- Category: Projects and Contracts
Airtricity, an Irish company, says it will spend US$ 270 million to build wind farms in West Texas, New York and Idaho. Airtricity has announced that it has agreements with landowners to construct turbines on 23,000 acres (nearly 10,000ha) between Amarillo and Lubbock by the end of 2006. Airtricity plans to build a 125MW wind farm in West Texas. Local officials in eastern Idaho have approved plans for a 100MW wind farm to be built by Airtricity and Ridgeline Energy. In upstate New York, Airtricity is still seeking permission for a 40MW facility. The company raised more than US$ 100 million in private equity last year and plans to borrow 90% of the money needed to buy and install wind turbines, which will be built by a subsidiary of Germany’s Siemens AG and Spain’s Gamesa.
- Category: Projects and Contracts
Bangladesh’s first wind-generated power project has been put into operation on a pilot basis with a high rate of success in producing electricity. Electricity generated on a trial basis from four wind turbines is connected, with the distribution cable of Palli Biddut Samity providing uninterrupted additional power generation with a capacity of 1MW per day for the last four months. A total of four three-bladed wind turbines were installed at Muhari in the Feni district of Chittagong division, southeast of Bangladesh, with the assistance of the Indian NEPC Company under the direct supervision of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB). The 50-foot (15m) tall wind turbines with a maximum power production capacity of 225kW each have been installed at a cost of US$ 1.23 million. The PDB could produce 2,000MW of power in the coastal belt by installing 30 wind turbines per square kilometre. Bangladesh has good opportunities for wind power because it has a 724km long coastline and many small islands in the Bay of Bengal, where strong southwesterly winds and sea breezes blow in the summer months and there is a gentle northeasterly wind and breeze in winter months.
- Category: Projects and Contracts
Emu Ltd has recently taken delivery of a Reson SeaBat 8101 Multibeam Echosounder. The integrated multibeam system also comprises Reson PDS2000 data acquisition and processing software, a Reson SVP-15 sound velocity probe and a TSS MAHRS attitude and heading sensor. The SeaBat 8101 will enable Emu Ltd to conduct bathymetric surveys in extremely testing environments of strong currents and high turbidity within lakes, rivers, estuaries, channels and coastal areas. The small object detection capability and characteristic clean data has already been proven as the system is currently being used in offshore wind farm site surveys.
- Category: Projects and Contracts
Acciona Energía, through its renewable energy subsidiary EHN, has signed an agreement with Energías Renovables Mediterráneas (Renomar) to construct 21 turnkey wind farms totalling 793MW. This contract, including the infrastructure related to the wind farm’s energy output, represents € 850 million (including taxes). Renomar’s work in the field of wind energy has begun with the construction of three wind farms in the north of the province of Castellón, Spain, totalling 124.5MW, and the construction of several other wind farms will begin this year. The company expects to complete the implementation of its wind power plan in three years. Renomar, jointly owned at 50% by the Valencia-based company Med Wind and EHN, the renewable subsidiary of the Acciona Group, will carry out most of the project with wind turbines of INGETUR technology. Renomar will install 453 turbines of the IT-1500 model, representing a total installed capacity of 679.5MW (86.5% of the total). The remainder –113.9MW – will consist of 134 model G52-850 wind turbines. The electricity produced in these ten wind farms in the north of Castellón province will be sent to the grid through a 400kV substation constructed by REE in the municipality of Morella.
- Category: Projects and Contracts
The Soderglen Wind Project, which will be Canada’s largest merchant wind plant and one of the largest wind facilities in the Canadian province of Alberta when it enters operation, will feature 47 of GE Energy's 1.5MW wind turbines. The 70.5MW project, being developed through a joint venture between GW Power Corporation and Nexen Inc, will begin construction in the autumn of 2005 with completion scheduled for the summer of 2006. The Soderglen project has been approved to receive the Canadian Wind Power Production Incentive (WPPI), which provides qualifying projects with payments of 1.0 Canadian cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced from wind energy. In support of expanding renewable energy's contribution to Canada’s electricity mix, the Canadian government recently increased its original 1,000MW WPPI to 4,000MW.
- Category: Projects and Contracts
Flight trials have commenced to demonstrate a technical solution that, if successful, will be used to iron out objections to wind farms from the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and individual airport operators. Government and industry have been working together to better understand the cause of the radar impact for several years but this is the first time they have come together with a potential mitigation solution. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) members are financially supporting BAE Systems to lead the science behind the technology, known as the Advanced Digital Tracker (ADT). The ADT will be fitted to a portable radar provided by the MOD. The mobile air traffic control radar is being temporarily sited in mid Wales. The site in Wales has been chosen for the trials as it is situated in the region of four working wind farms of various sizes, scales and models of wind turbines, which will collectively provide the most rigorous test for the technology. Various types of aircraft will fly over the wind farms and the ADT will be investigated to establish whether the radar can register the aircraft while not cluttering the screen with similar images caused by the wind turbines’ rotating blades. The results obtained will then be analysed at BAE Systems. The results of the trials will be available by October 2005. If successful, the ADT could be on the market to tackle site-specific wind farm issues by the end of 2006.
- Vestas’ expectations for the Italian market have been confirmed
- Gamesa has been awarded five contracts in Italy
- REpower to deliver 19 wind turbines to Japan
- Germany?s largest wind farm portfolios sold
- Final contracts for first Dutch offshore wind farm signed
- Large-scale wind project in China’s Hebei province
- Vestas receives orders for V90 turbines for Spain
- SP and Ashland Sign Distribution Agreement
- Australian government approves new wind farm
- Gamesa receives a new order from Pioneer Asia
- Gamesa continues its wind power expansion in China
- Beatrice wind farm demonstrator project
- London Array offshore wind farm
- Measuring campaign for E.ON Energy Projects
- AREVA to carry out grid connection study
- Turbines for EDF Energies Nouvelles in East Anglia, UK
- Inauguration of Arklow Bank Offshore Wind Park
- New project in India
- US National Weather Service chooses Vaisala wind sensors
- Canunda Wind Farm opened
- REpower supplies first megawatt turbines to China
- Grant for Wind Tower Composites' low speed wind turbine
- Zoltek wins major order for turbine blades
- Order for a V82-1.65 MW wind turbine project in upstate New York
- Order for REpower Systems AG in the UK
- Erie Shores to Add 99MW of Wind Capacity
- FPL Energy selects GE for wind projects
- REpower gains major strategic investor
- GE Energy completes contracts for eight wind projects in Canada
- Irish energy firm plans £1.2 billion North Sea wind farm