Power & Energy Solutions

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer, selects ABB to ensure efficiency and reliability of hydropower operations in Northern Norway ABB has been awarded a contract to modernize automation, control, and power solutions at two of Statkraft’s hydropower plants in Norway. The upgrade at Straumsmo and Innset hydropower plants will leverage ABB’s distributed control platform ABB Ability System 800xA, which integrates process control, power management, electrical, and safety within a common reliable system. The deal also includes an option to extend the refurbishment to a third plant, Båtsvann hydropower plant. The 800xA system will enable complete control of the powerplant from high-voltage switchgear to low-voltage motor control, management of AC/DC systems and lighting and heating at each plant. Dag Smedbold, SVP region north Statkraft said: “Ensuring the efficiency, stability, reliability and robustness of our automation systems and electrical systems is critical as both plants operate unmanned.” Hydropower remains the mainstay of the Norwegian electricity system contributing to over 95 per cent of Norway’s total energy consumption. Per Erik Holsten, head of ABB Energy Industries in Northern Europe, commented: “With such a high dependency on hydro power to deliver electricity across Norway, these plants can truly be classed are critical infrastructure. Improving upon and sustaining each

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Solar

London, UK, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 14 October 2020 – Lisarb Energy, one of Brazil’s fastest growing solar developers, has appointed two new finance directors. Ricardo Moreira Gonçalves will look after Lisarb’s financial interests in Brazil, while Sue Taylor-Jago will operate from the firm’s UK offices in London and Devon. Ricardo has held senior accounting and tax appointments in the environmental and energy sectors, most recently at multinational Électricité de France (renewable energy). Ricardo has a deep understanding of the tax system in Brazil and experience of raising debt finance in the Brazilian markets; skills that will facilitate Lisarb’s growth strategy across the country. He holds an MBA in international accounting from the Universidade Candido Mendes. Sue has over thirty years’ experience managing company finances across a range of sectors in the UK. Most recently she worked as a member of the senior leadership group for a multimillion-pound turnover food services business where she managed a team responsible for all aspects of the company’s finances. “We’re delighted to welcome Sue and Ricardo to the Lisarb team,” said Jamie MacDonald-Murray, chairman, Lisarb Energy. “The success of our business depends on growing our strong financial position and these appointments will ensure we achieve that

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

Proceeds used to fund portion of construction equity to build out 1.3 GW Andes Renovables wind and solar platform, one of the largest renewable energy platforms in Latin America Transaction takes place alongside first drawdown under the US$630m Huemul senior project financing announced in September A sixth bank, SMBC joins the senior banking consortium alongside IDB Invest, KfW IPEX-Bank, DNB, CaixaBank and MUFG, with Santander providing a VAT facility   14 October 2020, Dublin: Global wind and solar development company, Mainstream Renewable Power (“Mainstream” or “the Company”), has closed a US$280 million “mezzanine” construction finance facility with leading alternative lender AMP Capital Infrastructure Debt Fund IV (“IDF IV”). The AMP Capital facility complements the US$1.25 billion of senior project finance debt raised to date through two separate financings completed in October 2019 and August 2020. The US$280 million mezzanine financing is structured in three separate tranches with the “Condor” and “Huemul” tranches drawn at closing, the “Copihue” tranche is expected to be drawn once that platform reaches financial close in H1 2021. Andes Renovables is a c.US$1.8 billion, three phase wind and solar generation platform comprised of seven onshore wind and three solar PV generation assets. The 570 MW first phase, “Condor”, reached

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Misc, Press Releases, Renewable News

Hamburg based hanseatic shipbroker house Waterworks Offshore Services switches focus to shipfinance in the offshore renewable sector. Traditionally coming from Chartering and S&P in the offshore markets, Waterworks today becomes the first  green ship finance institution which provides the renewable shipping industry with innovative ways to aquire and manage ship finance solutions in a market thirsty for a new approach. Managing Director Sven Boedewig says: "We believe that the offshore renewable shipping market needs finance solutions that match the innovative and disruptive nature of energy transition into a green future. Hence we develop attractive solutions with our finance partners and private equity network enabling shipowners to request finance, manage existing contracts fast and easy and open a new sustainable investment opportunity to investors.“ Today, Waterworks Offshore Services GmbH will re-brand into Waterworks Offshore Concepts GmbH, pointing out the change of focus from pure a brokerage shop to an innovative finance boutique while still maintaining the well known name of Waterworks for it's excellent reputation in the european market. Partner Valentin Hartmann says: "The future of green shipfinance will hold some exciting new solutions which will give both owners and investors more flexibility and planing security." Along with the first brokered finance deals in the offshore

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Solar

Detect and evaluate events in solar systems automatically and inititate remediation or repair activities: SMA Smart Connected the proactive service package from SMA Solar Technology AG, originally launched in 2017, has since grown in popularity and demand. Customers in Canada can now access all the benefits of Smart Connected, which is available with SMA’s Sunny Boy and Sunny Tripower CORE1 home and business inverter solutions. The automated SMA Service monitoring is especially valuable to installers who have multiple sites to monitor. Another new benefit is the expansion of the activation window. In the past, customers had three months after system registration on Sunny Portal to activate Smart Connected. Now the activation period is two years, providing greater convenience and flexibility. “We are very happy to announce that our customers in Canada now have access to the automated SMA service monitoring, too”, said Nick Morbach, executive vice president of SMA’s Home & Business Unit. “There has been a continuous stream of requests for expansion of the program as long as we have had it in the United States,” said Nick Morbach, executive vice president of SMA’s Home & Business Unit. This groundbreaking solution decreases truck rolls, lengthy service calls and system downtime, saving installers time and

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Misc, Press Releases, Renewable News

Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark have succeeded in recovering over 98% of their municipal waste on average over the last five years Germany are now recycling half of their waste (50%), having improved year-on-year for the last five years Despite a 12% reduction over the last five years, Turkey are still sending a shocking 88% of waste to landfills When you take both waste production and waste recovery into account, Japan, Belgium and Sweden are leading the way in the overall war on waste. Our waste production is increasing throughout the globe due to growing populations and economies. With predictions that this will grow a further 70% as soon as 2050, our need to act is at an all time high. The question, of course, is whether countries across the world are indeed taking action and doing their part to both minimise waste and maximise its recovery. Packaging retailers RAJA have drawn on data presented from the OECD on the treatment of countries’ municipal waste, delving into 29 countries that had data available over five years. Through doing so, they were able to not only find out which countries are making positive movements in waste recovery, but also which ones are minimising

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

Hamburg, 14 October 2020. The Nordex Group has received orders for 271 wind turbine systems with a total output of 1,228.6 megawatts (MW) in the third quarter of 2020 (Q3:2019: 1,700.3 MW). The Delta4000-series turbines with an output range of four to five MW accounted for 86 percent of the orders. In the first nine months of 2020, the Company's total order intake (excluding its services business) amounted to 3,758.5 MW (9M 2019: 4,738.7 GW), with the Delta4000 series playing a dominant role at a share of 81 percent. In the third quarter, 31 percent of orders came from Europe, primarily from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and France. Driven by two major projects in the USA, the North America region accounted for a 50 percent share. Latin America contributed 19 percent of new orders with projects in Colombia and Brazil. "The third quarter confirms that our customers in Europe, North America and Latin America are equally convinced by our highly efficient Delta4000 turbines. Despite individual delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, demand remains strong – including the outlook for the rest of the year," says Patxi Landa, Chief Sales Officer (CSO) of the Nordex Group.

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Misc, Press Releases, Renewable News

Tuco owner Jakob Frost sets the best time in the race "Round Denmark Inshore". Since the start Saturday morning at 10.00am, the carbon fiber boat Frostboxen, which Jakob Frost has built at the Tuco yard in Faaborg, has been chasing a new reference time in the Round Denmark inshore race. The race starts and ends in Aarhus, and along the way the team has been passing Skagen, Bornholm, and sailing through Little belt in their 650 nautical mile quest to concur the best time. The team's goal was a sailing time below 100 hours, was nicely achieved with a finish time after 92 hours and 35 minutes when the team finished at 6.35 on Wednesday morning. With the competitor Torben Fagerholdt just over 40 nautical miles behind him. With a new time on the "Round Denmark Inshore" course, Jakob Frost can bring another Danish sailing trophy home to Tuco in Faaborg, where also the "Silver Spinnaker trophy" for fastest time around Zealand, and the diploma for fastest time in the Royal Danish Yacht Club's record sailing Denmark Around Inshore stands. Jakob Frost and Tuco's built carbon fiber boats have thus taken a heavy toll on the Danish distance sailing and record racing,

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

Singapore – The China Navigation Company (CNCo) today announced it is expanding its project cargo business and has launched Swire Projects to provide specialist shipping services to the energy, resource and infrastructure sector. Swire Projects will be working closely with the various marine service activities of the Swire group to develop an independent global strategy in the MPP & Heavylift segment. The Projects division will be led by Namir Khanbabi, General Manager of Swire Projects, based in Singapore and will have global coverage. Swire Projects has also hired three senior project managers: Matthias Kremser, Global Head of Chartering, and Nicki Schumacher as Head of Europe, both based in Hamburg; and Rufus Frere-Smith, Regional General Manager, who will lead the Americas team that will be based in Vancouver and Houston. “By bringing together trade routes, fleet, and expertise across the Swire Group’s marine activities, Swire Projects is set to lead a smart network of resources, enabling highly efficient, trusted and flexible shipping solutions to service clients in the project logistics sector, particularly project forwarders, EPCs, Heavy Civil and offshore energy construction players,” said Khanbabi.

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Press Releases, Renewable News, Wind

First orders have been taken for Airborne Wind Energy AWE by tethered kite or drone. AWE flies higher than a wind turbine – up where winds are stronger and more continuous – stronger still at night to offset dead solar. KiteNRG of Italy is developing its AWE to 500kW and they told IDTechEx supercapacitors are needed in an island configuration to accept the surges of power created. The new moveable, rapidly installed energy harvesting such as AWE, tidal stream and ocean wave must avoid the high cost of parts maintenance and replacement in remote places. Supercapacitors do that, wasting less electricity and grabbing more of the incoming electricity surges than batteries. In cycling applications, supercapacitors have 100 times the life and deep discharge, whereas only 15% of the battery can be sipped. The kWh of the supercapacitor needed to replace batteries in such situations is therefore much less, offsetting cost, something already demonstrated in hybrid cars. Large supercapacitors cost thousands of dollars. They save millions of dollars when preventing self-destruction as with pitch control of the blades of a wind turbine in a storm when the electrics fail. Lithium-ion batteries were selling at the billions of dollars a year level when they hit

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