The disruptive power of batteries

businessspectator
Jun 03 2015
I have just spent the weekend driving the remarkable Tesla Model S. A week ago I caught up with the video of Tesla founder, Elon Musk, presenting the company’s new products, the Powerwall and Powerpack.

I get it now. It’s all about the batteries. The car itself is a big leap forward, for sure, but it’s the batteries that will kill the internal combustion engine and, eventually, coal and gas electricity generation.
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Saudi Arabia, Emirates lead charge on Mideast solar power

www.upi.com
1 Nov 2013

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world's leading oil producers, are spearheading a Middle Eastern drive to develop solar power, with plans for projects requiring $1.5 billion in investment by the end of 2014.
The program, designed to free up for export increasing amounts of oil and gas being used domestically for power generation, got a major endorsement from the Arab Forum for Environment and Development Monday.

It urged Arab states to re-evaluate their relationship with oil, the economic mainstay of the Arab world since the 1950s, and phase out state energy subsidies to focus investment in developing renewable energy. "Oil and gas are important, they will continue to be important," said Najib Saab, the forum's secretary-general. "We call for more careful use of oil and gas and for more serious development of renewable energy."

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter with declared reserves of 267 billion barrels, and the neighboring Emirates, a federation of seven gulf sheikdoms with reserves of 98 billion barrels, seek to add 1,000 MWs of solar capacity over the next few years to meet fast-growing industrial and social demand. That's enough to provide electricity for 200,000 homes.

While the producers want to conserve more of their oil output for exports, particularly with prices above $100 a barrel, Arab countries that rely on imported fuel see carbon-free power as a cheaper alternative.

From Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean eastward to the gulf sultanate of Oman on the Indian Ocean, governments are turning to alternative energy, driven primarily by a lack of gas for power generation, the fall in the cost of renewable technologies and their constantly improving efficiency.

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Albertans losing no sleep over wind power

www.theglobeandmail.com
8 Oct 2013

Controversy that has marked Ontario's rapid growth in wind power has been largely absent in Alberta, where the industry has operated for two decades and now has the third-largest installed generation capacity of the green energy source in Canada.

Wind farm operators in the Western province have had to work to solve environmental problems, notably bat and bird deaths, which have led to operational changes at some developments.

But public complaints about facilities, which are concentrated in the breezy and sparsely populated southern part of the province best known for fossil fuel development, are almost non-existent, according to recent research into what is seen as one of the most commercially viable forms of alternative energy.

That is in sharp contrast to Ontario, where groups have been established to oppose wind power and publicize potential human-health effects of facilities near homes. Government policies there aimed at promoting green energy have led to brisk activity in wind farm construction.

"We're not seeing the same type of organized push-back in Alberta", said Tim Weis, director of renewable energy and efficiency policy for the Pembina Institute, a non-profit environmental think tank.

Some of the wind farms in Alberta, especially in the southwest, are relatively close to population centres. Public attitudes may be more accepting because many Albertans already have experience living close to conventional energy facilities, Mr. Weis said. In addition, virtually all commercial wind developments in the province are on privately owned land.

Mr. Weis contributed to a Pembina study this summer that found the Alberta Utilities Commission, the provincial regulator governing commercial-scale wind farms, has not received a single complaint related to the facilities since 2000 in 31,000 "contacts" with the public. wind farm operators reported 10 complaints. By contrast, the oil-and-gas regulator has fielded more than 200 complaints per year about fossil fuel operations affecting residents.

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Asia to lead quadrupling of wind energy by 2030: Siemens

www.theage.com.au
27 Aug 2013

Siemens, the world's No.3 maker of wind turbines, expects the global wind power market to more than quadruple by 2030, lifted by strong growth in Asia. "The market will shift away from Europe significantly", Markus Tacke, chief executive of the German company's Wind Power division, said at a renewable energy conference in Berlin.

He said globally installed wind power capacity would increase to 1,107 GW (GW) in 2030 from 273 GW in 2012, with Asia and the Pacific region accounting for more than 47% of the total, up from 34% now.

China is pumping billions of euros into wind power, which is more cost-competitive than solar power and partly able to compete with coal and gas. Wind power subsidies in most parts of Europe are being slowly scaled back. The Europe and the Middle East (EMEA) region is still the world's largest wind market, with a 40% share that will decline to 34% by 2030.

Siemens Wind Power, part of the group's Energy division, achieved sales of 3.555 billion euros ($A5.3 billion) in the first nine months of Siemens' fiscal year, down 1% year on year. It accounted for 6.4% of the company's total sales. Its profit margin for the period stood at 3.6%, down from 4.7% a year earlier, as the company was forced to book charges because of problems relating to some of its wind turbine rotor blades.

IPA concedes wind farms successful in displacing coal

reneweconomy.com.au
9 Jul 2013

The anti-wind campaigners sometimes have difficulty getting their facts in the right order. One of their most common complaints is that wind power does nothing to reduce emissions as it doesn't actually result in any fossil fuel generation being switched off, because fossil fuel needs to keep running as "back-up" in case the wind stops blowing.

Of course, this is not true. As the Australian Energy Market Operator notes in South Australia, where wind power accounts for around 25% of both capacity and demand, coal fired generation-both local and imported from Victoria-has fallen dramatically. There hasn't even been any need for new peaking power stations and the use of gas has not increased since the state started building the first of its 1,200MW of wind power.

The IPA, one of the most powerful and influential anti-wind groups, whose former head is now the WA state energy minister, is a strong proponent of the "continuous" back-up claim. But at the recent, lightly attended anti-wind rally in Canberra, its director of deregulation, Alan Moran made a crucial admission: wind power is forcing conventional coal generation out of the market, because it is making it uneconomic.

"(Renewables) are in fact squeezing out conventional energy, conventional, predictable and reliable energy, because they are "must run", and conventional energy is automatically backed off", Moran said, according to a transcript published on the anti-wind website Stop These Things. "This is leading to the retirement of coal fired stations, as subsidised wind makes them not profitable".

Well, quite so. And good. That is actually what these schemes-carbon price, renewable energy targets, emissions limits etc-are designed to do, to hasten the retirement of highly polluting power plants, or at least force them to invest in technology that reduces their emissions and pollution.

But Moran's admission goes to the heart of the campaign against wind and other renewables. It's not really a technological issue-as the Queensland network operator and the AEMO both make clear-it is an economic one for the incumbent generators. And the growing penetration of renewables is indeed forcing dirty, inflexible generation such as old coal plants out of the market-as it is in Europe and elsewhere.

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Renewable energy use gaining worldwide:IEA

www.heraldsun.com.au
27 Jun 2013

RENEWABLES like solar and wind power represent the fastest-growing source of energy generation and will make up a quarter of the global power mix by 2018, the International Energy Agency IEA says. The IEA said that in 2016 renewable energy will overtake natural gas as a power source and will be twice that of nuclear, and second only to coal as a source of power.

The growth of renewables has been bolstered by increased competitiveness with conventional energy. It is "a bright spot in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards a cleaner and more diversified energy mix", said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven. The report listed Australia as one of several countries where renewable energy was becoming more competitive.

It said Australian wind generation is cost-effective next to new coal and gas-fired plants with carbon pricing. It also noted the success of onshore wind turbines in Brazil and South Africa. Renewable energy is growing especially fast in China and other developing and emerging countries. The IEA said non-hydroelectric renewable power, mainly wind and solar photovoltaics, is projected to grow from 4% of all power generation in 2011 to 8% in 2018.

"As their costs continue to fall, renewable power sources are increasingly standing on their own merits versus new fossil fuel generation", said van der Hoeven. "This is good news for a global energy system that needs to become cleaner and more diversified, but it should not be an excuse for government complacency, especially among OECD countries".

Still, the IEA, an institute backed by major energy consuming countries, cautioned that the continued growth of alternatives to oil, gas and coal faces some important challenges.

These include uncertainty about long-term government policies that discourages investment, reduced subsidies in some countries because of economic problems, and tough competition from other energy sources, such as the US, where a boom in shale gas has made that fuel more competitive. The report comes on the heels of recent research suggesting the threat of climate change is greater than earlier estimates.

An IEA report released earlier this month warned the world is on track to surpass by more than double the two-degree Celsius warming goal set by the United Nations, unless urgent measures are taken. The IEA's recommendations include curtailing coal-fired power stations and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

Climate change could affect power plant operations & nuclear capacity according to DOE Report

Power Engineering
July

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says climate change and the resulting rising temperatures can potentially affect water levels and temperatures at power plants and affect demand on the power grid.

The report was released as part of the President's Climate Action Plan and states that every corner of the United States will be affected by increased temperatures. Increased temperatures and drought conditions can affect cooling water temperatures that are required for coal-fired and gas-fired power plants as reported by Power Engineering. Approximately 60 percent of the nation's thermal power plants that require water for cooling are located in areas that have been hard hit by drought conditions.

Temperatures have increased 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. In hotter weather, customers use more electricity to cool their housing and businesses. A study by the DOE Argonne National Laboratory found that peak demand during hot weather could require the power output of 100 additional power plants.

Another example cited in the report is reduced water available for hydropower. In 2012, the Sierra Nevada Mountains experienced a lighter snowpack than normal. As a result, California had an eight percent drop in hydropower capacity. Lower levels in Lake Mead resulted in a 23 percent drop in the power generation at the Hoover Dam.

The DOE report says nuclear stations will shut down more often due to water temperatures, citing the shutdown in August 2012 at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station Shutdown due to warmer temperatures in Long Island Sound.

The report comes one week after President Obama, describing climate change as a threat to future generations, called for action to address the problem "before it's too late". The President said his goal is to cut heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants.

An interactive map of the potential impacts on the U.S, energy supply can be found on the Energy.gov website.

After Fukushima, Japan beginning to see the light in solar energy

www.theguardian.com
18 Jun 2013

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion".

The boom was sparked by a little-noted government policy, implemented nearly a year ago, that guaranteed generous payments to anybody selling renewable energy, including solar power. Because of that policy, known as a feed-in tariff, investors and analysts say Japan has become one of the world's fastest-growing users of solar power. This year alone, Japan is forecasted to install solar panels with the capacity of five to seven modern nuclear reactors.

Before the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Japan had all but neglected renewable energy, instead emphasising atomic power. But the accident at Fukushima forced the shuttering of the country's 50 operable reactors, only two of which have been restarted. The remaining shutdowns could prove temporary, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledging restarts of reactors that have been deemed safe. A majority of Japanese, though, remain opposed to atomic energy, and analysts say the solar takeoff highlights Japan's appetite for other options.

There is a downside to the rush for renewables: they are several times pricier than nuclear power or fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The rising use of solar power means energy bills will spike, potentially complicating Abe's plan to jump-start Japan's long-foundering economy.

Most consumers, so far, think that sacrifice is worthwhile, and they say nuclear power has hidden cleanup and compensation costs that only emerge after an accident. fossil fuels, meanwhile, release greenhouse gasses and must be imported. People here tended to support clean energy projects even before the nuclear disaster, but now there is "more interest in natural energy", said Moriaki Yoshikawa, the head of an environmental NGO, Eco Plan Fukui, which has helped build five solar plants in a region of Japan that hosts four nuclear plants.

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Renewable energy use hits record heights in Australia

designbuildsource.com.au
8 Jun 2013

The latest data from Australia's peak clean energy body indicates that the country's use of renewable energy hit record heights last year. According to figures from the Clean Energy Council's 2012 Clean EnergyAustralia Report, a record-breaking 13.14% of Australia's electricity was derived from renewable energy in 2012.

Both solar power and wind power have reached major milestones since the start of 2012, Australia's 62 wind farms produced enough electricity to supply power to one million households for the first time last year, while the country installed its millionth solar power system earlier this year.

While solar power and wind power saw an increase in their share of renewable energy generated, rising to 26% and 8% respectively, hydroelectric power nonetheless remains the dominant form of clean power, accounting for 57% in 2012.

CEC chief executive David Green said the report shows that renewable energy is fast emerging as an economically viable power source, especially in light of the rising expense of its conventional, mainstream peers. "The cost of fossil fuels such as gas has been going up, while clean energy has been getting cheaper-fast", he said

Green also highlighted rapid growth in the deployment of renewable energy in Australia, and the sector's salutary contribution to the national economy. "The clean energy industry contributed $4.2 billion in investment and approximately 24,300 to the Australian economy in 2012", he said. Despite this impressive level of spending, however, the report found that Australian investment in renewables actually fell significantly last year, dropping $1.3 billion dollars from $5.5 billion in 2011.

The decline in investment has been largely attributed to the solar sector due to the scuppering of government incentives for the installation of rooftop panels and declines in systems cost. Further declines in investment are also expected this year as a result of political uncertainty in the lead up to the federal election this year, and the potential impact on the renewable energy sector of a Coalition victory.

Researchers poke holes in solar cells to improve efficiency

www.designnews.com
3 Jun 2013

Researchers have been working on a variety of ways to improve the efficiency of solar cells, including the use of a spray-coating technique and by working with electrons and photons. Now, government researchers have come up with yet another way--poking holes in silicon wafers so they don't reflect and waste valuable sunlight.

The method, called "dark solar", has been developed by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and it enables the cells to reflect only 2% of the sunlight that reaches them. The solar cells they've produced through this technology can work at an 18.2% efficiency rate, which is competitive for the type of black silicon cells researchers are working with.

The development of the black solar cells is "quite simple", but is enhanced by the hole-etching technique, according to information about the work provided to Design News by NREL spokesman William Scanlon.

To develop the cells, researchers first put the silicon silver/gray-colored wafer in a liquid solution of silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid. In that bath, the ionic silver changes to silver nanoparticles. The wafer is then placed in a second bath of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide, where the silver nanoparticles act as a catalyst for the oxidation of silicon, according to researchers.

While this process of making black silicon is not new, it's the etching of holes in the second bath of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide that NREL has developed to bolster cell efficiency. These holes maximize the cell's sunlight conversion by preventing reflection of sunlight off the cell. To ensure the cells achieve top efficiency through the process, researchers had to consider the depth and size of the cells--they had to be deep and small enough to suppress reflections, but not too deep to impact the conversion efficiency.

"As the wavelengths move deeper and deeper into the holes they change gradually from wavelengths of air to wavelengths of silicon", researchers said in the NREL document provided by Scanlon. "That gradualness is the key. The photons never perceive an abrupt change from gas (air) to solid (silicon), and thus don't bounce back toward the atmosphere". That lack of bounce-back is what allows the photos to be absorbed in the silicon holes and thus non-reflective.

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CIG enters windfarm market

www.maritimejournal.com
30 May 2013

The Central Industry Group (CIG), a group of ten predominantly Netherlands companies which all provide goods and services to the international shipbuilding market, has come up with a unique new vessel for offshore wind installation.

Two subsidiaries of CIG, Shipkits and Vuyk Engineering Groningen, working under the collective name of CIG Shipbuilders, have developed a new vessel called the VG 6000 E-a multipurpose vessel for the offshore wind power market. CIG says that compared to the traditional use of tugs and jack-up barges on offshore wind farm operations the VG 6000 E is "faster, easier to handle and cheaper to run".

CIG's VG 6000 E is an unique twin-screw diesel-electric concept based on active front end and DC-bus technology. It's an extremely versatile multipurpose open topped special cargo vessel of 6000 dwt designed for open top and with a limited draught.

The vessel can be manoeuvred easily through a wind farm site and docked alongside a construction vessel and it can act as a wave breaker and create a lee for other small service or personnel craft. Its anti-roll and anti-heave abilities mean that more working days can be achieved. The vessel also uses a "smart" passive heave load and unload system.

Though the vessel is classed for worldwide trade and unrestricted services, CIG says it will initially be used for short sea services and offshore wind market support. The vessel can also be fitted out as a offshore feeder vessel, accommodation vessel, cable layer or platform supply vessel.

Hans Vogelzang, Central Industry Group, said to Maritime Journal: "We've anticipated the need for new development of specific types of vessel for the wind farm market and CIG is now now ready to enter into the market. Our background is in building dry cargo and short sea vessels and we have a lot of experience and knowledge of what operators and shipping companies want.

We think that we know what's important for these companies in terms of cost of ownership, service, power consumption, reliability, ease of use and greener emissions. At the moment there's still a large difference in transport concepts and compared to the oil & gas industry no real standards. We would like to set this new standard".

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Wind industry angered over red tape

www.smh.com.au
29 May 2013

Wind energy producers are in a twist after being forced to demonstrate they are operating within noise limits every time they seek to surrender Renewable Energy Certificates.

As of the start of June, all large-scale power stations accredited under the renewable energy target will have to submit a "standing notice" of ongoing compliance with all local, state and federal planning and approval requirements. Operators say they were only advised of the change late last week. Power stations, including hydroelectric, will continue to be required to complete an annual electricity generation return as before.

"The standing notice was introduced to enhance the integrity of the large-scale renewable energy target", a spokesperson for the Clean Energy Regulator said. "The standing notice will ensure the [regulator] is able to identify issues related to non-compliance as large-scale generation certificates are created".

The change follows debate in the Senate last November over wind farm noise, with Democratic Labor Party's John Madigan from Victoria calling for wind farm operators to provide wind and noise data to an independent authority every three months.

Senator Madigan stirred bemusement from the industry at the time with his call for the regulator to cancel a wind farm's accreditation should it operate in contravention of a law "whether written or unwritten". Even though the proposed amendments failed, the regulator opted to require compliance proof before certificate payment "to avoid a hint of a hint" that the industry was falling short, an official said.

Jonathan Upson, senior development manager of regulatory affairs with wind farm owner Infigen Energy, said while all power generators should operate according to the regulations, state governments are the responsible authorities to ensure compliance with planning decisions. This includes having acoustic experts on staff.

"The benefit of having a federal energy regulator attempt to duplicate the compliance role of state government planning departments is not clear to us", Mr Upson said. The imposition of such requirements on the renewable sector-particularly the wind industry-was also discriminatory unless similar measures are applied to other energy providers.

"The next logical step would be for the Australian Energy Regulator to require monthly declarations from gas and coal-fired power stations, and their associated coal mines, that they are compliant with all air, water and noise pollution laws and regulations", Mr Upson said.

wind farm operators are also nervously awaiting a decision from the NSW cabinet, perhaps within three weeks, on whether to adopt tough new guidelines for the industry in the state.

Local firm leads energy future

www.brisbanetimes.com.au
17 May 2013

Geothermal energy could provide 9% of Australia's energy needs by 2035.

Milton firm GeoDynamics has used steam produced by boiling water tapped five km underground to generate electricity in an Australian first. Experts predict this geothermal energy gathered from turbines driven from the steam of boiling underground water will provide 9% of Australia's energy needs by 2035.

Queensland has already identified 11 high-priority sites-in southwest Queensland, near Surat, near Julia Creek and Cape York-from 33 potential targets. This month GeoDynamics successfully produced electricity to power its own test project in the South Australian desert at Innaminka, near Moomba. It now plans to provide electricity from its one MW pilot project to mining companies in the Cooper Basin by way of a longer-term commercial trial.

Managing director Geoff Ward said their plant was one of only three enhanced geothermal energy (EGS) plants worldwide at the trial stage and the first in Australia. ''What we are doing here is opening up the prospect of being able to use geothermal power in the long term, in the next 30, 40 years, 100 years in a whole lot of areas where you probably couldn't do so now,'' Mr Ward said.

GeoDynamics is running the successful Engineered Geothermal Systems trial from its Habanero well at Innaminka where is drawing boiling water from Innamincka granite deep underground. After 100 days of the pilot trial, it will move to a commercial trial over an extended period. ''We will take the results of the pilot plant trial and put together a 5 or 10 MW plant in a commercial project,'' he said. That will provide power to nearby mining companies.

Santos and Chevron are likely customers given their exploration of unconventional gas reserves nearby Moomba Mr Ward said. ''We are hoping to put together a scheme so that we can sell power, or direct heat to local gas producers or other industries in the Cooper Basin,'' he said. While geothermal enegy was first used in Italy in 1908 and tentatively explored around the geysers of Wyoming around World War II.

Traditional geothermal energy taps into volcanic conditions in places like California, New Zealand and Iceland and the Phillipines, where heavy rainfall run into the fault-lines and seeps underground. ''So you get a system where a lot of heat is bought to the surface and a lot of water that cuiculates quite quickly so generate the ability to generate a lot of heat,'' he said. ''That is the conventional geothermal system.''

But Australia is drier and different. That is why it encourages ''enhanced'' geothermal energy. ''What we do have is some of the world's hottest deep rocks,'' he said. GeoDynamics is exploring 1000 km² of Innaminka granite in central Australia, which is between seven and eight km thick, four km below ground. ''And extends seven to ten km, we think, below that.''

The boiling hot brine is tapped to the surface by steel-encased drill wells at temperatures of 240° celcius, tapped into turbines to produce steam which drive generators. Geoscience Australia estimates that 1% of Australia's geothermal energy shallower than five km and hotter than 150° Celsius, could supply Australia's energy requirements for 26,000 years.

Electricity produced from geothermal energy produces about one-tenth of the CO₂ per MW of electricity from brown coal, Mr Ward said. brown coal produces 1200kg of carbon per MW, gas around 600kgs per MW, while geothermal energy produces around 120kgs per MW, he said.

Plans revealed for £300m wind energy storage facility

www.powerengineeringint.com
16 May 2013

Plans are underway for a facility in Northern Ireland to store surplus energy from wind turbines. The project is the work of Dublin-based Gaelectric Holdings, which is seeking to form partnerships with infrastructure investors to raise £300 million ($456m). The facility is to be built near Larne, County Antrim, to service Gaelecric's recently opened wind farm in nearby Carn Hill.

The purpose of the Larne venture is to overcome the problem of intermittency, which has always imposed limitations on the output of renewable generators such as wind and solar. The technology used in the plant will utilise excess electricity from the turbines to compress air, which will be stored in salt caverns 80 m below the ground. When demand is high, the air, with a boost from natural gas, will drive a turbine to generate extra power.

Funnel Wind turbine generates jaw-dropping power

news.discovery.com
15 May 2013

In order to get off oil as our main energy source, renewable energy needs to be cost-competitive with natural gas and coal. Innovations in solar and wind power are making strides toward that goal, but it will take a major paradigm shift to bring them both down in cost.

The Chaska, Minn.-based company Sheer Wind thinks it has a design that could bring the cost of wind power down to a price competitive with natural gas. Daryoush Allaei, Sheer Wind's chief technical officer, told DNews that a utility-scale system of these wind turbines--that is a 100 to 500 MW power plant--the cost could be as low as 1¢ per kW. For comparison, conventional tower and blade wind power plants cost about 45 to 80¢ per kW and natural gas plants cost about 2 to 3¢ per kW.

The company's Invelox captures wind using wide-mouthed funnels. Inside, passageways turn the wind horizontally and taper it into a narrow space, which naturally accelerates the flow. The higher speed wind is then channeled into a turbine positioned at ground level. According to the company, the system works even if wind speeds are slow at the top. For example, a wind entering at 10 mph is increased to 40 mph by the time it enters the turbine. After passing through the turbine, the wind is exhausted back into the environment at 15mph.

The unit is about 50% shorter than traditional wind towers and the turbine blades on the generator are 84% smaller--as a result, equipment and maintenance costs are lower.

Read More…

Denham invests in Australian wind power

www.stockjournal.com.au
9 May 2013

US PRIVATE equity firm Denham Capital Management has strengthened its commitment to Australia's renewable sector, investing $US75 million in a portfolio of wind power projects forming the basis of new entity OneWind Australia. Denham, which has more than $US7.3 billion in assets, is joining the Australian arm of Portugal's Enersis Group, National Power and Kato Capital to create OneWind.

The new venture will develop and finance several wind farms in NSW, South Australia and Tasmania with a total capacity of one GW, The Australian Financial Review reports. The projects, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, would help meet Australia's 2020 renewable energy target, which is expected to be almost entirely filled by wind power.

The investment follows Denham's decision last year to set up a new office in Perth, where it has been scouting for opportunities in metals and mining. The firm already backs international solar power developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, which is developing solar ventures in Australia.

Denham co-founder Carl Tricoli said last November that the firm may invest up to $US600 million of its latest $US3 billion fund in Australia across its three key sectors: metals and mining, oil and gas, and power and renewables.

Scott Mackin, co-president of ­Denham and head of the firm's power and renewables team, said on Tuesday that Denham's investment would accelerate the pipeline of projects, which has been developed by the other partners.

"We believe that the combined skills, capital and projects that we collectively bring to the table create exciting opportunities for the partnership", Mr Mackin said. He said late last year that he was particularly interested in solar and wind projects that could undercut the cost of "brown" coal-fired power, including remote mining sites.

The portfolio of projects in OneWind includes the 100 MW Glen Innes wind farm in NSW, the 250 MW Lincoln Gap project in South Australia, and the 240 MW Cattle Hill venture in Tasmania.

Cattle breeder to tell of wind turbine success

www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk
13 Jun 2016

A FARMER has had a windfall after building a turbine on his land that creates his own electrictity and sees any surplus going on to power peoples' homes. Farmer and cattle breeder James Weightman not only sells his home grown Blonde D'Aquitaine Bulls all over the UK, but he's now selling his home grown electricity. He has installed a 500kW urban fringe wind turbine to power the entire farm and he sells the remaining electricity back to the National Grid.

The project has been such a success that the Weightman family, along with gfw-Renewables, turbine suppliers EWT, and funders Barclays Bank, are holding an Open Day at Hallfield Farm, Easington, on Thursday, May 16, from 10am-4pm.

It has been organised so other landowners and farmers can see what is involved in wind turbine projects, how turbines operate, what the benefits are, and what pitfalls to look out for. Since its installation, the turbine at Hallfield Farm has greatly exceeded expectations and continues to feed sustainable 'green' energy back into the local grid connection. James said: "After nearly 18 months of preparation work, it was great to see our turbine finally commissioned.

"It has now been operational since October 2012 and is already a fantastic asset to the farm, offsetting our carbon footprint and reducing the impact of rising energy costs on our business". Renewable energy continues to be at the forefront of the Government's carbon reduction agenda, with the UK committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20% by 2020.

GE sees U.S. wind-turbine installs doubling next year after lull

www.businessweek.com
8 May 2013

General Electric Co. (GE), the biggest U.S, supplier of wind turbines, expects domestic installations to double next year after the renewal of a tax credit boosts demand.

wind farm developers including NextEra Energy Resources Inc. (NEE) and Invenergy Wind LLC may install 3,000 MWs to 4,000 MWs of turbines in the U.S, this year and as much as 7,000 MWs next year, Anne McEntee, GE's vice president of renewable energy, said today in an interview.

The U.S, added a record 13,124 MWs of turbines last year, outpacing natural gas installations for the first time, as wind developers raced to complete projects ahead of the Dec. 31 expiration of the production tax credit. Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) and Spain's Gamesa Corp Tecnologica SA (GAM) also expect new orders to pick up by the third quarter.

"The U.S, market is beginning to turn around", McEntee said at the Wind Power 2013 conference in Chicago. "Utilities see wind power as a hedge against rising fuel costs". The production tax credit for energy generated by renewable sources expired at the end of 2012 and was renewed for a year on Jan. 1.

GE has received orders this year for more than 1,000 MWs of wind turbines, including one from NextEra Energy Resources for 100.3 MWs announced today for a Michigan wind farm and Invenergy Wind's 215 MW deal announced last week for a project in Texas. Germany's Nordex SE (NDX1), which hasn't announced any sales in the U.S, this year, said the last-minute nature of the tax-credit extension stymied developers that might have placed orders by now.

Slow Utilities
"Utilities have acted slower than I predicted", Ralph Sigrist, chief executive officer of Nordex USA, said today on a panel at the conference. "They're taking their time".

Developers have more flexibility this year because they only need to begin construction by Dec. 31 to be eligible for the tax credits, said Borja Negro, chief executive officer of Gamesa Corp's U.S, unit. The previous version of the credit applied to projects that went into service before the deadline. It pays owners 2.3¢ per kW-hour.

"With the start-construction language we could see a U.S, market of up to eight GWs" of sales contracts signed this year, Negro said. "It could be more but unfortunately we're facing a lot of ups and downs".

Graph of the Day: Solar, wind to dominate new generation

reneweconomy.com.au
24 Apr 2013

If you are looking for a growth sector in electricity generation, it is pretty clear where they are to be found-wind and solar.

Today's Graph(s) of the Day extends our coverage of Bloomberg New Energy Finance's new report on the outlook for renewable energy investment out to 2030. BNEF canvassed a range of scenarios-ranging from "traditional", to "new normal" and "barrier busting"-similar to the International Energy Agency's range of business as usual, new policies, and its 2C (meeting the science) scenario

BNEF says that in its mid-scenario (new normal), 70% of the new power generation capacity added between 2012 and 2030 will be from renewable technologies-with solar PV and wind will comprise the largest share of new power capacity added to 2030, accounting for 30% and 27% respectively.

As the cost of wind and solar falls and carbon prices and other environmental controls, increase the cost of fossil fuels in certain countries, new coal and gas capacity become less attractive, comprising only 25% of capacity additions to 2030.

Nuclear also sees something of a renaissance but this is limited to 5 6% of total new capacity added to 2030. Interestintly, BNEF sees little deployment of solar thermal, mostly because its construction out to 2020 at least will be curtailed by high costs. The industry will be keen to prove that wrong. All told, around $8.2 trillion or 73% of total asset finance to 2030 will be spent on renewable energy including large hydroelectric.

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Duke Energy to use less coal, more renewables

nawindpower.com
22 Apr 2013

In its newly released 2012 Sustainability Report, Duke Energy has highlighted plans to rely less on coal-fired generation and more on renewable energy.

As part of Duke Energy's $9 billion generation fleet modernization program, the company will retire more than 3.4 GW of older coal-fired units by year-end. That number will grow to 6.3 GW of coal capacity retired over the next few years.

In addition, the company has set a goal of owning or purchasing 6 GW of wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020. The report also reveals that wind power constituted 3,410 MWh, or 1.4%, of the electricity Duke generated in 2012, as well as 1,627 MW, or 6.2%, of the company's generation capacity last year.

"Greater transformation lies ahead for our company and our industry", said Jim Rogers, Duke Energy chairman and CEO, in his letter to stakeholders. "Current drivers of change include the shale gas revolution, emerging technologies and anemic growth in energy usage. Also, our nation must address global climate change in a more comprehensive way".