A joint venture created to promote floating offshore windfarms in the Iberian Peninsula has announced its first project for Portugal.

IberBlue Wind has unveiled plans for a 990MW floating offshore windfarm off the coast of Figueira da Foz.

Called Botafogo after a 16^th century galleon that became known as the most powerful warship of its time, the windfarm will occupy an area of 359 km² and will have 55 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 18MW.

Figueira da Foz is one of five areas proposed by the Portuguese government for offshore renewable energy exploration.

IberBlue Wind vice-president Adrián de Andrés explained: “Figueira da Foz is a region with great potential.

“Besides the high wind strengths and the existing port infrastructure, it’s located near to the centre of the country where there is significant demand for energy from both industrial and private consumers”.

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IberBlue Wind says the development of the project will create thousands of jobs, most for development and construction and the rest for the operation and maintenance of turbines once oprational.

The Botafogo windfarm will be built on floating platforms anchored to the seabed allowing it to be located 30-50 km from the coast.

2GW of Iberian Peninsula potential

IberBlue Wind is a joint venture between Irish floating offshore wind company Simply Blue Group and Spanish companies Proes Consultores, the engineering division of Grupo Amper, and renewable energy developer FF New Energy Ventures.

It aims to develop at least 2GW of offshore wind capacity off the Iberian Peninsula using floating windfarms, each comprising 500MW or more.

IberBlue Wind announced a project in Spain last November. Nao Victoria will be in the Alboran Sea, off the coasts of Cadiz and Malaga, on an area of 310 km² and also with an installed capacity of 990MW.

The company says it is working on several other projects for the Iberian Peninsula which it plans to announce soon.

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This is according to the updated 2022 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) report released by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

The report provides a reliability update based on changes to generation capacity with the aim of ensuring timely investment to fill any forecasted gaps created by the country’s shift away from coal power.

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The report identifies two increases to reliability risks, namely:

• Increased risk in South Australia and Victoria from 2026-27, when Torrens Island B in South Australia is now expected to retire. Forecast reliability risks increase further from 2028-29 in Victoria when Yallourn Power Station is expected to retire, and in South Australia from 2030-31 when numerous gas-fired power stations are expected to retire.
• Increased risk in New South Wales in 2023-24 due to the advised delay to the commissioning of the Kurri Kurri gas-powered generator.

AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman said in a statement: “Since publishing the 2022 ESOO, short-term forecast reliability gaps in South Australia (2023-24) and Victoria (2024-25) have been filled by new gas, wind and battery developments, along with a delay to the retirement of an existing gas generator.”

“Reliability gaps begin to emerge against the Interim Reliability Measure from 2025 onwards. These gaps widen until all mainland states in the NEM are forecast to breach the reliability standard from 2027 onwards, with at least five coal power stations totalling approximately 13 per cent of the NEM’s total capacity expected to retire.

“Urgent and ongoing investment in renewable energy, long-duration storage and transmission is needed to reliably meet demand from Australian homes and businesses,” he said.

Westerman reiterated that investment in firming generation, such as pumped hydro, gas and long-duration storage will be critical to combat renewable intermittency and meet electricity demand without coal-fired power.

The updated ESOO report also highlights the risk of events when electricity demand may exceed supply, such as in the case of extreme weather and generation and transmission outages.

Westerman added that: “The NEM has a strong pipeline of proposed generation and storage projects, totalling three times today’s generation capacity,” and AEMO will continue to work with governments, industry and the community to manage risks as the power system transitions from coal.

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The project is planned for the Hunter‐Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) as part of the NSW Government Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

It will be developed in stages to support the government’s deployment of renewable targets and progressive retirement of coal‐fired power stations in the area.

Project developers Newcastle Offshore Wind Energy Pty Ltd (NOWE) have been working with EDF Renewable on the project for the last 12 months and will continue as a partner to meet project milestones.

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CEO of EDF Renewables in Australia, Dave Johnson, said in a statement: “NOWE, based in Newcastle, has put in a lot of effort to build up their local development expertise and connect with the community and stakeholders, which puts this project in a great position to succeed in the proposed location and especially within the local community.”

Johnson added, “This landmark project will be developed in collaboration with a strong local team based in Newcastle and will require the establishment of an entirely new industry in Australia. I am very confident that this project will play a crucial role in providing new opportunities for employment, establishing new business and the revitalisation of existing business looking to transition from existing industries”.

EDF Renewables operates seven offshore wind farms globally and a further five are under construction including one with floating technology in France.

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This Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver enables NYPA to conduct fully remote drone operations, such as asset and vegetative management inspections, at its 1,160MW Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County, about 60 miles from Albany, New York.

NYPA’s drone programme supports its asset management strategies and is part of an authority-wide digitisation initiative to modernise grid infrastructure to advance the efficient delivery of clean power statewide, according to a release.

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“The Power Authority is proud to be leading the way in the advanced deployment of automated flight technologies for use in the utility industry,” said Justin E. Driscoll, New York Power Authority acting president and chief executive officer. “Drones will become an even more valuable tool as we expand our capability to detect infrastructure issues and support our mapping and land management responsibilities. Being able to capture images remotely, regardless of weather conditions or distances, will allow us to track and evaluate our assets more efficiently and safely.”

FAA Part 107 regulations require pilots to maintain visual contact while operating a drone. This waiver allows operators to conduct operations without the requirement for the pilot or an observer to see the unmanned aircraft or to scan the surrounding airspace throughout the entire flight. Routes, however, must be pre-planned and the drone must remain within 50 feet above ground level or within 50 feet of structures.

The waiver was obtained with the help of Skydio, a US drone and software manufacturer providing equipment and advisory services. The waiver, which is specific to Skydio drones, authorizes operations through 2027 and grants NYPA the capability to conduct remote operations from other locations without an on-site pilot or visual observer. The timing of the waiver dovetails with the launch of a new drone docking technology by Skydio that allows drones to take off and land autonomously with a pilot directing operations from a remote location.

“This important approval enables NYPA to operate Skydio drones beyond line of sight without visual observers,” said Jenn Player, Skydio’s senior director of regulatory affairs. “Skydio autonomy and collision avoidance capabilities are key to conducting these low-altitude, high-value operations safely and easily.”

Peter Kalaitzidis, NYPA’s UAS programme manager, who submitted the application, said the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Project was proposed as a first use case to prove the technology’s application, primarily because of the sparser population in the region. Drones are already being operated at various NYPA sites to monitor asset health, including for inspection of transmission lines, vegetation management and monitoring of overgrown trees, and spillway erosion mapping.

“Our application demonstrated to the FAA that we are ready to enhance our program and capabilities,” Kalaitzidis said. “Having this waiver removes limitations and unlocks opportunities moving forward. We will continue to explore potential uses for this technology that will benefit the Authority and hopefully the industry at large. At present, we are developing the procedures, mitigation steps and hardware so we can best use these resources over the next few years.”

NYPA’s in-house drone programme is researching and testing new applications to implement drones more fully into day-to-day utility operations while maintaining high standards of aviation professionalism and safety. More than 40 employees are trained as drone pilots.

NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the US, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 80% of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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The Pioneer Centre, a new initiative of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Aalborg University, has launched the CAPeX Academy with the aim to educate around 50 PhD students and 50 postdocs for the power-to-x industry over the centre’s lifetime.

The partners believe that as the power-to-x industry is starting to boom, there is a need for a much larger number of experts in this field than currently and that they will especially need multiple interdisciplinary competences.

Tejs Vegge, professor at DTU and a co-lead of CAPeX, says these are the experts who will carry the research forward as well as the industrial development of the new technologies for power-to-x.

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“If you look at the new materials and green technologies that we’re beginning to be able to develop now, they will need to be increased more than a thousandfold to have a global impact. This means that there must be researchers who can, for example, develop more efficient catalysts as well as people working in the industry who can produce them faster and cheaper than today.”

Frede Blaabjerg, professor at Aalborg University and the second co-lead of CAPeX, adds that it isn’t enough to ‘simply’ design the world’s best catalyst and it’s also necessary to ensure sustainable and scalable production to meet global challenges.

“This requires new ways of thinking, and these are the type of experts we want to help train.”

While The CAPeX centre is based in Denmark, close collaboration is being initiated with international universities, including Stanford in the US, the University of Toronto in Canada and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, which will enable researchers and Academy participants also to obtain access to equipment and expertise in those locations.

Exchanges also are planned both of Danish students externally and vice versa.

Pioneer Centre for power-to-x

The CAPeX was launched by the two universities in December to bring together their expertise and competencies and those of other local universities to develop new materials and technologies for power-to-x.

Currently, the most efficient materials used today to produce hydrogen using electrolysis are based on rare minerals and earths. One of the main challenges for CAPeX is to develop new sustainable catalysts for electrolysis that can be scaled and deployed globally.

The Centre also will focus on sustainable solutions for e.g. heavy transport and aviation.

A key basis of this research will be digital twins which will enable the design, test and analysis of new materials, cells and systems before they are manufactured, making it possible to predict how materials and systems change their properties and behaviour from the atomic level right up to optimising an energy island.

The Centre was established with a has a total grant of DKK300 million (US$43 million) from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and five Danish foundations.

Other participants in CAPeX are the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark.

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The report was released by the non-profit EngineeringUK and confirms that with the current conversion rate from A-level to undergraduate study, around 150,000 girls would need to study A-levels in maths or physics (or both), in order to reach the same number of male undergraduates.

This is a significant increase of around 115,000 girls compared to current numbers.

The report, which is based on Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data, reveals that 23% of male students who studied A levels in maths or physics, or both, went on to study engineering and technology in higher education however only 8% of female students who took the same subject(s) went on to study engineering and technology degrees.

This translates to a stark gender divide, with only 18% of those studying undergraduate degrees in engineering and technology being female, compared to 57% for all degree subjects combined.

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Of the first-year undergraduates in engineering and technology who had studied both maths and physics at A level, only 22% were female students.

However, when looking at these subjects separately, the figures jump to 50% of female students having taken maths only and 31% physics only.

This highlights the importance of continuing to move away from the preferred prerequisites for these courses being A-levels in both subjects and widening the entry qualifications accepted – in order to address gender imbalances.

Dr Claudia Mollidor, head of research and evaluation at EngineeringUK, said: “The gender disparity within undergraduate degrees in engineering and technology is really concerning.

“Given that A-levels in maths and physics are often a prerequisite for such degrees, we need to do more to make sure these subjects are attractive and accessible to girls at school.

“Particularly given we know girls perform as well as boys, or even outperform them, in these subjects.

“Cultivating this interest and appetite at an early stage will be crucial, so that when it comes to selecting GCSEs and A levels, girls are informed and inspired to choose subjects that will allow them to progress into engineering and tech careers.”

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“It’s clear the UK will struggle to get on top of its acute skills shortage, if it fails to increase the number of women entering into engineering-related careers. The first step to addressing this is to increase girls’ interest and engagement with science and maths at school,” added Mollidor.

More encouragingly, for students with A levels in both maths and physics, engineering and technology is the top higher education study subject of choice.

However, there is still a gender imbalance here with 39% of male students choosing the subject vs 29% of female students.

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The Manhay project, GEL’s third site in Cornwall, is set to begin in late 2023 and will take approximately 3 years to complete.

Once completed it is expected to produce 5MW of electrical energy 24/7 and 20MW of thermal energy.

The Manhay site will be similar in construction to GEL’s United Downs project, featuring two deep wells. The production well will reach a depth of approximately 4,500m to bring hot geothermal fluid to the surface, while the reinjection well, which will be around 3,000m deep, will be used to return cooled fluid underground after it has been used to generate electricity.

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Ryan Law, Managing Director of Geothermal Engineering Ltd, said: “We are delighted to be adding this additional site to our deep geothermal portfolio. The three sites we have received the Planning for will be able to power over 35,000 homes. This is alongside providing heat energy for local homes and businesses and attracting important inward investment that will bring with it the potential for new jobs for the local Cornish communities”.

Based on electricity generation alone, the project is expected to provide a lifetime carbon emissions saving of more than 700,000 tonnes of CO2 compared to an equivalent gas baseline.

Matthew Clayton, managing director at Thrive Renewables, and investor in the United Downs project, said that geothermal energy can transform how we generate electricity and supply sustainable heat all year round and no matter the weather.

“It’s great to see approval of a third project, with each one contributing to the future UK energy mix by helping to stabilise and secure the power coming from other renewable sources such as onshore wind and solar. The UK has only scratched the surface of the challenge of transitioning to renewable heat supply. Tapping into the geothermal heat source is a positive stride forwards,” said Clayton.

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The partners are looking to expand offshore wind to contribute to Spain’s energy target of 3GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2030.

According to RWE, Spain is an attractive market for offshore wind. The National Marine Spatial Plan indicates a potential capacity of more than 20GW and the deep waters make floating wind ideal technology for the area.

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Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind GmbH, said: “Floating offshore wind is key to meeting the increasing demand for renewable power in Europe, delivering sustainability solutions, supporting local industries and creating new, future-proof jobs. Together with our partner Ferrovial we are committed to contributing towards Spain’s offshore wind objectives…”

Gonzalo Nieto, CEO of Ferrovial Energy Infrastructure and Mobility said in a statement: “At Ferrovial, we clearly see the growth opportunities that this sector offers, which is why we have decided to partner with another market leader, RWE.”

To date, Ferrovial has submitted expressions of interest for four wind farms in the country with an installed capacity of 1,750MW. The company plans to build these projects off the coast in Lugo, Pontevedra, Gerona and Gran Canaria. All of them would be located between 11 and 30 kilometres from the coast.

RWE’s partnership with Ferrovial in offshore wind builds on a long-established renewables business in Spain, comprising onshore wind capacity of around 490MW, solar capacity of more than 90MWac and more than 150MW under construction.

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The Mangla hydropower project is a multipurpose facility located on the Jhelum River in Mirpur district of Azad Kashmir.

It includes Mangla Dam, which is the seventh largest dam in the world, and the country’s largest reservoir, which has a live storage capacity of 7.48 million acre feet. The Mangla powerhouse is 50 years old and contains 10 turbine-generator units. As Pakistan’s electricity consumption is growing, the refurbishment work will extend the lifetime and efficiency of the plant, as well as boost capacity by 280MW.

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GE’s scope of work for these two units includes the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the two hydro turbine and generator components.

Previously, GE was selected for the ongoing refurbishment of units 1 through 6 at Mangla. The 100MW units will be replaced by 135MW units.

“By replacing the units in an existing dam, we can extend the life of a project for another 50 years,” said Pascal Radue, Hydro Solutions president and chief executive officer, GE. “We can also increase the capacity of the hydropower plant, to deliver an even larger amount of renewable energy for the country. We are thrilled to be partnering further with WAPDA on this project to help accelerate the hydro energy transition in Pakistan.”

Pakistan has long-term goals to have hydropower meet 46% of the country’s power generation needs by 2030.

GE Renewable Energy, part of the GE Vernova portfolio of energy businesses, provides end-to-end solutions for customers in the onshore and offshore wind, blades, hydro, storage, utility-scale solar, and grid solutions industries, as well as hybrid renewables and digital services offerings. GE Vernova is comprised of the Power, Renewable Energy, Digital and Energy Financial Services businesses.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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Situated in Landkreis Uelzen, Niedersachsen, 100km south-east of Hamburg, the wind farms will have a total capacity of 88MW.

Together, the 3 wind farms will produce enough power to supply electricity to the equivalent of about 90,000 households per year.

GE will supply their 5.5MW turbines with a rotor diameter of 158m and has signed a full service contract for 15 years.

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Two projects, Bankewitz and Müssingen, are expected to be commissioned and operational by the end of 2023 while the third one, Flinten, is scheduled in the first quarter of 2024.

Dr. Hartmut Brösamle, COO at wpd said in a statement: “Our Bankewitz, Müssingen and Flinten wind farms are three further exciting and important projects in the German market for which construction is about to start. We can build on a promising project pipeline with which we will continue to drive forward the expansion of German onshore wind energy.”

Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act states that by 2025, 40-45% of electricity consumed in the country must be generated by renewables.

According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, wind energy is one of the driving forces behind Germany’s expanding renewables. In 2018, onshore and offshore wind energy installations accounted for an installed capacity of 52.5GW and 6.4GW respectively. In total, approximately 110TWh were generated by onshore (90.5TWh) and offshore (19.5TWh) installations.

The share of wind energy in Germany’s gross electricity consumption now stands at 18.6%. According to plans drafted by the Federal Government, offshore wind capacity is to reach 15GW by 2030.

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