Technip backing AREG wind project
French energy service giant Technip has thrown its weight behind plans for an offshore windfarm near Aberdeen. The firm, which has its UK headquarters at Westhill, not far from the Granite City, joins Swedish utility company Vattenfall and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (Areg) in taking the project forward. Technip and Vattenfall said yesterday they were working together to manage development and consenting activities for the new European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.
Click here for full storyDet Norske Veritas (DNV), the international Marine and Offshore Certification and Classification agency, has issued a Statement of Conformity to certify that the performance of the world’s largest and most powerful tidal turbine, the 1.2MW SeaGen, has been correctly evaluated according to the principles contained in the “Edinburgh Protocol” - the protocol for tidal turbine testing developed by the University of Edinburgh for the UK Government’s Department of Energy & Climate Change, and also EMEC’s own testing protocol.
Click here for full storySpecial supplement featuring articles by Greg Barker, Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, Alan Aldridge, Executive Director of ESTA,and several articles about powerPerfector's unique Voltage Power Optimisation (VPO) technology.
Click here for full storyGlobal engineering company Siemens has awarded a multi million pound wind energy contract to Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd in Belfast. The deal will see Harland & Wolff design and build two substation platforms for the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm approximately ten miles off the coast of North Wales.
Click here for full storyThe Solar Trade Association has today (September 1) welcomed figures published by Ofgem which show a surge in the number of solar photovoltaic panels installed by homeowners in August. However, while the solar energy industry body welcomed the report it stressed that there was a need for further improvement to help the UK to catch up with the rest of Europe.
Click here for full storyAs many as half of Britain's homes could earn around £600 a year from roof top solar panels with some earning as much as £1000... Research carried out by British Gas suggests that over 12 million households have roofs that could benefit from solar panel installations which would produce enough electricity for up to half their household needs.
Click here for full storyPorts in Swansea and Port Talbot are well placed to benefit from a new wave of offshore wind farms. Earlier this year, leading renewable energy firm RWE npower Renewables published a report looking into the potential of developing a wind farm in the Bristol Channel. Yesterday a spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government said Welsh ports in the Bristol Channel including Swansea and Port Talbot were well placed to benefit.
Click here for full storyIn a UK first, Southampton airport has installed solar-powered LED safety lights across its airfield. Nicknamed 'wig wags' due to their flashing patterns, the lights are being used to direct aircraft and vehicles at intersections between the runway and taxiways. Solar panels charge the batteries and ensure the system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Click here for full storyAs part of renewable energy month, Greenbuild News has put together a panel of experts to answer your questions. The first question, from a local authority, is answered by Martyn Bridges, director of marketing and technical support at Worcester, Bosch Group.
Click here for full storyA retired road safety engineer is using Southampton Water to test what he claims could become the future of offshore renewable energy. Slade Penoyre has spent years developing a floating wind turbine, millions of which could one day be dotted around the coastline. He believes using small moored floating generators rather than seabed mounted monsters could slash the cost of offshore electricity generation by at least half.
Click here for full storySocial networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power.
Click here for full storyA study by a computer scientist at the University of Toronto suggests that the computer models used to predict climate change may be undermined due to a lack of programming expertise. Steve Easterbrook at the University's Department of Computer Science, has had his paper, Climate Change: A Grand Software Challenge, accepted by the 2010 FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research. In the paper, he suggests that because many climate prediction software modelling tools are built by climate scientists rather than software engineers some of the resulting software has room for improvement.
Click here for full storyA 200-turbine offshore wind farm has been proposed for a site off the Caithness coast. Consortium Moray Offshore Renewables is to hold a series of studies on the project's potential economic and environmental impact. Public meetings will also be held in communities along the coasts of the Moray Firth.
Click here for full storyPlans to increase the height of three wind turbines which will be built near a north-east town have been approved by councillors. Aberdeenshire Council planners had recommended the application for refusal but councillors on the Kincardine and Mearns area committee voted in favour of letting the development go ahead.
Click here for full storyResidents have backed plans for a major windfarm in central Buchan which would generate enough electricity to power 4,000 homes. The three-turbine development is earmarked for a peat field known as St Fergus Moss, about six miles north of Peterhead. A total of 20 letters supporting the scheme have been sent to planners, who have yet to receive any objections over the project.
Click here for full storyYorkshire's bid to become a multi-billion pound player in the offshore wind and energy generation will take a step forward this week as a Danish wind farm delegation visits the region. The mission, which is taking place from today (1 September) until Friday, will showcase the growing offshore wind energy sector in Yorkshire and Humber and help develop partnerships between regional businesses and their Danish counterparts.
Click here for full storyElectricity output from the wind farms in the north of Scotland exceeded the demand for electricity from the homes and workplaces in the area for the first time yesterday morning (Sunday 29 August 2010). Between 0800 and 0900 electricity output from wind farms of just over 700MW (megawatts) exceeded demand from customers of just under 700MW in the area served by SSE Power Distribution (SSEPD). Other electricity generation plant continued to operate throughout the period, and the surplus electricity was distributed to meet demand in other parts of Great Britain’s electricity network.
Click here for full storyThe £27bn tax on heavy industry to fund "green boilers" for 1m British homes is expected to be radically overhauled, amid claims that the devices are expensive and unreliable at keeping houses warm. The hefty subsidy, called the Renewable Heat Incentive, is likely to raise gas bills by up to £104 for domestic consumers and £321 for industrial customers by the end of the decade. The scheme – which gives around £1,000 per year to households that generate their own green heat – was due to be introduced in spring next year.
Click here for full storyGreater Gabbard, one of the largest offshore wind farms under construction in the world, has moved a step closer to generating 500MW of renewable electricity. The installation of all the 140 turbine foundations is now complete and thirty wind turbines are now in place. Located approximately 25km off the Suffolk Coast, the wind farm development is a joint venture partnership between SSE and RWE npower renewables. The first offshore turbines are expected to start producing renewable energy later this year and the wind farm will become fully operational in 2012 when it is expected to generate enough renewable electricity for over 500,000 homes*.
Click here for full storyGlobal solar photovoltaics project developer, juwi Solar, is to extend its international business activities by entering new photovoltaics markets and creating 500 new jobs worldwide by 2012. As well as continuing to focus on experienced markets, the company has also outlined plans to set up a new branch based in the UK, creating 'green' jobs for UK residents. /
Click here for full storyEnel, Europe's most indebted utility, would have to sell shares in its renewable arm at a big discount to win over investors disappointed with underperforming green energy stocks, an investment manager said.
Click here for full story....... Following the successful launch of the publication “The Renewable Opportunity”, and Energy Park Fife’s recognition within Scottish Enterprises’ “Scotland’s National Renewable Infrastructure Plan”, a strong number of renewables enquiries in 2009/10 accounted for two-thirds of all requests. Ross Mackenzie, Invest in Fife Manager, commented: “Despite these difficult economic times, Invest in Fife has continued to assist companies looking to re-locate to Fife. The interest from the renewables sector has continued into this financial year and we expect this to be a strong sector for Fife in the coming years”.
Click here for full storyThe Joint Venture Nordsee Nassbagger- und Tiefbau Gmbh – GeoSea NV, both of them members of the Belgian dredging, marine engineering and environmental Group DEME, has been awarded two different contracts for prepiling and installation works to construct both the EnBW Baltic 2 wind farm, 32 km north of the island of Rügen, and the Trianel West Borkum II wind farm, 45 km north of the East Frisian Island Borkum in German waters.
Click here for full storySwiss boffins have mounted an investigation into the largely unknown environmental burdens of electric cars using lithium-ion batteries, and say that the manufacturing and disposal of batteries presents no insurmountable barriers to electric motoring. However, their analysis reveals that modern diesel cars are actually better for the environment than battery ones.
Click here for full storyDid you know you could use solar energy in Alaska? Wagner & Co, a German manufacturer of multi award-winning, high quality and efficient thermal collectors, takes the first steps into the North American market. The US subsidiary, Wagner Solar Inc’s introduced the first US solar thermal collector of the EURO collector line and was rated among the top 5 performers of almost 300 tested flat plate collectors.
Click here for full storyPower utilities are trying to buy the next wave of nuclear reactors much like a consumer buys a light bulb: right off the shelf. Of the nation's [USA’s] 104 commercial reactors, no two are exactly the same, a fact that experts blame for causing construction and regulatory delays and leading to bigger bills for power customers. The longer it took to approve and build a reactor a generation ago, the more electric customers ended up paying in the end. "That system just wasn't workable," said Richard Lester, head of the nuclear science and engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Click here for full storyMost of Germany's energy demand can be met through renewable sources by 2050 but this is dependent on agreeing ambitious, multi-billion euro expenditure, according to the conclusions of a government-commissioned report into the country's future energy policy.
Click here for full storyDutch builder Ballast Nedam announced on Monday an order to lay down the foundations of the Anholt wind farm in Denmark. The Dutch company has signed a contract with A2SEA A/S for the use of its heavy lift vessel (HLV) Svanen in the construction of the Anholt offshore wind farm in Denmark, without providing financial details.
Click here for full storyShell and Cosan, one of the world’s largest sugarcane ethanol companies based in Brazil, signed binding agreements to form a $12 billion joint venture for the production and commercialization of ethanol and power from sugar cane. The resulting joint venture, if completed, will be the third largest ethanol producer in the world with 4,500 retail stations and annual production capacity of 2 billion liters (440 million gallons).
Click here for full storyHarper Macleod has been appointed as adviser to the Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) as it finalises arrangements with a development partner for the development of small-scale hydro projects in the west Highlands. The law firm will also draft land agreements as part of FCS’s drive to increase its contribution to generating clean and renewable energy through more wind and hydro energy projects on its land.
Click here for full storyGerman chancellor Angela Merkel has announced an extension to the nation's nuclear power plant operations for up to 15 years beyond a scheduled phase-out, in a move critics fear might signal that atomic power is here to stay.
Click here for full storyEaga, a FTSE 350 company set up in 1990 to lead government-funded initiatives to improve conditions for poor people in energy-inefficient homes, has come top of the league table for ecological sustainability in the 2010 Observer/Co-operative Asset Management Good Companies Guide.
Click here for full storyAn article in the Guardian has flagged up the sad fact that one of the UK's most radical environmental policies – requiring all new homes from 2016 to be "zero carbon" – is set to be scaled back amid pressure from the housebuilding industry. Builders claim the proposals would be too expensive and impossible to implement for many flats, and would result in a slump in the rate of homes built. Now, says Tim Webb, The Guardian has learned that the government is ready to water down the target, a move environmentalists have said would be a "travesty".
Click here for full storyIn a special Radio 4 series the BBC's Environmental Analyst Roger Harrabin questions whether his own reporting - and that of others - has adequately told the whole story about global warming. Roger Harrabin has reported on the climate for almost thirty years off and on, but last November while working on the "Climategate" emails story, he was prompted to look again at the basics of climate science.
Click here for full storyMultimillion-pound plans to regenerate a fabrication yard in the west Highlands could create hundreds of jobs, it has emerged. The massive Kishorn yard and dry dock has been earmarked for a key role in the imminent offshore wind turbine construction boom and the emerging wave and tidal generation industry. The two-phase, £11.75million Kishorn Port Masterplan has been drawn up as part of a joint venture between national and local businesses.
Click here for full storyEuropean Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or else risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE). In a campaign launching today, the charity accuses European companies of land-grabbing throughout Africa to grow biofuel crops that directly compete with food crops. Biofuel companies counter that they consult with local governments, bring investment and jobs, and often produce fuels for the local market.
Click here for full storyDarris White is a deep thinker. The engineer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the US is currently finalising designs for a series of turbines that could be used to harness the immense energy of the Gulf Stream, flowing deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The underwater stream roughly contains around 21,000 times more energy than the Niagara Falls and by some estimates, could potentially provide up to one-third of the US's electricity needs. "Hydrokinetic power from the Gulf Stream can provide enough power for over a million households in Florida," said Professor White.
Click here for full storyEnvironmentalists have criticised a UK government report stating that the North Sea could store 100 years worth of carbon for focusing too much on old, coal-driven power rather than embracing renewable energy sources.
Click here for full storyThe coalition government's testing targets for renewable energy generation are putting Britain at greater risk of the lights going out, according to one of Scotland's foremost businessmen. Rupert Soames, chief executive of temporary power firm Aggreko, fears the UK will face major supply shortages over the next five to ten years unless the new government undoes the errors of the last administration and makes some swift decisions on a fresh generation of power stations.
Click here for full storyFloating offshore wind turbines are one of the big new ideas in the renewable energy field. They allow us to go far out to sea in deep water in which would be impossible, or vastly expensive, to install devices fixed to the sea-bed. They also avoid the environmental intrusion of sea bed foundations or monopiles. There is a range of systems being tested, many of them owing much to experience with offshore oil and gas rigs.
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