The World Bank has released Alstom Hydro France from debarment, which opens up scope for the hydropower generating unit of the French manufacturer to compete for projects financed by the World Bank.

The ban has also been lifted from Alstom Network Schweiz, and their affiliates, Alstom said.

World Bank’s Integrity Compliance Office (ICO) has acknowledged that Alstom has implemented a corporate compliance programme, which is in line with the bank’s rulings.

Alstom has improved the design and implementation of its compliance programme over three years to meet all the conditions specified in the 21 February 2012 settlement with the financial institution.

ICO, Alstom’s Ethics & Compliance Department, and the independent compliance monitor had steered the company into obtaining the World Bank clearance.

As per Alstom’s 22 December 2014 plea agreement with the US Department of Justice and based on the ICO’s latest conclusion, Alstom need not engage any compliance monitor.

According to the approved entitlement, the firm and its affiliates can resume competing for projects which are either financed by the World Bank or by other global institutions having cross debarment agreements with the bank.

The World Bank had barred two of Alstom’s subsidiaries for three years over charges of bribing Zambian officials for a World Bank-financed project.

These units had committed themselves to pay $9.5m to the financial body.

In November 2011, Alstom was asked in Switzerland to pay a fine of €42m over bribery charges for securing commercial contracts in three countries, including Indonesia.

US-based General Electric (GE) has formed a consortium with Austrian engineering firm Andritz for supplying equipment at the power-generating hydro project in Swansea Bay, UK.

The consortium will receive approximately €400m for the project, reports The Economic Times.

Andritz will receive €250m from the deal, with the rest being shared by GE.

The hydropower facility is located in the Severn Estuary. It has been scheduled to start operations by 2019.

Tidal Lagoon Power is the developer for the project. The development will be equipped with 16 underwater turbines.

Once operational, the project is expected to generate enough power to meet the electricity demands of 155,000 homes for 120 years.

In December last year, the UK Government revealed details of negotiations to arrange taxpayer support for the project, which is expected to involve an investment of £1bn (€1.3bn).

The National Infrastructure Plan 2014 published by the HM Treasury, ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, included plans for the tidal project development.

UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey was earlier quoted by BBC News as saying: “Tidal lagoons alone could provide up to 8% of our power needs, replacing foreign fossil fuels with clean, reliable, home-grown electricity.”

Swiss power technology firm ABB has developed and tested a 525kV underground and subsea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable system, which the company claims will make renewable energy INSTALLATIONS more efficient and cost-effective.

The technology, which features high-voltage power cables, joints and terminations, will increase the power capacity of CABLE CONNECTIONS to around 2.6GW from 1GW.

The reach of the lines will be extended to 1,500km, up from less than 1,000km, with TRANSMISSION losses of just below 5%.

The new extruded cable system offers a 64% increase, when compared to 320kV lines, currently THE HIGHEST voltage deployed.

The technology, which uses a new polyethylene insulation material, will allow countries and utilities to integrate more renewable energy being generated by distant solar and wind INSTALLATIONS.

ABB said that A SINGLE pair of 525kV extruded HVDC cables could transmit enough power from giant offshore wind farms for around two million households.

ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer said: “This major technology breakthrough will change the feasibility of renewable energy projects and play a defining role in using underground and subsea high-voltage cables to integrate renewables over long distances.”

The company said it will present the system at the Cigré technology symposium in Paris, France, this month.

ABB has commissioned more than 25 DC cable connections and approximately 100 AC cable links globally.

The UK’s renewables sources generated 14.9% of electricity in 2013, according to a new report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The DECC, in its annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics, revealed that onshore and offshore wind energy in the UK is playing the central role for transition from fossil fuels to clean renewables for the country.

According to the report, electricity generated from renewable sources increased by 30% in 2013 when compared to 2012, and accounted to 14.9% of total UK electricity generation.

Electricity generated from onshore wind provided 32% of the total, while offshore wind generated a further 21%, making a total of 53% of all renewable energy from wind, according to the report.

The renewables installed capacity increased by 27% (4.2GW) to 19.7GW in 2013 due to a 27% increase in onshore wind capacity (1.6GW) and a 23% increase in offshore wind capacity.

RenewableUK policy director Dr Gordon Edge said: “We’re now on course to hit 10% of electricity from wind alone this year.”

Commenting on publication of the annual energy statistics, Energy & Climate Change Secretary of State Edward Davey said: “The government’s investment in renewable energy is paying off: renewable electricity has more than doubled in just four years – with around 15% of Britain’s electricity already coming from clean renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro.

“Having a strong UK renewable sector helps to reduce our foreign imports of energy, improving our energy security, as well as helping us tackle climate change and creating new hi-tech green jobs. A green energy future that once seemed impossible for Britain is fast becoming a reality.”

The UK aimed to meet a legally binding target of 15% of all energy from renewables by 2020.

The Philippine Department of Energy has awarded service contracts for thee hydropower project developments to the Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation, according to a disclosure filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The plants include a 300 MW plant in Pililla, 10 MW plant in Ilagan, and 10 MW plant in Buguias.

“All contracts provide for a two-year pre-development stage,” the company said in its disclosure.

Trans-Asia subsidiary Phinma said each of the projects will then be eligible for development for 25 years, should they be declared commercially feasible.

HydroWorld.com reported Trans-Asia had submitted a US$424 million bid for the capacity of the 345-MW San Roque hydroelectric plant in December 2009.

Mibugawa Power and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Marubeni, have begun construction of a 175 kW small hydropower project in Fukushima Prefecture’s Minami Aisu County.

The small hydro plant is the first to be constructed Minami Aizu County since Japan’s 2011 earthquake and is part of a Reconstruction Design Council plan to make Fukushima a “frontier land of renewable energy.”

The plant will site on private and public land, with water being drawn from the Osawa River. Power generated by the project will be sold for more than 20 years under Japan’s feed-in tariff scheme, Mibugawa Power said.

The Shimogo Town project is Marubeni‘s eighth small hydropower plant since the company started operating them in 2006. The company said it plans to develop around 30 small and medium-sized hydroelectric facilities by 2020.

A memorandum of understanding signed this past week sets up an agreement between BC First Nations and the Clean Energy Association of BC (CEBC) to cooperate in developing British Columbia’s renewable sector, including hydroelectric power.

The document — which includes the signatures of 13 First Nations groups, the First Nations Energy and Mining Council, and CEBC — also includes wind, biomass, biogas, solar, geothermal and natural gas generation.

“There is no reason why the clean energy sector cannot power a new era of economic development for First Nations in British Columbia,” Sechelt (shishalh) First Nation councilor Garry Feschuk said. “First Nations are distributed throughout B.C and so are the clean generation fuels. We should all be able to benefit from this sector.”

British Columbia is home to 125 First Nations groups that have had some involvement in the development of renewable energy so far, CEBC said, and all are still welcome to sign the memorandum.

“British Columbia’s clean energy sector has a strong track record of working collaboratively with First Nations to promote economic development,” Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett said. “Working with First Nations is a key part of doing business in British Columbia, and this MOU will help to strengthen these important partnerships.”

Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. and the Desjardins Group Pension Plan have completed their acquisition of the 30.5-MW Sainte-Marguerite 1 hydropower plant from the Hydromega Group.

Located near Sept-Iles, Quebec, the run-of-river plant was originally commissioned in 1993 with one 8.5 MW turbine unit. Two additional units were installed in 2002, raising the project’s output capacity to its current level.

“The acquisition of the Sainte-Marguerite 1 facility provides us with both immediate contributions to cash flows and a quality hydro asset with a very high long-term value,” Innergex CEO Michel Letellier said. “Furthermore, we are very pleased to have developed a transaction structure that allows us to compete in acquiring renewable energy infrastructure assets at prevailing market prices, while leveraging the low capital cost and long-term horizon of a pension fund, as well as our expertise as an operator, to achieve an attractive after-tax internal rate of return for our shareholders.”

Energy generated by the plant is covered by two fixed-price, 25-year power purchase agreements with Hydro-Quebec: one for 8.5 MW maturing in 2018 that provices an annual increase in the selling price of 3% to 6%, and a second for 22 MW maturing in 2027 that provides for an annual increase in the selling price of 2%. Both agreements contain a renewable option for an additional 25-year term.

“The Desjardins Group Pension Plan is proud to partner with Innergex for an investment of this nature, here in Quebec,” Desjardins vice president Sylvain Gareau said. “Our portfolio of infrastructure assets is nearing the billion dollar mark and is growing rapidly. Over the last five years, we have become an important actor in this asset class in Canada.”

Innergex (TSE: INE) said it expects the plant to generate annualized revenues of about US$10.3 million, with an adjusted EBITDA of about $8.4 million.

North American power company Hydro Alternative Energy, Inc., and South America’s Generamos Energia SA ESP have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop hydrokinetic power projects in Colombia.

The agreement announces HAE and GESA’s intent to partner “for purposes of providing the country of Colombia with additional electrical power generation capacity by developing one or more run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plants and/or utilizing other power generation technologies to fulfill such electrical power generation needs, and the activities, roles, and responsibilities.”

The development will help Colombia continue to meet its energy production goals, the companies said, adding additional capacity where more than 65% of the country’s energy is already generated by hydroelectric power sources.

“This MOU evidences HAE’s efforts to expand our role in the hydroelectric power generation industry while keeping true to our mission: to become a leading worldwide independent power provider focused on utilizing hydrokinetic and other power development sources to generate electric power worldwide, cost-effectively, reliable and profitable, with minimal to no ecological impact,” HAE CEO Mark Antonucci said.

Projects developed under the memorandum will likely use HAE’s “Oceanus” technology, which was selected for use in a 1 MW array in South Africa in May 2012.

A bill has been introduced to the US Congress, which aims to help industrial facilities become more efficient and retain power during significant storms.

The Power, Efficiency and Resiliency (POWER) Act would increase tax credits for industrial facilities that install energy-efficient technologies such as combined heat and power (CHP) and waste heat to power (WHP) and allow them to continue generating power during a blackout.

Specifically, the bill would increase the investment tax credit from 10 per cent to 30 per cent, and allow it to be applied to WHP upgrades, according to Business Journal.

“The Power Act incentivizes investment in energy-efficient systems that protect our environment, encourage economic growth and ensure that hospitals and other critical facilities are able to continue operating in emergencies, even when the electric grid goes down,” says bill co-sponsor Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania in a release. “That is why this legislation has the support of Democrats and Republicans, as well as a diverse coalition of business, labor, energy and environmental organizations.”

According to a study from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, CHP could be used to produce up to 20 per cent of US electrical capacity by 2030. TheEnvironmental Protection Agency says it estimates that WHP could be used to generate 10 gigawatts of emissions-free energy, enough to power 10 million homes.