This week’s WindEnergyUpdate news brief includes: Siemens; Vestas; RES & Enbridge; RES & Public Service Company of Colorado; Xcel Energy & enXco; TAG Energy; NaiKun; and REpower.

Siemens to supply wind turbines for Cape Wind project

Wind turbine major Siemens will supply 130 of its 3.6 MW turbines for America’s first planned offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts being built by offshore developer Cape Wind. The German conglomerate declined to disclose the value of the order.

Siemens has sold 1,000 units of these turbines, 150 units of which have been installed and are successfully operating. The project still requires federal approval.

Cape Wind completed state and local permitting in 2008 and is awaiting a final Federal permitting decision from U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who recently stated he would make his decision by the end of April.

Siemens highlighted that the final approval of the Cape Wind offshore wind farm will be key to the success of the offshore wind industry in the U. S.

In another development, Siemens shared that it will lay the first cornerstone of its U.S. offshore wind headquarters with the opening of an office in Boston on June 1, 2010.

The company is not only taking this initiative to get closer to its U. S. customers, it says the decision to open an office in Massachusetts makes sense considering “the forward thinking leadership of Governor Patrick and the Massachusetts Legislature in trying to make the state a global leader in clean energy development,” said Randy Zwirn, president and CEO of Siemens Energy.

Vestas bags its largest single order in Australia

Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has received its largest single order in Australia. The company will supply 111 units of V90-1.8/2.0 MW turbines for the 206 MW Collgar project in Australia.

The order has been placed by Perth, Western Australia-based Collgar Wind Farm, which was developed by Investec Bank (Australia) Limited. The project has since been acquired by UBS International Infrastructure Fund and Australia’s Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (REST).

UBS Global Asset Management manages the UBS International Infrastructure Fund. Collgar will be the Fund’s fourth investment and its first green field acquisition.

The contract comprises a full engineering procurement construction contract, a ten-year service agreement and a VestasOnlines Business SCADA solution. The first turbines are expected on site during Q2 and Q3 2010 with the project to be fully installed by the second half of 2012.

The project is located approximately 25km south-east of the township of Merredin, within the Western Australian wheat belt, an area very close to the existing electricity grid. Collgar will connect to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia, and has secured a 15-year power purchase agreement for 100% of its output with Synergy, owned by the Western Australian Government.

The project has been financed on a limited recourse basis and the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF) provided loan corresponding to the guarantee for part of the financing and under the export-lending scheme.

Collgar Wind Farm recently stated that final notice to proceed has been issued to the contractors to commence with the construction of the wind farm. The plant is due to come online in April 2012.

RES and Enbridge to jointly build Ontario wind farm

Montreal, Quebec-based Renewable Energy Systems Canada (RES) has partnered with Canadian energy firm, Enbridge, to construct and own a 99 MW wind energy project on the northern shore of Lake Superior, in Ontario.

The Greenwich Wind Energy Project is a limited partnership that is jointly owned by RES Canada and Enbridge, which has a majority interest in the project.

RES will construct the project under a fixed price, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction agreement.

Investment in the project, which is expected to reach substantial completion in late 2011, is approximately CAD$275 million.

The project will comprise 43 Siemens SWT-2.3-101 MW wind turbines. Siemens will provide operations and maintenance services for the wind turbines under a five-year, fixed-price agreement. The project will deliver energy to the Ontario Power Authority under a Renewable Energy Supply (RES) III 20-year power purchase agreement.

The project is estimated to create 300 construction jobs besides generating CAD$72,000 in tax payments for the municipality each year. Moreover, Enbridge and RES Canada will spend up to CAD$50 million in additional capital costs and more than CAD$7 million a year in operating expenditures.

RES signs power purchase agreement in Eastern Colorado

Integrated renewable energy company Renewable Energy Systems (RES) has executed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo).  

PSCo will purchase 252.2 MW of clean power from Colorado’s second-largest wind project, Cedar Point Wind. The agreement is part of the 2009 ‘All Source Solicitation’ for energy generators.

PSCo is part of Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, a major U. S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states.

The Cedar Point Wind project has been developed and will be constructed by Colorado-based RES Americas and will install turbines made by Vestas in the state.

Consisting of 139 V90-1.8 MW turbines from Vestas, the project will create 100-200 jobs during construction, with up to 12 permanent jobs once construction is completed.  

Located primarily in Lincoln and Elbert Counties, Colorado, construction of Cedar Point Wind is expected to begin in mid-2010 with commercial operation expected in 2011. 

A 42-mile transmission line will also be constructed across Arapahoe County, connecting the project to PSCo’s Missile Site Substation.

Xcel Energy buys Minnesota wind project from enXco

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy has completed the wind project purchase and sale agreement (WPPSA) with enXco, an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company, for the Nobles Wind Project, a 201-megawatt wind facility to be constructed in Nobles County in southwest Minnesota.

The closure of the WPPSA transfers the project ownership to Northern States Power Co., an Xcel Energy operating company.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the Nobles Wind Project in May last year.

The project is expected to generate 150 jobs in the next few months. The Nobles Wind Project, consisting of 134 GE 1.5 MW turbines, is expected to be operational by the end of 2010, helping Xcel Energy to reach its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) target of generating 30% of its retail electrical sales with renewable power by 2020.

The two companies have joint-developed nearly 500 MW over the past several years including Grand Meadow Wind Farm, Fenton Wind Project, Viking Wind Project and Chanarambie Wind Project all located in Minnesota and Peetz Wind Project in Colorado.

Offshore radar issues resolved in the UK

Renewable energy trade association RenewableUK, in conjunction with the wind energy industry and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), will install a joint government and industry-funded radar system to monitor the Greater Wash area. RenewableUK confirmed the deal between the MoD and the wind energy industry.

In 2004, The Crown Estate granted licences for a potential 3,000 MW of offshore wind development within the Greater Wash, which will be in the line of sight of the Trimingham air defence radar.

RenewableUK said the proposed radar system resolves objections to the development by the MoD regarding radar interference. The MoD’s objections affected five offshore wind farms, representing £7 billion of investment and which stand to deliver more than 3,000MW of wind energy.

The full costs for the acquisition of the radar system have not been disclosed. The costs have been negotiated jointly between industry and The Crown Estate as the seabed owner, DECC, the government Ministry for energy policy, the MoD as the principle objector to-date for the planned offshore wind farm development in the Greater Wash and Serco as the radar system provider.

The participating wind energy companies under this radar agreement are Scira Offshore Energy, Centrica, Warwick Energy and RWE nPower renewables.

The agreement to acquire the Lockheed Martin radar follows tests conducted in Denmark in 2008. This was followed by a subsequent extensive modelling exercise undertaken by Serco, which demonstrated that this system, already installed in over 150 locations worldwide, is able to consistently filter the movement of offshore turbines with other air and seaborne activity.

Licences for the third round of offshore development were awarded earlier this year by The Crown Estate, and the Norfolk Zone, one of the larger Round 3 zones with a potential capacity of up to 6,000 MW, will also be in the line of sight of Trimingham.

The Greater Wash and Norfolk Zone combined have an offshore wind energy development potential of some 20% of the total planned U.K. capacity for the period up to 2020.

TAG Energy offered a grant of £1.5m by One North East

Offshore wind turbine maker TAG Energy Solutions has been offered a grant of £1.5m by regional development agency One North East as it gears up to bid for over £500m worth of work in the offshore wind sector.

The grant is being funded via the Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP) and will form part of a £20m project to develop state of the art production facilities at TAG’s Haverton Hill base in Billingham, to roll tubulars and manufacture the foundations that support wind turbines in the offshore wind industry.

The project itself will create 110 new jobs and safeguard a further 33, but total employment linked to the project is estimated at over 400.

TAG’s project has already received £1.5m from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to develop the technology required for the high-tech manufacturing. The automated facility at Billingham will be capable of producing piles, monopiles, tripiles, tripods, jackets, suction buckets, fully outfitted transition pieces and mast/towers – all essential in the manufacture and assembly of offshore wind turbines.

U.S. Senator Brown backs offshore wind

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has introduced new legislation that would advance the installation of offshore wind turbines in freshwater bodies such as Lake Erie.

Brown’s new legislation, the Program for Offshore Wind Energy Research and Development (POWERED) Act of 2010, would spur research on potential offshore wind projects, expand incentives for offshore wind development and require the Department of Energy to develop a comprehensive road map for the deployment of offshore wind.

The legislation has been endorsed by the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio, Case Western Reserve University, The University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, the Ohio State University, The Great Lakes Wind Network and by wind developers such as NRG Bluewater Wind.

The POWERED Act would expand incentives for offshore wind development by increasing the allowance of renewable energy tax credits for offshore wind under a national renewable electricity standard. This provision is aimed at addressing the higher up-front capital costs of developing offshore wind resources, as well as the strength of wind resources found offshore.

Brown’s POWERED Act would establish the Offshore Wind Power Research and Development Program at the Department of Energy. The programme would assist and coordinate offshore wind power analysis and implementation efforts by giving grants to states, institutions of higher education, and industry-academic consortia to conduct wind power analysis in such critical areas as:

Development of state policies for use of offshore wind power in state power planning, including incentives for development; development of plans for integration of wind resources into the electric grid including transmission, storage, and responsive load; research on potential wildlife and ecological impacts; and research on technologies that would improve the reliability and reduce the cost of offshore turbines.

In addition, Governor Ted Strickland has called on the Ohio Legislature to eliminate the tangible personal property tax on wind- and solar-generation equipment.

The state has also mapped Lake Erie into square-mile grids and colour-coded them to identify the best places for turbines. The map is being regularly updated and is now adding information about the make-up of the lakebed.

The state is reviewing existing Ohio laws and regulations to give wind developers the site control they need while still protecting Lake Erie. The state of Ohio continues to work with developers and manufacturers to create responsible state incentive packages to make sure this industry grows in Ohio. An offshore wind team made up of state agencies meets every week to discuss wind development in Ohio.

In addition to federal and state efforts, some members of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force recently formed a nonprofit economic development corporation called the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo).

LEEDCo's mission is to progress toward putting wind turbines in Lake Erie off the coast of northeast Ohio, with the goal of creating a regional offshore wind industry and stimulating increased economic activity in Ohio.

As a project of NorTech Energy Enterprise, Richard Stuebi is leading the effort to formally launch LEEDCo, including the development of a business plan and governing structure. LEEDCo has announced a request for proposals for a wind farm developer to provide assistance on an initial 20 MW offshore wind project planned for Cleveland.

Setback for NaiKun’s offshore wind project

British Columbia-based renewable energy company NaiKun Wind Energy’s offshore wind energy project is no longer under consideration in BC Hydro’s Clean Power Call procurement process.

NaiKun Wind submitted a proposal to BC Hydro in November 2008 for a 396MW offshore wind energy project to be built in the Haida Energy Field in Hecate Strait off British Columbia’s northwest coast.

The company will seek discussions with BC Hydro to fully understand its decision and determine the most effective path forward for the project, said Paul Taylor, NaiKun Wind’s President and CEO.

He added that the project is at an advanced stage of development including areas such as First Nations partnerships, environmental approvals, project planning, equipment sourcing and wind resource evaluation.

The company plans to discuss with BC Hydro and the Provincial Government how the 396MW project and the Haida Energy Field will fit into the province’s clean energy strategy and electricity procurement plans.

NaiKun Wind continues to work with the Federal Government on the completion of its environmental review process for the project.

REpower bags turbine order from Poland

REpower Systems AG, an arm of India’s wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy, and WSB have concluded a contract to deliver 15 wind turbines to the Lipniki wind farm in Poland.

The REpower MM92 turbines each have a rated power of 2.05 MW and a hub height of 80 metres and are due to be constructed and commissioned at the wind farm near Opole in south-west Poland by fall this year.

With a total output of 30.75 MW, the Lipniki wind farm is so far the biggest project undertaken by the Hamburg-based wind turbine manufacturer in Poland.

REpower recently entered the Polish market in 2009 with the two wind farms Leki Dukielskie and Bukowsko near Rzeszow.