designs being developed at the £230m test facility. Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, the company driving forward the EOWDC, commissioned the work which is being supported by The Carbon Trust’s flagship research and development scheme, the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA).

The programme involves a series of geotechnical boreholes being performed between 2.5km and 4km off Aberdeen’s coast including drilling work to validate the findings of desk top research. The work is being carried out by Fugro Geoconsulting with the geotechnical drilling vessel M/V Markab. 

As part of the geotechnical surveys, which are expected to run for about 10 days, a geotechnical drilling vessel will be mobilised and the work will include sampling and in situ testing in boreholes at four of the 11 proposed turbine locations in water depths ranging from around 22-30 metres.

The EOWDC is a joint venture between Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) and Vattenfall, which is a member of the Carbon Trust’s OWA, along with Technip Offshore Wind as a consortium partner. EOWDC is investigating the potential to demonstrate innovative foundation designs emerging from the OWA initiative including gravity-based foundations, twisted jackets and suction buckets. 

The geotechnical surveys, which are being conducted as part of the overall development process, will help in gaining a further understanding of what is under the seabed and in making progress with foundation type selection and design. 

Milestone for Alstom’s 6MW offshore wind turbine

Alstom’s new generation Haliade 150 - 6MW offshore wind turbine has gained the IEC power performance measurement after three months of performance measurements at Le Carnet site, in France. This key milestone in the type testing certification process follows on from the completion of the 6MW commissioning and testing activity.

The onshore tests performed on the first Haliade 150 - 6MW since last year have resulted in data collection on the power curve (determines the turbine’s electricity production as a function of the average wind speed) which confirmed the technical specifications and correlate well with the design models. The next phase of activity on the first onshore machine will focus on specific tasks and tests related to wind turbine diagnostics, reliability and maintenance of main components such as the generator, pitch, converter and the yaw system. 

The remaining tests included in the type testing certification are expected to be finalised during this phase in order to obtain the certification of the turbine before the end of this year. 

After the certification, the Le Carnet site will be dedicated to complementary performance upgrade tests, and several training actions.

Masdar, GIB sign MoU

Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar and The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), a public company formed with £3bn of funding from the U. K. government (see lead story UK Green Investment Bank to become part of country's financial infrastructure), are to jointly explore project investment opportunities in the UK’s clean energy sector. The two entities, which recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, will consider opportunities to jointly invest in green infrastructure projects over the next seven years. 

Together, GIB and Masdar will introduce potential investment opportunities to one another and other potential investors. 

There is no change to the governance of both parties as joint investments will be made and managed independently.

For its part, Masdar has invested over £500m through its equity stake in the UK’s London Array project. Full capacity has been reached at the 630MW first phase of London Array, which recently officially became the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm. All turbines are now exporting power to the national grid. The commissioning of the 175th and final turbine took place recently.

New guideline for certification of condition monitoring systems

GL Renewables Certification (GL RC) has published its new guideline for the development, installation and operation of condition monitoring systems.

The updated document, Guideline for the Certification of Condition Monitoring Systems for Wind Turbines, takes into consideration the latest developments of condition monitoring systems for wind turbines and future requirements. It is being highlighted that since future systems will be partly or fully integrated into the control system and include the monitoring of the entire wind turbine, the definition of interfaces between the systems gains significance.

Georgia Power to import 250MW of Oklahoma wind power

Georgia Power has entered into an agreement with EDP Renewables North America that will add wind energy to the company's diverse energy portfolio, Georgia Power has reported.

Through the contracts, Georgia Power will source 250MW of wind energy from EDP's wind farms in southwest Oklahoma. The wind energy purchased through these contracts will provide enough electricity to power more than 50,000 Georgia homes.

"We are continuously evaluating energy options that provide the best overall economic value to our customers," said Paul Bowers, president and CEO of Georgia Power. "Adding wind energy to our generation mix underscores our commitment to a diverse portfolio that offers clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and low-cost electricity for years to come."

Georgia Power will begin receiving the wind power on January 1, 2016. This agreement is expected to deliver cost savings to Georgia Power customers over the life of the contract and is the latest step in Georgia Power's ongoing effort to procure renewable energy in the most cost-effective manner for customers.

Romax promises to excel turbine health

UK-based Romax Technology has taken wind turbine health management to a new level with the launch of its InSight Health Management Platform.

The company highlighted that currently there are many data sources and analytical capabilities, available to monitor different aspects of the drivetrain. With its offering, Romax has achieved a combination of multi-source data to be unified on a single intuitive software platform. Plus, by blending with engineering consultancy and turbine maintenance services, the company is promising optimum turbine reliability and health. 

The result is recognition of warning signs early enough to reduce downtime, and costs to optimise reliability. The team at Romax believes the future is the prioritised and predictive maintenance and inspections of wind turbines.