UK coalition government commits to renewables

The UK Energy Bill, outlined during the Queen’ speech on May 25th, confirmed the coalition government’s commitment to renewables via the establishment of a green investment bank, development of an offshore transmission grid, and energy market reforms favouring renewables.

The UK’s new coalition government, comprising the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative party, also announced its plans to increase its emissions reduction target from 20% to 30%; and to increase the UK target for energy from renewable sources, subject to the advice of the Climate Change Committee.           

The 2010 Energy Bill pledges to reform energy markets to "deliver security of supply and investment in low carbon energy", and "ensure fair competition" including a review of the role of UK energy regulator, Ofgem.

The bill also outlined the parties’ intention to build an offshore electricity grid to support offshore wind power.

Providing a much-needed boost to infrastructure investment needed for the development of renewable energy sources, the Bill also outlined plans for the creation of a green investment bank.  

UK’s IPC to be scrapped

A letter sent last week to developers from Sir Michael Pitt, Chair of the UK’s Infrastructure and Planning Commission, confirmed the coalition government’s plans to scrap the IPC and replace it with new legislation.

According to the letter, the government has stated its intention to introduce “a revised departmental structure which will put the fairer, faster decision making, that national infrastructure planning requires, on a democratic basis”.

Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) aim to make provision for new primary legislation in a Devolution and Local Government Bill, explained Pitt.

The new legislation is likely to be introduced toward the end of 2010, to become law in 2011. 

According to Pitt, the IPC – which only became operational in March this year - would be absorbed into the revised CLG structure as a ‘major infrastructure unit’. Under the new system, recommendations on nationally significant infrastructure projects would be made to Secretaries of State for final decisions.  

The IPC has confirmed that in the interim, planning applications will continue to be processed without delay, and that developers should continue to submit new planning applications.

GWEC appoints new chairman

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has appointed Dr Klaus Rave as its new chairman.

Dr Rave, elected chairman for a two-year term, will replace Arthouros Zervos, who served as chairman since the association was established in 2006.

As managing director of German development bank, Schleswig-Holstein, Rave has been involved in financing wind power projects since 1991. He also served as president of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) from 1999 to 2002, and is currently EWEA’s vice president.

The GWEC board also elected a new executive committee to support the work of the chairman and the GWEC staff. The ExCo members are Denise Bode (American Wind Energy Association), Carlos Gasco (Iberdrola Renewables), DV Giri (Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers' Association), Henning Kruse (Siemens).

GE to supply turbines for Wyoming wind farms

Wind energy major, General Electric will supply wind turbines for up to 2,100 MW of wind projects being developed by Pathfinder Renewable Wind Energy in the state of Wyoming.

GE will also be the technology partner for Pathfinder’s Wyoming wind power projects. 

Pathfinder is one of three wind developers to be allocated transmission capacity on TransCanada’s 3,000 mw Zephyr Power Transmission project of which Pathfinder’s allocation is 2100 MW.

Besides Pathfinder, Horizon Wind Energy LLC and BP Wind Energy, too, have won contracts for the Zephyr project.

The proposed Zephyr project is a 1,000 mile (1,600 kilometre), 500 kilovolt, high voltage direct current line designed to move 3,000 MW of wind-generated electricity from Wyoming to power markets in the southwest U.S. at a cost of approximately US$3 billion.

The target commercial operation date is 2015.

E.ON seeks continuous feedback for its Northants wind farm

Energy company, E.ON, has invited the community of Cambridgeshire to provide on-going feedback after submitting a planning application to Daventry District Council for a wind farm between the villages of Winwick and Cold Ashby in Northamptonshire.

The application, which the company submitted earlier this month, has not yet been validated.

However, once this has happened, the planning documents (including the Environmental Statement and Non Technical Summary) will be available for viewing at the Council offices in Daventry, at Brixworth Information Centre.

On the basis of valuable feedback from the community while developing its plans for the 17.5 MW wind farm, E.ON is encouraging stakeholders to remain involved during the planning process. E. ON will be holding further public information sessions in coming months 

• Project description:
• Project scope – 7 three-bladed wind turbines
• Turbine heights – 80m from ground to hub/126.5m from ground to blade tip
• Total power – Up to 17.5MW

E.ON recently won an award for the design of Winwick wind farm through the Civil Engineering and Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme (CEEQUAL), a scheme supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers, promotes environmental and sustainability excellence in civil engineering.

AMSC bags US$445m order from Sinovel

Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), has received a US$445 million order for its turbine electrical systems from Sinovel Wind Group in China.

Under the multi-year agreement, AMSC will start shipping the parts to China by early next year, and Sinovel will use them to build 1.5-MW turbines.

Shipments under the new contract will span a period of 30 months. AMSC is currently shipping 1.5 MW core electrical components under a multi-year contract that extends through early 2011.

Sinovel plans to increase production of its 3 MW wind turbines, which are installed and operating in China’s first offshore wind farm. In addition, Sinovel expects to install its 5 MW prototype by the end of 2010 and all these systems use AMSC Windtec designs besides being equipped with AMSC’s power electronics.

Headquartered in Beijing, Sinovel has several manufacturing bases, including ones in China’s Dalian, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia and Gansu Provinces.

Alstom to launch wind turbine plant in U.S.

French conglomerate Alstom is gearing up for its new 115,000 square foot wind turbine nacelle assembly facility in Amarillo, Texas.

With an annual production capacity of 800MW, the facility is scheduled to be operational in 2011.

The company highlighted that Amarillo is the ideal location for Alstom’s wind power manufacturing hub in North America because it is centrally located in an area that is expected to create a substantial number of new wind power projects over the next several years. The facility is expected to create 275 full-time engineering, production, and technical support jobs.  

Workers at the Amarillo facility will assemble the nacelles  - the generator, gearbox, and control systems that make up a wind turbine. The nacelles will be transported to sites where they will be combined with blades and a tower to create the complete wind turbine generator.

Alstom says it will offer its North American customers a product that includes any combination of the complete unit and the engineering, design, construction, and maintenance of the facility.

In particular, Alstom's offering includes the ECO 80/86 wind turbine platform (1.67 MW) and the ECO 100/110 wind turbine platform (3 MW) to accommodate the differing wind regimes across North America. 

GE to supply wind turbines for Lake Erie project

GE and Cleveland, Ohio-based Lake Erie Energy Development ( LEEDCo) have formed a long-term partnership,  beginning with the development of the first fresh water offshore wind farm in the US.

Under the new partnership, GE will provide direct-drive wind turbines and maintenance services for LEEDCo’s initial 20MW offshore wind project in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie.

Upon project completion, targeted for late 2012, subsequent projects with a long-term goal of 1,000 megawatts will be rolled out in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie by 2020.

The LEEDCo-GE partnership builds on the momentum of a four-year effort by the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force and other partners in Ohio to establish an offshore wind industry on Lake Erie, leveraging the region’s manufacturing base.

At the core of the Lake Erie Project is GE’s next generation wind turbine, a 4 MW machine designed specifically for offshore deployment.

EWEA urges European Parliament to raise emissions reduction target  

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has urged the European Parliament to agree to an upwardly revised target of 30% domestic GHG emissions by 2020.

The EWEA reacted to the release by the European Commission of its analysis of options to move beyond 20% greenhouse gas emission reductions and issued a briefing to MEPs, Commission and Member State officials, urging “Council and European Parliament to agree 30% domestic greenhouse gas reductions”.

The Association said that it is disappointed that the Communication falls short of recommending an immediate unilateral EU move to a 30% reduction.

The EWEA briefing paper notes: “The benefits of moving to 30% outweigh the costs.”

It adds: “The Commission Communication highlights that the cost of reaching 20% GHG reductions has reduced from €70bn to €48bn, due to the financial crisis. The cost of moving to 30% GHG reductions is estimated to be €81bn, or just €11bn more than the initial estimate to reach 20%.”

Ingeteam plans Wisconsin manufacturing facility

Bilbao, Spain-based Ingeteam plans to build a US$15 million wind manufacturing facility and hire 275 employees in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The site is slated for completion in December 2010.

The Milwaukee plant will produce generators and converters for 1.5 to 5 MW wind turbines and solar power inverters that range from 2.5 kW units for residential use, up to 500 KW units for utility-scale installations.

This new facility will strengthen Ingeteam’s current U.S. presence, which includes a management office in Mequon that provides operations and maintenance services for U.S. wind turbine farms.

In addition, Ingeteam has a sales office in Santa Clara that supplies the market with solar photovoltaic inverters.

The 100,000-square-foot production facility and office complex will be located in Milwaukee's Menomonee River Valley.

Ingeteam currently holds between 12-15 percent of the global market share for wind power components and expects to expand its global market share by opening its new plant, which will start production in January 2011.

2009 ‘most profitable year’ for REpower

German wind turbine manufacturer REpower Systems’ net income for the financial year 2009-10 rose 11.5%,  from €51.9 million in the preceding year to € 57.9 million.

Sales increased to €1,303.6 million from €1,209.1 million last year and total operating performance rose to €1,324.5 million from €1,220.5 million registered last year.

The company said that 2009-10 was operationally the most profitable year, with the highest turnover in the history of the company to date.

REpower employed 2,097 employees worldwide. As of 31 March 2010, the order backlog included purchase agreements having a potential sales volume of € 2.1 billion, a considerable leap of 40%, whereas especially orders of large scale wind turbines (3 to 6 MW class) increased.

As for the forecast for next year, from the present-day perspective, the management expects a 10 - 20% increase in the overall performance of the group corresponding to almost €1.5-1.6 billion besides an increase in the operating result margin (EBIT margin) to 7.5 - 8.5%.

Scotland: 206 GW of offshore potential

Scotland’s total practical offshore resource is estimated at 206 GW, according to a new study supported by the Scottish Government.

The Offshore Valuation Study is the first comprehensive economic valuation of the UK’s offshore renewable energy resources to 2050. It has been underlined that by harnessing around a third of 206 GW resource, installed offshore renewables capacity could reach 68 GW in Scotland by 2050. This compares to Scotland's current installed renewable capacity of 3.7 GW.

Of the 68 GW capacity by 2050, 46 GW could come from fixed wind, 11 GW from floating wind, 4 GW from wave energy, 5 GW from tidal stream and 2 GW from tidal range.

The net value of Scotland’s 68 GW of offshore resource in terms of electricity sales is estimated at £14 billion by 2050. Equivalent to £2,700 per person, this is significantly higher than in England (£400 per person) or in Wales (£1,000 per person).

Energy Minister Jim Mather said that these findings strengthen arguments for developing offshore renewable potential, for greater interconnection to the rest of the UK and Europe and for the development of offshore grids to connect and export offshore renewable energy from Scotland direct to continental Europe. 

The study was led by the Offshore Valuation Group, a group drawn from across industry and government and chaired by the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC), a not-for-profit charity. The Group includes the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments, the Crown Estate and eight companies across the energy sector.