ETI: floating wind foundation slated for 2016

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is investigating whether Wave Hub, the world’s largest wave energy test site, could be used to test floating offshore wind for deployment in UK waters.

Plans for the offshore wind floating system are part of a demonstration project valued at over £25 million.The project will see the design, construction and installation of a floating system demonstrator by 2016 at a site in the UKs Southwest, with high wind speeds up to about 10 metres per second in water between 60 and 100 metres deep. It will be operated for at least two years.

The ETI’s Request for Proposals, which was launched last October, closed on 27 January with a high level of interest from organisations in the UK, Europe and beyond.The feasibility study is being funded by the ETI and carried out by Halcrow.

It is expected to be completed before the summer.The selection process has now started and it is expected that the contract will be awarded early next year.

It is estimated that the UK has over a third of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource – enough to power the country nearly three times over.

A study commissioned by the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency) and published in 2010 calculated there are sufficient marine energy resources for commercial use within 50 km of the UK’s South West coast to deliver 9.2 Giga Watts (GW) of electricity, equivalent to the annual needs of 20% of UK households, or 5% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2030.

Of this, 2.5GW could come from deep-water floating windfarms, 1.2GW from wave energy, 1.1GW from tidal stream, and 4.4GW from offshore wind, much of it from two existing offshore windfarms planned in the Bristol Channel and off the Dorset coast.

Cape Wind secures 15-year PPA

Massachusetts-based electric and gas utility NSTAR is to enter into a 15-year contract to buy 129 MW of offshore wind power from Cape Wind. The development emerged as NSTAR and Northeast Utilities (NU) reached separate, comprehensive merger-related agreements with both the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG), which will allow the utilities’ merger to proceed.

The combined Northeast Utilities-NStar company would buy 27.5% of the electricity Cape Wind produces under a 15-year contract.

NU, headquartered in Hartford, operates New England’s largest utility system. This merger would create a company headquartered in New England.

The settlement agreements both call for a one-time US$21 million rate credit to be directed to customers of NSTAR Electric, NSTAR Gas and Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECo). Base distribution rates for the utilities would then be frozen until 2016.

In late December, The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in two decisions unanimously upheld the long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) between Cape Wind and National Grid. The Court reviewed the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) decision to approve the PPA between Cape Wind and National Grid.

Cape Wind bullish about financing

Jim Gordon, President of Cape Wind has stated that NSTAR’s decision to enter into a 15-year contract to buy 129 MW of offshore wind power from Cape Wind represents a major step forward in making Massachusetts a leader in offshore wind power.

He says NSTAR’s decision to purchase around 27% of Cape Wind’s power output will greatly assist the ability of the project to secure financing. The contract is for Cape Wind, which is America’s first offshore wind farm to secure Federal and State approval and to be issued a lease to operate by the Federal Government. With this contract, the company has lined up buyers for around 77% of the wind farm’s total output.

Gordon highlighted that while Massachusetts may be at the end of the energy pipeline for oil, coal and natural gas, there is an “abundant and inexhaustible supply of offshore wind”, which can be harnessed for a better energy future. He also mentioned that while future fuel prices are uncertain, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has determined that Cape Wind provides a unique set of benefits for Massachusetts and is cost-effective and will place downward pressure on wholesale energy prices while avoiding the external costs of burning fossil fuels.

UK: Crown Estate pushes for streamlined consenting

A report, prepared by a task force comprising Marine Scotland (MS), environmental regulators, renewable developers and The Crown Estate, to streamline the scoping, planning and consenting of offshore renewables developments has been released.

The task force stresses the need to prioritise early work to identify potential sites for new test facilities, including deep water offshore wind technologies. Other suggestions include:

• creating a national database of survey data, with information from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), The Crown Estate and, at the appropriate time, developers - to reduce duplication and minimise cost and time,
• introducing common standards in data collection and assessment to ensure developers can use methodologies consistently and with confidence,
• using mandatory multilateral consultation to engage other sea users (fisheries, shipping, recreational users, communities, etc) at the earliest opportunity, before applications,
• increasing resources in Marine Scotland (on cost-recovery basis) to provide required environment specialists for efficient scoping and application processes.

These recommendations will now be taken forward by Marine Scotland, SNH and other regulatory/advisory bodies. They build on MS’s existing work, including the creation of a ‘one-stop-shop’ to reduce the number of statutory/advisory bodies to be contacted during licencing, and the publication of a marine renewables licencing manual, currently undergoing review and to be expanded to include offshore wind energy development.

Scottish Renewables Director of Policy Jenny Hogan said that with more than 11GW of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy projects in the pipeline by 2020, a streamlined and efficient process for securing planning consent is crucial to making these plans a reality. This report’s recommendations will build upon the concerted effort made by industry, government and regulators to move these projects closer to deployment.

Hochtief, Ventizz team up for offshore wind

Hochtief Solutions, a specialist in construction of offshore wind farms, and private equity investor Ventizz Capital Partners have set up a joint venture for the development of offshore wind farms. The two partners each hold a 50% interest in the new company, Hochtief Offshore Development Solutions.

The companies intend to acquire and develop wind farm concessions and capitalise on the resulting value growth by selling them on before construction begins. The new company will focus on readying the subsequent construction of the wind farms in a way that significantly reduces the risk of cost overruns and delays. This will benefit the companies that later go on to construct and operate the wind parks at the sites concerned, avoiding risks seen on projects currently in progress.

The company does not aim to build and operate wind farms itself. Instead, it plans to sell concessions to the future operators such as energy suppliers and public utilities, financial investors and, in increasing numbers, large industrial companies.

Hochtief Offshore Development Solutions is planning its first project. Following the setup of the joint venture, Ventizz is bringing the offshore wind farm Nautilus II into the company. PNE Wind had sold Nautilus II to Ventizz last year and will continue to support the development project until approval by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) is obtained. The company has also set its sights on four other offshore wind farms in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea and Baltic.

SSE to build Scotland’s first offshore wind test facility

SSE Renewables, the renewable energy development division of SSE, has received consent from North Ayrshire Council to construct an offshore wind turbine test facility at Hunterston in North Ayrshire.

According to SSE, the facility will be Scotland’s first offshore wind turbine test site and will be an extension of SSE's Glasgow-based Centre of Engineering Excellence for Renewable Energy (CEERE).

In partnership with leading turbine suppliers, up to three prototype turbines will be tested at the site for a period of five years. It will allow manufacturers to demonstrate the reliability of the next generation of longer capacity turbines ahead of deployment offshore.

Enabling works are due to begin in the spring with the first phase of construction to be completed summer 2013.

 Narec drive train test facility breaks ground

Piling has started on the site of a new £35m wind turbine drive train testing facility in Northumberland, according to the UK’s National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec). The facility is being planned to accelerate technology development and time to market for the UK offshore wind industry.

The facility will provide Narec with a controlled environment to test the next generation of offshore turbines in accordance with international standards, before they are deployed in large numbers offshore.

A total of 292 piles will be drilled 19m deep, ranging from 450mm diameter to 900mm diameter. When commissioned in summer 2013, the 15MW capacity test facility will provide six degrees of freedom for applying load forces. To provide sufficient support for the rig, a 43-metre by 12-metre test bed foundation will be constructed to a depth of 4m.

This will be contained within a 32-metre high steel framed building constructed with 1300 tonnes of steel. The access door is 20m x 20m and 2 x 250 T cranes will lift test pieces into place.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is investing £25m in the Narec facility, by providing funding to GE Energy - Power Conversion and MTS Systems Corporation for the design, development and commissioning of the test rig.

The test rig that will be housed on the Narec site is the biggest project to date commissioned by the ETI and has seen us invest over £25m in its design, development and commissioning.

Regional development agency One North East invested £10 million in the building to house the rig.

Vestas: New board appointed

Vestas’ Board has completed its search process for new Board members and it proposes Bert Nordberg, Lars Olof Josefsson and Eija Pitkänen elected to the Board of Directors of Vestas Wind Systems at the Annual General Meeting on 29 March 2012.

The Board expects to appoint Nordberg as Chairman and Josefsson as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Nordberg is currently the President and CEO of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications as well as Executive Vice President in the Ericsson Group. Josefsson served as President of Sandvik Mining and Construction, a division of the Sandvik Group, until the end of 2011. Pitkänen currently serves as Vice President, Head of Corporate Responsibility, at Telia Sonera.

Earlier this month, Vestas informed that the Vestas chairmanship, Bent Erik Carlsen and Torsten Erik Rasmussen, and board member Freddy Frandsen, will not stand for re-election for the Board of Directors scheduled for March.