Renewable-energy OEM splits its units

 

As of October 1, 2011, Siemens will realign its renewables business into two independent units, says the Germany-based company. The existing Renewable Energy Division shall be divided into two divisions, Wind Power and Solar & Hydro. The company intends to bundle its solar and hydro power business activities in a new division Solar & Hydro. “We’re separating solar and wind power because these two markets are at different stages of development,” says Siemens Energy Sector CEO Michael Seuss. “In the Solar & Hydro unit, we’ll move forward with research and development. In the established wind power business, we’ll forge ahead with industrialisation and internationalisation. Germany, the rest of Europe and the whole world need power-storage systems to work with renewables. Our Solar & Hydro Division will also be handling the strategic issue of power storage,” Suess added.

“We’ve got a wind order backlog of almost €11 billion, and we’re world market leader in offshore wind farms, the market sector posting fastest growth. We also want to forge ahead with onshore wind turbines.” To further reduce wind-based power generating costs the company will focus on new products and industrialised manufacturing and logistics. For example, nacelles are now produced in a continuous-flow manufacturing process with the automation of rotor-blade production to follow. The company recently installed a prototype of its new 6 MW direct drive wind turbine and announced investments of €150 million in two new R&D locations in Denmark. In addition, the internationalisation of the manufacturing and marketing & sales network will play a key role in Siemens strategy. Following the opening of two new factories in the US and China in late-2010, the company is planning further production facilities in Canada, the UK, India, and Russia, and now in Brazil.

Siemens wants to expand its market share in emerging countries with local value, and development of wind turbines for China and India. Siemens will bundle its activities in the fields of solar and hydro power in the Solar & Hydro Division. In this field Siemens acts as general contractor for large-area photovoltaic installations in the megawatt-capacity range. The company recently acquired a minority stake in Semprius, a developer of concentrating PV modules. In the field of solar-thermal power, the range of products offered extends from components, such as solar receivers and solar fields, to complete solar thermal power plants. In addition to business with small hydro power plants the new Division will also encompass the Siemens stakes in Voith Hydro (35%), a vendor in the hydro sector, and in Marine Current Turbines (about 10%), a pioneer in tidal current energy turbines. The new unit will also be a centre of competence for the development of power storage technologies.

Siemens
www.siemens.com

IKEA invests in renewables

 

 

IKEA Group has been busy with more than curtains and chairs lately.  Bloomberg reports the giant home-furnishings retailer recently bought a wind farm in Scotland and plans to install 39,000 solar panels on its U.K. stores as part of a goal to get all of its energy from renewable sources.

The company’s 12.3-MW wind farm in Huntly, northeast Scotland,  can cover as much as 30% of Ikea’s U.K. electricity use.  Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S supplied the turbines for the wind farm. Also, 2.1 MW of solar panels will be fitted on 10 stores and cover 5% of each one’s power on average.The solar panels will cost about $6.5 million to fit, and will be manufactured by China’s GS Solar Fujian Co.

 

 

 

 

A pretty cool power plant from GE

GE has developed what it calls a “first-of-its-kind” power plant. By rapidly ramping up and down in response to fluctuations in wind and solar power, the technology will enable the integration of more renewable resources into the power grid. The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 MW and offers fuel efficiency greater than 61%. The plant is the result of an investment of more than $500 million in research and development by the company.

While most power plants now offer flexibility or high efficiency, GE says this power plant will deliver an unprecedented combination of both. The company calls this combination of flexibility and efficiency ‘FlexEfficiency,’ which is essential if renewable power is going to cost-effectively integrate into power grids around the world on a large scale.

GE drew from the company’s jet engine expertise to engineer a plant that will ramp up at a rate of more than 50 MW per minute, twice the rate of today’s industry benchmarks. Operational flexibility at these levels will enable utilities to deliver power quickly when it is needed and to ramp down when it is not, balancing the grid cost-effectively and helping to deploy additional renewable power resources like wind and solar. A typical plant will deliver enough energy to power more than 600,000 E.U. homes.

Increasing Renewables with Natural Gas

“As we seek to increase use of renewable energy, the challenge of grid stability sharpens,” says Paul Browning, VP of thermal products for GE Power & Waste. “There is added pressure to achieve higher levels of efficiency and lower emissions for natural gas power plants. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant creates growth opportunity in a new segment for our gas turbines.” He says for years GE has been working to develop technology that can deliver breakthrough efficiency and deal with the challenge of grid variability caused by wind and solar. “The need for combined flexibility and efficiency is even more pressing today as countries around the world establish new emissions standards,” he says.

Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power & Water, notes that much of today’s power generation technology is serving yesterday’s power grid. Institutions and individuals everywhere are looking for cost-effective ways to use solar, wind, and gas energy on a large scale. “But they often assume that renewable energy can simply plug-in to the existing power grid,” he says. “We expect the FlexEfficiency to help take advantage of abundant natural gas while we simultaneously carve a fresh path to accelerate wider adoption of renewable energy, all with less impact on natural resources.”

Sustainability by Design

GE engineers were able to avoid the typical tradeoffs between flexibility and efficiency by approaching the plant design from a total equipment and control systems perspective. The company says the FlexEfficiency 50 plant is designed for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB Gas Turbine that operates at 50 Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 Steam Turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE’s advanced W28 Generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator.

“With global energy demand expected to double by 2030 and electricity generation accounting for 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, utilities and government bodies are taking a hard look at how to produce power more efficiently,” says Ricardo Cordoba, president of GE Energy for Western Europe and North Africa. “This innovation can have a dramatic effect on CO₂ emissions and offers a nimble, efficient and cost-effective way for us to help E.U. countries in their pursuit of 20-20-20 energy goals.”

The International Energy Agency concluded in a report that large shares of variable renewable energy are feasible as long as power systems and markets are properly configured so they can get the best use of their flexible resources.

GE www.ge-energy.com

 

Solar, stink, wastewater, and wind: A tour of the Jersey-Atlantic project

At the AWEA Offshore Wind show earlier in October, attendees had the opportunity to tour the Jersey Atlantic Wind Farm that many had already viewed from their hotel room windows. The wind farm provides energy used to operate the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) wastewater treatment plant, with any excess energy provided to the main power grid. It’s the first commercial wind project in New Jersey, and one of the nation’s first coastal and urban wind farms. A solar array also helps power the plant, making it one of the largest hybrid wastewater treatment facilities in the U.S.

About those turbines: The project in New Jersey has been operational since December 2005 and consists of five GE turbines. Each is 262-ft high and the tower has a diameter of 14 ft. The blades are 120-ft long, so the total height from the ground to the tip of the blade is more than 380 ft, about the height of a 32-story building. The blades turn at rates between 10 and 20 rpm. Considering the length of the blades, in average wind speeds of 13 to 15 mph the tips are traveling at 120 mph. Each is capable of producing 1.5 MW for a total of 7.5 MW.

Developing and financing: The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm is owned by Jersey-Atlantic Wind, LLC a partner with original developer Community Energy, Inc. To help meet the project’s cost of $12.5 million, Community Energy received a $1.7 million grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and a $1.92 million customer supply grant from Atlantic City Electric. Private party equity investment or debt financing funded the remaining cost.

Savings: ACUA estimates that the energy produced by the wind farm will save the energy equivalent of 11,964 barrels of crude oil per year. The wind farm has also saved ACUA about $2 million in its first four years of operations.

The solar side: The project also includes a solar array, a 500-kW (DC) system with 2,700 electric panels completed in June 2006. The project was awarded to WorldWater & Power Corporation and Conti and constructed in two phases. The first phase included the installation of two roof-mounted arrays, a canopy array over the employee parking lot, and a small ground-mount array. The second phase began in late 2005 and included a 220-kW (DC) ground-mount array. The canopy array is located about 10 ft above the employee parking lot. The lot was both repaved and graded in a way to eliminate water ponding prior to the installation of the solar array. The roof mount arrays are on a non-roof penetrating brackets, ballasted to withstand hurricane force winds.

The output of the PV arrays/wind turbines can be viewed in real time at www.acua.com.

Liquid cooled inverters ready for hot jobs

A liquid-cooled inverter provides optimal thermal performance in a compact design for applications unsuitable for air cooling. Manufacturer Magnetek Inc. says the liquid cooled inverters are ideal for sealed-structure applications such as near shore wind turbines or wind turbines installed in corrosive environments, as well as locations that require sustained operation at elevated ambient temperatures.

These liquid cooled inverters will also be available in utility-scale E-Force solar inverters, ideal for installation in solar power electrical equipment rooms and high ambient temperature solar power applications. Modular utility-scale E-Force inverters regulate and transform dc power generated by wind turbines or photovoltaic systems into utility-grade ac power, which is distributed to the power transmission grid. The inverters offer peak efficiencies when operating at full power and provide less current distortion by using high-frequency switching. The manufacturer says its compact design makes the inverters easier to install and service. Self-diagnostics and remote monitoring capabilities maximize energy generation. NEMA rated enclosures ensure electronics are protected from extreme temperatures and the elements.

Alternative Energy Expo set for Maryland in May

The first annual Solar and Wind Expo (thesolarandwindexpo.com) will convene at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium this May 7 to 9. The indoor and outdoor event will be the first consumer show in the state devoted to renewable energy.

“Never has there been a better time for this kind of show,” says its founder and executive director George Lopez. “With all the technological advances, the government-sponsored incentives, and desire of so many to save money on energy and reduce their carbon footprint, all that was missing is a place for all parties to connect. Now we have that!”

Keynote speaker will be Bob Dixson, mayor of Greensburg, Kansas. The city made national news when it was destroyed by a tornado in 2007. Dixson has been recognized for his leadership role in rebuilding every structure in Greensburg to meet the highest U.S. Green Building Council certification, LEED Platinum, most notably by President Obama with an invitation to address a joint session of Congress. Greensburg, the first city in the country to go entirely green, is an example of how becoming sustainable is both viable and economically beneficial.

The goal of The Solar and Wind Expo is to “make green a reality” by bringing the most instrumental groups together for the first time in Maryland in one location: leading manufacturers and suppliers of green technologies, representatives from government agencies promoting the use of green technologies, and financial institutions providing special financing for green building projects.

Expo attendees will have the opportunity to interact with the actual energy- producing products, and have their questions answered by experts in the alternative energy field. In addition, electric-powered vehicles will cruise around an Electric Car Loop, and renewable energy experts will conduct seminars and meet one-on-one with attendees. “It is exciting to give those like me who are passionate about reducing their carbon footprint and living in a more environmentally friendly way an opportunity to interact with the product and become educated on issues surrounding building green, like tax and other incentive programs,” adds Lopez.