News
Regular updates on the latest developments, announcements and reports from the renewables industry around the world.
Britain’s seas ‘open for business’
The Crown Estate has introduced a more rapid timetable for allocating the next generation of offshore wind farmsm according to a recent statement at the BWEA’s Offshore 08 conference.
Rob Hastings, director of the Marine Estate for The Crown Estate made the announcement at the conference in Westminster, revealing that significant zones for 25GW of wind farms will be tendered out to developers through the summer of next year.
This will halve the expected time taken for the initial development stages, with the first phases of the new Round Three wind farms likely to start operating in 2015.
The BWEA welcomed the news from The Crown Estate, with Maria McCaffery MBE, BWEA chief executive, commenting: “This is fantastic news for the UK wind industry, with Britain’s seas now officially opened for business. This announcement has brought delivery of the 2020 renewable energy targets a great deal closer.”
The Crown Estate has identified zones for development that, after further review, it expects to allocate to developers next year. After this, it will then work with the developers to identify specific sites within the zones. This allocation process will be based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) being carried out by BERR, which will examine issues such as the impact on wildlife and habitat, shipping lanes and fishing, with the zones being adjusted to reflect the SEA findings. Once the zones have been finalised, the Crown Estate will co-invest with developers in the development process leading to planning. It is expected that, by 2013, individual sites will start to receive planning permission, with the first phases of the new wind farms becoming operational in 2015.
Going global
Mainstream Renewable Power, the newly established renewable energy company, headquartered in Dublin, will develop, construct and operate a range of renewable energy plants across Europe, the US, South America and Australia and expects to have 200MW of power built by 2010. The company founder Dr Eddie O'Connor, former CEO of Airtricity, has invested €30 million in the new company and is seeking to raise €200 million from September 2008 to further fund the company's expansion plans.
"We have ambitious expansion plans and over the coming years, as the environmental imperative becomes stronger, we look forward to realising our vision of creating a highly profitable business where renewable energy becomes the mainstream source of electricity on a global scale,” he says. “We've been operating for four months and have achieved a tremendous amount in that time. We've established our core teams and a unique, profitable business model. We've invested in 2-B, the Dutch wind turbine designer, and are working in partnership with them to create low-cost wind turbine for offshore deployment. We now look forward to raising the capital to assist us in delivering on our future objectives, to developing large-scale operations that are based on Gigawatts, not Megawatts."
Making waves
SeaEnergy Renewables has recently been created to exploit global opportunities for large-scale offshore wind farm development. The Company’s originators, Steve Remp and Joel Staadecker, have assembled the world’s leading offshore wind farm development team. That team now brings to the development of relatively deepwater offshore wind farms, which are rapidly emerging on a global scale, their offshore project development and management expertise in the offshore oil and gas sector. The company’s aim is to develop, own and operate these wind farms globally.
The concept for SeaEnergy was developed with the support and involvement of Ramco Energy, the AIM-listed oil and gas company of which Remp is also chairman.
Among the highlights of SeaEnergy’s plans for the sector is the Beatrice Wind Farm development, which comprises a series of ‘first ever’ feats never before attempted in offshore wind farm development according to the company, including:
- The first ever use of the world’s largest wind turbine (5MW) offshore;
- The first ever use a ‘jacket’ subsea structure for an offshore wind turbine;
- The first ever deployment of a wind turbine in deepwater (45m); and
- The first ever assembly of a turbine, tower, rotor, and blades onshore, for installation in one piece offshore.
Remp comments on the company’s plans for the sector: “As the magnitude of the opportunity afforded by offshore wind power has become progressively more recognised, the potential, on a global scale, for a company with SeaEnergy’s expertise is massive. Importantly, there is a real opportunity for Scotland to capture a lead role in offshore wind technology in much the same way that it has in the offshore oil and gas industry. There is no reason why the growth in offshore wind cannot pick up the slack as offshore oil and gas declines in the years ahead.”
Forecast for wind
A recent study into the wind energy sector predicts an increase of world market volume of annual new installations to increase five times to around 2017 by 2017.
The results of the fourth WindEnergy Study, commissioned by Husum WindEnergy 2008 with the German Wind Energy Institute, were recently revealed in Berlin, in advance of the international trade fair, which takes place from 9 to 13 September in Husum, Germany.
The survey of companies active in this international industry suggests that there could be a total of some 718,000MW installed wind power worldwide by the end of 2017 (compared with about 94,000MW at the end of 2007).
The companies surveyed suppose steady development in the European market in the next five years. They are expecting some 129,000MW installed power by 2012, as compared with 57,136MW at the end of 2007.
The study predicts that, by 2012, more than half the installed wind turbine power will be outside of Europe, compared to only 39 per cent in 2007.
The study also suggests that the focus of worldwide growth last year was in the US, China, Spain, Germany and India, with some 78 per cent of new installations. The respondents feel that the US, China and Spain have great growth potential into the future, with Greece and South Korea becoming increasingly important. The extension of tax benefits for wind energy planned by the US Senate by the end of 2009 (decision by Congress pending) could enable the US wind industry to continue breaking records in the next two years, according to respondents. The majority of companies surveyed feel that the US market will survive even without extension of PTC, as various states are funding wind energy.
“This survey gives the companies in the industry a vital preview of the markets of the future. Its results are also reflected in the structure of the leading international trade fair of the wind energy industry, Husum WindEnergy, with exhibitors from 35 countries, including national pavilions from the US, Canada, France and the UK, and with visitors from 40 countries, that is from the growth markets,” says Hanno Fecke, managing director of the Husum Trade Fair.
Mirror image
Solar thermal power could deliver over 90 per cent of the US electric grid and automotive fleet's energy needs, according to a recent study in the US. The peer-reviewed study by Ausra, the developer of utility-scale solar thermal power technology, indicates the promise of the renewable technology as part of the US' power supply.
Solar thermal power stations use fields of mirrors to capture the sun's energy as heat to boil water and drive steam turbines. Solar thermal's low-cost, efficient heat storage makes solar thermal power uniquely able to provide a reliable energy supply from ever-varying sunshine.
David Mills, chief scientific officer and founder at Ausra, is the inventor of the absorber surfaces used in the majority of the world's solar hot water heaters, and pioneer of Ausra's compact linear Fresnel technology. He co-authored the new paper with Robert Morgan, Ausra's chief development officer.
Mills comments: "This new study shows that our daily and annual energy needs closely match the energy production potential from solar thermal power plants with heat energy storage, and our models show solar thermal power will cost less than continuing to import oil."
The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration projects over 70 per cent total growth in the nation's electricity demands by 2025, and analysts predict a further increase in electricity needs as plug-in electric hybrid vehicles come to the market.
Converting the national electricity grid to solar thermal power would reduce overall American global warming pollution by 40 per cent, according to the company.
A copy of the complete findings can be found at http://ausra.com/technology/reports.html.
Fast stream
A prototype tidal stream generator was recently given approval to begin testing in the Humber Estuary, near Grimsby, by UK Secretary of State for Energy John Hutton.
Hutton gave planning permission for the model, which has been developed by Pulse Tidal with financial backing of £878,000 from the Government, as the UK continues to develop renewable energy technology. When it is in the water, the pulse generator will be capable of generating up to 0.15MW and will be one of the first tidal power machines to supply the national grid. If it is successful, it will be used to develop larger 1MW units, which could be deployed in arrays each generating up to 100MW, enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes.
The prototype - which will extract energy from underwater currents in a similar fashion to wind turbines using 11m long horizontal hydrofoils - will be positioned off the south bank of the Humber at Upper Burcom near Stallingborough.
Hutton states: "Our continued support for these emerging technologies is essential if the UK is to cement its position as a world leader in marine.
"This kind of tidal project, if proven, will go some way to helping the UK meet its ambitious targets for clean, green energy."
Odd sock
A new wave energy concept that resembles a windsock is being developed by Checkmate Seaenergy. The Anaconda Wave Energy Converter (WEC), invented by Professors Rod Rainey and Francis Farley, harvests energy from sea waves in a unique fashion.
Built largely from rubber, Anaconda consists of a distensible rubber tube, floating head to sea, in which bulge waves are excited by passing sea waves. The bulges grow as they travel along the tube, gathering wave energy. The bulge waves are then used to drive a turbine generator.
Checkmate Seaenergy, part of the British Checkmate Group, has acquired an exclusive license to develop Anaconda. It is Checkmate Seaenergy's intention to progress the machine through the full-scale prototype stage to commercial production. It is estimated that it will take three years before a full size prototype is tested at sea. This full-scale version would be the largest rubber structure ever made in the world according to the company, and would need a facility the size of a shipyard to construct.
Anaconda has being given initial approval from The Carbon Trust, whose studies have indicated that initially three to five per cent of the British Isles' electricity and eventually up to 20 per cent could come from this source.
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