This week’s Wind Energy Update news round-up includes: Datamonitor wind energy findings; ETI; GE Financial Services; Clipper Wind; Masdar; NextEra & GE; REpower & EOLE-RES; and Acciona.

UK’s 32GW of offshore wind power by 2020 infeasible

Business information provider, Datamonitor, has indicated that the challenge of building 32GW of offshore wind power by 2020 will be extremely difficult and the target is unlikely to be achieved, both from an engineering and a financial perspective.

Britain will need to build two and a half wind turbines a day to have any chance of reaching its target of supplying 35% of its power from wind by 2020.

One of the major hurdles is related to the fact that there is no turbine manufacturing capacity in the UK.

Though British ports are ideally located to host turbine manufacturers due to their proximity to the off-shore wind farms, they are currently unable to invest due to the lack of appropriate docks with suitable space.

Earlier this month, in an attempt to create jobs, liberal democrat leader Nick Clegg set out a manifesto pledge to create 57,000 jobs by investing £400 million upgrading disused shipyards to enable the production of offshore wind turbines.

The proposals would enable firms to manufacture offshore wind turbines in the U.K., instead of seeing them built abroad due to out-of-date facilities.

ETI to build world’s largest wind turbine test rig

The U.K. Government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is planning to build the world’s largest open access offshore wind turbine drive train test rig.

The test rig is to be built at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) site in Blyth, Northumberland. It will be capable of putting whole turbine nacelles through their paces onshore and indoors before taking offshore and will be used to reduce the technical and commercial risks of mass production and deployment.

The plans, which are being backed with just under £10 million (€11.4mn; US$15.5mn) from the Regional Development Agency One North East, will expand existing testing facilities for wind and marine power at the UK government-backed New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth.

When complete, this facility will allow turbine manufacturers and engineering teams to test the reliability of their equipment under realistic load conditions without the expense and risk of deploying them offshore.

Converteam and HORIBA Instruments will be submitting competing designs for the test rig at the end of May. The successful contractor will then be expected to construct the test rig, which should be operational by the end of next year.

Late last year the government also announced a new blade-test facility at NaREC, which will be capable of testing turbine blades up to 100 m in length.

GE Energy Financial invests in CPV wind farm

GE Energy Financial Services is investing US$65 million in an Oklahoma wind farm being developed by CPV Renewable Energy.

The preferred equity investment will be used to fund the construction of the CPV Keenan II wind farm, with an option to invest a further US$100 million (€73.5mn; £63.6mn) in partnership equity upon commencement of commercial operations.

CPV Renewable plans to begin construction of the 152 MW wind farm this month. The project, which is likely to complete by the end of the year, estimated to cost US$319 million (€234mn; £206mn).

It will be financed with a $212 million senior-secured credit facility, jointly arranged by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Union Bank. Other lenders include Key Bank, Helaba, LBBW, Natixis and Rabo Bank.

The project has secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company.

Clipper UK offshore wind blade facility on schedule

Clipper Windpower Marine is setting up an offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Neptune Estate, Tyne, U.K.

The company recently announced the groundbreaking of this facility, which is being developed by Shepherd Offshore Services.

The 4000 m² facility is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010 by employing 500 people and will be used to develop and build blades for the company’s Britannia Project.

 The 10 MW offshore wind turbine prototype under development is scheduled for deployment in late 2012. The turbine’s blades will be 72 metres long and will weigh over 30 tonnes, one of the largest turbines under development.

The Britannia project will be financed through the £4.46 million (€5mn; £4.6mn) grant that Clipper received last September from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

 Masdar assesses Egypt wind farm option

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, Masdar, has signed a general framework agreement with the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA).

The agreement will allow for the construction and start of implementation of the first 200 MW wind farm in the country. Reuters reported that the project is part of a plan to generate 20% of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

When completed, the new wind farm will increase Egypt’s installed wind energy capacity by around 50% from the 430MW that is currently installed.

NextEra opts for GE’s control software

Juno Beach, Florida-based wind energy generation company NextEra has chosen GE’s control software WindBOOST to enhance the output from its fleet of approximately 800 GE 1.5sle wind turbines.

The software is said to increase output by up to 100 KW, enhancing productivity from 1.5 to 1.6 MW. The expanded mode operation is expected to produce up to 4% more annual energy output per wind turbine.

The WindBOOST control automatically activates to increase the energy produced by each unit depending on wind speed and other site atmospheric conditions. Moreover, it can also be turned on and off remotely, providing flexibility to ramp up power production.

WindBOOST is currently designed for both new and existing 60-hertz GE 1.5sle wind turbines, with plans to apply the technology to additional 1.5-MW models.

REpower wins French supply contract

REpower has bagged an order from Avignon, France-based EOLE-RES SA to supply 26 wind turbines.

The REpower MM92 turbines, with a hub height of 88.5 meters and 2 MW of rated power, will be supplied to the 52 MW Langres Sud wind farm in the department of Haute-Marne in the Champagne-Ardennes region. The 26 wind turbines are to be delivered and commissioned by October 2010.

EOLE-RES is the French subsidiary of RES Méditerranée SAS.

REpower recently concluded its largest onshore contract in the history of the company for up to 954 MW with RES Canada inc., which also belongs to the RES Group, and other Canadian project partners.

Acciona heads multidisciplinary pan European consortium

Energy major Acciona is heading a European R&D consortium of 17 companies, universities and technology centres from 12 countries to establish a technological basis to ensure the viable and competitive integration of marine renewable energies.

The project, named MARINA Platform (Marine Renewable Integrated Application Platform), will establish the integration of marine renewable energies such as wind, wave, tidal and ocean currents on a single deepwater production platform with a total budget of €12.8 million (US$17.4mn; £11.2mn).

The project is co-financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (7FP) for Research with a subsidy of €8.7 million.

The project is expected to be complete by June 2014 and will analyse the integration of offshore wind power with other marine renewable technologies (wave and currents) on platforms located in deep water (i.e. above 40 meters) several miles off the coast.

The consortium includes Dong Energy, Norway’s Statoil, Technip, Progeco, Corrosion & Water Control, Bureau Veritas Nederland and 1-Tech.

The industrial members are matched by its six academic centres: NTNU (Norway), the University of Edinburgh, University College Cork (Ireland), the École Central de Nantes (France), the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), and the University do Algarve (Portugal).