Vestas has entered into a partnership with Swedish utility Vattenfall and Danish pension fund PKA for a 353-MW wind-energy project in Sweden. Vestas will provide 353 MW of its V136-4.2 MW turbines and become a shareholder through a share purchase agreement for 40% of the project. PKA and Vattenfall will own 30 percent project equity…
24 million jobs to open up in the green economy, report says
Twenty-four million new jobs will be created globally by 2030 if the right policies to promote a greener economy are put in place, a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report says. According to World Employment and Social Outlook 2018: Greening with Jobs , action to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius will result in sufficient job…
WINDPOWER 2018 recap
AWEA’s WINDPOWER 2018, as you would expect, featured a variety of exciting announcements from companies in the wind energy industry. From May 7 to 11, thousands of renewable energy leaders and innovators gathered in Chicago to learn about new technologies and business processes that, when combined, are moving the wind energy market forward. We thought…
Berkeley study explores impact of high-variable renewable energy futures
A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report titled Impacts of High Variable Renewable Energy Futures on Wholesale Electricity Prices, and on Electric-Sector Decision Making shows that increasing penetrations of variable renewable energy (VRE) can affect wholesale electricity price patterns and make them meaningfully different from past price patterns. Many long-lasting decisions for supply- and demand-side electricity…
Siemens Gamesa secures new order in Japan for 74.8 MW
Siemens Gamesa reached its first agreement with Tokyu Land Corporation for two projects in Hokkaido, Japan, and will supply 22 of its SWT-3.4-108. Both nacelles and hubs will be manufactured in Denmark, while the blades will be produced in China and Denmark. The turbines will be delivered in 2018 and 2019. Siemens Gamesa will also handle…
MHI Vestas readies for first round of Taiwan offshore wind projects
Sending a signal to developers and policymakers that it will be ready for early projects in Taiwan, MHI Vestas signed its fifth memorandum of understanding (MOU) today with TECO and The Switch for the delivery of generator products. The company also confirms that its 9-MW turbine platform will be typhoon-ready in 2020, in time for…
California university takes first place at 2018 Collegiate Wind Competition
The California State University Maritime Academy beat out 11 other teams to claim top honors at the Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition held at WINDPOWER 2018. This competition was created to provide undergraduates with real-world skills needed to enter tomorrow’s renewable energy workforce. Competitors were challenged with a number of tasks, including developing and delivering a business…
GE Renewable Energy awarded first wind deal in Chile
GE Renewable Energy announced its first wind energy project in Chile with Arroyo Energy Compañía de Energías Renovables Limitada. GE will be supplying six 3.6 MW turbines with 137-meter rotors and a 110-meter tower. The machines will be installed at the El Maitén and El Nogal wind sites in the south of the country, representing a total of 21.8 MW. Chile has 1.7 GW of wind power…
Mammoet expands its fleet of cranes
Mammoet Americas is currently expanding its fleet of cranes for the crane rental market in Texas. The expansion into Texas will focus on day-to-day transports, lifts, shutdowns, turnarounds, and plant maintenance, as well as support project work along the Gulf Coast. The Texas branch will provide greater access to Mammoet’s specialist equipment, personnel, and service,…
Groundbreaking experiment steers wake away from downwind turbine
A recently completed wake-steering experiment at the Sandia National Laboratories Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility has successfully demonstrated that the wake from an upwind turbine can be steered away from a downwind turbine by yawing the upwind turbine. The results will enable the wind industry to evaluate the potential for yaw-based wake steering to improve…
DOE seeks information on supersized blade manufacturing and transport
To maximize future wind energy cost reductions, wind plants will require substantially larger turbine blades to increase energy production, capacity factors, and plant efficiencies — particularly at sites with low to moderate wind speeds. However, current U.S. transportation limitations, manufacturing and assembly methods, and materials all impart limitations into the design of land-based wind turbine…
World Wind & Solar acquires Axis Renewable Group
World Wind & Solar (WWS), a provider of renewable energy operations and maintenance services, has acquired Axis Renewable Group, an independent service provider to utility-scale wind and solar power plants and original equipment manufacturers. The acquisition is scheduled to close Friday, May 11. Axis will merge under the WWS brand, and WWS will continue expanding its reach and renewable…
Goldwind installs 130-m tall test turbine in Texas
Goldwind Americas has completed the installation of its GW 3MW(S) Smart Wind turbine test unit at the UL Advanced Wind Turbine Test Facility located at West Texas A&M University. The scalable 3 MW test turbine has an assembled hub height of 130 m and a blade tip height of 199.2 m, reportedly making it the…
Middle East to add 12 GW of wind capacity over the next 10 years
Wind power markets in the Middle East will add 12 GW of new capacity between 2018 and 2027, according to MAKE’s 2018 Middle East Wind Power Outlook. The region will benefit from improved macroeconomic stability, which will generate strong growth for power demand. In addition, a desire to diversify economies, significant reductions in wind power…
Germany to add 1,610 MW of offshore wind power
This article comes from law firm Winston & Strawn LLP and is authored by Elise Scott and Mary Wall. Germany’s Federal Network Agency has announced the results of its second offshore wind power auction. The six winning bids are cumulatively capable of producing 1,610 MW of power. For comparison, the Alta Wind Energy Center in California, which…
Siemens Gamesa announces revenues of €2,242 million in Q2 2018
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy released its results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 (January-March). Commercial activity in Q2 2018 remained strong: After three consecutive quarters of growth in order intake, the order backlog has reached €22,041 million and is back to market-peak levels of March 2017, the company states. During the period January-March,…
Nordex launches N133/4.8 for strong-wind sites
The Nordex Group is extending its Delta4000 product series introduced in 2017 to include a turbine designed for strong-wind sites. The rotor blade from the N131 turbine has been integrated into the Delta4000 series for the N133/4.8. Combining this rotor blade with the hub and nacelle of the N149/4.0-4.5 (also from the Delta4000 product series)…
Renewable sources provide nearly all new electrical generating capacity in Q1 2018
Wind, solar, and other renewable sources (biomass, geothermal, hydropower) accounted for almost 95% of all new U.S. electrical generation placed into service in the first quarter of this year, according to a SUN DAY Campaign analysis of data released today by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” (with summary statistics for January, February, and March 2018) shows…
Mainstream Renewable Power sells 450 MW offshore wind project in Scotland to EDF Group
The EDF Group, a joint subsidiary of EDF Energy and EDF Energies Nouvelles, has purchased the Neart na Gaoithe (Gaelic for “Strength of the Wind”) 450 MW offshore wind farm project from global wind and solar developer Mainstream Renewable Power. The wind farm is located in the Firth of Forth off the east coast of…
General Cable to debut EmPowr CL Edge MV cable at WINDPOWER 2018
General Cable will introduce its EmPowr CL Edge medium-voltage (MV) cable at WINDPOWER 2018, May 7 to 10 in Chicago. EmPowr CL Edge includes a compact phase conductor and flat strap neutral conductor, two non-hygroscopic rip cords, and cross-linked polyethylene jacketing. “EmPowr CL Edge delivers up to 20% longer reel lengths, up to 10% reduction in diameter and…