Alstom has signed a global partnership with Freyssinet to develop a 119m concrete tower specifically designed for its ECO122 wind turbine.

The new tower will be made of 11 concrete sections, the lowest measuring 7.20m in diameter, for the base of the structure.

The company has previously signed an MoU agreement with Max Bögl Wind to develop a 139m tower of hybrid design featuring a concrete bottom section and a steel top section.

The new partnership and the MoU agreement will provide the Alstom the ability to offer its customers two high tower options for its ECO122, suited to harness the stronger winds found at high altitude.

ECN has certified the ECO122 turbine following measurements taken over a two-month period on an initial ECO122 unit installed in Wieringermeer, Netherlands.

The ECO122 is now available in 3.0MW model, which will have a 6% higher yield than the 2.7MW version.

Alstom vice-president platform and product wind onshore Laurent Carme said, “By consistently investing in innovative wind turbines, we strive to ensure a better use of wind resources and a higher yield, regardless of wind characteristics. The new steps achieved today will help us to continue to provide our customers with more flexible and ever more efficient solutions.”

Ireland’s premier electricity utility ESB have reported after-tax profit rose by €80 million last year as the company cut back on staff costs and increased its revenue.

In its annual report published this morning, ESB said profit rose to €415 million as its payroll costs fell by €51 million. The firm recorded €250 million in recurring annual savings achieved since 2010, with a target of €280 million.

The Irish exchequer received a total of €258 million in dividend payments, including an interim dividend of €68.4million and a special dividend of €161 million in January 2014 from the proceeds of overseas generation assets in 2013.

The company invested €825 million over the year in capital projects, with more than €650 million poured into Irish infrastructure, and other funds invested in wind energy farms in the UK and Ireland, and a high efficiency gas plant near Manchester.

ESB said the firm directly contributed more than €2 billion to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. About 7,500 people are employed with the company directly, with other jobs supported through contracts and service providers.

“Despite difficult economic conditions and increasing competition, these results reflect a very solid performance across the group. ESB has protected its financial strength, which allows us to continue to fund critical energy infrastructure projects, compete effectively against international players and grow our business in the integrated GB/Ireland market,” said chairman Lochlann Quinn. “ESB continues to play an important role in the Irish economy and deliver benefits to its stakeholders.”

The Nottingham City Council in the UK will set up a new non-profit energy supply company by 2015 to supply gas and electricity through the national distribution systems.

The Nottingham Energy Supply Company is being set up by the council to do battle with the six big energy companies. The company will provide competitively priced energy tariffs that will lower customer energy bills, reduce local fuel poverty and increase Nottingham’s energy self-sufficiency.

It will also provide a competitive tariff to businesses to encourage growth in the city, provide a market for locally generated, sustainable electricity resources, and provide local jobs with employment at the company.

With the setting up of new company, more than 177,000 households across the city could benefit from cheaper energy bills – saving up to £120 per year, Nottingham Post reported.

To be run on a non-profit basis, any profit obtained by the company will be reinvested in the energy supply. The company will use power generated by the Eastcroft incinerator and also from solar panels, waste food plants and electricity and gas bought from the market at competitive rates.

In 2011, the Nottingham City Council had made a manifesto commitment to deliver a new, cheap energy tariff. To meet this commitment, the council is setting up the new licensed energy supplier for providing both electricity and gas to Nottingham residents and businesses.

The Nottingham City Council has sought a consultant to undertake the delivery of an energy supply licence and an energy supply company set up.

Obtaining the electricity and gas supply licence will allow the council to participate in the regulated electricity and gas markets. This will lead to greater control over locally generated energy and opportunities to supply both domestic and commercial properties with competitively priced electricity and gas. Ultimately, the delivery of the project will meet the council’s commitment of providing a cheap energy tariff to Nottingham residents.

Approval of £49,000 will fund the appointment of a consultant to undertake this study. The funding will come from Energy Development Fund.

The consultant will be responsible to complete an executive board report (first draft 27 March 2014 and final report on 8 April 2014) that provides a clear project plan and necessary considerations for obtaining an energy supply license and associated organisational structure to operate an energy supply company.

The consultant will also be responsible for liaising between the council and a chosen service partner during the early stage of setting up the new company and energy supply license. The consultant has to support the council in developing solutions that meet all necessary legal, financial, and compliance requirements.

Westinghouse Electric has secured a contract from Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) to supply new traversing incore probe (TIP) systems for two boiling water reactors (BWR) at Olkiluoto, Finland.

These systems are installed to calibrate the nuclear reactor power measurement.

Pursuant to the contract terms, Westinghouse subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Sweden will handle the overall project and perform the mechanical/electrical installation and commissioning. Westinghouse Electric and Toshiba Corporation will jointly implement the project.

Most of the equipment will be manufactured and assembled in Japan and a factory acceptance test is likely to be conducted in December 2015.

Delivery of the equipment is scheduled for January 2016, while the installation is scheduled during planned outages at Unit 1 in 2016 and Unit 2 in 2017.

In addition to this, the project also requires the manufacture and installation of 28 new guide tubes and the provision of electrical installation and instrument and control (I&C) cubicles for control and measuring.

The TIP systems calibrate incore neutron flux detectors in the Olkiluoto 1 and 2 nuclear reactors.

Together with data from incore neutron flux detectors, the TIP data is used by the process computer to analyse the power distribution within the reactor core and determine whether thermal limits are being satisfied, Westinghouse Electric said.

Westinghouse Electric vice-president and managing director for Northern Europe Johan Hallén said that the agreement reflects TVO’s assurance in the quality and reliability that Westinghouse and Toshiba together can bring to TVO.

Clare County Council has initiated a plan for the development of pumped freshwater hydro-energy storage facilities similar to those already seen in Turlough Hill, Co Wicklow.

Three locations, namely Slieve Callan, Slieve Bernagh and Woodcock Hill, have been marked as ‘indicative areas’ for the proposed facilities which are outlined in the newly developed Draft Clare County Renewable Energy Strategy.

The county’s energy strategy is aiming to make it one of the most innovative county in terms of renewable energy in the country with plans to examine the potential for a range of renewable resources, including bio-energy and anaerobic digestion, micro-renewables, geothermal, solar, hydro, energy storage, onshore and offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

Some of the key objectives set out in the county’s strategy include achieving more than the national renewable energy target of between 10-12pc by 2020, to work in partnership with the marine renewable energy sector to deliver the key actions recommended by the Ocean Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP) and Grid 25 and ensuring that all future building planning applications must have high-quality, energy efficient technology incorporated.

The county has also welcomed the news that the ESB have confirmed that its West Wave project will go ahead off Killard in West Clare at an estimated cost of between €40-50m.

GE has signed turbine supply contracts for various wind projects in Germany, Scotland, Sweden and France, with a combined capacity of more than 200MW.

In Germany, the company won an order to supply 44 GE 2.5-120 wind turbines for eight new wind farms.

Of the eight wind projects, three are being developed by Juwi and two have been initiated by Pfalzwerke, while the remaining three projects are owned by Abo-Wind and Max Bögl Wiesner.

In Scotland, GE will supply ten 1.6MW turbines for SSE Renewables’ Langhope Rig project in the Scottish Borders.

Under the contract, GE will also offer operations and maintenance for the wind farm working in conjunction with SSE Renewables.

With the support of GE, the Langhope Rig project targets to assist the Scottish Government in achieving renewable energy targets.

SSE Renewables corporate affairs (wholesale) Kirstanne McDowell said that GE’s wind turbines were the right fit for the Langhope Rig wind farm site, and SSE is delighted to work closely with GE as construction at the site progresses.

In Sweden, GE has signed an agreement with Erikshester Vindpark for setting up six GE 1.6-100 turbines on the Erikshester wind farm located in Vetlanda.

The contract also includes a five-year service agreement. The facility will benefit from remote monitoring and diagnostics through GE’s global wind monitoring center in Salzbergen, Germany.

The Erikshester wind farm will produce 9.6MW, which would be sufficient for around 6,000 homes in Sweden.

In France, GE has secured a contract for supplying 27 GE 2.85MW turbines from Boralex and Innovent Invest. The turbines will be used in two projects being developed in Picardy and Nord Pas-de-Calais.

The contracts include wind turbine manufacturing, shipment, installation and a five-year service agreement.

Boralex managing director Europe Patrick Decostre said that the company had made a formal commitment to promote occupational health and safety in all of its installations worldwide, and look for suppliers who are willing to partner with us to achieve those goals.

Decostre said, “GE’s wind technology is amongst the world’s best and its high-power output and reliability will ensure project success, but what attracted us just as much was that GE shares our view on the importance of health and safety issues.

“GE showed it is willing to work with us jointly in those areas and was flexible and helpful in structuring their services to support our needs.”

The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a new system for wind farm operations and maintenance (O&M) that will significantly cut down maintenance costs.

O&M accounts for approximately 25% of offshore wind farms costs. The new system uses information from Essent/RWE, which collects and analyses data from offshore wind farms, and is also used in order to continuously enhance the cost-reducing strategy for operations and maintenance.

The cost of O&M for offshore wind farms is around €0.03 a kWh of electricity.

ECN Wind business development Glen Donnelly said that these costs can be decreased by a third in the space of ten years.

Wind farms produce large volume of data that will be collected by technicians and engineers.

The data relates to areas like breakdowns, repairs and spare parts that may be required, engineer reports and the loads placed on the turbines and how long different components will last.

All this information is collected within the O&M system and organised for fast processing.

Donnelly said that this information will enable wind farm operators to, for example, plan precisely how many working boats will be required, how many people need to be in the maintenance team, what components should be kept in stock and when maintenance must be scheduled.

Mainly, the system allows a long-run process of continuous cost saving improvements over the wind farms operating lifetime.

“In view of the predicted growth in offshore wind energy in the years ahead, cost reductions are of major importance,” Donnelly said.

“If you can build up a long term and smart database of operational data and are able to analyse it quickly and effectively, you have invaluable information for a sophisticated O&M strategy.”

This new system has been developed as part of the Flow programme that aims to achieve cost reductions for large offshore wind farms and stimulate Dutch companies to innovate in this sector.

RWE Innogy project manager Niels Bijkersma said, “Thanks to our years of experience managing and maintaining offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom, we can contribute to ECN’s advanced O&M system, designed to meet the needs of cost-conscious operators.”

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply water jets for three wind farm support vessels.

The company will supply three wind farm workboats, one 24m and two 26m aluminium catamarans to be built by South Boats IOW for the offshore wind transfer vessel operator Seacat Services.

The company claims the contract as one of the biggest orders made for wind farm workboats.

The new wind farm work boats will include MTU 12V 2000 engines, which will power the catamarans to speeds of up to 30k.The catamarans will be used for people and cargo transfers to the growing number of offshore wind farms around the coast of Europe.

Rolls-Royce marine sales manager UK Andy Brett said Rolls-Royce has been selected to provide water jet technology for the next generation of European workboats being delivered by South Boats IOW.

“Rolls-Royce water jet technology offers a combination of speed, efficiency and excellent manoeuvrability for these vessels, which will regularly operate in challenging sea conditions with strong winds and currents. These are essential factors when safely transferring people and equipment onto the turbine structures,” Brett said.

This order brings the number of Rolls-Royce powered vessels in service or on order from South Boats IOW and their sister company Alicat Workboats to 24.

Alicat Workboats & South Boats IOW sales & marketing manager Ben Colman said reliability and performance are of utmost importance in the industry and are how all vessels are measured, which is why the company selected Rolls-Royce water jet units.

“With the A3-series we have found excellent performance with speeds higher than predicted with excellent fuel efficiency as a result. The build quality and reliability of the A3-series water jet units is clear to see, we have seen excellent reliability from the 20 units we have fitted over the last couple of years,” Colman said.

Also featuring on the vessels is Rolls-Royce’s new compact control system for water jets, which is completely tailored to suit owners’ requirements and reduces build and installation times.

UK-based Renewable Energy Systems has scrapped its plans to build a £300m (€362.4m) biomass power station project at the Port of Blyth in Northumberland due to uncertainty in UK energy policy.

RES has blamed the government’s inconsistent support for dedicated biomass energy over the last two years.

Termination of the project results in loss of hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the Blyth estuary and wider Northumberland economy, the company claims.

Approximately 300 construction job opportunities and 50 full-time, long-term positions will be lost due to project termination.

According to RES, the project was expected to contribute towards a long-term partnership with the Port of Blyth in terms of fuel transport, handling and occupancy, helping to secure further growth of this important employer and economic engine of the region.

It would also have furnished a magnet for economic growth in Northumberland and the north-east region.

RES COO for the UK Gordon MacDougall said that in spite of the support the project enjoys locally due to the significant benefits it would bring to the local and regional economy, the North Blyth biomass power station currently faces insurmountable investment barriers due to uncertain government energy policy.

“it’s bitterly disappointing for RES that we are unable to bring this exciting project forward, and deliver the significant boost it would have represented for the Blyth and Northumberland economy,” MacDougall said.

“However, the gradual erosion of support for dedicated biomass leaves us with no other option.”

The company has asked the government to clarify its support for renewable energy as a vital part of the UK energy mix, in order to ensure that independent generators and major investors alike have the certainty needed to continue investing in UK infrastructure.

MacDougall also said that this is a reminder to government that, without a consistent approach to energy policy, investors and developers will be deterred from delivering the billions of pounds needed to ensure the UK’s energy infrastructure is able to keep the lights on and secure cost effective electricity for British homes and businesses.

In addition to this, the government’s preference for the conversion of existing coal fired power stations to biomass over dedicated biomass generating capacity is at odds with the urgent need to bridge the looming capacity crunch in the UK energy system.

KGAL Group, through its Enhanced Sustainable Power Fund 3 (ESPF 3), has acquired interest in the Seine Rive Gauche Nord (SRN) wind farm project that is being developed by H2air Group and Nordex Group.

H2airPx, a subsidiary of H2Air, and Nordex are responsible for the turnkey construction of the wind farm located in Aube, the Champagne-Ardenne region in northern France. H2air’s another subsidiary H2airGT is responsible for technical and commercial operations management at the wind farm.

The wind farm includes 30 Nordex N100 wind turbines of 2.5MW each. Construction on the 75MW wind farm is currently in progress and commissioning of the last turbine is planned for May 2015.

H2air and Nordex are also constructing a dedicated transformer substation that will establish a direct grid connection to the high voltage RTE Transmission network.

In July 2013, H2air and Nordex were awarded a €3.5m contract to Crompton Greaves (CG) to design, engineer, supply, install and commission a substation at the Seine Rive Gauche Nord wind farm. CG was also responsible for upgrading/building the overall electrical system. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-2014.

H2air president Roy Mahfouz said, “The success of the emblematic SRN wind farm is a testament to the company’s dedication and its sincere cooperation with both local and corporate partners. The result of which is a unique project that contributes to both French and European ambitions in the development of renewable energy.”

When completed, the wind farm will have an annual electricity output of 183GWh, which is enough to power approximately 50,000 households.