Shell UK has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Technip for the onshore elements of the Peterhead gas carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project in Scotland.

The FEED contract includes a grassroots carbon capture and compression plant and modifications to an existing combined cycle gas turbine power plant.

Located in Aberdeenshire, the CCS project is designed to capture, compress and transport carbon dioxide through a pipeline to an offshore gas reservoir for long-term storage beneath the North Sea.

The project is estimated to transport around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by pipeline. It also supports development of key technology to reduce carbon emissions.

Technip’s operating centre in the UK, Milton Keynes, which executed a pre-FEED study for the Peterhead CCS project about 18 months ago, will execute the FEED for this next phase.

The UK office acts as a centre of excellence in developing end-to-end solutions for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Technip senior vice-president, process technology Stan Knez said “The company is devoted for the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for the customers and seeks to expand its footprint into the carbon capture and sequestration value chain.”

Shell is developing the Peterhead CCS project with strategic support from SSE Generation, owner and operator of the Peterhead power station.

The project was chosen in March 2013 as one of two CCS demonstration projects to progress to the next stage of the UK government’s CCS Commercialisation Competition funding.

The project’s FEED is the next stage of design, which has been approved through an agreement signed between Shell and the UK Government in February 2014. The FEED works are expected to last through 2014 and 2015.

BWP Eider has awarded a contract to Vestas to supply turbines for one of Germany’s largest citizen-owned wind power plants.

Under the contract, Vestas will supply 72.6MW worth of wind turbines to be installed in the region of Eider in Schleswig-Holstein.

Delivery of wind turbines will begin in the third quarter of 2014 and commissioning is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The contract includes supply, installation and commissioning of 22 V112-3.3MW turbines, along with a VestasOnline Business SCADA solution and a 15-year full-scope service agreement (AOM 5000).

Upon completion, the wind farm will generate more than 190GWh per year, enough to power more than 49,000 German four-person-households.

Eider wind power plant managing directors Marcus Alexander Rolfs and Gerald Grimmer said that with 700 local residents investing, this power plant is a successful example for a democratic change in the energy mix.

“We are confident that Vestas will be an excellent partner. We are impressed by Vestas’ quick supply, installation and commissioning, and convinced by the advanced technology and high performance of the V112-3.3 MW turbine. With its efficient full converter technology, it fulfils even the highest grid requirements,” Rolf and Grimmer said.

Vestas Central Europe Senior vice-president Sales Hans Vestergaard said, “The citizen-owned wind power plant Eider is a lighthouse project, which shows the potential and competitiveness of our wind energy solutions. Citizen-owned wind power plants is a key part of the particularly strong support for wind power we see especially in northern Germany.”

GE Power Conversion has completed trials of PassiveBoost, a technology that is designed to allow remote power networks to go direct current (DC), and would reduce the cost of offshore wind energy by 15%.

The new system will increase the electrical output delivered from renewable energy sources in distant, inhospitable places.

Trials for the new systems were performed at the company’s full-scale power system test site near Leicester in the UK.

The company claims that the solution provides a straight replacement, on the same footprint, for the alternating current (AC) transformer inside every wind turbine and allows direct connection to a high-voltage DC power collection grid.

GE Power Conversion senior executive Keiran Coulton said that whether extracting fossil fuels or capitalising on renewable energy resources, the company is determined in working further offshore or in inhospitable desert locations.

“In either case, the energy wasted in AC transmission systems is costing the energy consumer too much. The technologies behind PassiveBoost will enable these costs to be cut,” Coulton said.

PassiveBoost uses a new power device packaging technique with a cooling system, and its ActiveFoldback fault protection system.

Coulton also said like all electronics, the cost of power conversion is coming down while the prices of materials in a conventional transformer are rising.

Scottish Enterprise has supported the PassiveBoost project, with components of the trial system being developed at GE’s Glasgow plant.

Scottish Enterprise director of renewable energy and low carbon technologies Seoniad Vass said that cutting down the cost of electricity produced by offshore wind is a key factor in realizing the significant economic potential of the technology.

“As a result, the development of innovative technologies such as this is key to the sector’s ongoing development, and we look forward to continuing to work with GE in this important field,” Vass said.

Research and development of the new system was undertaken by teams from GE’s Advanced Technology Group at the University of Edinburgh and in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Westinghouse Electric has installed a fully passive containment filtered venting system (PCFVS) at the Nuklearna Elektrarna Krško nuclear power plant in Slovenia.

The upgrade to the nuclear plant will increase safety in the event of a severe nuclear accident.

The Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration has made a compulsion of such upgrades following the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Installation of PCFVS was completed in 15 months, and the Krško plant is the first in Europe to set up a passive system for reducing the impact of a nuclear accident, Westinghouse said.

The venting system consists primarily of five aerosol filters inside containment, and an iodine filter inside the auxiliary building and various auxiliary components (such as valves and rupture disks) to ensure its fully passive operation during more than 72 hours.

Westinghouse said that the design and installation of the system allows the power plant to depend on a compact and modular dry metal fiber filter to capture the aerosols instead of using a large water tank.

This approach has allowed significant flexibility on where the filter can be installed, and at Krško, part of the filter was installed in the containment building.

The filters’ factory acceptance tests have positively surpassed levels required by regulatory authorities and by Krško.

PCFVS was installed for the components located inside auxiliary building, including the new plant stack anchored on the reactor building.

Installation of the equipment inside the reactor building, including closing of the containment penetration, did not impact the outage’s critical path.

Westinghouse vice-president and managing director southern Europe Javier González said that the customers clearly recognise the cost and technology advantage of its dry-filtered method of containment venting as the company is under contract for seven other units around the world.

“Since the design is modular, lead times can be much less than for other systems that require the construction of additional buildings,” González said.

Erste Group Bank, together with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banca Comerciala Româna (BCR), is providing €76m financing for the construction of the 108MW Crucea North wind farm in Romania.

As a mandated lead arranger, Erste Group Bank will provide €49m for the project in a parallel term loan structure with EBRD, while BCR will provide a€27m VAT facility.

Erste Group Bank is also acting as facility and security agent and sole hedging provider to Crucea Wind Farm, which is owned by STEAG. Its commercial loan facility benefits from cover by Eksport Kredit Fonden, the Danish export credit agency.

The senior loan facilities have a tenor of 14 years, including the construction period and feature various structured finance elements.

To be located in the Dobrogea region on the Romanian Black Sea coast, the Crucea North wind farm will have 36 Vestas wind turbines of 3MW each. Vestas Romania and EnergoBit are the balance of plant suppliers for the project. Around €200m will be invested in project.

Construction of the wind park is in its advanced stage and its commercial operation date is set for the end of 2014.

STEAG CFO Michael Baumgärtner said: “STEAG is very pleased having achieved signing of the Crucea North transaction, which represents the first project of the company in Romania and is the result of the first and fruitful cooperation of STEAG with EBRD, EKF, Erste and BCR.”

The project expects to sell both electricity and Green Certificates (GC) on the OPCOM day-ahead and the GC market respectively.

Sierra, part of the Siteserv Group and one of Ireland’s leading support service providers to the telecommunications, power and energy, and civil engineering sectors, is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Kenny as Finance Director.

Paul’s most recent role was with Greencore USA as the Chief Financial Officer and, prior to that, Group Head of Treasury and Financial Planning At Greencore Group plc.  Previous to that, Paul worked with Bord Gais Eireann, where he held various roles including Deputy Head of Bord Gais Energy and Group Treasurer. Paul trained with EY as a Chartered Accountant.

Paul brings 20 years’ experience in financial management, expertise in risk management and regulation, and has strong knowledge of management within large organisations. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and is a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. Paul also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has obtained a share of the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) from the Scottish Government to develop tidal energy monitoring system.

The funding will enable EMEC to further develop, test, operate and validate their Integrated Marine Energy Measurement Platform – a seabed monitoring pod set to evaluate various parameters in tidal flows, such as at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site, off the island of Eday, in Orkney.

The project aims to provide a method for collecting required information on potential interactions among marine energy devices and some marine wildlife.

It will also help to speed up deployment of commercial-scale wave and tidal stream energy as this project tries to reduce costs and risk linked with marine energy array deployment.

The pod is a combination of onshore and offshore subsea components, along with active sonar, acoustic doppler profiler, hydrophones, conductivity/ temperature/ density/ turbidity sensors, marine radar, met station and a vessel tracking system.

By using the monitoring pod a variety of parameters at the EMEC tidal test site can be measured.

It will measure parameters like current profile, device noise output, device and marine mammal/diving bird interaction, conductivity, turbidity, temperature, density and surface wave height.

The initial prototype deployment in 2012 will be reconsidered, in order to upgrade the pod and integrate the supporting data streams to develop a pre-commercial demonstration system.

The Carbon Trust wave and tidal technology acceleration manager Simon Robertson said that data and lessons from this project will be important to understand site characteristics and marine mammal interactions with devices in tidal flows.

EMEC research director Jennifer Norris said that the project brings together a variety of more standard technologies that have been configured jointly to provide an uninterrupted data set.

Norris said, “The EMEC tidal test site is subject to peak spring tides of up to 4m per second – very challenging tidal flows which are notoriously difficult to work in – so there have been various challenges to overcome in the design, build, operation and deployment of the pod.”

Alstom has secured a contract from German transmission grid operator TenneT TSO to provide a 300MVAr mechanically switched capacitor with damping network (MSCDN) to improve efficiency and voltage stability at the Karben electrical substation on the Frankfurt am Main network.

Network operators are being called on to provide cleaner electricity, in the context of Germany’s energy turnaround, through a major integration of both renewable and decentralised power sources.

With this contract, TenneT will install its sixth MSCDN system manufactured by Alstom.

MSCDN system is a turnkey reactive power compensation system that enhances power quality and assists in raising transmission capacity.

The technology offers TenneT access to a constant and high-quality supply of “switchable” reactive power.

MSCDN’s flexibility has the ability to support voltage levels when capacity is high, and simply be turned off when capacity is low.

Filter function of the system would significantly reduce any voltage harmonics, or oscillations.

Optimised use of reactive power decreases energy losses while this helps in reduction of both costs and carbon emissions.

Additionally, improved line capacity makes it possible to transport more electrical power throughout the decentralised grid.

Alstom Grid team leader for power electronics activities Jan-Hendrik von Auer said that the company has expanded its long-term cooperation with TenneT in 2006 to include MSCDNs.

“With today’s order, TenneT once again reaffirms its trust in Alstom’s expertise and outstanding service,” Auer said.

Reacting to the news from DECC that the biomethane injection tariff will be reviewed, Charlotte Morton, chief executive, ADBA said:

“We welcome the announcement that the government plans to review the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) biomethane injection tariff. The industry needs tariffs which will fairly incentivise all scales of biomethane injection, and biomethane support needs to be on a long-term footing to give certainty to developers and investors.

“This early announcement from government should help to provide certainty for the industry, allowing early sight of forthcoming changes. We will continue to work closely with DECC and our members to gather evidence to ensure tariffs are set at an appropriate level.

“Biomethane injected into the gas grid can deliver huge benefits to the British economy, helping to decarbonise gas supply to homes, businesses and transport, while boosting UK energy security by delivering a domestic source of energy which reduces the UK’s dependence on overseas fossil gas.”

One of Ireland’s leading wind-turbine producers, Airsynergy, has raised €2m in funding, which it hopes to put back into new clean-tech projects.

Founder and chief executive of the Longford-based company, Jim Smyth, said the company raised the €2m from existing and new investors in its fourth funding round over the past seven months, bringing total investment to €5m.

The company, which employs 14 people, has also stated it intends on having a further funding round later this year.

The new funding will primarily be used to drive the company’s national and global network of licensees to manufacture and sell products with the intention of promoting its flagship wind turbine and wind-powered street lights.

Airsynergy has also created new links with Irish-American businesspeople after the New York-based DGC Capital Contracting Group purchased a stake in the renewable-energy company.

DGC’s CEO, Gerry Ryan, originally from Tipperary, is also CEO of Aris Renewable Energy, which has obtained a licence from Airsynergy to develop, manufacture and sell wind turbines and wind-powered street lights using Airsynergy’s patented technology in the US and Caribbean.

Ryan has also joined the Airsynergy board, which includes businessman and Irish TV personality Eddie Hobbs as a non-executive director.

Speaking about the decision to invest in the company, Ryan said: “The Airsynergy technology is a game changer for the sector as it takes more wind into the system and accelerates the air across the rotor. As a result, we believe this technology will enhance life and help shape the physical world for future generations.

“And, while the turbines using this technology are the world’s most powerful, they are significantly lower in height and perform much better at lower wind speeds than traditional turbines. This means the Airsynergy turbines can work efficiently even in low-wind regions and in many situations can produce power cheaper than fossil fuels, particularly as you scale up in size.”