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This week’s Wind Energy Update news brief includes E.ON; GDF Suez, Vinci, CDC Infrastructure, Areva, Siemens; EDF Energies Nouvelles, Alstom, Dong Energy, Nass&Wind Offshore, wpd Offshore; The UK Ministry of Defence, Serco Group, Lockheed Martin and more.

E.ON awards Humber Gateway technical consulting contract

Renewable energy consultancy group Natural Power has been awarded a contract to carry out an energy yield assessment and site classification study for the permitted 230MW Humber Gateway offshore wind farm project in the UK by energy utility E.ON.

The Round 2 wind farm, located 8km off the Holderness coast, East Riding of Yorkshire, is to feature 73 turbines. The company received offshore planning consent for the project in February last year.

As part of the assessment, data from an on-site 90m tall mast will be used in combination with data from a meso-scale wind climate model and reference data to deliver a finance grade energy yield and uncertainty prediction.

Further works at the site will begin in March with construction of the onshore substation, with a view to completing the project in Spring 2015. The project aims to create up to 1,000 jobs during construction and a further 30 roles to operate and maintain the wind farm when it is operational.

Last month E.ON announced a £736m plan for Humber Gateway offshore wind farm. The utility is focusing on growing its offshore wind fleet across Europe and this announcement is part of a €2 billion investment programme in offshore wind, encompassing Humber Gateway off the coast of the UK, Amrumbank (288 MW) off the coast of Germany and Kårehamn (48MW) off the coast of Sweden.

France bid round: GDF Suez, Vinci and CDC Infrastructure submit bids

GDF Suez, Vinci and CDC Infrastructure, the direct investment subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts, have submitted their bids to build and operate wind farms off the coast of France.

The bids have been submitted to the Government, further to a call for tenders covering an expanse off the coast of France, encompassing 3,000 MW of wind energy, from 2015.

GDF Suez, Vinci and CDC Infrastructure are bidding on four of the five zones identified by the State as holding potential: Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados), Dieppe-Le Tréport (Seine-Maritime, Somme), Fécamp (Seine-Maritime) and Saint-Brieuc (Côtes d’Armor).

The consortium will combine their complementary expertise in renewable energies and the construction of major infrastructures. The consortium will be working with two major industry partners that will provide the offshore wind turbines in designated zones – Areva in the Dieppe-Le Tréport (departments of Seine-Maritime and Somme), Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados) and Fécamp (Seine-Maritime) zones; and Siemens in the Saint-Brieuc (Côtes d’Armor department) zone.

The consortium estimates that 80% of the business generated by the offshore wind farm market (procurement, production, sub-contracting) will be able to be developed in France.

EDF Energies Nouvelles-led consortium submits plans

EDF Energies Nouvelles and Alstom have submitted four projects in response to the French offshore wind energy call for tenders.

EDF Energies Nouvelles on behalf of the consortium with Alstom acting as its exclusive supplier is participating in the offshore wind energy call for tenders launched by the French government in July last year, by submitting a total of four projects for the Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Brieuc, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp sites. EDF Energies Nouvelles leads the consortium of strategic partners including Dong Energy, Nass&Wind Offshore, wpd Offshore and Alstom.

The four projects submitted by the consortium are based on wind and environmental studies conducted over a period of around four years, as well as in-depth geotechnical surveys carried out at each location to determine the characteristics of the sea bed.

Alstom, the exclusive supplier of the 6MW turbines that will be used by the consortium, plans to set up four plants at two sites, namely Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg, to manufacture all the turbine’s key components. The consortium plans to set up as many as eight units to build the foundations and assemble wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire, Brest, Cherbourg and Le Havre port facilities, as well as four operations and maintenance centres in the local ports of La Turballe, Saint-Quay-Portrieux, Caen-Ouistreham and Fécamp.

UK MOD paves way for new wind farm-friendly radars

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has given its consent for a deal for energy companies to fund new wind-farm-friendly radars.

The Ministry shared that a new Air Defence Radar that is not adversely affected by wind farms has been installed and tested on the Norfolk coast, allowing for the potential releasing of 3.3GW of renewable energy. On behalf of the MOD, Serco installed a Lockheed Martin TPS-77 Air Defence Radar near Cromer, on the Norfolk coast.

The MOD has therefore removed planning objections to five further offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash. The new TPS-77 was delivered in a project between Serco, Lockheed Martin, the MOD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, to produce a radar not affected by wind farm turbine blades.

The Ministry recently ordered two more of the wind farm-friendly radars, funded by developers, which will be installed in Northumberland and Yorkshire, unlocking a further 750 MW of renewable energy. This deal will promote further development of wind farms and help the Government reduce carbon emissions.

Until recently, the MOD has objected to wind farms located near Air Defence Radars due to the interference caused by the turbine blades.

Serco bags contract from UK MOD

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has allotted a new contract to Hampshire, UK-based Serco Group to further deploy radar technology to prevent wind farms interfering with the UK’s air defence radars.

The new contract is valued at £27m over two years and the total combined contract value to Serco is approximately £45m over a three-year period.

New air defence radars will be provided at Remote Radar Head (RRH) Brizlee Wood, Northumberland and RRH Staxton Wold, North Yorkshire. Serco has previously been awarded a contract to support the introduction of new radar technology at RRH Trimingham, Norfolk.

In its capacity as prime contractor, Serco is working with Lockheed Martin in the US to develop and provide radar technology that resists interference created by wind farm turbine blades; the lack of such technology had previously impeded the roll out of wind farms in line of sight of air defence radar stations.

Serco is also responsible for the overall system performance, undertaking the safety case analysis, introducing new ground to air communications and providing ongoing consultancy to the energy companies in relation to their plans for future wind farm developments for a period until 2018.AWS

Truepower to work on offshore wind case study

Albany, New York-based AWS Truepower has been selected to collaborate on the Carolinas Offshore Wind Integration Case Study with Duke Energy, ABB Inc., National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC).

The project is being funded by the US Department of Energy. It is designed to gain knowledge about the benefits and challenges associated with developing offshore wind generation facilities in the waters off the coasts of North and South Carolina.

The role of AWS Truepower, a specialist in renewable energy consulting and information services, is to create wind generation profiles for hypothetical offshore wind farms. This will be accomplished through the firm’s proprietary site selection algorithm, which selects likely locations for offshore wind farm development and simulates the potential project build out.

Christopher Fallon, VP of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy said the entity’s goal is to fully understand how the abundant wind resource off the coast of the Carolinas – and North Carolina, in particular – can help reshape the long-term energy outlook.

The study will assess viable wind deployment sites, evaluate the impact of development of three different amounts of installed offshore wind generation capacity, evaluate the effect of various collection and interconnection technologies and methods, and assess the operational impacts to Duke Energy Carolinas electric power system.

BLM boosts California’s renewables projects

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. have signed an agreement to expand a state and federal partnership that has, over the last two years, paved the way for more than 130 renewable power projects in California.

The agreement broadens the state and federal partnership to formally include transmission projects and bring in new partners, including the California Independent System Operator, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California State Lands Commission. The agreement also renews a mutual commitment to landscape level planning efforts.

The partnership, launched in 2009, works through a senior-level Renewable Energy Policy Group (REPG) to expedite review and processing of proposed projects.

The REPG guided the renewable energy projects through a set of environmental reviews in time for appropriate proposals to take advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants, federal loan guarantees and production and investment tax credits.

In 2012, the Policy Group will focus on the seven renewable energy and transmission projects in California on lands administered by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), BLM’s “priority projects”, and will also focus on additional projects on private lands, shared the US Department of Interior.

This year the BLM will be giving priority status to 17 projects (9 solar, 6 wind, and 2 geothermal) representing about 7,000 MW. The BLM developed this priority list in collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, with an emphasis on early consultation.