The Irish renewable energy investor and asset manager NTR has expanded its remit into Scotland’s eastern seaboard with the acquisition of the Quixwood Moor wind farm capable of generating 24MW.

NTR – based in Sandyford, Dublin – announced the deal following negotiations with the wind farm’s previous developer, the Banks Group, who had were first granted planning permission to develop the land in April 2013.

As part of the deal, NTR has acquired the pre-construction project from the company’s subdivision, Banks Renewables Limited, who are one of the largest renewable energy developers in the UK.

This acquisition marks the company’s first deal concluded on the British mainland following the purchase of another site in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

When completed, Quixwood Moor is expected to produce over 71,000 MW/hr of green energy per year which would be enough to support the annual electricity requirements of just under 15,500 homes in the local area.

NTR now expect that the construction of the project will begin this autumn while commissioning is being targeted for Q4 2016.

Speaking of the deal, NTR’s Chief Executive, Rosheen McGuckian, said: “We are very pleased to have completed another significant wind project acquisition and our first in Scotland.

“Together with the acquisition of the single turbine site projects in Northern Ireland in 2014 and the recent acquisition of the 15MW Ora More wind project in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, this takes NTR’s current total wind portfolio to 42MW.”

Over the course of the next two years, NTR say that they expand to continue expansion across the British Isles and hope to have a portfolio capable of producing 175MW of wind energy.

Last April, the company made a considerable windfall of US$244 (€216m) following the sales of wind farms in its US wind energy company, Wind Capital Group.

UK-based energy-focused private equity firm Denham Capital has formed a partnership with Singapore-based Nexif Energy todevelop, finance, construct and acquire conventional and renewable power generation assets across South East Asia.

Nexif Energy founder and co-chief executive officer Surender Singh said: “South East Asia has a tremendous need for new power generation and we look forward to working with governments, our partners and the region’s communities to provide electricity solutions that are both economical and reliable.”

Nexif is an independent power management firm that has developed, financed, constructed or exited more than 4GW of projects, worth around $4.3bn, across Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Matthew Bartley is also a co-founder and co-chief executive officer at Nexif.

Both firms are backed by significant experience and intend to take advantage of further opportunities in their target markets.

The new platform planned by the partners aims to initially establish itself as a power generation developer in South East Asia and Bangladesh, and is likely to expand across other regional markets in the future.

Denham Capital managing partner and co-president Scott Mackin said: “Denham Capital is delighted to partner with Surender, Matthew and their proven team with an outstanding track record in power sector.

“They are perfectly suited to build on our previous work in the region, which includes the successful development, construction and ultimate sale of our interest in GNPower’s 600MW Mariveles power generating plant in the Philippines.

“Through the Nexif Energy platform we anticipate investing more than $200m in project equity across the region.”

Denham Capital director Saurabh Anand said: “The partnership with Nexif follows our strategy of backing the best management teams to develop and construct contracted power generation assets in high-growth markets with a fundamental need for power.”

Abengoa and Toshiba Corp. have been selected as preferred bidders to build the Tees Renewable Energy Plant.

The project is owned by MGT Teesside, a subsidiary of MGT Power, a British company committed to developing utility scale biomass combined heat and power (CHP) projects.

This will be the world’s newly built largest power and steam from biomass plant, and will be located in the Port of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK. It will have a capacity of 299MW of electricity and steam, both for self-sufficiency and to be exported to nearby industry and users. The engineering and construction contract will exceed €600 million.

Abengoa will be responsible for carrying out the engineering, design and construction of the plant for the client MGT Teesside. This project will use wood pellets and chips from certified sustainable forestry resources from the US and Europe as fuel, and will be audited to ensure compliance with the strict criteria established by the UK’s incentives for renewable energy.

The project will supply renewable energy for the equivalent of at least 600,000 households in the UK. During the construction phase, up to 1,100 jobs are expected to be created.

Abengoa has now been awarded the construction of two power and steam biomass plants in less than a year, the other being a 215MW plant in Ghent, Belgium. The Ghent project was previously the largest power and steam from biomass plant in the world to have awarded a construction contract.

17 August 2015, source edie newsroom – Europe’s five biggest energy markets have added 8GW of wind and solar capacity in the first half of 2015, a new report has found.

The wind and solar capacities of the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain have grown to a combined total of around 175GW, according to Platts Renewable Power Tracker.

Germany added around 2.9GW of wind power in the first six months of 2015, with around 1.8GW of this coming from German North Sea wind farms.

The UK’s installed capacity of solar energy reached 7.7GW, as well as reaching 13.4GW of wind energy. The UK’s combined renewable energy output generated 2.7TWh of energy, according to Platts.

Wind and sun

Unseasonably high winds throughout the summer in Northern Europe and a heatwave around the Mediterranean helped to drive an average of a 25% increase in renewable energy generation in July, according to Platts.

German solar and wind energy outputs hit an all-time high, generating around 11TWh in July and increasing wind output by around 156% year on year.

In the UK, a wet and windy July led to high renewable energy generation in Scotland, with wind turbines powering 72% of Scottish households and generating 660,000MWh of electricity.

Renewable energy generation in the UK has recently hit new highs, generating 19% of the UK’s total electricity requirements. The increase in generation has been driven by developments of wind power, biomass and solar, with the UK’s offshore wind capacity passing 5GW in June this year.

Despite this increase in capacity and generation, renewable energy industry leaders have warned the sector is at risk of being “killed off” by recent changes by the Government to subsidies for renewable energy.

Blade Dynamics has shipped its modular D78 turbine blade for testing at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s (ORE) facility in Blyth, UK.

The D78 blade features several new technologies, including a lightweight and high-dimensional accuracy blade tip, with built-in leading edge protection.

The modular design is aimed to minimise variation in blade construction, and simplify the manufacture and transportation processes.

Blade Dynamics designed the D78 blade based on cooperative working with Siemens turbines. The company secured support from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Carbon Trust, The Dow Chemical Company, Nasa, and the UK’s Energy Technology Institute (ETI).

Blade Dynamics CEO Pepe Carnevale said: “The UK has a great tradition of innovation in many industries that intersect and are highly relevant to large, high-performance wind turbine blades, and this new blade type is a great opportunity for the UK.

“First and foremost, this can reduce the cost of energy very significantly, but there are also several other unique benefits. Because the blades are assembled from smaller components, we are not constrained by expensive new factories dependent for survival on a very limited local market, making big blades in one big factory.”

ETI has supported the development since 2012. Technology used by the 78m blade has the capacity to make rotors with diameters exceeding 200m, for reduced energy costs.

ETI CEO David Clarke said: “Once commercialised, this technology can create a pathway to improving performance, reliability and cost for offshore wind, as well as providing an exciting route for the future export of blade components from the UK.

“We look forward to the structural testing at ORE Catapult in the UK, and are investigating ways to demonstrate a rotor using this technology on the 7MW turbine that ORE Catapult is in the process of acquiring.”

Teesside is to be the site of the world’s largest new power and steam biomass plant as part of a new £424m project.

The project in Middlesbrough will have a capacity of 299 MW combined heat and power (CHP), enough to power at least 600,000 UK households.

Abengoa and Toshiba will construct the £424m power plant, which will use wood pellets from sustainable forest resources in the US and Europe.

The project developers say the fuel source will be in compliance with the UK’s incentives for renewable energy.

The technology currently helps provide around 7% of the UK’s electricity by integrating heat and electricity production into a single process.

The Abengoa/Toshiba project will help reduce the UK’s carbon footprint using the CHP technology, with Abengoa currently working on a further 215MW biomass plant in Belgium.

According to UK Government estimates to the European Commission, the Teesside CHP plant will save an estimated 32m tonnes of CO2 over its 30-year lifetime.

CHP potential

CHP technology saved the UK £250m in fuel costs in 2014, according to figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Industry body the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) said last month there was great potential for future savings from the technology. ADE director Tim Rotheray said: “There are hundreds more commercial and industrial sites that could benefit from generating their own heat and power locally by putting the right policy framework in place.”

The Green Investment Bank recently helped secure £30m in funding for a new community-scale CHP biomass plant in Sheffield. The project will provide enough power to the local area to heat 6,700 properties.

Biomass technology has come in for some criticism for its label as a ‘green’ technologywhich still releases carbon emissions. However the UK’s largest power plant Drax has moved to convert its coal burning facilities to biomass, with the company arguing reliable biomass facilities were needed to balance the UK’s supply of wind and solar power.

Forewind has withdrawn from participating in the 2.4GW Dogger Bank Teesside C and D offshore wind projects, based in the UK North Sea.

The international consortium, formed by energy giants Statoil, Statkraft, RWE and SSE, has reached an agreement with the Crown Estate to cease work on the remaining development consent application for the projects.

Instead the entity will focus on the four Dogger Bank projects, which have already received approval from UK authorities.

Each of the projects, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck A, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck B, Dogger Bank Teesside A, and Dogger Bank Teesside B, are planned to have a generation capacity of 1.2GW.

“These four Dogger Bank projects are a huge commitment and will require significant resources and attention…to progress.”

Forewind said: “These four Dogger Bank projects are a huge commitment and will require significant resources and attention from the owner companies to progress to the next stages.

“Together their capacity is almost equal to the total of all the offshore wind farms currently in operation in the UK.”

Forewind has removed the two projects from its portfolio and returned the development rights in that area of seabed, along with the remainder of the Dogger Bank Zone, to the Crown Estate.

The firm recently received approval from UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to establish the 2.4GW Teesside A and B offshore wind farms.

This decision follows implementation of the Crown Estate’s streamlined initiatives for offshore wind developers to replace their previous zone development agreements with project-specific agreements.

Spanish Abengoa and Japan-based Toshiba have been selected as preferred bidders for developing the 299MW Tees Renewable Energy Plant in Middlesbrough, UK.

Located at the Port of Teesside, the biomass-fuelled facility that produces electricity and steam will be self-sufficient, and also export power to industries and nearby users.

Owned by a subsidiary of UK-based MGT Power, MGT Teesside, the facility is claimed to be the largest biomass combined heat and power plant in the world.

“The facility is expected to generate as much renewable electricity in a year as a 1GW wind farm.”

The engineering and construction contract to be awarded for the facility is likely to exceed €600m, Abengoa said.

The Spanish conglomerate will be responsible for engineering, design and construction of the plant, which will require wood pellets and chips as fuel from certified sustainable forestry resources across the US and Europe.

The project will be developed in compliance with the UK’s criteria for renewable energy.

Once operational, the project will be able to generate nearly 2.4TWh of electricity a year, which is enough to power around 600,000 homes in the UK.

Planned to run 24hr a day year-round, the facility is expected to generate as much renewable electricity in a year as a 1GW wind farm.

It will account for 5.5% of the UK’s renewable energy target for 2020 and reduce around 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in one year.

MGT Teesside has scheduled the facility to start its commercial operations from next year.

Swiss power and automation technology provider ABB has installed a 320kV converter station called DolWin beta at the 916MW DolWin2 offshore wind project in the German North Sea.

The equipment will be able to connect offshore wind farms in the North Sea’s DolWin cluster with the electricity grid in Germany.

Once operational, the offshore project will have the capacity to meet the energy requirements of more than a million households.

As well as facilitating conversion of the power generated by the offshore wind farms from alternating current (AC) into high-voltage direct current (HVDC), the converter station will ensure its reliable transmission to the mainland.

The entire platform with substructures will weigh around 23,000t and be 100m-long, 70m-wide and 100m-tall.

ABB, which is responsible for the design, engineering, supply and installation of the offshore wind connection, intends to handover the project to Dutch electricity transmission system operator TenneT in mid-2016.

Along with the convertor platform, the scope of the project also includes installation of sea and land cable systems and an onshore converter station.

In addition, the firm was responsible for the DolWin1 grid connection project, which was commissioned and handed over to TenneT in July.

Both DolWin1 and DolWin2 are parts of the German long-term power strategy named ‘Energiewende’.

The European nation intends to shift its focus towards renewable energy, aiming to achieve more than 6.5GW of power generation from offshore wind by 2020, which will be raised to 15GW by 2030.

SEAI, the Marine Institute and Commissioners of Irish Lights deliver Ireland’s latest marine research environment

Tuesday 11^th August 2015: A significant piece of ocean research infrastructure was brought to fruition with the completion of the Galway Bay underwater ocean observatory over the weekend.  Through the combined effort of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the Marine Institute and Commissioners of Irish Lights the final piece of equipment has been deployed to give researchers and ocean energy developers unique insight into the Galway bay marine environment.  The observatory is now entering into a commissioning period and is expected to be operational in the coming months.

The ocean observatory will enable the use of cameras, probes and sensors to permit continuous and remote live underwater monitoring. Data from the equipment will be fed via an underwater cable, which was deployed last April, to the Marine Institute where analysis will take place.  Data from the observatory will also be available online through the Digital Ocean Platform under development by the Marine Institute.

The equipment has been installed in the Galway Bay test site, which is an area 1.5km off Spiddal pier and is used primarily to test small scale ocean energy devices. This observatory equipment will allow ocean energy developers to monitor how their devices are performing in the ocean as well as give ocean researchers unique real-time access to monitor ongoing changes in the marine environment.

Also deployed at the test site this weekend was a novel mooring tether developed by an Irish company ‘Technology From Ideas’. This technology reduces the impacts of rough seas on moored devices, thus making them cheaper to design and construct. It also reduces need for excessive ropes and chains for moorings, which reduces impact on the seabed and the environment.  The development and testing of the mooring tether is being grant supported by SEAI.

Declan Meally, Head of Emerging Technologies in SEAI commented:  “We are seeing lots of great developments in Ireland’s marine and ocean energy research facilities. The new Galway undersea ocean observatory will strengthen our offering and greatly assist the testing of new ocean energy technologies. Also, in helping the development of support structures, such as moorings, SEAI is ensuring that the supply chain for the offshore energy renewable sector is simultaneously progressing.”

Peter Heffernan of Marine Institute commented that: “It has been great to get the support of SEAI and Commissioners of Irish Lights in deploying this equipment. While the Marine Institute team has been driving this project, we have greatly benefitted from the close collaboration of all partners including SEAI, SmartBay Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and Marine Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI). This collaboration places Ireland on a stronger footing internationally as we work together to advance our marine research and development capabilities.”

Yvonne Shields CEO of Commissioners of Irish Lights who provided the ‘ILV Granuaile’ for deployment of the equipment confirmed that: “Irish Lights is delighted to step in and provide support where required for this project. The Granuaile is a world class service vessel that is primarily used to service Ireland’s network of offshore navigation and safety aids.  The vessel and crew are experienced in handling difficult sea conditions and Granuaile is ideally placed to assist renewable energy deployment around the coast”.

The Galway Bay ocean observatory is part of a larger collaborative project between SEAI, the Marine Institute, University College Cork (Marine Renewable Energy Ireland – MaREI), SmartBay Ireland and Dublin City University to upgrade existing facilities at the Galway Bay test site.  The overall project has been funded by Science Foundation Ireland and is due to be completed this year.