Category: Wind

Concrete sector aims to ensure UK leads world in offshore wind power

Eyebrows are often raised on hearing the declaration that the UK is a world leader. With regards to offshore wind power generation, that declaration is true. A recent industry conference, hosted by MPA-The Concrete Centre, heard how the concrete sector has the solutions and capacity to ensure that UK offshore wind generation continues to power… Read more »

Natural Power tops consultancy tables for WAsP certified users

Leading international renewable energy consultancy group Natural Power has now reached a total of 14 fully certified users of the widely used WAsP software. WAsP (the Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program) is the wind energy industry’s standard software for performing wind flow modelling and analysis for wind farm energy yield assessments in non-complex flow… Read more »

The Irec Starts The Award Process For Phase 1 Of The Zfir Offshore Wind Turbine Test Station

The Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) has started the award process for Phase 1 of the ZÈFIR Test Station, the first offshore wind turbine platform of its kind in Spain for conducting technological and environmental research. The Zèfir Test Station is to become an international research platform for testing deep water wind turbines that… Read more »

Ecobond Confirms Britains Appetite For Green Energy

– Innovative financing exceeds £10 million target – Britons have proved their appetite for Green Energy remains undiminished – with Ecotricity’s innovative ecobond two bypassing the success of ecobond one.Britain’s leading green energy company was seeking £10 million of funding from customers and the public to help accelerate the building of new Green Energy projects… Read more »

CG Wins Key Order for Wind Offshore Connection

CG, part of the US$ 4bn Avantha Group and global electrical solution provider, is part of the consortium of four companies that has bagged a prestigious turnkey contract from Amrumbank West GmbH (AWG) for its German wind farm project. Amrumbank West GmbH (AWG) is a 100% subsidiary of E.ON Climate & Renewables Central Europe GmbH…. Read more »

Uk Wind Farm Sites Adopt Natural Powers Foresite Wind Forecasting Service

More than twenty UK wind farm sites adopt Natural Power’s ForeSiteTM wind forecasting service for energy trading and grid notification purposes In the last six months more than twenty wind farms in the UK have moved to leading renewable energy consultancy group, Natural Power, to provide their wind farm production forecasting service, ForeSite for energy… Read more »

Small wind turbines ride out last week’s Atlantic storms

Evance R9000 turbine performs perfectly despite peak gusts of 138mph – confirms small wind’s ability to deliver in the most extreme conditions Last week’s violent Atlantic storm brought extremely high winds to the West and North of Scotland, with the Met Office recording maximum wind gusts of 165mph on Cairngorm Summit and 145mph at Aonach… Read more »

First Sustainability Report

In publishing the 2010 Sustainability Report, CENTROTEC Sustainable AG has carried out a first official analysis of its own carbon footprint and of other sustainability-related data such as the consumption of resources, health and safety at work, and aspects of social responsibility. This report was preceded by a process of collecting non-financial data that is… Read more »

Durban outcome: No action until 2020 will be too little, too late

The Global Wind Energy Council welcomed the agreement reached at COP 17 in Durban yesterday, but warned that both the level of ambition and the speed of the negotiations needed to increase dramatically to meet the challenge of global climate change. “Yesterday’s agreement was a victory for multilateralism and the climate process”, said GWEC Secretary… Read more »

Campbell Scientific selects ZephIR wind lidar technology for US wind market

Campbell Scientific Inc. (CSI), with more than 35 years of world-class measurement equipment experience, has today announced the selection of wind lidar system ZephIR 300 as the company’s remote sensing solution for providing the US wind energy market with accurate wind data across all stages of a wind farm development project. ZephIR 300, provided by… Read more »

NGenTec completes management line-up

NGenTec has announced the completion of its blue-chip management team as it continues to make progress towards its goal of becoming a major player in the fast-developing offshore wind sector. The latest key appointment at the Edinburgh-based company – which designs and supplies low, medium speed and direct drive permanent magnet generators – is that… Read more »

Siemens Energy press release: Siemens and Shanghai Electric agree on strategic wind power alliance for China

Siemens and Shanghai Electric intend to set up two new joint ventures to form a strategic alliance for the Chinese wind power market. Corresponding agreements were signed on December 8, 2011, in Shanghai by the two companies. The aim of this alliance is to better serve China as the world’s largest wind power market. In… Read more »

Offshore wind 2011: the facts

The renewable energy sector is quickly turning into a profitable business: in 2010 investment in the renewable energy projects exceeded the ones in fossil fuel demonstrating a new trend in investors’ strategy. Offshore wind, with its incomparably high energy production per hour witnessed important developments during 2011: RWE The fifth largest utility company in Europe,… Read more »

enXco Service Corporation Signs O&M Agreement With MidAmerican Energy Company

enXco Service Corporation (eSC), an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company, has signed a multiyear agreement with MidAmerican Energy Company to provide operations and maintenance services for 477 megawatts of wind-powered generating capacity. At the conclusion of a competitive tender process, eSC was chosen by MidAmerican Energy to provide the services for four wind projects located in… Read more »

American Wind Energy Association Appoints GES® as its Official Services Provider

Global Experience Specialists(GES) a leader in exhibition, event and retail marketing services, announced today that American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has appointed GES as its official services provider for its show beginning in 2012. The five-year agreement includes WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition, Offshore WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition and the Small & Community WINDPOWER Conference &… Read more »

New DNV software for strength and fatigue analysis of offshore wind turbine structure

DNV is launching new design software for ultimate strength and fatigue analysis of offshore wind turbine structures – Sesam GeniE Wind. Building on 40 years as a leading design tool for engineering floating and fixed offshore structures, the new Sesam module uniquely addresses the wind industry’s need to model the combined effect of wind and… Read more »

Novel technology will lower cost of wind energy NGenTec to unveil plans for demonstrator at EWEA Offshore 2011

A Scottish company is to announce at the world’s largest offshore wind energy event plans to build and test innovative generator technology designed to produce maximum energy at minimum cost. Edinburgh-based NGenTec, which designs and supplies permanent magnet generators for wind turbines, will unveil its plans for novel prototype at EWEA Offshore 2011, to be… Read more »

Areva Wind M5000 135 Offshore Turbine Keeps Putting The Wind In Customers Sails With The Evolution Of The Proven M5000 Platform

AREVA Wind proudly unveiled the latest product extension of its M5000 product platform: the M5000-135. The M5000-135 enhances the M5000’s proven technology with a new 135m-rotor. The design of the M5000 turbine, which is exclusively designed for offshore conditions, is a unique hybrid drive solution combining best-in-class quality standards and unique offshore services to meet… Read more »

Siemens launches new 6-MW direct drive offshore wind turbine

Siemens Energy today launched its new 6-megawatt (MW) direct drive wind turbine at the European Offshore Wind Energy Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The new SWT-6.0 will be available with rotor diameters of 120 and 154 meters and is designed for the most challenging offshore sites. It features the Siemens direct drive design with 50… Read more »

Uks Wind Energy Is A World Leading Industry Sector For Jobs

Trends point to a growing importance of the offshore wind energy segment, both for renewable energy production and for job creation. Most of the highest goals on renewable energy production are based on offshore wind systems, involving large numbers of mega-turbines and large-scale resources and investments. However, with a 91 per cent growth for UK… Read more »

DNV signs contract to certify offshore transformer station

Hamburg: DNV has signed a contract to certify the high voltage direct current (HVDC) DolWin beta transformer station offshore Germany. This includes certifying the design phase, construction, fabrication, transport and commissioning of the station. DolWin beta is a transformer station operated by TenneT, one of Europe’s largest grid operators. DolWin beta will be built as… Read more »

Siemens officially opens Energy Service Training Centre in Newcastle

Siemens celebrated the official opening by Lord Willis of Knaresborough of its Energy Service Training Centre in Newcastle, United Kingdom on November 22, 2011. This £8 million investment by Siemens provides a unique in-house training environment and experience for service technicians working on conventional and renewable power plants and helps put the North East firmly… Read more »

AREVA R&D Senior Executive VP Martha Heitzmann meets the Polish scientific community

Upon the closing ceremony of the Year of Marie Sklodowska-Curie, held in Warsaw today, Martha Heitzmann, AREVA’s Research & Development Senior Executive Vice-President, met the heads of the prestigious Polytechnic University of Warsaw (Politechnika Warszawska – PW) to further develop their collaboration. In July 2011, AREVA and PW signed a Memorandum of Understanding launching the… Read more »

SGS performs Comprehensive Quality Control of Wind Towers for Sany Group in China

In July 2011, SGS was awarded a contract to provide comprehensive quality control services of wind towers for Sany Group, a heavy construction equipment manufacturer, in China. Throughout the entire contract, scheduled from August 2011, SGS’s team of experts will perform supervision services during the production process of wind towers to ensure that they will… Read more »

Submarine cable O&M: cost critical strategies for offshore wind

Export and inter-array cables are exposed to a hostile, high-risk environment during a wind farm’s operational life. Given that they comprise a hefty portion of an offshore wind farm’s capital expenditure costs, preventive maintenance for submarine conductors should be a priority for operators, according to the latest Offshore Operations and Maintenance report from Wind Energy… Read more »

Industry Trade News: Offshore wind turbines – AREVA’s 5 Megawatt full load test bench in operation since October 2011

All AREVA M5000 5 Megawatt offshore wind turbines are tested from now on in the new full load test bench in Bremerhaven (Germany) to deliver a 100% quality product to the next offshore sites. The test bench offers the possibility to check the functionality under nominal load conditions and is a tool for the qualification… Read more »

Ecotech Institute’s Wind Energy Technology Program Adds New Simulators and More to Labs

Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainability, today announced that it is bolstering the wind energy training and safety labs, offering students access to cutting-edge equipment that prepares them for careers in the wind industry. According to the Department of Energy, wind… Read more »

Reasons to be cheerful!

Given all the troubling financial news in Europe at the moment, it would be easy to feel jaded by the current situation. But let’s not forget – our industry is one of few that is bucking the trend; we’re still forging ahead, breaking new markets and doing great business. Most of this is due to… Read more »

North Sea floating LIDAR wind measurement trials, a huge success

A full-size prototype of the floating LIDAR offshore resource assessment system, known as FLIDAR, has been successfully tested 15km off the Belgian coast. It has been located next to a stationary LIDAR (WINDCUBE®v2 LIDAR from Leosphere) on a fixed communication mast for the month of October, in order to test survivability and validate the accuracy… Read more »

New Versatile Electric Pump for use with Wind Turbine Bolt Tensioners

Tentec has launched a new electric-driven, high-pressure hydraulic pump for use with its renowned Aero range of bolt tensioning equipment. The WTP3, a self-contained unit with the ability to generate pressures up to 1600 bar, features an innovative handheld controller that enables engineers to operate the pump remotely. It has been specifically designed for global… Read more »