Renewable Energy Development

The largest wind project ever developed in Chile is currently being planned. The 46MW Totoral Wind Farm is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. The project will consist of 23 Vestas 2MW capacity wind turbines which will be delivered by April 2009.

The wind farm will be located in the region of Coquimbo which lies around 300km north of Santiago de Chile. Developing the project is Norwegian renewable energy developer SN Power.

The current largest wind power facility in Chile is 20MW, so this new project will more than double that. The wind farm will have an estimated annual production of 100GWh and will be able to meet the electricity demands of around 20,000 households.

It is expected that the cost of the project will run to around USD 140 million

The Sherbino Wind Farm is a 150MW project sited in Pecos County in Texas and the first phase has been brought on-line to full commercial operation. Heading the project is BP Wind Energy in partnership with Padoma Wind Power, a subsidiary of NRG Energy.

This project is the first of what could become a maximum capacity facility of 750MW. This first phase began construction in February and comprises 50 Vestas V-90 wind turbines each with a rated capacity of 3MW.

The electricity generated from the Sherbino Wind Farm will be delivered into the Reliability Council of Texas transmission system and sold on the wholesale power market.

According to Robert Lukefahr, the president of BP Wind Energy North America, “The successful commercial operation of phase I of the Sherbino wind farm with our partner NRG Energy is another example of BP’s commitment to grow its wind portfolio in the U.S…The Sherbino wind farm will produce clean, renewable electricity for the next twenty years.”

A press release came out today from a UK company called Solar Botanic announcing the granting of patents as well as more patents pending covering Biomimicry, Nanoleaf Technology and Energy transfer materials. It’s an extremely interesting announcement that opens up a whole new realm of renewable energy using nanotechnology in such a way that solar and wind power are both captured and converted into electricity.

The Solar Botanic technology involves artificial trees and plants that look lifelike enough to pass as the real things at a casual glance. The significant feature of these “trees” is that they are capable of producing enough electricity to power an average household.

The way it is achieved is through Solar Botanic’s artificial leaf (Nanoleaf) technology which captures the sun’s radiant energy in photvoltaic and thermovoltaic cells converting the radiation into electricity. The energy production doesn’t stop there because as the leaves are blown by the wind the layers of voltaic material in the stems and twigs are moved and stretched and this movement is also converted into electricity.

The possibilities with Solar Botanic’s new technology are many, for example, areas where wind turbines are unacceptable could be populated with groves of Botanic trees capable of producing commercial levels of renewable sourced energy.

It’s still very early days for this technology and Solar Botanic is looking to select business partners for investment, R&D, manufacturing, distribution and marketing. Government bodies have already shown an interest in what is being achieved by the company.

There are still questions to be answered about the placement of artificial trees around the countryside and I would imagine that, as with all new kinds of technology, complete environmental assessments will be required before full scale production can be considered. But still, the concept is fascinating.

A new tidal turbine has been installed in the East River of New York City which is the third attempt at tapping the strong tides that flow though it.

This is the first turbine of a proposed 300 which the city hopes to install in the waterway. Unlike the typical river which flows in a constant direction, the East River is a tidal straight with strong, fluctuating currents which allow for more efficient power generation. Once in place, the system could provide electricity to 10,000 households.

Verdant Power is the company behind the project which is known as the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project (RITE) and the installation of the latest turbine is part of Phase 2 of a three phase project. The previous two attempts to tap the tides of the East River resulted in the turbines failing with the blades shredded by the power of the waterway. The accompanying photo shows the installation of one of the failed turbines.

The aim of RITE is to generate up to 10MW of electricity using the renewable energy source. Because the East River is actually a tidal waterway, the water flow fluctuates in direction which requires a specialist turbine system. The aluminum turbine that has just been installed is the first of its kind in the United States. The earlier versions of this turbine were made of fiberglass over a steel skeleton.

The city has spent $2 million in the past few years studying the impact the turbines would have on local fish and bird populations, but so far it seems that the animals avoid the blades and escape harm. However, regulations state that the impact on the waterway’s animal life must be monitored continuously.

Verdant Power, a small energy company hired for the job, said that this third version was thoroughly tested before being installed; so far it has worked, and is already powering a nearby supermarket. If the blades continue to hold together, the city should soon give further production and installation a green light.

The Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland Wisconsin is about to undergo a $70 million overhaul courtesy of financing by Xcel Energy. The power plant has already been retrofitted so that two of its three boilers can burn multiple fuels for power. The proposal by Xcel is to convert the third coal-fired boiler to burn wood chips, producing biomass gasification.

After the upgrade the power plant would burn up to 450,000 tons of waste wood a year compared to the current 200,000 tons. The retrofit will allow the conversion of waste wood to synthetic gas, which is cleaner than coal. Greenhouse gas emissions would be cut dramatically as a result.

After the power plant has been upgraded it will have become the largest biomass-fuelled power plant in the Midwest and one of the largest in the nation.

Xcel will file for approval for the project with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin later this year. Construction is expected to start in 2010, pending project approval. Operation could begin in late 2012.

The largest commercial wind farm in the southern hemisphere is in the final stages of commercial assessment in Victoria, Australia. Named the Macarthur Wind Farm, it is a joint venture partnership between AGL and Meridian Energy, which is New Zealand’s largest generator of electricity using only renewable resources.

The Macathur Wind Farm has a proposed maximum generating capacity of 450MW of electricity and will be comprised of 150 wind turbines scattered over 5500 hectares between the townships of Macarthur, Hawkesdale and Penshurst in the Western Districts of Victoria.

The electricity generated from the facility will be enough to power around 150,000 homes per year and will introduce considerable infrastructure development to a rural region. The project will create 200 jobs during the construction phase and will create related job opportunities for the local community.

The actual turbines that will be used for the project are still yet to be decided upon as is the precise location of each turbine, which will be decided after an assessment is made on the impacts each one will have on the adjacent residents.

It is hoped that construction of the Macarthur Wind Farm will get underway during 2009 but there has been no indication given as to when the wind project will be completed and electricity will be added to the national grid.