Renewable Energy Development

New plans have been announced by energy giant E.ON to invest around £300 million in a new biomass power plant 12km from Bristol.

The biomass power plant will be called the Portbury Dock Renewable Energy Plant and is expected to have a maximum capacity to produce 150MW which would be enough electricity to power 200,000 homes. The fuel for the power plant will be wood which will be brought to the power plant by ship.

Approval is still yet to be granted, but if it goes ahead construction is hoped to be started in 2010 with the first power to be brought online some time in 2013 and full production to be completed in 2014.

A scoping statement has been issued by E.ON to North Somerset Council, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) as well as other interested parties. This outlines the plans for the project and seeks view on what should be included in the environmental statement.

In order to maintain the expected capacity of 150MW of electricity the facility will require something like 1.2 million tonnes of woodchip per year. The exact design of the combustion process is still yet to be decided upon but it is likely to be a fluidised combustion system involving a combined heat and power (CHP) system.

Since 2007 there have been plans by Farm Energy in Britain to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm, to be known as the Atlantic Array. The wind farm would consist of 350 wind turbines capable of generating a maximum capacity 1,500MW of electricity and would be sited off the coast of Devon. Total coast of the project has been given an early indicative figure of £3bn, although with the cost of commodities on the rise this could be closer to £4bn.

A wind farm this large would be capable of supplying enough electricity to power up to 1 million homes which would avoid the emission of more than 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Some of the issues that could be standing in the way of the Atlantic Array project becoming a reality includes environmental sensitivity at the shore end of the cable route, a concern over the effects on local bird wildlife and the question of the effect on the port infrastructure.

It is expected that if and when approval for the project to go ahead is received the construction and development to full commission will take up to 6 years. The latest figures found (Oct 2007) was a proposed start date of 2013 and the completion in 2018.

The popular comparison of the size of the wind farm when it is completed is that it will cover an area equivalent in size to that of the Isle of Wight. Around 2,000 people will be involved in its construction with a permanent workforce of around 150 people need to maintain the wind farm once it is in operation.

Farm Energy is already involved in the construction of the 1,000MW offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary known as the London Array Project.

Horizon Wind Energy has been able to secure a long-term power purchase agreement with Snohomish County Public Utility District (Snohomish) to sell renewable wind energy from the Wheat Field Wind Farm. This is a great boost for the prospects of the wind farm which will have an installed capacity of 96.6 MW made up of 46 Suzlon 2.1MW wind turbines.

The Wheat Field Wind Farm will be located in Gilliam County, Oregon near the city of Arlington it will be spread out across a series of wheat fields – giving it its name, of course.

The wind farm will deliver enough power for around 29,000 homes per year and the property tax revenues will be an added benefit for the local community. It is expected that the Wheat Field Wind Farm will be completed and producing electricity in the first half of 2009.

“We’re pleased to add this renewable wind project as another clean energy source in our power mix,” said Steve Klein, Snohomish County PUD general manager. “This reinforces our commitment to environmentally-friendly energy sources and helps fulfill requirements under Washington’s renewable portfolio standard law.”

Construction has begun on Peru’s first major alternative energy project. A 240MW wind energy farm, to be known as San Andres Wind Park (Parque Eólico San Andrés) is being built by Iberoperuana Inversiones SAC.

IT is hoped that the wind park will be completed within 2 years and Iberoperuana Inversiones plans to be generating 22MW by the end of 2008. The company will be investing $240 million to get the project up and running.

When it is completed it is estimated that the wind park will have the capacity to generate enough electricity to power up to 80,000 homes in Peru’s southern desert region of Paracas.

A spokesman for the company, Antonio Caballo said at a recent ceremony in which the first turbine was highlighted, “the opportunity that we have been given by the government to invest in Peru by the Ministry of Energy and Mines has opened very large doors for investors worldwide.”

Iberoperuana Inversiones has been licensed to pursue a total of 15 alternative energy projects in Peru which promises to ensure that Peru will be one of the leading renewable energy nations in South America.

Testing of a new wave energy device is about to begin off the East Anglian coast in England. Six miles off the coast of Southwold a year long trial of a machine that is currently known as Trident Energy 3 will take place.

The company behind the trial is Trident Energy, an Essex-based company. They are hopeful that the trial will get underway by the end of September.

Spokeswoman for Trident Energy, Kate Hill has said, “Trident is looking to develop a marine renewable energy system and this machine uses quite simple technology. It has one moving part which sits on the sea and generates electricity from the movement of the waves.”

The device is being built by marine engineering company Small and Co. in Lowenstoft.

The Trident Energy 3 consists of a small platform measuring about 15sq m. The platform is supported by submerged pontoons anchored to the sea bed. Floats that move up and down through the action of the waves generate power.

Trident Energy 3 utilises a principle known as Direct Energy Conversion Method (DECM) and it has 5 major components:

1. Linear generators which convert straight line mechanical motion into electricity.
2. Floats that rise and fall with the motion of the waves to drive the linear generators.
3. A sea platform to support the floats and generators.
4. An anchoring system to moor the rig.
5. Transmission cables to transmit the generated power back to shore and into the grid.

A key factor to the Trident Energy 3 device is that it only has one moving part, the float generator translator. Relative motion between two components of the linear generator (the translator and the stator) takes place generating electricity. No contact is made between the two parts of the generator with energy conversion being electromagnetic.

It is expected that when the device goes into full scale commercial production each rig will have a generating capacity of 1MW. A wave farm with a footprint of 1 square kilometre would be capable of generating 100MW with the right wave conditions.

This latest test project is another step taken in the infant wave power industry that is simply bursting with renewable energy generation potential. As with all of the wave energy projects that are currently in development and trials around the world, there is a lot of potential to be excited about, but there are also a lot of environmental boxes to tick.

Finally there is the question of the cost of the electricity that will be generated by wave power and how it measures against the more mature markets.

There has been an update on the Nacogdoches Biomass Power Plant that was proposed for Sacul in northern Nacogdoches County. The approval was being considered in Austin, Texas with the news that the city of Austin has unanimously agreed to buy power from the facility.

What this means is that Tony Callendrello, the project’s leader, can now secure financing for the project and it is anticipated that the construction will begin in February 2009 making the earlier proposed completion of 2012 likely.

Representative Wayne Christian made the announcement for the Austin City Council:
“I am very pleased that the 20 year contract was approved,” stated Christian. “As a new source of economic development for East Texas, the power plant will spur a revitalization of our logging and timber industry. Additionally, it will create many jobs both during construction and for full-time operation. This project brings one of the largest economic developments in the history of Nacogdoches County.”