The North Dakota Public Service Commission (PSC) recently approved the first set of decommissioning plans for wind farms since new rule changes were approved last year. According to the PSC, the rules approved strengthen requirements for future wind projects and ensure they are properly decommissioned at the end of their use. The changes were put in place…
Vestas to repower two PacifiCorp wind farms in Washington
Vestas has received an order for 216 MW of V100-2.0 MW turbine components, excluding towers, from PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. The order is to repower the Marengo wind project, commissioned in 2007, and Marengo II wind project, commissioned in 2008, both located in Washington. PacifiCorp plans to repower the projects’ existing V80-1.8…
Siemens Gamesa seals 508-MW deal to repower three U.S. wind farms
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has signed two agreements with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources to repower 508 MW in the US at three wind farms in Texas. Under the first agreement, SGRE will repower 362 units of Vestas’ V47 wind turbines at the Indian Mesa and Woodward wind farms in Texas. The V47…
How to harvest plentiful low-level winds on existing wind farms
By Kevin Wolf / President / Wind Harvest International Wind farms in California and other regions of the world exist only in relatively small geographic regions.1 Most of these resource areas have reached their physical or political2 limits in their ability to install additional propeller-type, horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs).3 Nonetheless, many have topographies that…
WindWISDEM launches software-based repowering service for wind farms
WindWISDEM Corp., a Ystrategies Corp. portfolio company and cloud computing software service provider that optimizes wind farm performance, announced that it is launching a software-based repowering service. The new service is designed for wind farms looking to extend production tax credits (PTC) for an additional 10 years. WindWISDEM’s repowering technology delivers increased revenue from energy…
Leeward partners with Siemens Gamesa to repower Illinois’ Mendota Hills Wind Farm
Leeward Renewable Energy, LLC announced that work will soon repower the company’s 15-year-old Mendota Hills Wind Farm in Lee County, Illinois. Leeward selected Siemens Gamesa to supply 29 of its SG 2.6-126 wind turbines, which will replace the existing 63 units of legacy Gamesa turbines. “Mendota Hills is Leeward’s oldest operating wind farm in our portfolio,”…
Wind energy is now the lowest-cost option for new electricity generation in Canada
News about record-low costs tops the 2017 year-end review of wind energy in Canada. In December, a competitive electricity-supply auction in Alberta yielded the lowest-ever price paid for wind energy in Canada (weighted average of $37 / MWh), and also made wind energy the lowest-cost option for new electricity generation in the country. This came…
AWEA: Wind power closes 2017 strong, lifting the American economy
The U.S. wind power industry closed 2017 strong, delivering 7,017 MW of new wind-power capacity representing $11 billion in new private investment, according to the U.S. Wind Industry Fourth Quarter 2017 Market Report, released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Twenty-nine new wind farms totaling 4,125 MW came online across 16 states in the fourth quarter.…
GE & Leeward successfully repower Texas’ Sweetwater 1 & 2 wind farms
Leeward Renewable Energy has announced the successful completion of the repowering of Leeward’s combined capacity 136-MW Sweetwater 1 & 2 wind farms in Nolan County, Texas. GE Renewable Energy is the wind-turbine provider for the project and GE Energy Financial Services provided tax-equity financing. The Sweetwater 1 & 2 repowering program enhances performance by replacing major…
A look at repowering older wind farms to 2020
Wind repowerings are expected to involve as many as 30% of U.S. wind farms by the end of 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Nordex to upgrade 30-MW wind farm in Spain
The Nordex Group has won a 30-MW order to renovate one of Acciona Energía’s oldest wind farm in Spain. In the second half of 2018, it will upgrade the 30-MW El Cabrito wind farm with 12 multi-megawatt turbines. In this connection, Acciona Energia has opted for eight N100/3000 turbines and four AW70/1500 turbines that fit…
Vestas to repower high-altitude wind project
Located in Niedere Tauern mountain massif in Styria, Austria, the Tauernwindpark is one of the highest-located wind farms in Europe — operating 1,900 meters above sea-level. ImWind, Tauernwindpark’s owner, was looking to repower the 22.75 MW wind park, which currently consists of 13, V66-1750 kW wind turbines. A wind-power project in such an environment is…
Vattenfall to repower Dutch wind farm
Vattenfall has decided to invest more than EUR 200 million to repower and expand its Wieringermeer onshore wind farm in the Netherlands – the largest wind investment to date for Vattenfall in the Netherlands. The company will replace older wind turbines with updated technology for a capacity of 180 MW by 2019. Moreover, Vattenfall has…
BNEF: Mapping renewable curtailment & coal asset risk in China
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), China’s national power system will face serious challenges in the next few years. BNEF found that the country’s power market was oversupplied by 35% at the end of 2016, due to over investment in new generation capacity. China’s renewable power generators face the worst curtailment rates in the…
MAKE issues new guidance for repowering wind turbines in the U.S.
MAKE’s initial guidance on 80/20 repowering was only to count nacelle swaps for new unit builds, driven pre-dominantly by the need to capture a change in turbine OEM branding for those sites. Over the course of the past nine months, repowering activity has accelerated, with many turbine OEMs dedicating substantial resources to this effort.…