Dutch energy company Eneco Group has signed a deal with AutoGrid to deploy its software technology for creating its first software defined power plant.

The company has selected AutoGrid’s Predictive Controls technology and its application DROMS, for the software defined power plant to integrate renewable energy into Dutch grid.

Eneco head of portfolio management Michel Engelen said:

“Environmental sustainability is at the core of the strategy of Eneco Group, and cost-effective integration of renewable and other distributed resources into our energy portfolio is one of the main ways we seek to realise this goal.” He also added :

“By offering us increased control over our flexible portfolio, AutoGrid’s software defined power plant enables us to integrate alternative flexible energy resources into our portfolio and subsequently a larger amount of intermittent renewables, helping our customers reduce their energy costs and helping us get a higher return on our renewable assets.”

Eneco Group supplies power to more than two million users in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The company Software Defined Power Plant uses AutoGrid’s Predictive Controls technology, which helps the company to forecast, optimise and control a vast network of distributed energy resources in real-time and at scale.

The solution also offers flexibility from customer-owned Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units in greenhouses, industrial demand response, and other flexible distributed energy resources into a single, reliable resource.

By using the solution, the company can react to market signals from Dutch wholesale electricity markets run by the Dutch Transmission System Operator (TSO) in real time, and optimise a large portfolio of distributed generation assets.

It will also help the company integrate more renewable energy into its power generation portfolio and reduce imbalance costs associated with renewable intermittency.

Lekela Power, a joint venture between Irish developer Mainstream Renewable Power and investment firm Actis, has signed an agreement with the government’s transmission company to build a 250MW wind project.

Lekela’s 250MW project will be located in the Gulf of Suez region of northeast Egypt. Lekela will construct the project on a build, own and operate framework.

The private equity investor Actis owns 60% stake in Lekela Power, and the remaining 40% is owned by Irish green energy developer Mainstream Renewable Power.

The planned wind power development is expected to cost around $350m (€326m), according to Daily News Egypt.

The deal represents Lekela Power’s third Egyptian project. Earlier this year the firm signed deals for two more; a wind and a solar power project each having a 50MW capacity.

Lekela Power chief executive officer Chris Antonopoulos said :

“We are delighted to have agreed heads of terms for our third project in Egypt and we look forward to continuing to provide clean, safe, and cost-competitive energy to the Egyptian people through our wind and solar projects.”

The Lekela JV was launched in February 2015 in a $1.9 billion deal (€1.77bn). It is aiming to develop up to 900MW of wind and solar projects in Africa by 2018.

SSE and Wheelabrator Technologies have been granted planning consent by the government for the Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 project in West Yorkshire.

The project, run by Multifuel Energy Ltd, a company set up for the project by SSE and Wheelabrator, will process up to 675,000 tonnes of waste derived fuels using municipal waste to produce around 70MW of electricity and is located close to the site of the Ferrybridge Multifuel 1 project.

MEL has invested £300m (€415m) in FM2 and will generate 500 construction jobs and around 40 permanent full time operational jobs. The project is expected to give £10m of supply opportunities to local businesses over the three year construction phase.

MEL operations director Tom Maillet said: “We are delighted that the Secretary of State has made the decision to grant planning permission for the Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 project.” Then added :

“We believe that the Multifuel 1 project, which is fully operational, and the Multifuel 2 project can make a positive, low carbon contribution to the UK’s electricity supply and help to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.”

United Utilities is to build a £3.5m floating solar power system on the Godley reservoir in Hyde in Manchester.
The development will consist of 12,000 solar panels and cover an area of 45,500 square metres. It will be the second biggest floating solar plant in the world when complete, after one located in Japan.

The company aims to complete the installation, test it and bring it into operation before Christmas 2015.
Once complete, the 12-week project will provide United Utilities with 2.7GWh per year of electricity.

United Utilities head of renewable energy Chris Stubbs said: “We have a target to generate 35% of our power requirements by 2020 and this project will make a significant contribution to that aim. As part of United Utilities’ energy strategy to generate more power we identified the Godley reservoir as a suitable site to install a floating solar array to provide the water treatment works with approximately 33% of its energy requirements.”

He also added :

“While floating solar has been deployed elsewhere around the world, most notably in Japan, it is a new technology to the UK. Installations such as the Godley solar scheme will help us to keep energy costs and water customers’ bills low.”

DNV GL has been joined by seven companies, including ExxonMobil and Statoil, to examine the potential of floating wind turbines to power offshore petroleum installations.

DNV GL said initial studies have shown that a standalone wind-powered water-injection system could become cost competitive for various types of applications.

In particular, for water injection far from the production platform and when costly retrofitting is not an option.
In order to develop the concept futher, DNV GL launched the WIN WIN joint industry partnership, which also includes ENI Norge, Nexen Petroleum UK, VNG, PG Flow Solutions, and ORE Catapult.

DNV GL said the technical concept is being developed and the technical feasibility assessed in detail :
“Two of the main challenges being addressed are the off-grid operation of the system and the reservoir’s response to variable injection rates”, the company said.

DNV GL segment leader – floating wind turbines Johan Sandberg said: “Once the technical hurdles are cleared, the concept’s economic viability will be analysed using relevant and realistic cases provided by the JIP partners. Then added :

“Initial results are promising, and with the operators on board we are able to test the concept on real cases.
In parallel with finalizing the initial technical and economic assessment of the concept, we are now thinking about the next steps, both looking for other relevant applications of the system.”

Statoil renewables research group manager Hanne Wigum said: “The overall concept needs maturing up to a point where it can be considered a viable option in field development studies.”

Eon and the UK Green Investment Bank have appointed cable and pipeline system installation specialist VolkerInfra to carry out onshore works for the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm, which is being built 13km off the Sussex coast.

The job will comprise of onshore major horizontal directional drills – under the A27, a railway crossing, the A283 and River Adur – and one landfall to connect the onshore and offshore cables when installed.
VolkerInfra will start the work later this year and is set to have it completed by the second quarter of 2016.

VolkerInfra managing director Jonathon Humphries said: “We are delighted to be appointed for the Rampion project and look forward to safely delivering the works in collaboration with our VolkerWessels sister companies Visser & Smit Hanab and VBMS.”

Spanish Iberdrola has signed an agreement with the Young Farmers’ Agricultural Association (ASAJA) in Madrid to increase generation and use of solar photovoltaic energy in the agricultural sector.

The firms will jointly boost the Smart Solar Iberdrola service to allow customers to generate their own energy for consumption using solar photovoltaic technology.

The partners will conduct feasibility tests to boost the technology for the facilities, members, customers, and other points of supply represented by ASAJA, whose members include direct farm workers, with owners and lease-holders, and also families members related to farm activities.

A follow-up committee will be set up for the purpose, which will also deliver, publicise and carry out marketing for the service in this sector.

Smart Solar is a retail product by Iberdrola, which offers design, assembly and commissioning of a fully customised solar installation, besides delivering finance, advice, comprehensive maintenance, management and supervision of the facilities through web tools and innovative applications.

Iberdrola announced in February its intentions to invest for renewable energy sector in Scotland and the UK.

ASAJA is a professional agricultural organisation in the country, which is comprised of 200,000 members.

German conglomerate Siemens has launched a new direct-current technology solution, which enables cost-efficient and simplified grid connection for offshore wind power plants.

Unlike the conventionally used large central converter platforms, the new platform housing Siemens’ transmission technology will be much smaller and compact.

The firm is further developing the transmission technology, which can connect multiple smaller platforms sequentially in a wind farm and then route them to an onshore transformer substation.

The compact design of the new solution allows the use of encapsulated high-voltage electrical equipment, especially installation of diode rectifier units (DRUs), instead of the usual air-insulated transistor modules.

Each of the DRUs has a transmission capacity of 200MW, and is the core of the new transmission technology, along with the transformer, the smoothing reactor, and the rectifier, all of which are combined in one tank.

Besides being modular and flexible, the new solution reduces the volume of platform structures by four-fifths and weight by two-thirds, which, in turn, can result in cost reductions by more than 30%.

It also increases transmission capacity by one-third and reduces transmission losses by 20%.

Siemens Energy Management Division CEO Jan Mrosik said: “As the only provider on the market, we have already successfully commissioned four offshore direct-current connection projects. Now we are applying our experience directly to the next generation of direct-current grid connections.” He also said :

“Our new solution will play a major role in decreasing the cost of offshore wind power below ten cents per kilowatt hour by 2020. This is how we plan to make the direct-current technology used in Germany more interesting to other markets, too.”

German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) is financing the new Siemens’ technology solution as a part of the federal government’s sixth energy research programme under the supervision of project sponsor Jülich.

Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has invested more than $900m in the 2013-14 financial year in projects worth more than $3bn in total value.

The investments cover a diverse range of economic activity such as agribusiness, waste coal mine gas-to-energy, wave energy, bioenergy, energy efficiency projects in local government and the community sector, and efficiency upgrades across the full spectrum of the property sector.

CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said the CEFC is demonstrating the potential that its activities offer to catalyse greater private sector investment into the sector, with its current portfolio achieving matched private sector funds of more than $2.20 for each $1 of CEFC investment.

“The CEFC invests for a positive return, with its investments presently expected to earn an average yield of approximately 7%, which is more than 3.5% above the government’s cost of funds prevailing when the investment were made,”Yates said.

“Through this portfolio of 40 direct investments and a further 25 projects co-financed under aggregation partnerships, the CEFC is delivering abatement estimated at more than 4.2 million tonnes of CO2e p.a., with a benefit to the taxpayer of around $2.40 per tonne of CO2e abated (net of government cost of borrowing).”

The CEFC has partnered with all four major banks and more than ten other domestic and international banks for the investment.

The CEFC will also finance $227m, of which around $133m is for new solar programmes and projects, which will bring its total commitment to solar to more than $200m.

Some of the investments of the CEFC include up to $120m for three new Solar PV financing programmes, up to $70m for a programme by SunEdison, up to $20m for a programme offered by Tindo Solar, up to $30m for a programme by Kudos Energy and $13m under a structured project finance facility.

MIT has developed a potentially revolutionary graphene sponge that uses a combination of steam and solar energy to create a clean energy efficiency of 85pc.

The process converts steam energy created by directing sunlight on the material into useable energy, something which is considered a viable option financially given that once it is developed on a larger scale will be more efficient than standard solar panels.

The actual structure placed on top of the body of water consists of a layer of graphite flakes and an underlying carbon foam that is both porous and insulating.

When sunlight hits the structure’s surface, it creates a hotspot in the graphite, drawing water up through the material’s pores, where it evaporates as steam, meaning the brighter the light, the more steam is generated.

According to MIT News, the entire setup loses little heat in the process and, more importantly, can produce steam at relatively low solar intensity at an equivalent of 10 times an average sunny day, in comparison with 1,000 times with existing steam-to-energy systems.

If the technology were to be scaled up, the setup would likely not require complex, costly systems to highly concentrate sunlight.

Hadi Ghasemi, a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, has said the material’s inexpensive production cost could bring great benefits.

“Steam is important for desalination, hygiene systems, and sterilisation. Especially in remote areas where the sun is the only source of energy, if you can generate steam with solar energy, it would be very useful.”