UK-based Highview Power Storage (HPS) has signed a global licensing and technology collaboration agreement with GE Oil & Gas for developing liquid air energy storage (LAES) systems.

Under the agreement, the companies will look into integrating Highview’s LAES technology in power plants where GE gas turbines will be installed.

HPS LAES technology uses liquid air or nitrogen as the storage medium to provide long-duration energy storage and it can also convert low-grade waste heat into power, increasing the overall efficiency of a host power plant.

This technology is scalable from around 5MW to significantly greater than 50MW.

The companies claim that the technology has no geographical restrictions compared to other large-scale storage technologies, like pumped hydro, and compressed air does not require mountains or caverns to operate.

Since 2011, LAES has been operating at a grid-connected 350kW/2.5MW pilot plant hosted by SSE next to the utility’s 80MW Slough biomass plant in Greater London.

GE Oil & Gas Turbomachinery Solutions business product management general manager Luca Maria Rossi said that Highview’s LAES technology and access to an operational pilot plant makes it an ideal partner for GE Oil & Gas to offer fully integrated energy solutions to customers.

HPS CEO Gareth Brett said that working with GE is an opportunity for HPS to access a broader customer base.

“The use of our LAES technology with GE’s solutions for flexible peaker plants will help make a significant contribution to balancing the electrical network of the future,” Brett said.

Vestas has signed a framework agreement with German wind power plant developer juwi for 75 units of Vestas’ 3MW platform, with an order for 21MW now firm and unconditional.

Under the firm and unconditional order, Vestas will supply seven V112-3.0 MW turbines to be installed in Rhineland-Palatinate during the third quarter of 2014.

The contract includes supply, installation and commissioning of the wind turbines, along with a VestasOnline Business SCADA solution, as well as a 15-year full-scope service agreement (AOM 4000).

Vestas expects to deliver and install the remainder of the machines from the framework agreement within 2014 at sites in western, central and southern Germany.

The new frame agreement and order follows the successful completion of a previous agreement for 47 wind turbines, signed in 2012.

juwi founder and board member Matthias Willenbacher said: “We are pleased to contribute further to the development of wind power energy in Germany with this agreement. Vestas’ advanced wind turbines enable us to offer our various customers reliable technology for sustainable energy production. Together with juwi and Vestas, regional utilities, and citizen cooperatives are able to contribute in an economically meaningful way to the energy turnaround.”

In August 2010, Vestas released the first wind turbine in its new 3MW platform, the V112-3.0 MW turbine.

A report released by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) shows that in 2013, enough solar panels were installed across the globe to create approximately 37GW of solar power.

According to Gaëtan Masson, the association’s head of business intelligence, this brings the world’s total solar energy output to 136.7GW up to 2013 which was a significant increase of 35pc on the same time in 2012.

Also to come out of the report was, as had been understood from previous reports from organisations like EY who have shown that Asia will be leading the largest clean tech push in the coming years as it overtakes Europe as the world’s biggest developer of the technology.

As the figures show, While Europe concentrated more than 70pc of the world’s new PV installations in 2011 and still approximately 59pc a year later, with more than 10GW of new capacity installed in 2013, Europe only accounted for 28pc of the world’s market.

In some European countries, it is claimed, harsh support reduction, retrospective measures as well as unplanned changes are seriously harming the continent’s expansion of solar technology.

Italy is given as one of the worst examples of this as they have fallen from their position as the third-largest solar panel market in the world in 2012 by a margin of 70pc less productivity in 2013.

Germany too, the world leader by a considerable margin, saw a 57pc drop in productivity in 2013 as a result of regulatory changes.

The Azimut project partners have completed their applied research activities to develop an offshore wind turbine by 2020 with a unit capacity of 15MW.

The Gamesa-led €30.3m project brings together the efforts of 11 Spanish companies and 22 research centres, including Acciona Windpower, Alstom Wind, Acciona Energía, Iberdrola Renovables, Ingeteam, Imatia, Ingeciber, Digsilent Iberica, Técnicas Reunidas and Tecnitest.

As part of the research activities, the parties have gained an understanding of key areas, primarily in developing new technologies, testing process and models, and creating a new web application.

Gamesa has developed a new resin with improved properties for the manufacture of blades as well as a coating, Bladeshield, with anti-icing properties.

Acciona Windpower has undergone revision of various concepts for multi-megawatt wind turbines, and compared cost, weight and performance of the variants, while Alstom Wind was involved in the characterisation and validation of profiles for large offshore blades, while Acciona Energía unveiled several simulation tools.

In collaboration with Acciona Energía and the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria, Iberdrola Renovables worked to develop a methodology and software tool to predict the short-term progress of the biohazard spill produced by offshore wind farms.

Ingeteam developed control algorithms for multiphase machines, in addition to filing two patents on multilevel conversion topologies.

To help experts design offshore O&M plans, Imatia developed statistical analysis and simulation techniques and generated algorithms, while Ingeciber worked on new mathematical models and existing CAE tools, to analyse offshore structures.

Digsilent Iberica launched its GridCode V2, which incorporates algorithms such as the Prony analysis for oscillation mode detection and ultimate model validation methods.

In addition to this, a new application, The Web Application for Grid Code Tracking, has been designed and developed, to help store specific offshore requirements.

Técnicas Reunidas demonstrated a new energy storage technology based on a zinc / air flow battery to increase wind energy penetration and create new insights on electrodes, membranes and electrolytes for zinc / air batteries, while Tecnitest worked to optimise a waterless/liquidless coupling for inspections using ultrasonic techniques (UT) for towers.

ReneSola has secured a contract from Enlightened Solar to supply 66 Replus string inverters and 100 Micro Replus micro inverters as part of a larger sale of ReneSola solar products.

Enlightened Solar will install 2,000 ReneSola 240W and 260W Virtus II modules and the ReneSola inverters on a series of new housing projects in the UK.

Enlightened Solar Managing director Geoff Fox said: “We chose ReneSola products because of the long expertise that the company has in supplying top quality equipment. The ease of procurement and full after sales service from the UK office made ReneSola an easy choice.”

ReneSola UK general manager Ian Glover said, “We are delighted Enlightened Solar chose our TL-series inverters. We have received positive feedback on our inverter quality and ease of installation, and expect the use of our inverters to streamline the overall installation process of solar equipment.”

The ReneSola products will be installed at 1,000 new homes located in Crawley Brentwood and Dagenham in south-east England.

Countryside properties will construct the homes and will include a mix of private and social housing. All properties are expected to benefit from the solar installation.

Schneider Electric has been selected as a preferred supplier by Areva to provide power equipment for the offshore wind power projects in France.

Schneider Electric will supply transformers and circuit breakers for Areva’s wind farms, including the 500MW Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm and the current tenders for offshore wind farms at Le Tréport off the coast of Haute-Normandie and the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier in Pays de la Loire.

The company will manufacture the equipment at two of its French industrial sites, located near Metz and Grenoble.

AREVA Renewables CEO Louis-François Durret said, “This agreement with Schneider Electric further underscores our commitment to developing a complete industrial sector in France, providing job creation opportunities and harnessing our local expertise.”

In July 2011, France launched the first round of a tender process for installing 3GW of offshore wind capacity, which involved the construction of around 600 wind turbines by 2018.

In April 2012, Iberdrola-Eole-RES consortium was selected by the France Government to develop the 500MW (100 5MW turbines) Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm in the bay of Saint Brieuc off the coast of Brittany.

Areva was selected by the Iberdrola-Eole-RES consortium to supply 100 of its M5000 wind turbines and provide maintenance services. The company will establish two facilitates at Le Havre, one to manufacture turbines and the other for blades.

The Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm is scheduled to come online between 2017 and 2019, and will generate enough electricity to power a town of around 650,000 inhabitants.

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.”

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.”