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The world has a new largest offshore wind farm: The 209 MW Horns Rev 2 project, located 30 kilometers off the west coast of Jutland in the North Sea, was inaugurated today by Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik. Constructed by DONG Energy, the project consists of 91 Siemens turbines and is expected to produce about 800 GWh of electricity per year — enough for 200,000 households.
In addition to the being the current record-holder for offshore capacity, Horns Rev 2 is the first offshore wind farm to be manned year-round by up to 24 workers on an offshore maintenance platform, dubbed Poseidon.
DONG Energy chairman of the board Fritz Schur touted his company’s offshore wind power prowess:
In many ways the establishment of Horns Rev 2 is a final test piece for DONG Energy. Half of the world’s current offshore wind power capacity was constructed by us. This inauguration of the world’s largest offshore wind farm underlines that DONG Energy is among the frontrunners in the field.
Though it will be able to bask in the number one spot for some while, there are a number of other larger offshore wind farms in planning and construction, including the now-slightly-downsized London Array — of which DONG is a backer — scheduled to come online in a few years.
More: DONG Energy – Horns Rev 2
Offshore Wind Power
The 1 GW London Array Offshore Wind Farm (Again) Moving Forward
Offshore Wind Power in Great Lakes Touted as Untapped Resource
Rule Britannia: UK is Now World’s #1 Offshore Wind Power Producer
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Solar-energy-to-Canada/default.aspx
Profiled industries:
Bioenergy-to-Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Bioenergy-to-Canada/default.aspx
Carbon-capture-and-storage-to-Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Carbon-capture-and-storage-to-Canada/default.aspx
Consumer goods to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Consumer-goods-to-Canada/default.aspx
Food and beverage to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Food-and-beverage-to-Canada/default.aspx
Green building to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Green-building-to-Canada/default.aspx
ICT to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/ICT-to-Canada/default.aspx
Mining to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Mining-to-Canada/default.aspx
Oil and gas to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Oil-and-gas-to-Canada/default.aspx
Solar energy to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Solar-energy-to-Canada/default.aspx
Wind energy to Canada
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Wind-energy-to-Canada/default.aspx
EU to invest billions in energy research / EurActiv
7 October 2009 – The European Commission today revealed its long-awaited blueprint for tripling Europe’s energy research funding within the next decade, in a bid to shift monies towards supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy in the next EU budget.
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The EU executive calls for the energy research budget to be increased to €50 billion over the next ten years. This would require yearly flows from both the public and private sectors to jump from their current €3bn to €8bn, it calculated.
The Communication on Financing the Development of Low-Carbon Technologies sets out how this money should be divided between key low-carbon technologies that can move Europe from 80% dependence on fossil fuels to 80% emissions cuts by 2050. The research priorities were identified in the 2007 Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) that intended to reassert Europe’s competitiveness by putting declining EU energy research budgets back on track.
The financing plan, which was originally due out last year, was partly delayed due to the financial crisis, which required new thinking on how to reactivate growth, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told journalists. Furthermore, drawing up roadmaps for the various technologies took time, he added.
The final plan earmarks €6bn for research into wind energy, which the Commission believes could produce a fifth of the EU’s electricity by 2020. The money would help to fund developments offshore, where winds are stronger, by investing in next-generation turbines and new structures.
Solar energy would get €16bn for developing new photovoltaic concepts and large industrial concentrating solar power (CSP) installations to contribute 15% of EU electricity in ten years’ time. Bioenergy research would also get €9bn so that it could provide 14% of EU energy while respecting sustainability criteria.
In order to integrate renewables and implement the internal energy market, electricity grids would get €2 billion so that half of the networks can operate along a “smart grid” principle.
Apart from renewables, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is set to receive €13bn for up to 12 demonstration projects. Nuclear research would also get €7bn for putting the fourth generation into operation.
The financing proposal also foresees €11bn for a ‘Smart Cities’ programme, in order to counter criticism that the SET-Plan disregards energy efficiency. Between 25 and 30 cities are to be upgraded with low-carbon houses and transport so that they emit 40% less greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 than they did in 1990.
In addition, the Commission is calling for more money for future breakthrough technologies, such as motors fuelled directly by sunlight or batteries which store power at ten times their current density.
Public partnering with private money
The Commission believes that public-private partnerships are the most credible way to go about funding energy research. However, it did not spell out how the financial burden should be shared between the two.
TheStar.com – Business – Canadians’ help sought for a green desert oasis
The first city in the world likely to emit zero carbon and generate zero waste is, ironically, likely going to be in a country that gets most of its revenues from the sale of oil and gas.
Three years ago Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, came up with a grand plan. The country is rolling in petrodollars, which make up more than two-thirds of its gross domestic product. So it decided it would commit $22 billion (U.S.) toward an ambitious effort to diversify the economy, by building a green city from scratch in the middle of the desert.
Masdar City, as it’s called, will be small at about six square kilometres, and only 50,000 or so people are expected to live within its perimeter wall. But it has big vision. It will have its own university, and will be the headquarters to the newly created International Renewable Energy Agency (which Canada, by the way, refuses to join).
Masdar will also be a cleantech mecca.
The city will be powered largely by solar, wind and geothermal power, starting with a 50-megawatt solar power plant that will supply energy for construction.
A wind farm will be built outside the city’s walls and eventually, as buildings emerge, they will have solar panels on their rooftops. Some of this renewable power will be used to generate and store hydrogen, which will be used as an emission-free fuel for what’s expected to be the world’s largest hydrogen power plant.
Solar will power a desalination plant that will turn salt water into drinking water, which will be recycled where possible or used as grey water for irrigating crops or flushing toilets.
High-tech incineration technologies will be used to turn waste into energy.
Vehicles will also be banned within city walls. Instead, residents and workers will have to rely on light-rail transit and electric-powered personal transportation systems, those driverless pods you see in sci-fi movies like Blade Runner, Minority Report and – I’m aging myself now – Logan’s Run.
The entire construction effort is being overseen by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and the first neighbourhood in Masdar is expected to be finished in 2013.
And you thought Bramalea was a planned city.
Why bring up something happening more than 10,000 kilometres away?
Last week a delegation of Masdar City executives flew into Toronto at the invitation of Sandra Pupatello, Ontario’s minister of economic development and trade. They spent two days meeting clean technology, engineering and urban design companies from Ontario and the rest of Canada.
Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany, associate director of sustainability at Masdar City, said in an interview that Masdar needs access to the latest technologies if it is to achieve its mission. That won’t come from Abu Dhabi alone.
“This is why we seek partnerships,” she said. “We’re looking at opportunities to investigate what’s happening everywhere in the world.
“We believe there are lots of opportunities in Canada.”
She called the meetings “fruitful,” and said she expects there will be some serious business relationships formed.
“You have four senior members of Masdar here, so we’re definitely not here to waste the company’s money.”
Masdar, it should be clear, isn’t just a grand idea on paper. Construction has already started. In June, Abu Dhabi-based Enviromena Power Systems completed a 10-megawatt solar power farm that spans 22 hectares and consists of 87,777 solar photovoltaic modules. So far it takes the prize as the largest solar power plant in the Middle East and North Africa.
Last year, Burnaby, B.C.-based solar lighting company Carmanah Technologies signed a deal that will see Enviromena distribute its products throughout the Middle East, so already the Masdar initiative is having an impact on Canadian companies.
“Masdar is really seen as a test bed for these technologies,” said Kevin Healy, who heads up marketing for Masdar City.
Joseph Dableh, president and chief executive of Oakville-based intelligent lighting company Fifth Light Technology, attended one of the sessions with Al-Hosany and her team and managed to make an impression.
Fifth Light has developed technology that allows fluorescent lighting in buildings to be dimmed in a way that saves energy, extends the life of the lights, and in a way that’s hardly noticeable to the naked eye.
Masdar, said Dableh, is a perfect match for his technology.
“They have expressed serious interest and clearly stated that this is exactly what they are hoping to acquire. I had three one-to-one meetings with them and it was agreed to follow up.”
It’s great news for a promising Canadian company, even if it takes going to a desert in the Middle East for some well-deserved exposure.
Promoting renewables is focus of new agency
Via: World Business Council for Social Development
The International Herald Tribune, May 19, 2009 Tuesday – In Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, delegates from 79 countries will meet next month to choose a home, a director and a preliminary work program for the International Renewable Energy Agency, which was set up this year to lead a global drive to accelerate and expand the development of renewable energy resources.
The agency grew out of a conference in Bonn on Jan. 26, which was sponsored by the German government, with support from Denmark and Spain. Of the 192 United Nations member states invited, 125 sent delegations and 75 European and emerging countries signed on to the final agreement establishing the agency, also known as Irena.
Membership includes leading European economies like Germany and France; emerging economies like India; major energy producers like Norway and Nigeria; hostile neighbors like Eritrea and Ethiopia, or Israel and Syria; and poor states like Liberia and Burkina Faso.
The United States has not yet joined the agency because of lingering commercial concerns, but is likely to do so, Hermann Scheer, a member of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, said during an interview. Major countries like China, Britain and Brazil have not yet joined, either.
Very few countries ”have adequate and comprehensive programs for renewable energy, ” Mr. Scheer said, ”The others do not, and they need them urgently.”
Drinking Water And Hydroelectric Power – Binding The Common Future Of Canada And USA
Hydroelectric power produced in Canada – generally known there as simply “hydro” – is another water-created, and shared resource of increasing importance to Canada and the US Northeast. DailyTech reports that much of 8 Terawatt-hours (1550 MW) of new Canadian “hydro” could soon be on its way to New England and to New York State, specifically. (1550 MW of hydroelectric capacity is roughly the equivalent of what a thousand new top-of-the-line wind turbines would be rated at, cumulatively.
Notably, export of the new green, hydroelectric power to the USA, from Canada, will be encouraged by renewable energy targets, as included in the present energy bill being considered in the US Congress.
Much of the water flowing through the turbines at Niagara Falls originates from Canadian watersheds. That water-driven source has, historically, supplied a great deal of green power to the US, and will continue to do so.
Should the various offshore wind farms being proposed for Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan be completed, their power output will be created by the wide open spaces (wind fetch) offered by the shared water resource
Contrast the above, with how water is shared – or rather how it is not shared – between Mexico and the USA. What the US Southwest and Mexico have in common for optimal green power generation performance is the sun, not water: the opposite of Canada and the US Northeast. One big difference between these two regions is that the southwest’s common solar resources need no international contracts or treaties to manage them, whereas in the other instance, for shared water and power, both are needed. The other difference between the regions, relative to green power and economic development, is that it is extremely unlikely that investors would build a concentrated solar power plant in Mexico to export electricity to the USA.
Reuters, 20 April 2009 – China will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020, a senior energy official said on Monday, more than three times the 30 GW target the government laid down in an energy strategy drawn up just 18 months ago.
“Installed wind-power capacity is expected to reach 100 million kilowatts in 2020. That will be eight times more than in 2008,” Fang Junshi, head of the coal department of the National Energy Administration, told a Coaltrans conference in Beijing. “The annual growth rate will be about 20 percent.”
Fang’s remarks confirm what industry experts have long maintained — wind power has the potential to take a much bigger share of China’s power mix than the government had planned.
Read the whole article: http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzQxNDk
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) announced Canada has officially become the 12th country in the world to surpass 2,000 megawatts (MW) of installed wind energy capacity. Wind currently supplies approximately 1 percent of Canada’s electricity demand, with 85 wind farms representing approximately 2,246 MW of generating capacity.
CanWEA Releases Wind Vision 2025 Plus Results of Important Wind Power Survey
30 October 2008
Via: RenewableEnergyWorld.com
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) released its strategic vision for wind energy development during its 24th Annual Conference and Trade Show taking place this week in Vancouver. The plan, Wind Vision 2025 – Powering Canada’s Future, cites rapidly rising energy costs, reducing the country’s environmental impacts caused by current electricity generation, the need to quickly build more electricity generation to keep up with rising demand and the need to build a more robust transmission system a key drivers for the adoption of wind technology.
Through the plan, CanWEA argues that Canada can and must ensure that wind energy supplies 20 percent of the country’s demand by 2025, bringing total Canadian wind energy capacity to 55,000 MW.
Wind Energy Could Produce 20 Percent of U.S. Electricity By 2030
Source: U.S. Department of Energy
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) today released a first-of-its kind report that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs by 2030. Entitled “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030”, the report identifies requirements to achieve this goal including reducing the cost of wind technologies, citing new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability. Most notably, the report identifies opportunities for 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 to be avoided by 2030, saving 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter if wind energy achieves 20 percent of the nation’s electricity mix. As part of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative announced in 2006, clean, secure and sustainable wind energy has the potential to play an increasingly important role in the Bush Administration’s long-term energy strategy to make investments today to fundamentally change the way we power U.S. homes and businesses and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025.
+ 20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030 (PDF; 4 MB)
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