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.

Voith has completed work on the 95MW Budarhals hydro power plant in Iceland. The project has been commissioned during an opening ceremony on 7 March 2014, which was held by Voith and Landsvirkjun, the national power company in Iceland.

The company has supplied and installed two Kaplan turbines, which has water-filled runner hubs. It also provided generators with the latest technology using brushless thyristor controlled exciters.

Voith’s project work also included the supply of powerhouse cranes and station control systems.

Landsvirkjun Budarhals project manager Gudlaugur Thorarinsson said, “All works on the project has been diligently completed in spite of harsh winter weathers and an ambitious time schedule, while the company is satisfied with the performance of Voith.”

Successful completion of the project represents a long term continuation of business activity in Iceland, Voith said.

The first design for the Budarhals hydropower plant was performed by Landsvirkjun in 1989 and later developed to the present design.

Following the economic and financial crisis in 2008, Budarhals was the first major infrastructure project being built.

Voith Financial Services financing structure was an important support for the hydropower project, as it assisted Landsvirkjun in funding.

According to the ‘World Atlas Hydropower & Dam 2013’, with Budarhals hydroelectric project Iceland has total installed hydro capacity of 1,980MW.

In 2011, hydropower plants have contributed approximately 73% to the national electricity output by generating 12,507GWh of power.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

US-based solar technology manufacturer SunEdison has announced the completion of a debt financing deal with Deutsche Bank for the construction of photovoltaic (PV) plants in the UK.

The closing of the debt financing agreement will allow SunEdison to build four utility-scale PV solar plants with a combined capacity of 56MW. The agreement marks the company’s foray into the UK market.

Located in Swindon, Wiltshire, North Devon and on the Essex/Suffolk border, the four plants are currently under construction.

The plants are expected to be fully operational by the end of March 2014.

Deutsche Bank co-head of infrastructure and energy Michael Volkermann said, “We are delighted to be involved in this exciting project by providing the financing to our client. This transaction is evidence of Deutsche’s expertise in supporting companies in the renewable energy sector by providing extensive advisory and financial services.”

Once operational, the projects will be acquired by Foresight Solar Fund, through a share purchase agreement (SPA).

Foresight Solar Fund is a £150m investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and managed by Foresight Group.

The fund commitment to acquire these assets was declared in the IPO Prospectus issued by Foresight Group in September 2013.

Acquisition of these assets will be completed through the fund’s IPO proceeds.

SunEdison president of EMEA and Latin America Jose Perez said the company is foraying in to the UK solar market with a project portfolio while expanding its relationship with Deutsche Bank.

“We view the United Kingdom as a high-growth market for solar and for our company, we are looking forward to supporting economic growth for the United Kingdom through solar projects that create jobs and support the local economy while delivering predictably priced energy,” Perez said.