Triple Funding For Europe’s Energy Research
As reported by theepochtimes.com – Europe is set to launch a campaign later this week – in a bid to triple funding for energy research to 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion) a year – in a technology race with Japan and the United States, a draft document suggests.
The report by the European Union’s executive, the European Commission, advises that solar power should get 16 billion euros over the next decade and that up to 30 energy-sipping “Smart Cities” are expected to be built with the backing of around 11 billion euros. Wind energy research should benefit from 6 billion euros over the next decade, with nuclear research getting 7 billion euros and energy from biomass and other waste receiving 9 billion euros.
Increasing the funding also means that there should be 13 billion euros available for innovative “carbon capture and storage” technology that traps carbon dioxide from power stations and buries it underground – In total, at least 50 billion euros of additional funding over the next ten years would ensure that a wide range of technology emerges to help the EU meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050.
The report also looks at how much funding is needed, instead of how businesses and the EU’s 27 member countries would find the money as they emerge from the biggest downturn since the second world war.
Sources;
Onenewspage.com-top news link
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/23393/
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Powering worlds most powerful wind turbine
Alstom Power is a global leader in the world of power generation, setting the benchmark for innovative and environmentally conscious technologies, together with Energias de Portugal Renovaveis (EDPR) – a world leader in the renewable energy sector – the energy companies have initiated the first wind farm using the ecotècnia 100 wind turbine – the world’s most powerful onshore wind turbine.
The turbine has been designed and installed by Alstom Power on behalf of EDPR at Vieux Moulin near Pithiviers in France, and becomes the 12th wind farm to be fitted out by Alstom Power in France and is due to be operational by mid-October 2009.
Ecotècnia 100 wind turbines feature the following:
Power Each unit is 140 metres high, which is the equivalent of a 50 storey building, they have a rotor diameter of 100 metres and a blade length of 48.8 metres. The design enables the maximum benefit to be derived from the wind, including moderate winds, and can withstand wind speeds of up to 8.5 metres/sec.
Performance The turbine has a nominal power of 3 MW which is twice the output of previously designed machines.
Reliability and longevity Teams at Alstom Power have worked to produce a unique stress-reducing design, Alstom Pure Torque™ which protects the gearbox and boosts reliability.
Ease of maintenance The unprecedented design of the nacelle gives easier access for the technical staff, enabling easier maintenance of equipment.
The ecotècnia 100 wind turbines can deliver enough power to allow a given number of MW to be produced with fewer units, therefore reducing the land area required, and it is expected that the electricity generated by Vieux Moulin wind farm will meet the needs of 12,000 homes, avoiding the production of 42,000 tonnes a year of CO2 (according to: European Wind Energy Association).
Source;
Power.alstom.com/ Media Centre/ Press Release (Alstom and Energias de Portugal Renovaveis inaugurate the first wind farm to be equipped with the ecotècnia 100, the world’s most powerful onshore wind turbine-01.10.2009)
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Northern Power becomes more powerful
Northern Power Systems, a next-generation wind turbine company and manufacturer of the Northwind 100, has today announced their growing presence within Europe along with the appointment of Reinout Oussoren as European Managing Director as the company strengthens its commitment and better supports customers, and has also opened a European headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Mr. Oussoren will bring more than 20 years commercial and operational leadership experience to Northern Power, having most recently been with GE Energy. Within his new role he will manage strategy, business development, sales, applications engineering and a growing network of premier development partners.
The new director is extremely pleased to be joining Northern Power Systems in a job where he will lead the establishment of a rapidly growing sales and support organisation throughout Europe. He also expressed that Northern Power has got enormous opportunities to place its next generation 100 kW turbines across Europe in a number of distributed generation applications.
Even before having a European office, Northern Power Systems had already received over euro 5 million (7.28 USD) in orders for its 100 kW turbines across Europe for example, turbines in the United Kingdom are being installed at sites including schools, hospitals and municipal facilities, and in Italy, turbines have been purchased singly and in pairs by independent power developers to taking advantage of the euro 0.30 (0.44 USD) per kWh Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) – which is limited to installations up to 200kW.
Source;
Greenbizdaily (twitter):- http://ow.ly/rRy5
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Wind Turbine Bat Deaths Solved
Researchers in Canada think they have found the answer to the problem of bat deaths, reports greenbang.com. Thousands of bats are killed by the turbine blades but the Canadian researchers believe they can reduce this by as much as 60%.
The researchers suggest slowing the turbines to almost a complete stop when there’s hardly any wind. The reason for this is that bats tend to fly when it’s not that windy. When it’s very windy and the turbines are generating the most energy is when the bats tend not to fly.
In actual fact the bats are not killed by flying into the turbine blades. A study on bats in the south of Alberta, Canada showed that bats were killed as the result of a lung injury. This was caused by the sudden drop in air pressure which occurs near wind turbine blades. While birds can cope with this drop in pressure a bat’s respiratory system can’t cope with sudden drops in pressure.
Tests are still being carried out to work out how much it will cost in lost revenue to slow the wind turbine blades and whether there are any other benefits.
Source: http://www.greenbang.com/wind-turbine-tweaks-can-reduce-bat-deaths-by-60_11889.html
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Samsung’s possible new Wind Farm
Samsung, the world’s most popular consumer electronics brand and largest business by revenue, is believed to be planning a giant wind farm in Ontario, Canada according to Canadian news, reports power-technology.com.
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used for production of electric power – the Samsung wind farm is expected to comprise of 200 turbines and will be built on the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario, stretching around 15.5 miles from Port Maitland towards Nanticoke – an area considered to have excellent wind potential.
According to The Canadian Press, the Ontario Government have only confirmed that talks are taking place with the Korean-based company and that they are in advanced stages.
The source continued by saying that the government confirmed that the two parties have been involved in “months of extraordinarily co-operative effort” towards reaching an agreement which would involve billions in new investments.
Source article;
http://www.power-technology.com/news/news65528.html?WT.mc_id=DN_News&mxmroi=14002247/2151378/false
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Scottish Power opens windfarm learning centre
A £2 million state-of-the-art visitor and learning centre at Whitelee Windfarm – Europes largest onshore windfarm near Glasgow has officially been opened by Jim Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Scotland. This new facility has been designed to encourage visitors to learn more about renewable energy and will soon be available to cyclists, horse riders and ramblers wishing to take advantage of the windfarm’s huge recreational possibilities.
Mr Murphy was taken on a tour of the facility before the official opening by Xabier Viteri, CEO, Iberdrola Renovables and Keith Anderson, Managing Director of ScottishPower Renewables.
Whitelee has 140 turbines and most of these are overlooked by the new learning centre which is a sustainable wooden structure which is powered by electricity generated on-site and also takes it water supply from specially created boreholes.
The centre feature a unique interactive hands-on learning area catering for all ages, a viewing gallery, a café and gift shop where specially trained educational staff will also be on-hand, as well as bicycle stores and external shower facilities.
Keith Anderson, Managing Director of ScottishPower Renewables said that the growth of renewable energy is crucial in the fight against climate change confirming that major projects like Whitelee have become essential in achieving carbon reduction targets.
He continued that this is the first visitor centre of its kind in Scotland and that they are keen to include practical educational features that will inspire younger generations. They will encourage schools and community groups to visit, where specially trained educational staff will be there to provide a hands-on learning experience.
Source;
Media relations @ Scottish power .com
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Scottish and Southern Energy joins Swedish venture
Scottish and Southern Energy Plc or SSE for short, has agreed to form a joint venture with a Swedish wind farm consortium for the development of an 89MW onshore wind farm in Jamtland after being identified by the Swedish government as an area of national interest for wind energy development. The project development is already at an advanced stage, however, construction work is not planned to start before 2011.
SSE owns around 10,700MW of electricity generation capacity making it the second largest electricity generator across the UK and Ireland, while delivering a sustained real growth in dividends paid to shareholders through the efficient operation of, and investment in, a balanced range of regulated and non-regulated energy and utility businesses.
Paul Dowling, Chief Executive of Airtricity, which is SSE’s renewable energy development department, commented that the energy company has a strong track record in wind farm development throughout Europe and that this latest venture will increase their development pipeline in Sweden. Confirming that the Jamtland region receives a strong wind resource, Mr. Dowling said that SSE is looking forward to working with the joint venture partners in developing the site.
Source;
Scottish-southern.co.uk/ Media/ Latest News (Joint venture to develop wind farm in Sweden)
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Unique Wind Turbine Develops
An all-British consortium has been given the green light to develop a unique vertical axis winged aero-generator turbine, whereby a substantial proportion of the funding – around £20 million – has been granted by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETi) – comprising of private and public monies. The project aims to have 1GW of novel offshore vertical axis NOVA turbines installed by 2014, consisting of 200 x 5MW turbines, or less larger sized turbines.
Wind Power Ltd developed the turbine and heads the project team, including some of the world’s leading research and development groups within the Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde Universities, along with private technology solutions provider QinetiQ. The project is being managed by UK based offshore energy specialists OTM Consulting, and The Centre of Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) will be monitoring the turbines’ design to limit any adverse oceanographic environmental impacts.
The project does generate a higher risk than installing conventional wind turbines, but the development has been spurred on by the UK’s targets for a greatly expanded energy supply. There is a 5kW prototype being tested at Cranfield University where preliminary aerodynamic and aeroelastic power models do suggest that the concept is sound based upon the expertise of David Sharpe, a founder member of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) with a formidable background in wind power generation.
The key advantages include very low overturning moment, where the support structure is less expensive, and that the nacelle (cover housing) is located at sea level therefore making access and maintenance much easier within an encapsulated, corrosion-proof environment, and the positive result will be greater availability.
Source;
Renerableenergyfocus.com/ News Feature/ (Green light for unique NOVA offshore wind turbine)
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E.ON Completes Panther Creek Wind Farm
E.ON one of the UK’s leading integrated power and gas companies – generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas, officially announced yesterday the completion of its Panther Creek wind farm which is located in Big Spring, Texas, USA.
This three-phase project consists of 305 turbines with an installed capacity of 457.5 megawatts (MW), which makes it one of the ten largest wind farms in the United States.
Phases I and II of the wind farm became operational at the beginning of 2009, and now with the completion of the third and final phase, Panther Creek is capable of generating enough power to supply 135,000 Texan homes.
E.ON has 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity in North America and is continuing to expand its renewables presence throughout the United States which includes building the world’s largest wind farm at Roscoe, Texas (780 MW), and the construction of Stony Creek (53 MW) wind farm in Pennsylvania, and together with the completion of Panther Creek E.ON has become a leading player in the renewables market.
E.ON is now one of the quickest growing renewables companies in the world, and since 2007 has been investing € 8 billion in renewable generation and climate protection activities worldwide, that will last until 2011.
E.ON Press Releases 02/09/2009 (E.ON completes giant 458 MW wind farm in USA)