International NEWS

Review International NEWS

International NEWS

Acciona completes 250 MW wind farm With 167 wind turbines and a capacity The wind farm „Eurus“ in Mexico is the largest to date from the Spanish turbine manufacturer and of 250.5 MW, Eurus at the same time the largest in Latin America. It consists of 167 Acciona wind turbines with a capac- is Latin America‘s ity of 1.5 MW each. The Mexican construction group Cemex wants to use the wind farm to cover 25 % of its largest wind farm. own electricity requirement. Eurus extends over an area of more than 2,500 ha and is located in the coun- Photo: Acciona try‘s south, in the state of Oaxaca. Erection of the turbines started in July 2008. They will be put in operation step by step in the coming weeks and will generate enough electricity to supply about 500,000 people. The total investment volume amounts to € 367 million.

Alpha Ventus: all turbines standing Avantis builds 200 MW

On the morning of 16th November, EWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and DOTI erected the wind farm in Vietnam twelfth – and last – wind turbine in their offshore test field, a Repower 5M. In a mountainous border region of Thus, the first German offshore wind farm, located 45 km off the North Sea island of Vietnam, the Chinese company Borkum, could be finished before the end of 2009. Within a few weeks, the six Repow- Avantis Energy is going to put up 80 turer turbines, which have a capacity of 5 MW each, were set up despite the windy au- bines of the type AV 928 with a capacity of tumn weather. The Hamburg-based manufacturer Repower was able to ensure the fast 2.5 MW each. Delivery of the first turbines and smooth erection of the turbines due to its previous experience with setting up the is scheduled for mid-2010, with about 30 same turbine type, for example in the Belgian offshore wind farm Thornton Bank, re- to 50 MW to be erected each year. Avantis ports Norbert Giese, Director of Offshore Projects at Repower. This time, Repower will build Vietnam‘s largest wind farm in used a larger jack-up barge than the one used at Thornton Bank, so that a complete Mau Son, on the Chinese border. The cus- turbine, including the rotor star, the nacelle and two tower segments, could be tomer is the Hanoi-based Thanh Tung shipped to its location in one go. Furthermore, the time windows provided by the Group, which operates hotels there and is wind, wave and tide conditions could be utilized much better due to improved instal- also active in the field of renewable ener- lation equipment. Repower managed to „erect each turbine in a little more than one gies, in the real estate sector and in various day“, says Giese. other fields of business. Avantis will as- sume the majority of the project manage- ment tasks and provide service and mainte- nance. According to the company, the volume of the contract is about € 200 million. The rotor star of the Repower 5M is prepared for The gearbox-less turbines are equipped installation. Photo: DOTI/Matthias Ibeler with water-cooled permanent magnet generators. They are being manufactured in the Chinese city of Beihai. The rotor used for the turbines has been developed espe- cially for IEC I wind loads and can thus be used even in typhoon regions.

You can find the report „Flying visit to the test field“ with pictures of the erection of the wind turbines for Germany‘s first offshore wind farm on the home page of SUN & WIND ENERGY at (www.sunwindenergy.com/ swe/pdf/alphaventus.pdf). 6 Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010 ~ A MESSAGE FROM THE SUN ~ “WOW! THE BIGGEST SOLAR PANEL I’VE EVER SEEN IS SHINING BACK UP AT ME.

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Siemens attacks Enercon‘s monopoly Photo: dpa Photo: Enercon will soon cease to be the only large manufacturer able to supply gearbox-less wind turbines. € 300 million for Siemens has recently erected the prototype of its SWT-3.0-101 DD in the Danish town offshore grid of Brande. The somewhat complicated type The European Investment Bank designation of the prototype specifies its (EIB) has agreed to provide € 300 most important characteristics: a capacity million for the construction of the BritNed of 3 MW, a rotor diameter of 101 m and the Interconnector, a new electricity transmis- most important feature, the gearless direct sion cable between the United Kingdom and drive (DD). the Netherlands. According to Paul Wilczek, In July 2008, it became obvious that Regulatory Affairs Adviser of the European Siemens would soon venture down this Wind Energy Association, this grid is essen- road after the company started testing two tial for the integration of 150 MW of offshore conventional 3.6 MW turbines in Denmark wind power by 2030. “An effective pan-Eu- from which the gearbox had been removed. ropean offshore grid requires investments Both were equipped with new generators of € 20 to 30 billion up to 2030. The € 300 that achieved a high output despite the low million from the EIB sends a very positive rotation speed. The test results were obvi- signal to future investors”, says Wilczek. ously so good that Siemens soon designed a new turbine type, which will go into se- ries production in 2010. The generator comes from the company itself. It will be GE builds largest wind farm in the US produced by the Business Unit Large Drives of the Siemens Industry Sector. GE has received a US$ 1.4 billion contract from the independent Enercon still has one kind of monopoly power producer Caithness Energy to supply wind turbines and pro- because the company is the only manufac- vide services for the 845 MW Shepherds Flat wind farm in Oregon. A total of turer worldwide that is capable of produc- 338 turbines – stretching across 30 square miles – are to be installed in ing large numbers of direct drive turbines 2011 and 2012. Additionally, Caithness Energy plans to build 85 miles of in the 2 to 3 MW range. This monopoly will road and 90 miles of power connection to the grid. Construction of the wind now be attacked by Siemens. farm starts this year und will be completed in 2012. After completion, the wind farm will generate approximately 2 billion kWh annually – enough energy to supply 235,000 Californian households.

Milford Wind More wind power for project completed Turkey The US wind company First The Turkish government wants to Wind has inaugurated the expand wind energy utilization in first phase of its Milford Wind Corri- the country. The Investment Support and dor project located in Millard and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) sup- Beaver County in the State of Utah. ports foreign wind turbine planning and With a capacity of 203.5 MW the fa- construction companies. cility will produce enough power for Recently, activities have been initiated about 45,000 homes per year. The by the British company Renewable Energy park comprises 97 wind turbines – Systems Holdings Limited, a company that including 58 Clipper Liberty 2.5 MW is active worldwide in the renewable ener- and 39 GE 1.5 MW turbines. Accord- gies sector. The company has purchased a ing to Paul Gaynor, CEO of First portfolio of wind power projects with a ca- Wind, the project is the company’s pacity of 500 MW in Turkey. A law is cur- largest project to date and the larg- rently being discussed that would soon est wind farm in Utah. grant wind power in Turkey a feed-in tariff of 8 instead of 0,5 €/kWh during the first ten years of energy production. A 90-mile transmission line con- nects the Milford Wind Corridor to the Intermountain Power Agency in Utah. Photo: First Wind

8 Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010

Review International NEWS

Concentrix solar to be The Soitec Group, a French further development of the Concentrix tech- manufacturer of microelectronic nology. Simultaneously Soitec has signed a acquired by Soitec substrates, announced that it will acquire strategic partnership with the research in- the German Concentrix Solar GmbH. stitutes Fraunhofer ISE and CEA-Leti. Con- Concentrix Solar is one of the leading centrix itself was founded 2005 as a spin- providers of concentrator photovoltaics off company of Fraunhofer ISE. (CPV) systems. Soitec sees a growing de- The partnership with ISE includes a long mand for CPV systems in the near future term licence agreement regarding know- and believes that its experience in micro- how and technology related to the manu- electronic substrate engi- facturing of CPV solar cells. Soitec will ac- neering will help quire 80 % of the shares for € 55 million. 20 % will stay at ISE and the founders of Concentrix.

Flatcon modules by Concentrix Photo: Concentrix

Solar electricity reaches 1 % Meyer Burger and 3S threshold in Germany Industries intend to merge By the end of 2009, photovoltaics covered The two Swiss companies Meyer Burger Technol- 1 % of the annual electricity demand in ogy AG and 3S Industries AG have announced Germany for the first time. At the end of 2008, the their plan to merge with the objective of forming an inte- total capacity of the photovoltaic systems installed grated technology group. In a press release, the two com- in Germany amounted to 5.4 GW. Their output of so- panies emphasize that they are „the perfect fit“ in terms lar electricity was about 4.3 billion kWh/a. At the of their technology portfolios and geographical presence. end of 2009, the installed capacity was about 8 GW. The merger will create a solar industry company with The generated electricity amounts to approximately more than 900 employees and joint sales activities. 6.4 billion kWh/a, which covers about 1 % of Germa- „The combined technology portfolio of Meyer Burger ny‘s gross electricity consumption of 615 billion and 3S covers the main core competences along the val- kWh/a. Thus, electricity generation from photovolta- ue chain in the production of solar energy systems and ics has not only secured space for itself on numer- will position us as a provider of fully integrated systems ous roofs, but also a safe position in the statistics solutions“, says Peter Pauli, CEO of Meyer Burger Tech- of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2006, the nology AG, about the amalgamation. Patrick Hofer-Noser, annual growth rates have exceeded 60 %. If this CEO of 3S Industries AG, regards the merger as a chance continues, the proportion of solar electricity in gross to „create the leading group in the dynamic solar supply electricity production will cross the 5 % threshold industry“, which has „excellent opportunities to take ad- by 2020. vantage of the promising outlook and expected future Rupert Haslinger growth of the solar market.“

10 Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010 Canadian Solar plans module factory in Ontario

Canadian Solar has announced the construction of a 200 MW production site for solar modules in the Canadian province of Ontario. In early December, the company announced that it had started the site selection process and initiated the ap- proval procedures. Canadian Solar said it had previously filed a considerable number In the future, Cana- of applications for feed-in tariff payments dian Solar will also with the supply authority of Ontario and produce its products additionally raised many customers‘ inter- in Ontario. est in solar installations „made in Ontario“. Photo: Canadian Solar The new factory will provide 500 jobs in production. The costs will be around 24 million Canadian dollars (€ 15.3 million). After its completion, the plant will be one of the largest module factories in North Amer- Thanks to the feed-in tariff that has re- As a vertically integrated company, ica. According to the plan, it will be expand- cently been introduced by the government Canadian Solar produces ingots, wafers, ed in several stages and will already start of the province, the PV sector in Ontario is solar cells and solar modules. Further- production in 2010. Canadian Solar ex- growing rapidly. Canadian Solar is currently more, it develops turnkey installations pects that the final decision about the investigating which national and provincial for private and commercial customers plant‘s size and costs will take place in the programmes are applicable to supporting and solar power plant operators in On- first quarter of the year. the factory‘s construction. tario.

the city of specialised mechanics

MECSPE EUROSTAMPI PLASTIXEXPO SUBFORNITURA MOTEK ITALY CONTROL ITALY Review International NEWS

World Bank approves Viessmann starts tube US$ 750 million for CSP plants production in China MENA REGION The Clean Technology Fund (CTF) approved financing of In November 2009, the heating systems US$ 750 million for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants in the Middle manufacturer Viessmann opened its East North Africa (MENA) region at the beginning of December. The fund new factory for vacuum tubes in the vicinity of will invest in the CSP programmes of five countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Beijing. Construction works on the new site had Morocco, and Tunisia. By doing so, the World Bank calculates to mobilize lasted twelve months. In the autumn of 2008, an additional US$ 4.85 billion from other sources. The CTF is one of two Viessmann purchased the shares of the German Climate Investment Funds (CIF) approved by the World Bank in 2008. It manufacturer Eurocol in the Chinese joint ven- promotes scaled-up financing for demonstration, deployment and transfer ture Eurocon and thus became the sole share- of low carbon technologies with a significant potential for long-term green- holder. From 2010 onwards, around 300 employ- house gas emissions savings. ees will produce 650,000 vacuum tubes, which The proposed investment plan deploys 11 commercial-scale power Viessmann will assemble into collectors. For plants over a 3 to 5 year time frame, together with an electric power output 2012, the company aims at a production volume of about 1 GW. Until today there are around 670 MW of CSP plants in- of one million tubes. Viessmann says that the stalled. “The history of PV suggests that a doubling of capacity leads to a short transport routes from the factory in Dach- 20 percent reduction in costs”, the CTF states in a paper. ang to Beijing airport and to the sea cargo port Xingang were the reason for selecting the site.

Xavier Noyon Photo: ESTIF ESTIF appointed new Secretary General

The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) unanimously appointed Xavier Noyon as new Secretary General. Noyon, a French national, holds French, Eng- lish and German law degrees as well as a Master in European Affairs. After six years in the IT industry as a Sales Manager in France and Ireland, his passion for politics and the construction of Europe brought him to Brussels. Since then, he has specialised in the representation and man- agement of industry associations in the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors. Noyon will be based at the ESTIF office in the Renewable Energy House in Brussels. From there Ministry clears backlog of he will lead the implementation of ESTIF’s strate- gy and coordinate the secretariat’s activities. In CSP projects in Spain his opening statement, Noyon underlined the im- On 13th November, the Spanish Ministry of Industry published a portance of ESTIF’s mission with heating and schedule for the start of operation of solar thermal power plants cooling making up today for nearly half of the with a total capacity of 2,440 MW. The planners and investors of the power overall energy demand in Europe. plants had been waiting for this announcement. Now they can be sure that Commenting on the appointment ESTIF presi- they will be paid the statutory feed-in tariff for the electricity from their pow- dent Olivier Drücke said: “We are delighted that er plants. In May 2009, a decree issued by the Spanish Ministry of Industry Xavier joins our association as the new Secretary had caused a stir in the sector. Until then, everybody who completed his General. Not only does he bring a vast experi- power plant within a certain time frame could expect to obtain the feed-in ence in dealing with EU institutions, but he is al- tariff. The new decree introduced the requirement of an inscription into a so very familiar with legislative procedures and register as a condition for being entitled to the tariff. To this end, the public campaigning at the European level. Hav- projects needed to meet certain criteria. The Ministry subsequently failed to ing previously worked in a similar environment, keep up with processing the registration applications. This caused uncer- we expect him to further strengthen the position- tainty among planners and investors and caused approved loans to be fro- ing of our association in order to achieve an even zen in several cases. greater awareness of solar thermal technology.”

12 Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010 KATAX21*29,7_eng0108 11-01-2008 11:26 ™ÂÏ›‰·1

World leader in Solar Water Heaters 30 years before the others discover the power of the sun

Thirty years of manufacturing Solar Water Heaters, means thirty years of innovating in the field, and introducing new technologies. Three decades of continuous development, combined with vast experience and extensive research, have established MEGASUN products as leaders in most world markets. Thousands of MEGASUN Solar Water Heaters are successfully in use in most countries of the world –from Athens to America and from Africa to Australia, to all Asia and Europe – providing continuous and abundant hot water. Today HELIOAKMI not only represent highly specialized technology and the experience of thirty years, but high quality systems which meet the highest demands. The solar water heaters are offered in both closed and open circuit, in a range varying from 120 to 300 liters. The forced circulation systems are offered from 150 liters up to 1000 liters, and they are offered as complete units or separately. Each systems consists of: • a storage tank with 1 or 2 heat exchangers (coils) • Collector(s) of 2,10m or 2,60m • Support base of the collector for flat roof or tiled roof • A carton box which includes all the connection accessories, the differential thermostat, the pump, the expansion pot, the antifreeze liquid, valves… etc.

Instantaneous efficiency curve of collector

1. Solar collectors 2. Storage tank (boiler) 3. Hydraulic kit 4. Expansion pot 5. Differential Thermostat

Rend.= 0,767 - 0,37

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Helioakmi S.A., NEA ZOI 19300 ASPROPYRGOS, ATTIKI - GREECE Tel.: (+30) 210 55 95 624 - 210 55 95 625 - 210 55 95 626, Fax: (+30) 210 55 95 723 No 1 under the sun Internet: www.helioakmi.gr • e-mail: [email protected] Review International NEWS

PAW expands overseas sales activities In 2009, the internationally active fittings manufacturer PAW GmbH & Co. KG from Hameln in North Germany opened additional branch offices in EU states and the USA. On 1st January, the company PAW Vertriebs GmbH, with its headquarters in Gröbming, Austria, started operations. A staff of five attends to customers from Austria, Liechten- stein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedo- nia, Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Israel. In November 2009, the subsidiary PAW LP opened in Webster, Massachusetts. There too, five members of staff serve the North American customers. “The time difference alone made this step necessary”, explained Marketing Man- ager Julia Braun to S&WE. Because of the Anglo-American measuring system, the company has launched a separate Manager Marcel Tonnar (centre) and two further members of staff attend to production line for America. the Spanish PAW customers. In the previous months, PAW opened new offices in Bar- Photo: PAW celona, Spain, and in Kobylanka near Szczecin, Poland. In each of these countries, three members of staff take care of language, explained Julia Braun, because the products the local customers. are becoming ever more complex, and the need for advice PAW distributes its products in 50 countries worldwide. has increased accordingly. In order to ensure short re- By setting up the new offices abroad, the German company sponse times for deliveries as well, the new PAW locations wanted to provide its customers with services in their native maintain their own storehouses.

Micro CSP plant in Hawaii

Sopogy Inc. inaugurated a 2 MW Micro CSP Plant at thermal storage to generate a constant power output during the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. cloudy weather and to shift energy production from the day to The “Holaniku at Keahole Point” called plant is build on a evening periods. Sopogy and its project development partner 3.8 acre big area in the Kona desert. Sopogy installed about Keahole Solar power want to bring 30 MW Micro CSP to Ha- 1,000 Micro CSP panels. The plant is also equipped with a waii by 2015.

The Micro CSP plant in Hawaii consists 1,000 panels. Photo: Sopogy

14 Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010

Review International NEWS

Training for leading Photo: Rückert Naturgas executives from MENA countries MENA REGION A group of 20 young experts from countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) took part in the training programme „Young Leaders in Renewable Ener- gies“ last November in Berlin. The programme was organised by the Regional Center for Re- newable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advances for biogas in France (RCREEE), with headquarters in Cairo. At the seminar, the Renewables Academy (RENAC) French environmental laws make permission procedures easier Berlin lecturers and participants discussed and provide more transparency. The recently introduced French the state-of-the-art technologies in the energy pollution control legislation has made the registration and permission pro- sector, political framework conditions and fi- cedure for biogas plants simpler. „The new pollution control legislation cat- nancing mechanisms. The training programme egory 2781 for biogas plants provides greater legal certainty for all the in- is to provide the participants – mainly from volved parties and considerably accelerates the registration and permis- ministries, energy associations or research in- sion procedure. It is of great help for planners and developers of biogas stitutions – with new impulses for their work systems in France“, says Laurent Brault, Avocat à la Cour at Sterr-Kölln & and to promote networking. The aim of the Partner in Paris. RCREEE, which started as a Think Tank in 2008, The biogas sector in France had been hoping for this signal since the en- is to push forward the expansion of the use of vironment summit meeting in Paris in the autumn of 2007, which was initi- renewable energies in the MENA region. ated by President Nicolas Sarkozy. On that occasion, the intention to support biogas projects was expressed several times. Please visit our website for more details on the The regulations for this decree specify the technical requirements for the training programme and statements of the partic- construction and operation of biogas systems that need to be observed in ipants: www.sunwindenergy.com/swe/pdf/ future. They were published on 26th November 2009 and have been in force RCREEE-training_programme.pdf. since then. Grant for commercial-scale facility producing third generation biofuel

The Ineos Bio and its partner, New Planet Energy LLC, received a U$ 50 million grant form the US Department of Energy for its advanced bioenergy facility in Indian River County, Florida, USA. The facility will be the first to use Ineos Bio’s bioenergy technology, a feedstock flexible technology for production of both bioethanol and renewable power. The Ineos New Planet BioEnergy Joint Venture will own and operate the commercial facility. It will produce eight million gal- lons of third generation bioethanol per year from renewable biomass including yard, wood and vegetative wastes. The facility will also generate clean renewable power for the Florida market. At the heart of the Ineos Bio technology is a patented anaerobic fermentation step, through which naturally occurring bacteria convert gases derived directly from biomass into bioethanol. The process sup- ports high recycling and high landfill diver- sion rates. Unlike other technologies that rely on one primary source of feedstock, it can produce bioenergy from numerous feedstocks, including forestry waste, agri- cultural waste, sustainable energy crops, construction waste and municipal solid waste.

Corrections VERONA FAIR, ITALY Correction to the article “A rising indus- MAY 5 7, 2010 try” in issue 9/2009, page 94: th In this article Solchrome Systems India 11 EDITION Ltd. (now Solchrome Private Ltd.) was said new business format: to be founded in 1988. Actually the com- FROM WEDNESDAY TO FRIDAY pany was founded in 1984 and started fin production in 1988. The collectors produced by Solchrome can withstand tem- peratures of up to 300 °C, not up to 3,000 °C. Furthermore, Solchrome has not yet sold any of its products to China, but sees China as an important export market.

Correction to the CPV article in issue 12/2009, page 98: In the article about CPV the Flatcon Tech- nology from the German manufacturer Concentrix Solar was wrongly called Flat- com.

Sun & Wind Energy 1/2010