Some top wind energy news from the past week or so (other than the wind energy stories we’ve already covered):
Japan has installed a small, floating wind turbine off a Goto island with the eye to bringing the technology to commercialization.
The demonstration project, organised by the Ministry of Environment (MOE), uses a 100kW wind turbine made by Fuji Heavy. It was originally installed by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) on Isena Island in Okinawa in 2002.
The turbine has now been moved to a site 1km off Kabashima Island, in Nagasaki Prefecture, and installed on a spar-type floater in water 96-99 metres deep.
The machine is the largest yet to be used on a floating project in Japan and the first to be connected to the grid.
5 big Brazilian wind farms have received a financing commitment from Brazil’s National Bank for Economic & Social Development (BNDES). Total financing comes to R$ 378 million (US$ 184 million). The wind farms will be in Brazil’s Northeastern states of Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte. “These funds will be earmarked for Força Eólica do Brasil (Eolic Power of Brazil), a joint venture by Brazilian power companies Neoenergia and Iberdrola, which are to invest a total of R$ 594.5 million (US$ 288.7 million) in the 150 megawatt (MW) project…. This financing by BNDES will generate 1,800 direct and indirect jobs as the new windfarms are built. The windfarms will be in Brazil’s municipalities of Caetité (Bahia state) and Bodó, Santana do Matos and Lagoa Nova (Rio Grande do Norte state). The five new centers are a part of a larger project consisting of a further five windfarms nearby.”
ABS has completed a floating wind turbine technical feasibility study of floating wind turbines for the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). “The goal was to determine how floating structures and moorings would be affected by the strong interactions among the wind turbine rotor, control system, floating platform and mooring/cable system and how different loading events could impact these systems…. The final step of the project was the proposal of a draft design guideline for permitting floating wind turbine deployment on the [US Outer Continental Shelf].”
Vestas has signed a contract to supply 55 MW of wind turbines to Italy. Vestas will supply 21 units of the V100-2.6 MW turbine for use in the “Orta Nova” wind power plant, to be located in the Apulia region of Italy.
Vestas has received a 49.5-MW wind turbines order for a new project in Inner Mongolia. “This project will be using the Vestas V80 turbines which will be installed in the Wandequan wind park, Huitengxile grassland, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR).”
For more, connect with me on Google+ or zacharyshahan.com.
Image: wind turbines in Brazil via Shutterstock
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