Critical Software Technologies (UK), Critical Software (PT) and Critical Materials (PT) are working with Floating Power Plant to help the company adopt a proactive approach to monitoring the condition and structural health of its Poseidon off-shore plant. Critical’s work on the Poseidon prototype, situated off the coast of Lolland in Denmark, will open up an… Read more »
As the first international certification body DNV has received accreditation in Korea to deliver type and project certification of wind turbines and wind farms. Due to the accreditation from the Dutch Accreditation Council, DNV now has official approval to handle all aspects of the certification work using its local wind experts. This provides a number… Read more »
DNV has developed HSE procedures for a mid-west utility’s wind operations. For wind farm operators such safety programs keep workers safe, comply with regulations and meet or exceed best practices for hazard management in the wind industry. DNV worked with the utility company to review existing procedures for its other power generation plants and applied… Read more »
The newly elected government of Finland has recently decided to promote offshore wind power. The wpd Group management team is meeting today with several Finnish ministers and state secretaries to discuss the Suurhiekka offshore wind farm which is currently in the pipeline and set to be realised in the coming years. Dr. Gernot Blanke, CEO… Read more »
A cursory glance at the cost of generating electricity from offshore wind vs. coal for example has many questioning the long term sustainability of this renewable energy. Ein flüchtiger Blick auf die Kosten der Stromerzeugung durch Offshore-Windanlagen verglichen mit der Kohle veranlasst viele dazu, die Nachhaltigkeit dieser erneuerbaren Energie in Zweifel zu ziehen. But that… Read more »
Wind power deployment in Brazil is set to exceed 5,000 MW by 2013, a five-fold increase from the current installed capacity, according to a study undertaken by the Global Wind Energy Council in cooperation with the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEólica), with support from the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). The Summary Report… Read more »
Wind power was the largest contributor of new power capacity contracted at Brazil’s two power auctions last week. Out of a total of 3.9 GW of contracted projects, 1,922 MW went to wind power developers in the A-3 and Reserve auctions. The overall prices achieved at the auctions were considerably lower than in previous processes… Read more »
Offshore wind is a burgeoning industry right at the tipping point of moving from a test bed of new construction strategies and technology to a fully-fledged part of many European countries power generation portfolio. Offshore wind is exciting; the scale of the wind farms and their turbines is huge. The amount of power that they… Read more »
Despite a hindered growth of wind installations in 2010, the industry expects to add 100,000 more turbines over the next two decades. What’s more is that in roughly 5 years the expected growth in the operation and maintenance (O&M) business is set to be $10.6 billion. Leading wind industry companies are therefore looking to invest… Read more »
SGS appointed Christoph Thiel as the new Global Business Development Manager, Renewable Energies. Christoph assumes responsibility for sales and business development at SGS Renewable Energy Services globally. — On August 1, 2011, SGS announced Christoph Thiel as the new Global Business Development Manager, Renewable Energies. Christoph will focus on global sales and business development activities… Read more »
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently turned its attention to the wind industry. As it stands, there are no national metrics for comparing the wind industry against other businesses, but with developments in the pipeline, this could change quicker than expected, and would be of major benefit to the industry. When such laws… Read more »
DNV has published a new Recommended Practice document that provides the wind power industry with in-depth knowledge about the use of remote sensing technology for characterizing wind resources. The document (DNV-RP-J101), which addresses the use of Sonic Detection And Ranging (SODAR) and Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) equipment, has been developed by DNV’s specialists in… Read more »
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) today published its scenarios for onshore and offshore wind power deployment in the EU, ahead of the European Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050, due to be published later this year. “Wind energy will more than triple its power output by 2020 with 194 billion Euros invested in European onshore and… Read more »
The offshore wind project Global Tech I, for which AREVA is supplier of 80 M5000 turbines, has finalized raising debt financing for an amount in excess of 1 B€. This is the second AREVA-powered offshore wind project to achieve this and a new demonstration of the confidence of the financial community in the reliability of… Read more »
Reports that almost half of planning applications for onshore wind farms are being rejected will increase the attractions of building offshore wind farms. Figures obtained by legal firm McGrigors from the Department of Energy and Climate Change under freedom of information legislation show that during the last five years the rejection rate for wind farm… Read more »
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) today published offshore wind energy statistics for the first half year of 2011, showing a comfortable 4.5% increase in installations of offshore capacity compared to the first half of 2010. 101 new offshore wind turbines, with a total capacity of 348 Megawatt (MW), were connected to the power grids… Read more »
Urban Green Energy (UGE) and GE announced today the introduction of the Sanya Skypump, an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station that will bring together the technology of GE’s WattStationTM and UGE’s Sanya hybrid wind/solar streetlamp. The Skypump will enable owners of electric vehicles to charge their cars from a renewable energy source, gaining certainty from… Read more »
The LSM 780 from Carl Zeiss has been awarded the Research & Development 100 Award 2011. The LSM 780 is a confocal laser scanning microscope, featuring a high-sensitivity GaAsP detector, innovative software functions for single molecule and high dynamic range imaging, and a 355nm CW laser. The highly advanced detector almost doubles sensitivity, enabling researchers… Read more »
The REN21 Global Status Report released today shows that renewable energy continues its strong performance despite continuing economic turmoil, cuts in incentives and subsidies and low natural gas prices. The growth of wind power in particular continues to drive renewable energy development, but other sectors such as solar PV are also seeing strong investment. “Wind… Read more »
Yesterday (Wednesday) wpd received the feed-in contract for the Napier wind farm by the Energy Agency in Ontario. This “FIT” contract secures the purchase of the expected net capacity of 5.4 MW from the project as well as a guaranteed minimum remuneration for 20 years. “We appreciate our further success in Canada”, declares wpd CEO… Read more »
Ruukki delivered, from its Kalajoki plant, the first batch of steel structures for offshore wind tower foundations to the Norwegian company Kvaerner Verdal AS. Deliveries from Kalajoki for the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm project in the North Sea will continue until summer 2012. Ruukki’s delivery includes a total of 240 of individual structures to… Read more »
DNV announces that it has obtained accreditation by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for power quality testing on wind turbines. The DNV Seattle office, which obtained the accreditation, now provides power quality testing services to global customers along with accredited power performance, acoustic, and loads measurement services. A2LA’s accreditation for power quality testing… Read more »
EDF EN GREECE, awarded the construction of a 1,1 MWp photovoltaic park in Greece to the EPC Contractor Positive Energy EDF EN GREECE, a subsidiary of EDF EN Group, awarded Positive Energy the supply of equipment, project design and construction of a 1,1 MWp photovoltaic park in the Prefecture of Fokida, Greece. The operation of… Read more »
Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland) — Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil ASA (Stavanger, Norway) has signed two agreements for the sale of a major part of its onshore wind development portfolio. The sale is part of Statoil’s strategy to focus wind energy investment in offshore projects to better utilise the group’s… Read more »
Iberdrola Renewables and AREVA have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop offshore wind projects in France following the government’s announcement of a plan to reach a 6 GW target by 2020. The partners will compete for two of the country’s five offshore zones offered in a first phase of bidding. Under the terms of the agreement, AREVA will be sole supplier of the turbines that will equip the offshore farms to be developed by Iberdrola Renewables. Iberdrola Renewables is the largest wind energy company in the world and has a pipeline of around 10,000 MW in offshore wind projects across Europe, primarily in the United Kingdom. AREVA is a top tier European player in the offshore wind industry. Its successful M5000 turbine won 600 MW of orders confirming the industry’s confidence in the group’s field‐proven technology. By the end of 2013, an installed base of over 120 new turbines will be in operation in Europe. Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of Iberdrola’s Global Offshore Division, said: ”The development of offshore wind projects is one of the key areas of growth for Iberdrola Renewables and we are now assessing major projects in the UK, Germany and France. AREVA has a very strong … Read more »
While the wind industry has been through several challenging years in terms of numbers of orders and installations, the rise of emerging windpower markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Brazil has arguably reinvigorated the turbine manufacturing industry, with leading manufacturers establishing new centres to capitalise on new opportunities. To adapt to shifting manufacturing… Read more »
Turbine manufacturers are constantly reviewing their component sourcing strategies as they seek to reduce their costs and increase product quality and reliability. As manufacturers try to balance in-house manufacturing and outsourcing supply, shortages in previous years have forced OEM’s to pay closer attention to their relationships with component manufacturers. With the development of new, bigger… Read more »
As part of Stena Line’s environmental efforts, a world first project is now getting underway.As the first passenger ferry in the world, the Stena Jutlandica, Gothenburg-Fredrikshaven, is being equipped with two wind turbines at the prow,which will contribute by both supplying energy and reducing fuel consumption. “Within our Energy Saving Programme, we are currently pursuing… Read more »
In order to increase its visibility on the global market and respond to its international clientele, the German wind measurement expert Ammonit is now operating with an English company name: Ammonit Measurement GmbH. The name change has been effective since 14 June 2011. For more than 20 years Ammonit has played a leading role in… Read more »
The concrete sector is developing solutions that will meet the challenges set by Offshore Proof, a new survey by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which believes that offshore wind power has some way to go to prove that it can be a valid part of the renewable energy mix. The survey reports that the next 5… Read more »
When a seven metre portion of a Vestas blade prototype broke off last year – only weeks after the company had a signed a deal to supply the same model to a 420MW wind farm in Australia – the company felt it had some explaining to do. But according to the latest Wind Energy Update… Read more »
Rising fossil fuel prices, devastating oil spills and the nuclear crisis in Fukushima have in 2011 substantially raised expectations of wind energy. On the eve of Global Wind Day – June 15 – the wind industry can today reveal the globally avoided fuel costs from wind energy.In 2015 wind power will avoid 23.7 billion Euros… Read more »
Henrik Kuffner has been appointed as the first CEO of the newly created WindMade organisation. He took up his position on 1 June 2011 and will lead the creation of a global consumer label for companies and products using wind power. From 2002 to 2011, Mr. Kuffner served as Director General of the International Wool… Read more »
Offshore wind farm operators could be facing O&M costs as high as €100,000 to €300,000 per year, per turbine, according to the latest Wind Energy Update Operations and Maintenance report. This figure could be spiked by an additional 20 percent over the short term, as innovative 5MW variable-speed and direct-drive designs enter the market. Unknown… Read more »
To ensure offshore wind turbines are still upright 20 years down the track, more research is needed into the behaviour of the soil structures underlying them, says the latest report from Wind Energy Update. A distinguishing feature of offshore wind turbine structures is that the turbines impose a large horizontal load, at a great height,… Read more »