TerraForm Power, an owner and operator of clean energy power plants, and SunEdison, currently the world’s largest renewable energy development company, recently announced that TerraForm Power has signed a definitive agreement to acquire net ownership of 930 megawatts (MW) of wind power plants from Invenergy Wind LLC, the largest independent wind owner in the United…
A few thoughts after touring a rare earth mine
Let me begin this blog on the tough job of rare earth mining with a few rhetorical questions. To what extent does sustainability matter to you? Do you consider the source or production processes involved in, say, your refrigerator when putting groceries away, or what about when buying electronics such as a new cell phone…
GEV Wind Power launches fixed-price maintenance plan
The perennial problem of uncertain time and material costs is being addressed by GEV Wind Power, as the company launches its fixed price blade maintenance service, available to onshore and offshore site owners. A first in the renewables industry, the service is available as part of GEV’s Preventative Maintenance Programme (PMP) and provides site owners…
Hitting new milestones: Wind energy in Canada
Canada recently became the 7th country in the world to surpass 10,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity, enough to power over three million homes annually. In this WindTalk edition, Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) President Robert Hornung discusses the country’s wind-power successes and challenges, and what he predicts for the future wind industry in…
PALFINGER establishes a joint venture for the American wind market
PALFINGER AG, listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, and the US-based company Fairwind, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma, have established a joint venture for the American wind service industry. The new company FairWind Renewable Energy Services, in which PALFINGER will hold a 51% interest, will specialize in servicing wind turbines for the production of electricity. The…
GE inks deal with TerraForm Global to boost international wind growth
GE’s renewable energy business announced a $25-million investment in TerraForm Global. TerraForm is a dividend growth-oriented company, or yieldco, formed by SunEdison to own and operate contracted renewable power generation assets in attractive, high-growth emerging markets. “This investment is about driving continued global growth for renewable power,” said Anne McEntee, president & CEO of GE’s…
Binsfeld Engineering’s new TorqueTrak TPM2 features digital output signal
Binsfeld Engineering has released the new TorqueTrak TPM2 torque and power-monitoring system for applications including wind turbine machinery. The TPM2 model features a digital RS422 full duplex, serial interface, with user-selectable sample rates ranging from 10 to 4800 samples/second. Signal resolution is 15 bits for eight input ranges from 0 to 32mV/V down to 0…
SgurrEnergy named company of the year at British Renewable Energy Awards
Renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, were victorious at the British Renewable Energy Awards (BREA) this week, winning the top award category as the ‘Company of the Year’. The accolade recognized the efforts of the business, which has successfully driven the advancement of renewable energy in the UK during the previous year. Technical director, and joint founder…
Nordex awarded new contracts for a total of 55 MW in Turkey
Nordex strengthens again its role in Turkey. It will be installing 19 Generation Gamma turbines N117/2400 for its new customer ARE Elektrik in the wind farm “Kurtkayasi.” For ARE Elektrik this is the first wind energy project. Since its foundation in 2009 the company has so far concentrated on hydroelectric power plants. Kurtkayasi is located…
U.S. Army enlists Apex Clean Energy for large-scale wind-solar hybrid project
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Energy, in coordination with the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives (OEI) and Fort Hood, issued a Notice of Intent to Award (NOIA) to Apex Clean Energy, for a large-scale renewable energy wind and solar project at Fort Hood, Texas. Although the NOIA does not constitute a formal contract award, this…
Vestas honored for using big data to optimize wind-turbine performance
By using big data Vestas is able to foresee when turbine components are malfunctioning and need maintenance − before they actually do. This was one of the reasons Vestas won Deloitte’s Big Data Award last week at Deloitte’s Information Management Conference, IM2015, in Copenhagen. Vestas uses smart data to optimize maintenance of wind farms all over…
New standards set for offshore wind ports and marine operations
Offshore wind energy is a growing business, providing enormous potential to meet the world’s energy needs. But with their structures based at sea, building them has always posed a number of challenges. Now those challenges can be significantly reduced with a new standard for ports and marine operations for offshore wind energy structures. A relatively…
Prolonging turbine life with predictive software
Stephen Steen is the head of Industrial Internet Solutions at Sentient Science, a third-party solution provider for wind-farm owners, operators, and OEMs. The company recently developed a prognostics-based computational solution for wind farms, which lets turbine owners predict failures 90% earlier than by diagnostic approaches alone. In this Wind Talk podcast, Steen speaks to us…
GEV’s full-sized Habitat blade-access platform to be unveiled at global offshore wind exhibition
Visitors to the Renewable UK Global Offshore Wind exhibition (RUK GOW2015) will be first to see GEV Wind Power’s full-size Habitat, which takes place June 24-25, 2015 in London. The Habitat provides a weather-protected maintenance environment for wind technicians. It enables a technician to travel to the top of the turbine’s blade on the access…
Hawkeye V2 Video Borescopes add annotation feature and a brighter light source
Users of Hawkeye V2 Video Borescopes now have the ability to add notations to the still images and video footage captured during inspections. Using the V2’s new Annotation Feature, inspection images can document not only the date of an inspection, but the inspector’s notes as well. “This function will be key to those who are…
Power Climber Wind installed IBEX Climb-assist Systems at three wind farms in France
Power Climber Wind, a division of SafeWorks, has installed 45 IBEX climb-assist systems in France for EOLE-RES, one of the top developers of renewable energy production in the Mediterranean region and the Middle east. The IBEX system puts complete control of the climbing experience in the hands of the wind-turbine technician, delivering personalized performance, increased…
Canada’s wind energy industry reaches another significant milestone
Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) is pleased to announce that Canada’s wind energy industry has taken another significant leap forward. With the commissioning of the K2 Wind Power Project in southwestern Ontario this month, Canada has now become the 7th country in the world to surpass 10,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity. “Meeting the…
Iberdrola Renewables announces wind-power agreement for the Twin Buttes II project
Iberdrola Renewables announced a 25-year contract to supply Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association — a wholesale electric power supplier owned by 44 electric cooperatives and public power districts across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming — with renewable energy from the planned Twin Buttes II Wind Project. Tri-State will purchase the entire output of the…
Renewable energy targets quadrupled globally since 2005, new IRENA report finds
Renewable energy targets are now a defining feature of the global energy landscape, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable Energy Target Setting, launched on the side lines of IRENA’s ninth Council meeting, finds that 164 countries have adopted at least one type of renewable energy target, up from…
Support for wind power in Canadian province of Saskatchewan consistent across age groups and political preference
Wind energy is one of the lowest cost sources of new electricity generation, and a new poll finds that Saskatchewan residents support an increased effort to develop more wind energy to help meet Saskatchewan’s future electricity needs. A recent public opinion poll completed by Oracle Research and commissioned by the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA)…