The Scottish Government has approved a 22-turbine wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway.

The Ewe Hill project represents a £65m investment by developer ScottishPower Renewables and will have a generating capacity of up to 51MW.

The project is expected to create around 80 short-term construction jobs, with further employment opportunities likely to arise during the decommissioning process.

It is estimated that around £20m will be spent for development of civil and electrical infrastructure, with ScottishPower Renewables seeking to encourage contractors to hire from local suppliers, the government said.

Meanwhile, the government has refused an application to construct the 21-turbine Rowantree wind farm near Oxton in the Scottish Borders, citing noise and visual impacts to nearby residents, among other issues.

The Ewe Hill project will provide a community benefits scheme totalling around £6.3m over the lifetime of the development to local projects.

Ewing said, “The Ewe Hill wind farm will create a significant number of jobs, as well as generating power for many thousands of homes.

“It’s encouraging to see that a solution has been found to deal with the aviation radar issues which have held the proposal up.”

“Projects like this provide considerable benefits to the local community, and play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of 100% of electricity demand generated from renewables.”

“The Scottish Government wants to see the right developments in the right places, and Scottish planning policy is clear that the design and location of renewables projects should reflect the scale and character of the landscape, as well as being considered environmentally acceptable.”

Since May 2007, Scotland has approved 63 renewable energy planning applications, which included 36 onshore wind, one offshore wind, 19 hydro, four wave and tidal and three Renewable Thermal Plants, and 19 non-renewable projects.

Enel Green Power and IFC have signed a ten-year $200m loan agreement aimed at developing renewable energy in Brazil.

The loan will be used to support the construction of wind power projects totalling over 300 MW in the states of Bahia,Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte.

“This investment is part of a comprehensive long-term investment plan to increase supply of wind power generation, seeking to support the sustainable growth of energy supply in Brazil,” Enel Green Power CFO Giulio Carone said.

IFC Brazil Country Manager Hector Gomez Ang said, “Access to reliable power generation from diversified sources is a key component of Brazil’s long-term competitiveness and sustainable social and economic growth.”

Enel Green Power owns and manages about 173 MW of wind power plants and 93 MW of hydro plants, with 331 MW of projects in execution.

MUNICH and LONDON — Siemens AG won a 1.5 billion-euro ($2.1 billion) contract for a Dutch offshore wind park that will also give Europe’s largest engineering company its biggest-ever energy service contract.

Crompton Greaves (CG) has installed a transformer substation at the Amrumbank West offshore wind farm in Germany.

Located 100km off the German coast in the North Sea, the wind farm consists of 80 multi-megawatt wind turbines.

The Amrumbank West offshore wind farm, estimated to be operational in the last quarter of 2015, extends across 32km².

CG said that the plant’s 80 technologically advanced 3.6MW turbines will have a combined capacity of 288MW, sufficient to power 300,000 households.

The wind farm will displace more than 740,000t of carbon emissions yearly.

Amrumbank West is a 100% subsidiary of E.ON Climate & Renewables Central Europe.

CG has designed and supplied all critical high voltage power equipment to connect the 33kV and 155kV networks.

The company has also provided power transformers, high and medium voltage switchgear, and protection and automation equipment.

CG said that its solution includes the latest AC/AC connection link for offshore wind farms.

This technology has minimal weight and low cost, while it is designed for optimal and minimal maintenance compared with traditional high voltage AC or DC solutions, the company claims.

Once operational, the transformer substation will collect power produced from the 80 turbines, transform the voltage to 155kV, and transmit it to the HelWin converter station. From there, the power will be transmitted to the electricity grid operated by TenneT TSO.

The wind farm’s service station on Helgoland will operate the transformer substation and will be monitored and controlled from E.ON`s Offshore Marine Coordination Center in Hamburg.

CG CEO and managing director Laurent Demortier said, “The Amrumbank West offshore wind farm is an outstanding engineering feat, and we are delighted to be playing a major role in its development and implementation. Our customer-centric solutions are designed to suit local conditions and follow global benchmarks.”

Siemens has received a contract from Carroll Area Wind Farm, a company of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, to supply wind turbines for the Carroll wind power plant.

The contract also includes a service and maintenance agreement.

To be located in western Iowa near the city of Carroll, the power plant will consist of nine 2.3MW geared wind turbines.

Siemens will supply its SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for the plant. Installation of turbines will begin in October 2014 and commissioning is expected in early 2015.

The company claims that the SWT-2.3-108 turbine features enhanced reliability and productivity in low to moderate wind speeds. With 108m rotors, the turbines provide optimized power output for the site-specific wind conditions in western Iowa.

Siemens will manufacture the major wind turbine components at its production facilities in the US.

Siemens Energy’s Wind Power Onshore Americas business CEO Mark Albenze said the company looks forward to working with NJR Clean Energy Ventures on this project in Iowa.

“All of the blades will be manufactured at our nearby Fort Madison, Iowa, facility, and all nacelles and hubs for this project will be assembled at our factory in Hutchinson, Kansas,” Albenze said

“This order is further evidence that the federal production tax credit continues to boost new economic investment in the US and encourages development of proven renewable energy projects.”

Deepwater Wind plans to develop an offshore wind farm on the West Coast using floating foundation technology.

Deepwater Wind entered into an agreement several months ago with Principle Power to complete the development of the 30 MW WindFloat Pacific project, using Principle Power’s WindFloat technology.

Deepwater Wind is actively developing several offshore wind projects off the Eastern Seaboard.

The announcement comes as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the WindFloat Pacific project up to $47 million in matching grants to support the project’s engineering, permitting and public outreach efforts.

The WindFloat Pacific project was one of three projects selected for continued DOE funding, from an original group of seven projects in the DOE’s Advanced Technology Offshore Wind Demonstration Project Program.

The 5-turbine WindFloat Pacific project would be built within a 15-square mile lease area in federal waters roughly 15 miles off Coos Bay, Ore., with the wind farm in operations in 2017.

Principle Power has successfully operated a full-scale WindFloat prototype off the coast of Portugal since 2011, where it’s delivered in excess of 9 GWh of wind energy to the local grid.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in February released a determination of no competitive interest for the proposed lease area, and is proceeding with a non-competitive lease issuance for the WindFloat Pacific project.

GE is to supply 32 of its 2.2-107 wind turbines for a Brazilian project, the company has announced.

The order came from Brazilian power asset developer and operator Omega Energia, which is to build a wind farm in the country’s Piaui region.

As part of the contract, GE will provide operations and maintenance on the 32 turbines for 10 years.

This is the first order for the new turbine model, which GE described as an evolution of its 1.5 MW series. It is well suited to Brazil’s wind climate, the company added.

“The 2.2-107 wind turbine provides a 12 per cent increase in capacity factor and a 33 per cent increase in power output over GE’s current offering while continuing to provide the reliability and efficiency of GE’s wind turbines. We are thrilled to launch a new product again in Brazil,” said Jean-Claude Robert, general manager of Latin America for GE’s renewable energy business.

“This new contract demonstrates that the industry recognizes our commitment to our customers and our outstanding execution capabilities in Brazil,” he added.

GE employs over 8500 people in Brazil, and in September 2013 announced the installation of its 500^th wind turbine in the country. The company has operations in Bahia, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

Siemens Energy won 10-year wind energy service agreements encompassing over 400 onshore wind turbines in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

The customer is Pattern Energy Group Inc., based in San Francisco, California. Combined, the scope of these long-term contracts represents one of Siemens’ largest agreements with a single customer in North America.

Siemens Energy has won a contract from Cobra Energia to supply 97MW of turbines for the Tres Hermanas wind project in Peru.

Under the terms of the contract, Siemens will deliver a combination of 25 direct drive SWT-3.0-108 wind turbines and eight geared SWT-2.3-108 units for the project that will be located near San Juan de Marcona city and adjacent to the Marcona wind project.

The contract also calls for the provision of service and maintenance for a period of six years for the new wind project, which is expected to become operational in July 2015.

Siemens Energy said the blades and geared nacelles for the project will be manufactured at its facility located in the US.

The new wind power plant is said to be the second project that Cobra Energia is executing with Siemens in Peru.

Earlier in September 2013, Siemens had supplied its 11 wind turbines totaling 32.1MW to Cobra Energia for the Marcona wind project.

Siemens Energy Wind Power Onshore Americas business CEO Mark Albenz said the company has partnered with Cobra Energia again to provide clean, renewable power to over 90.000 households in Peru.

Albenz said, “This second order from Cobra Energia allows both of our companies to further expand our wind power activities in a growing wind market.

“The project is also important for our US factories in Iowa and Kansas, from which we’ll export all of the blades and geared nacelles for Tres Hermanas.”

The Tres Hermanas project had been awarded as part of the second renewable energy tender by the Peruvian Government and contributes to Peru’s energy goals to reduce its dependency on natural gas and decrease CO2 emissions.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) latest report, which explores ways to cut carbon emissions, put the world on notice. Despite efforts in the United States, Europe and developing countries such as China to ramp up energy efficiency and renewable energy, global carbon emissions have been increasing at a much faster clip than they were just a few decades ago. To avoid the worst of the worst, IPCC scientists say emissions will have to be reduced 40 percent to 70 percent by 2050 and warn that we only have a 15-year window to reverse course.