Month: January 2013

Nearly two years after a massive offshore earthquake and the tsunami which devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor and the mostly agricultural communities that surrounded it, the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has unveiled plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm adjacent to the disaster zone.

The initiative comes part of a plan to reconstruct the area stricken by the disaster in March 2011.

By 2020, the government said, a total of 143 wind turbines on platforms 16 kilometres off the coast of Fukushima. The wind farm will generate 1 GW of power once completed, officials said.

Following the disaster at the Fukushima plant, all 54 of Japan’s reactors were shut down, and only two have been brought back online in the 21 months since as the government has tried to move closer to fulfilling its pledge to increase the use of renewable energy across the nation.

Among the unique features of the plan is Japan’s intention to rely on massive floating turbines which will be stabilised with ballast and anchored to the 200-metre-deep continental shelf that surrounds the Japanese coast via mooring lines, according to an analysis of the project by New Scientist.

The magazine also reported the wind farm will supply electricity to the powerful grid which Fukushima’s two nuclear power plants were connected to, reducing transmission costs.

The project is being overseen by Takeshi Ishihara of the University of Tokyo.

Duke Energy Renewables has developed a way of saving extra power generated by batteries at its Notrees Windpower Project in Texas.

The $44 million battery-storage system holds excess energy from the 153-megawatt Notrees farm and releases it when power supplies dip. This innovation is particularly helpful because winds often blow more strongly at night, when power needs are less, and more gently during the day, when power demands are higher.

With this battery storage system, wind generated power can be kept and used, as and when needed, thus stablising the grid. Data from the project is being collected and analysed for scale-up by the US Department of Energy, who helped fund Duke Energy Renewables’ wind power, storage battery.

On 8 January, the French government declared the second bidding round for offshore wind farms off the French coast. This time a total of 1,000 MW are up for tender, divided into two farms.

These are the sites Le Tréport in the English Channel and the newly added area Noirmoutier south of the Saint-Nazaire project in the Atlantic, which were left empty-handed in the first bidding round. In both areas, there will be between 480 and 500 MW generated.

France expects investments of approximately 3.5 billion € through the projects for tender and to create 10,000 promising jobs through industrial development of this sector. The costs for the public will amount to 500 million € per year.

In the first round of bidding, approximately 2,000 MW were contracted at the beginning of 2012. That capacity is divided into four projects. The area Le Tréport was already tendered at the time. However, GDF Suez was the sole bidder – and was turned down by the French government due to the high price. To prevent this from happening in the second round, the price of the projects will gain more relevance. Overpriced offers will be excluded immediately.

In March, the second bidding round will open officially; applications must be submitted by September. The French government will award the contracts by January 2014.

EnBW Baltic 2 is being developed by German company EnBW Erneuerbare Energien GmbH and the funding deal was signed this week in Karlsruhe.

The wind farm consists of 80 wind turbines installed within an area of 27 square kilometres, 32 km north of the island of Rügen. This is a particularly demanding location for an offshore wind farm because the sea in this area can be as much as 44 metres deep in some places requiring the use of special foundation structures called ‘jackets’.

Nevertheless, EnBW Baltic 2 has a capacity of some 288 megawatts and will generate an annual output of 1.2 billion kWh, enough to supply 340,000 households while achieving emissions savings of around 900,000 tonnes of carbon.

“Demanding projects are required so that Germany can implement its ambitious energy aims” said Wilhelm Molterer, the Vice President of the European Investment Bank.

“EnBW Baltic 2 sets standards. It will be exemplary for future projects of this magnitude. With the financing that has now been agreed, it will be possible to implement the extensive project quickly and make a decisive contribution to the success of the energy transition.”

The turbines used in the project are Siemens SWT-3,6-120, 39 of them erected on monopoles with another 41 using jackets.

“The commitment of EIB to a project like EnBW Baltic 2 makes a very essential contribution towards the energy transition” said Thomas Kusterer, the Financial Chairman of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG. “Participation of the EIB in such projects represents a decisive element in structuring and financing.”