Wind Energy and renewable energy blog

Turkey Secures US $600million for Renewable Energy Projects

Turkey has received US $600 (£370m) worth of grants from the international community over the last few weeks. The grants are aimed at financing renewable energy projects in the country – in particular wind energy and geothermal projects.

On 28th May, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved US $500m (£308m) from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and US $100m (£62m) from the Clean Technology Fund. The funding will help increase privately owned energy generation from renewable sources within the Turkish market based – renewable energy incentive system.

£10 Million Offshore Wind Technology Fund up for Grabs

The Department of Energy and Climate Change opened its doors yesterday to offshore wind energy research and development companies with bids for a share of a £10 million (US $16m) offshore wind technology fund.

The fund is aimed at stimulating the development of next-generation offshore wind energy technologies to try and achieve large scale delivery around the UK before 2020.

The Government has high hopes for offshore wind, relying heavily on the technology to meet its climate change commitments.

Biomass – Carbon Sink or Carbon Sinner?

A report carried out for the UK Environment Agency last month recommends further interrogation of greenhouse gas emissions created from the use of biomass to generate electricity.

The research carried out by AEA found that although green house gas emissions from energy generated using biomass crops is generally less than from fossil fuels, this is not always the case. Burning straw for example can produce over 35% more than a combined cycle gas turbine power station.

$560m Wind Turbine Contract for Siemens

Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens snapped up a $560m order for 80 turbines off the northern coast of Germany yesterday.

Airtricity’s Butendiek offshore wind farm is located 34 kilometres off the coast of Sylt in Northern Germany. The offshore site has a water depth ranging from 17-20 metres and one of the best wind resources off the coast of Germany.

Shareholders Demanding Renewable Energy

More and more shareholders are demanding their companies go green. Over half of shareholders of Idaho Power Co approved a resolution to expand its renewable energy portfolio at the annual meeting held last Thursday. The proposal was given the go ahead despite being opposed by the board of Idaho Power’s parent company – IdaCorp for cost reasons.

LaMont Keen, president and CEO, told The Idaho Statesman “The company takes this vote seriously and will consider adopting quantitative goals this year” .

Scotland Consents 31% of its Electricity Needs from Renewable Sources

Scottish First Minister – Alex Salmond announced this week that Scotland has hit its target to provide 31% of its electricity from renewable energy sources.

The consented 130 Megawatt (MW) extension to Whitelee wind energy project takes the capacity to a total of 442 MW – providing 300 extra jobs. Salmond said tens of millions of pounds had been invested in renewables providing the Scottish Economy with “serious investment and serious jobs“.

Geothermal Energy- UK Buzzword of the Month

According to the UK Government, a recent report by the Geothermal Research Programme estimates that deep geothermal energy could generate almost 10% of the UK’s electricity needs.
The Government believes that by 2015, 39,600 new jobs could be created in geothermal energy – compared with 74,900 making alternative fuels, 25,300 in solar and 69,300 in wind [...]

Utility Companies Storming the Renewable Energy Marketplace

After 10 years in the making, the last wind turbine of the largest onshore wind energy project in Europe was switched on yesterday just outside Glasgow in Scotland.

The Whitelee project is made up of 140 wind turbines and will provide enough electricity for around 180,000 homes. The £300m (US $474m) wind farm was built by Scottish Power – part of the Iberdrola group which employs around 9000 people in the UK.

Wind Powered Moving Skyscraper

Architect Dr David Fisher has designed the world’s first wind powered skyscraper. The moving building, would have 80 independently rotating floors, has been mooted for Dubai with a second 70-storey structure planned for Moscow.

Is Good Energy Really Good?

UK Electricity Retailer – Good Energy sells itself on the basis that it supplies 100% green energy to its customers and also stimulates the progress of new renewable energy. It’s product is supported by green groups such as Friends of the Earth and the National Consumer Council.

A green energy row has however broken out between Good Energy and competitor Ecotricity. Ecotricity CEO Dale Vince says that Good Energy has been lying about the percentage of ROCs it rips up – or ‘retires’.

Wind Turbine for Swedish Apartment Block

This Reuters video is about a large property owner in Sweden who has installed a rooftop wind turbine on one of its apartment blocks. The turbine will provide 10% of the building’s energy consumption but further turbines could provide for more.

£7.5 Million Nuclear Waste Plant for Scotland

Consent was granted today for a new £7.5 million treatment plant for nuclear waste at the now defunct nuclear power station in Dounreay, Scotland.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency confirmed formal consent for the plant which will allow the active decommissioning of the nuclear power station. The plant will have a capacity for around 200,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste making it the largest nuclear waste dump in Scotland.

World’s Biggest Wind Farm – ‘London Array’ Will Be Built

DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar announced yesterday that they will invest 2.2 billion euros in the 300 turbine + London Array project 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts in the UK.

The announcement means that the first phase of the world’s largest offshore wind farm will go ahead. The onshore work for the 1000 megawatt project is due to start in early 2011.

Prince of Wales Full of Bluster

The Prince of Wales has been waxing lyrical about the seriousness of climate change over the last few weeks, most recently at a state dinner at the Presidential Palace in Santiago, Chile. The Telegraph reported today that the Prince spoke on the topic at a dinner with President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet and 300 guests.

The prince said “How can we begin to address poverty if we haven’t first ensured our planet is habitable?” He said that he believes in “action not words… telling the audience that “we must think and act across boundaries of nation, sector, language and culture, and to do so now and with resolve”.

What the prince fails to tell us is how precisely he proposes we deal with climate change. The main “actions not words” we have seen to date from the prince are moves to prevent, modern renewable energy technology such as wind farms which he describes as a “horrendous blot on the landscape“

Mixed Messages for UK Wind Energy

The UK has experienced mixed messages on the subject of wind energy over the last few weeks. By the year 2020, Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to reduce carbon emissions by a third and in order to meet this tough target, wind energy has to be part of the plan.

Wind energy is, thanks to the government, financially viable in many UK locations, both on and offshore. However slow and negative planning decisions are slowing up the number of projects ready to be built both at the large commercial wind farm scale and for the small domestic wind turbine.

Green Jobs Created in US but Lost in UK

Wind turbine manufacturer Siemans announced this week that it is to open a production facility in Kansas creating 400 new green collar jobs.

The 300,000 square foot facility is to provide for the rapidly increasing demand for wind turbine components in North and South America. Its role will be specifically to make the wind turbine nacelles and construction of the plant is due to start in August this year. Orders are already in place for the nacelles which are due to be shipped from December 2010. The plant is expected to churn out 650 wind turbine nacelles every year.

What is Stopping the Severn Barrage?

The idea of an electricity generating tidal barrage across the Severn Estuary between England and Wales has been around for 160 years. Conceptually the Severn tidal barrage is a simple and green renewable energy technology in a location which has the second highest tidal range in the world (next to the bay of Fundy in Canada).

The Severn Barrage has had numerous advocates from James Lovelock and Tony Blair to the Welsh Assembly. Why is it then that every time the idea is resurrected by a new advocate it rapidly disappears from the headlines to sink back into the mudflats?

China’s Big Wind Energy Ambition

China is set to become the biggest growth market for wind energy development, according to a report in China Daily today. A support plan to deliver this ambition is currently being drawn up by the Chinese government.

China is currently behind the United States, Germany and Spain in the installed wind energy capacity stakes with 12 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy. 18 months ago the Chinese government set a target of 30 GW – however this has reportedly now been increased to circa 100 GW by 2020 with an annual growth rate of 20%. Further development of wind energy is expected to help meet a target of providing 40% of energy requirements from renewable energy sources. This would take China to the position of global wind energy leader.

Dragon’s Den for Marine Energy

Marine renewable energy technologies are young but show much promise for the future. Although unlikely to be as commercially successful as wind energy in the short term, the profile of wave and tidal energy is likely to be much greater over the next few years.

The Carbon Trust told us several years ago that 20% of UK’s current electricity demands could be met by wave and tidal energy. The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition says 252 million megawatt hours a year could be generated off the coast of the US and the World Energy Council has said 1 million gigawatt hours of wave energy hits Australian shores annually.

Norfolk Green Party Fight For Offshore Wind Farm

Norfolk County Council green party members were not happy this week when Norfolk’s planning and highways committee registered an objection to the 620MW Race Bank wind farm off the North Norfolk coast, 27 km from Blakeney Point.

The company proposing the scheme – Centrica (who owns British Gas in the UK, Direct Energy in the US, SPE in Belgium and Oxxio in The Netherlands) was awarded an agreement for lease from the Crown Estate in 2004 for the development of an offshore wind energy project at Race Bank beyond territorial waters. Centrica submitted an application for the Race Bank project to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in January of this year.