NTPC has awarded a contract to Alstom and NASL for modernisation of the Talcher super thermal power plant in India.

Under the €13m (INR 1,074m) contract, the two companies will renovate and modernise electrostatic precipitators (ESP) at four units of the 4 x 500MW Talcher power plant in Odisha.

The contract scope includes engineering, supply, erection, commissioning and testing of new parallel passes installed for four ESPs, a dry ash handling system for new passes and associated civil, mechanical and electrical works.

Alstom and NASL had executed ESP retrofits for NTPC’s Tanda 4 x 110MW plant as well.

The upgrade will reduce particulate emissions from the plant below 50mg/Nm³.

The project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.

Alstom Thermal Power & Renewable Power in India vice-president Patrick Ledermann said it is a significant step forward for Alstom and NASL and clearly reinforces the market’s faith in the company’s leading air quality control systems and services.

“Alstom’s extensive experience in providing customised retrofit solution, seamlessly integrated into the existing plant, made it the unparalleled choice for this project. Going forward, our focus will be to ensure the application of the most effective and efficient environmental control technology for the Talcher plant,” Ledermann added.

NASL is a joint venture company between NTPC and Alstom.

First Solar Inc. won’t be building the world’s largest solar plant in China after more than four years of negotiations on pricing failed to produce an agreement.

Scottish Hydro Electricity Transmission (SHE Transmission), the electricity transmission subsidiary of SSE, has received approval from Ofgem for a £1.2bn subsea link and transmission charging reform.

The new transmission link, between Caithness and Moray, will comprise more than 100 miles of underground and subsea cable for the transmission of a large volume of electricity from renewable sources in the north of Scotland.

Scheduled to commence construction in the next few months and expected to be completed in 2018, the project is part of a transformational programme of investment in electricity transmission infrastructure aimed to support the transition to lower carbon electricity generation while increasing security of supply and promoting economic growth.

SHE Transmission managing networks managing director Mark Mathieson said Ofgem has carried out detailed and extensive consultations on the project to ensure the right project is delivered at the right time to minimise electricity grid constraints without incurring unnecessary costs for electricity consumers.

“I am very pleased that it has been given the green light and we will now work with Ofgem on the remaining details and focus on ensuring that the new link is constructed in a safe and responsible way so that the benefits it will bring in unlocking renewable sources of energy for decades to come are realised,” Mathieson said.

Expected to support more than 600 jobs during its construction, which will be completed in 2018, the project will connect 1.2GW of new renewable electricity generation and, upon completion, will help meet the UK’s renewable target at a lower cost to consumers.

Additionally, Ofgem has approved new transmission charging methodology, effective from April 2016.

SHE Transmission senior partner Martin Crouch said the approval is a major step forward for an essential upgrade to the high-voltage grid so that more renewable energy can connect to the networks.

“We have already started on the next phase of checking SHE’s spending plans and we will ensure it completes the work as efficiently as possible so that consumers pay a fair price for this,” Crouch said

Plant operator Asociacion Nuclear Asco-Vandellos (ANAV) has awarded a contract to Areva to supply filtered containment venting systems (FCVS) for the Asco 1&2 and Vandellos 2 nuclear reactors in Spain.

The systems are designed to maintain the integrity of the reactor containment building and protect the environment by ensuring the confinement of radioactive materials in the event of a serious accident generating a rise in internal pressure.

The FCVS technology was developed by Areva and meets the requirements of prominent safety authorities.

The technology is compatible with the various reactor types. Areva has installed more than 70 FCVS systems in 12 countries to date.

The technology is part of Areva’s Safety Alliance program, which offers nuclear operators the most advanced products and services to guarantee the safety of their plants.

More than 150 Areva Safety Alliance projects have been launched for 53 nuclear utilities in 19 countries, representing a total value of nearly €400m.

Areva’s Reactors & Services Business Group executive vice-president Philippe Samama said, “This new contract confirms our position as a world leader for this technology and demonstrates the confidence of our utility customers. It opens up new prospects for development worldwide.”

ANAV, which is a joint venture between Endesa and Iberdrola, covers the 40% of the country’s nuclear capacity, in Catalonia.

Norwegian company Aibel has won a contract from Statoil for engineering work at the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park offshore wind farm.

As part of the NOK40m (£3.8m) contract, the company will carry out front end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering and management assistance (EMA) of substructures for the five new floating wind turbines.

The project comprises a FEED study and a subsequent detailed EMA phase.

Work on the project, which will be performed from Aibel’s offices in Oslo and Haugesund, will start immediately, with completion expected in 2017.

The turbines will be installed in the field off the east coast of Scotland.

Around 30 employees will be involved in the project.

The project will be carried out along with the subcontractor, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Dr techn. Olav Olsen and Principa North.

“The Statoil award is a recognition of Aibel’s project organisation, together with some of Europe’s leading experts on structural analysis of offshore wind turbines. Now, together with the rest of our organisation, they will ensure high-quality implementation,” Statoil CEO Skogseth said.

Statoil has previously carried out a demonstration project of the Hywind concept on a smaller scale off Karmøy.

The European Commission (EU) has awarded €300m funding for a carbon storage project located at the UK’s largest coal-fired power station, the Drax plant in Yorkshire.

Europe’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, the White Rose project, will provide clean electricity to more than 630,000 homes while supporting up to 2,000 jobs.

In addition to capturing around 90% of its carbon dioxide emissions, the plant is expected to safely store two million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually under the North Sea seabed.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey said the White Rose CCS project will create thousands of green, local jobs and make a real difference to cutting carbon emissions.

“The UK is at the forefront of developing carbon capture and storage, with excellent potential for storage in the North and Irish Seas, and the expertise in operating offshore to make it a reality,” Davey said.

“And as a world leader in the technology, as carbon capture and storage is commercialised, Britain will be in first place to export this knowledge to a decarbonising global economy.”

Being developed by a consortium of Alstom, BOC, Drax and National Grid, the White Rose project involves construction of a new state-of-the-art clean coal power plant with a large CO2 transport and storage network.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The White Rose carbon capture project will massively reduce emissions in the region and hopefully pave the way for low-carbon industrial zones in other parts of the country.”

Clean power plants with CCS are estimated to provide more than 20% of the UK’s electricity by 2050

The Scottish Government has approved plans to build a 22-turbine wind farm in West Lothian.

Located near West Calder, the Harburnhead wind farm is capable of generating 66MW of electricity, which is enough to meet the power demands of 31,000 homes.

During the construction phase the wind farm is expected to create around 80 jobs.

Once operational, the development will generate approximately £9m for the local economy.

Enel Viento will build the wind power project and has collaborated with West Calder and Harburn Community Development Trust to provide a community fund to support local projects throughout the operational life of the wind farm.

Meanwhile, the government has rejected a similar wind farm proposal that is also near West Calder.

The 21-turbine Fauch Hill wind farm was rejected on the bases of unacceptable adverse visual and landscape impacts.

Energy minister Fergus Ewing said the Harburnhead wind farm will create jobs both in its construction and during its lifetime, and will be able to produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 31,000 homes in West Lothian. The community fund that has been offered by the developer will bring considerable benefits to the local community.

“Scotland is already providing over a third of the UK’s renewable electricity generation and helping to keep the lights on across our islands at a time where there is an increasingly tight gap between electricity supply and demand,” Ewing said.

“We want to see the right developments in the right places, and that is why I have refused permission for the proposed wind farm at Fauch Hill, which I consider would have brought unacceptable impacts on the landscape, particularly the Pentland hills.”

Deutsche Bank AG plans to lend about $1 billion for Japan solar projects, joining Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in funding cleaner energy as the government struggles to restart nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster.

The bank is ready to provide financing for three to six projects in the next 12 to 18 months, said Hans Van Der Sande, director of Deutsche Bank’s structured products group at its Tokyo branch. The Frankfurt-based lender agreed last month to provide a 11.1 billion yen ($109 million) loan for a solar power project on a former golf course north of Tokyo to be operated by a unit of Spain’s Gestamp Renewables Corp.

Japan may add the most solar power capacity in the world this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, as a two-year-old incentive program attracted investors including Goldman Sachs. Even so, renewable energy accounts for less than 11 percent of its total production, compared with 31 percent in Germany, leaving the nation reliant on fuel imports after the closure of all of its atomic reactors and contributing to 23 straight months of trade deficits.

“Every time a country implements these very, very attractive standards you have a gold rush and that gold rush started two years ago,” Van Der Sande said in an interview. “Now the water is kind of pulling back, smaller people are leaving and the real players are staying.”

Lending Rates

Deutsche Bank declined to disclose the interest rates for the solar loans. The average new lending rate in Japan was a record-low 0.779 percent in May, according to central bank data. Average interest margins on dollar lending in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan were 2.35 percentage points so far in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“We got reverse inquiries from some of our clients offshore saying ‘we are interested in Japan solar and developing projects there but having difficulty getting finance from Japanese banks,’” said Van Der Sande. Local banks tend to require that project sponsors use Japanese solar panels that international operators don’t want to use because they are more expensive, he said.

Unprecedented BOJ stimulus to overcome deflation has lowered interest rates in Japan. The benchmark 10-year yield has dropped 24 1/2 basis points, or 0.245 percentage point, to 0.55 percent since December 2012 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power calling for an expansion of monetary easing.

The yen has weakened 15 percent during the period to 101.85 per dollar as of 3:58 p.m. in Tokyo, making it more expensive for Japan to buy fuel from abroad.

Goldman Projects

At least three of 12 solar power plants that Goldman Sachs helped organize through investor funding are producing power, according to Toru Inoue, a vice president at the U.S. bank’s Infrastructure & Structured Financing Group in Japan.

Insurance companies have invested in bonds arranged by Goldman Sachs and sold by special purpose companies established for the purpose of funding solar deals, Inoue said. Two projects in Japan’s northern Miyagi prefecture raised about 1 billion yen in funding through the sale of notes that carried either an A-or A rating from Japan Credit Ratings Agency Ltd., according to documents from Goldman Sachs.

The bonds carried a premium over similarly rated straight corporate debt because of the relative newness of the product and lower liquidity, he said. Investors want bigger deals and more liquidity, according to Inoue.

Megabank Deals

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. provided about 164 billion yen in funding for disclosed solar projects in Japan, or 89 percent of the total, as of May 23, according to Takehiro Kawahara, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He expects the nation to add 10,300 megawatts of solar capacity this year.

“While international investors have also been very keen to enter the Japan solar market, very few have been successful thus far,” said Kawahara. “While there is no legal barrier to entry, the large number of entrenched Japanese financial institutions make it difficult for international players without local partners to enter the market.”

The Japanese government’s subsidy program originally paid about triple the amount Germany extended for its solar industries.

Japan approved a cut in tariffs for solar power as a building boom meant the technology made up 97 percent of new renewable capacity since it offered incentives.

High Tariffs

The tariff was reduced in April 2013 to 37.8 yen per kilowatt hour from 42 yen. Japan’s method of subsidy for the industry is similar to the program Germany, Spain and the U.K. implemented, offering an above-market rate for solar power.

Japan gave final approval in March for the 11 percent cut to 32 yen a kilowatt-hour for the 20 years from the fiscal year starting April and offered 36 yen for offshore wind, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement. Japan’s sales tax rose 3 percentage points to 8 percent in April and should be added to each rate from then, while the previous tariffs included the lower 5 percent rate.

Orix Corp. began building a 51-megawatt solar power plant on a former golf course in the western prefecture of Mie. The plant will start running in May 2016, the company said in a statement June 4.

The Tokyo-based finance and leasing company has been building large-scale solar power stations across Japan. The company said in April that 17 plants have started running with a combined capacity of 41.3 megawatts.

Mizuho Bank Ltd. and partners will provide loans for a 111-megawatt solar power station being built on the northern island of Hokkaido by SoftBank Corp.’s clean energy unit and Mitsui & Co., according to a statement on March 7. Development Bank of Japan Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and nine other institutions will also finance the project.

“Many of clients we talk to are talking to Japanese banks, but I think many of them are finding it difficult to believe that they will ever get financing there,” said Deutsche Bank’s Van Der Sande. “The Japanese banks are very busy making solar loans to their good Japanese clients.”

Kawa Solar (Conergy Group) has secured a bank guarantee facility of $60m for the expansion of the company’s solar projects business.
The loan facility has been arranged by Deutsche Bank and financed by Tennenbaum Capital Partners and is expected to strengthen financial support across Conergy’s power plants value chain.
The value chain ranges from project development, through the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of new plants, to the operations and maintenance (O&M) of completed plants.
Conergy Group global COO Alexander Gorski said the new financing will allow Conergy Group to rapidly scale up global projects business.
“Backed by strong equity investors, we have generated exceptional growth in utility-scale projects this year,” Gorski said.
Conergy’s EPC business has been managing solar power plants totalling 650MWp worldwide and the O&M business for the management of 300MWp of assets for 200 customers, to date.
“With the new bank guarantees, Conergy Group is expected to accelerate its participation in high growth markets.”
Conergy Group board member Andrew de Pass said: “The support of Deutsche Bank and Tennenbaum Capital Partners positions Conergy to execute its global growth plan in solar power projects, and confirms Conergy as one of the strongest downstream companies in solar with a truly global footprint.”
Tennenbaum Capital Partners managing director Timothy Gravely said: “We have deep expertise in the energy technology sector and we are pleased to leverage that on behalf of Conergy.”
With the new bank guarantees, Conergy Group is expected to accelerate its participation in high growth markets while expanding project capacity supported by bank guarantees by up to 400MWp.
Conergy’s projects are backed by majority shareholder Kawa Capital Management.

Gamesa has signed binding agreements with Areva to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with focus on the offshore wind energy industry, following completion of exclusive talks initiated in January 2013. The JV aims to secure a 20% share of the European offshore wind market by 2020 and deliver 2.8GW of capacity. The transaction, which is subject to approvals by the French Government and the relevant competition authorities in Europe and other jurisdictions, will combine both the companies’ expertise in delivering turbines to the offshore wind market. The offshore wind market is expected to cross 25GW in Europe and 18GW in Asia by 2020. Under the terms of the accord, Gamesa will contribute assets worth €195m including its 5MW offshore platform; offshore R&D knowledge transfer and license of the onshore technology that can be applied offshore; extensive operations and maintenance ability, and industrial know-how and supply chain access.

Additionally, Areva will contribute assets valued at €280m, which include 5MW and 8MW offshore platforms; a 2.8GW pipeline, the offshore market’s second largest; offshore R&D and engineering knowledge transfer, and offshore manufacturing and logistics capabilities, as part of the agreement. The new company will further develop the upcoming 8MW platform to reduce costs with a view towards installation by 2021 at 1GW of sites recently won by Areva in France’s second offshore wind tender. With registered headquarters in Zamudio, Spain and the executive committee to be based in Paris, France, the JV will fulfill existing Areva industrial development commitments in France and the UK. The transaction is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.