Renewable Energy Development

Speaking at the recent Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission’s Institute for Energy has suggested that the conditions and space in the Sahara Desert could be harnessed to supply enough energy to power Europe.

The massive solar farms could either be photovoltaic cells (unlikely) or concentrating solar power (more likely). The calculation made by scientists is that just 0.3% of the sunlight that falls on the Sahara would be enough to generate the required power.

An ambitious scheme to build a supergrid in Europe has been unveiled with the proposed cost of such a project estimated at €45bn. This supergrid would share electricity from green sources such as wind energy in the UK and Denmark and geothermal energy in Iceland. This supergrid would stretch from Siberia to Morocco and Egypt to Iceland.

The argument for such an ambitious program is that, with power being drawn from such a mixture of renewable sources across such a wide ranging area, there will always be power that is generated from somewhere.

Questions such as the cost-effectiveness of such a project have not been answered yet. Another aspect that seems to have been completely ignored is whether the electricity that is produced in Africa will actually be used to power African nations as well. It’s all well and good for Europe to meet their targets of cutting carbon emissions, but to do so by drawing it from outside of Europe without also solving Africa’s carbon emissions problems..well, it would be disappointing to say the least.

That being said, the entire scheme is many years away from becoming a reality so we will remain attentive to see if anything ever comes of it.

Back in March we reported the preparation being done at Strangford Lough to test the viability of the SeaGen tidal device. News has recently come through on developments in the tidal power project.

Tidal power has finally being added to the national grid at Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The test of the SeaGen device operated by Marine Current Turbines (MCT) produced enough electricity to power 150 homes and provides a good test for the start of commercial operations in a few weeks time. During this commissioning phase the device was limited to a capability of only 150kW.

When SeaGen moves to commercial operation it will generate 1.2MW of renewable energy and will generate enough electricty to power over 1,000 homes.

Managing director Martin Wright said yesterday: “This is an important milestone for the company and indeed the development of the marine renewable energy sector as a whole.

“SeaGen, MCT, tidal power and the UK Government’s push for marine renewables all now have real momentum.”

Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: “This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies.”

You can read the full press release of this momentous event by visiting the website of Marine Current Turbines.

A 50-50 joint venture partnership has been formed between the Tsilhqot’in Government and Western Biomass Power Corp to construct and operate a biomass power plant west of the Fraser River, British Columbia. The partnership will form the Tsilhqot’in Power Corporation (”TCP”).

A detailed engineering study as well as a fiber supply analysis has been completed by the joint venture leading them to propose that the Tsilhqot’in Power Project would have a capacity of 50MW of electricity. Expected cost of the project is $200,000 which will include the cosntruction of the electrical generation plant as well as a greenhouse to grow seedlings which will be used in a re-forestation program in the Tsilhqot’in territory.

The facility will be a wood waste to energy facility, being fed by the unwanted waste from the nearby forestry industry. The analysis done by TCP says the project will capitalize on the environmental benefits of green technology through effective commercial use of wood waste, including bug kill, fiber left behind in cut blocks, road side waste and wind throw.

TCP submitted details of its proposal to BC Hydro’s Phase 1, Bio Energy Call for Power today - a short list of proposals is expected in early July followed by contract awards mid October. In the event that TCP is awarded an EPA, construction could start in early 2010. The plant would be capable of generating approximately 420,000 megawatt hours of firm energy - electricity to supply approximately 42,000 homes. Western Biomass expects to submit further proposals to the second phase of BC Hydro’s Phase 2, Bio Energy Call for Power expected in October of this year.

It’s then expected that construction of the Tsilhqot’in Power Project will take around two years giving a completion date some time in 2012.

The biomass power project comes with added benefits for the Tsilhqot’in people because of the job opportunities the project will bring to the area, it will provide an effective method of management of the lands, the existing forest biomass waste will be cleaned up, electricity will be generated with zero carbon emissions.

Way back in the 1960s France’s State-owned Electricite de France (EDF) built the world’s first tidal energy power plant on the Rance River. The plant, known as La Rance, is capable of producing 240MW of electricity but it has fallen out of favour because the barrage system is damaging the environment.

For this reason a new technology is under consideration by EDF to power a prototype project that will produce between 4 to 6MW at a cost of between €23 million to €27 million. The turbines are hoped to be in place off the coast of Paimpol in Brittany by 2011. It’s in these waters that the strongest currents in Europe are found.

The pilot scheme will enable the chosen technology to be tested in real conditio0ns which will allow a realistic assessment of the profitability of a future commercial scale venture.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) have received approval to begin construction of three new solar energy centers by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). This will make Florida the second largest producer of utility-scale solar power in the United States.

At this stage the three projects are in the early planning stages and so there is still no certainty that they will come to fruition.

The three solar power projects in question are:

DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is a planned photovoltaic solar array that will be capable of generating 25MW of electricity. This will make it the world’s largest photovoltaic solar facility and will provide enough energy for 7,000 people. The project is planned to be constructed on land owned by FPL in DeSoto County and is expected to be in commercial production by December 2009.

Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center

The Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center project uses a hybrid design that will be added to FPL’s existing Martin Plant site. The project will provide a capacity of 75MW of solar thermal power which will be connected to an existing combined cycle natural gas power plant. When the sun is providing the energy less natural gas will be used. This project is expected to be completed in 2010.

Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center

The Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center project is another photovoltaic solar power plant that will be located at the Kennedy Space Center. The facility will be capable of generating a capacity of 10MW of photovoltaic power and is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2010.

These new solar power facilities will avoid nearly 3.5 million tons of greenhouse gases and can be equated to removing 25,000 cars from the road each year.

A new wind power project has been proposed by Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola Renovables in partnership with Bancaja. The proposal has been made through a newly created company called Sistemas Energeticos de Levante which is jointly owned by the two companies with Iberdrola Group taking a 60% stake and Bancaja the remaining 40%.

The wind power project is large with a maximum generating capacity of 304MW of electricty generated from 152 wind turbines.

Along with the wind power submission, Sistemas Energeticos de Levante added some initiatives such as an accompanying solar power plant in Valenica and a commitment that at least 55% of the civil works providers will be sourced locally.

The proposal is now before the Dirección General de Energía for approval.

At this stage there is no real indication as to the timeframe for when the project will begin or an expected completion date. Similarly, there has been no word on the expected cost of completing the proposed project.

Iberdrola Renewables is the global leader of the sector with 8,000MW of power already in operation with many prospects available to achieve even greater growth.