Market and industry updates, WW200911
Market and industry updates
23.11.2009
All the latest news on the wind energy market.
Bulgaria
Enel's first Bulgarian wind farm now operational
Italian utility Enel has announced that its first wind farm in Bulgaria, which has a capacity of 21 MW, is now operating. Another wind farm of the same capacity in Shabla should be completed by the end of 2009. Both were developed and will be managed by Enel's renewable energy subsidiary, Enel Green Power.
Estonia
Eesti Energia wants to set up high capacity wind turbines
Estonian power utility Eesti Energia has submitted design and project terms for a wind farm of nine wind turbines to the Häädemeeste municipal government. According to Eesti Energia, the company will also replace the area’s overhead power transmission lines with high capacity undergound transmission lines.
More information (in Estonian)
Europe
Europe’s wind sector benefits from US stimulus
In November the Financial Times reported on a study that showed more than eight out of 10 US stimulus dollars spent on wind energy farms have gone to European companies.
The study, by the Washington-based Investigative Report Workshop, revealed that 84% of the $1.05bn given out so far has gone to the European wind industry, while the 11 US-based wind farms that received cash grants from the US Treasury have imported 695 of the 982 wind turbines that are to be installed.
The report estimates that this extra business has led to the creation of 4,500 jobs outside the US.
France
Enel Green Power increases wind power capacity by 18 MW
Enel Green Power has increased its wind power generation capacity in France by 18 MW by installing six 2 MW turbines at its wind farm at Le Nouret and three 2 MW turbines at its Le Noyer farm, meaning that between them, the two farms will produce over 47 million KWh of power.
Greece
EDF Energies Nouvelles inaugurates 38 MW wind farm at Boeotia
French group EDF Energies Nouvelles has inaugurated its 38MW Viotia 2 wind farm in Greece. The farm is made up of 19 Vestas turbines. The wind farm takes EDF’s total in Greece to nearly 190 MW.
Hungary
Iberdrola Renovables begins work on new wind farms in Hungary
Iberdrola Renovables, has begun building two wind farms in the Komarom-Esztergom Megye region of Hungary. The farms will be supplied with Gamesa G90 turbines, with a total capacity of 36 and 38 MW respectively. The projects will bring Iberdrola’s wind portfolio in Hungary up to 124 MW.
India
Vestas looking to boost Indian wind power capacity by 250 MW
Vestas is planning to invest €255.24mn to install a wind farm in Kutch, India with a capacity of 250 MW. Longer term, the company is planning to set up 1,200 MW of wind power capacity in India in the long term. Currently, Vestas is looking for investors for the project, and it is considering setting up a 100 MW wind power project in Tamil Nadu as well.
Offshore wind recognised as huge untapped energy source
In India, the potential of offshore wind has been recognised by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET). The centre carried out a preliminary study at Dhanushkodi in Rameswaram on offshore wind farm development, and is now seeking to carry out further testing by building a 100m mast, providing it gets government permission.
Ireland
Wind cuts energy price
The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) has found that the wind cut energy production prices in July 2009 by between €212,000 and €280,000 depending on the strength of the wind.
Italy
Enel purchases 64 MW of wind farms in Calabria
Enel Green Power has signed an agreement with Micropower giving it a majority share worth 64 MW in two wind farm projects in Calabria, southern Italy. The wind farms will come online as of 2010 and should provide over 150 million kWh – enough to meet the needs of 60,000 average households, and avoid 110 Mt of CO2.
Mexico
Vestas to supply 51 wind turbines to Mexico
Vestas has received an order for 51 units of the V80-2.0 MW wind turbine for the Oaxaca I wind farm. The farm will be located in Juchitan de Zaragoza in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. According to the Federal Electricity Commission, Mexico has a wind capacity of more than 5 GW, and had a cumulative installed capacity of 332 MW as of December 2008.
Poland
RWE Innogy has ambitious wind energy plans
German RWE Innogy’s first wind farm in Poland is now operational. The Suwalki wind farm is made up of 18 wind turbines with a capacity of 2.3 MW each. It is to produce at least 80mn kWh of power per year. German RWE Innogy’s next wind energy project in the country will be a 15 turbine wind farm in Tychowo, which should be finished in 2010. The company is planning to install 300 MW of wind energy capacity in Poland by 2015
UK
Up to 60,000 more wind energy jobs by 2020
According to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) another 23,000-60,000 jobs will be created in the wind energy sector by 2020 - up from around 5,000 today – if the government’s 28 GW goal is met. BWEA held a careers summit on 21-22 October 2009 as part of its annual event, BWEA 31.
US
US grid link will boost renewables
The three US power grids are due to be linked up for the first time ever at a superstation in New Mexico. The project, which has been proposed by developers Tres Amigas, would bring together the Western Interconnection, which runs from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean; The Eastern Interconnection, including the Great Plains everything east of there and the Texas Interconnect, confined to most, but not all, of Texas.
The interconnection should “serve as a renewable energy market hub by connecting all three of America’s power grids to enable the transfer of green power from region to region,” says the company’s news release, as well as “adding a new dimension of reliability and security for U.S. power supplies.”
E.ON’s Texas wind farm completed
E.ON Climate and Renewables has finished building its wind farm near Roscoe, Texas. The 627 turbine wind farm has a total capacity of 781.5 MW, which should generate enough power for the equivalent of more than 230,000 households.
US Energy Department and Siemens partner up for wind research
Siemens Energy and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are financing a research project on a new class of large, land-based wind turbine based on a new 2.3 MW turbine from Siemens. At €9.37 mn, it is the biggest government-industry research partnership for wind power generation ever undertaken in the US. The research will be carried out by NREL's National Wind Technology Center.
30% of Iberdrola Renovables’ global generation capacity now in US
The installed capacity of Spanish wind energy generation firm Iberdrola Renovables in the US reached 3,459 MW – which is 30% of the firm's 10,477 MW of total generation capacity worldwide. Recently, two new Iberdrola wind farms have been built in the US – one in Arizona with 63 MW of capacity and another in North Dakota with a capacity of 149 MW. The 30 wind turbines at the Arizona farm that produce enough clean power to supply some 15,000 average-sized American homes.
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