• Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power.
• Bourbon’s sale of harbour operations finalised.
• Peru, Chile locked in maritime territory dispute.

• Lerwick set for £12 million dredging contract.
• Cal Dive Acquires Horizon Offshore.
• Britain proposes massive offshore wind power investment.

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• Rumours say Jaisu Shipping is to set up a facility for the construction and repair of dredgers.
• Support for offshore wind farm schemes.
• Dutch debate building Tulip Island in North Sea.
• Oil Spill Devastates Korean Coast.
• Suez unit Degrement, Besix get 800 mln usd contract with Dubai’s Palm Utilities.
• Malaysia’s first dredge building shipyard will be built in Port Klang in the next two years.
• Salvage plan for stricken ship.
• SBM Offshore may get 1.5 bln usd FPSO contracts.

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• Salvage experts en route to Gladstone.
• Van Oord wins major dredging contract Map Ta Phut.
• Diamond Offshore gets 4 drilling pacts from Petrobras in Brazil.
• Denmark’s DONG to build two more UK wind farms.
• Boskalis Orders Two Trailing Suction Hopper Dredgers.

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• ‘Ghost fleet’ ships in limbo after Md. salvage yard closes.
• SBM Offshore receives 950 mln usd orders, contracts.
• Offshore windfarm plans ‘take step forward’.

• Strong Winds hamper ‘Pere Charles Salvage’.
• US Offshore Wind Round Up.

In September Siemens signed a reservation agreement with Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Ltd. (GGOWL) for the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the British coast.

The agreement, by far the largest ever reached for offshore wind turbines, involves 140 Siemens 3.6-MW turbines for delivery in 2009 and 2010.

Once connected to the power grid, the Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm, located 25 km off the coast of Suffolk in the Outer Thames estuary, will produce green electricity with a maximum capacity of more than 500 MW. It will be the first UK offshore wind farm to be built outside territorial waters and will provide power for more than 415,000 homes.

Since the acquisition of Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Bonus Energy at the end of 2004, the Siemens wind business has been growing rapidly. The total employee headcount of the Siemens Wind Division has quadrupled to more than 3,200 employees worldwide today. The number of its wind turbine installations has tripled since 2004. In 2007 Siemens expects to install 1,500 MW of new capacity worldwide, of which 200 MW will be offshore.

Offshore wind energy plays a key role in the Siemens strategy and the company can look back on many years of experience within this sector. In 1991, the first offshore wind farm in the world was installed by Siemens in Denmark. The 165 MW Nysted wind farm, erected by Siemens in the Baltic Sea in Denmark in 2003, is still the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

In the future the importance of offshore wind power will increase even more for Siemens. In 2007 alone, the company is realising two major offshore projects. In July, Siemens successfully completed installation of 25 wind turbines for the Burbo Offshore Wind Farm in Liverpool Bay. The turbines, with a capacity of 3.6 MW each, were erected in less than 1.5 months, well ahead of schedule. Commercial operation will commence at the end of the year.

The Burbo Offshore Wind Farm has a total capacity of 90 MW and will be operated by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a company owned by the Danish utility DONG energy A/S.

Burbo is the first offshore project using the Siemens SWT-3.6-107 turbine, the largest serial wind turbine available on the market for offshore applications.

The SWT-3.6-107 was specifically designed for offshore applications, but works equally well onshore. A rugged, conservative structural design, automatic lubrication systems with ample supplies, climate control of the internal environment, and a simple generator system without slip rings provide maximum reliability with long service intervals.

Power conversion is implemented with Siemens’ NetConverter system, ensuring compliance with all relevant grid codes and offering high flexibility in the turbine response to voltage and frequency control, fault ride-through and output adjustment.

The 52m blades are made of fibreglass-reinforced epoxy in Siemens’ proprietary IntergalBlade manufacturing process. In this process, the blades are cast in one piece, leaving no weak points at glue joints and providing optimum quality. Major components, such as the rotor hub, the main shaft, the gearbox and the yaw system are all of particularly heavy dimensions and the safety systems are fail-safe.

The installation of the Siemens 3.6-MW wind turbines at the Burbo Offshore Wind Farm was not only a technical but also a logistical challenge. For onshore operations, Siemens leased a 45,000 square-metre area in the Port of Mostyn, located in North Wales.

The 65 m high steel towers of the wind turbines were assembled upright and all internal and electrical systems were tested before they were loaded onto the installation vessel. The purpose-built vessel carried towers, nacelles, hubs and blades for three turbines per trip to the site area, which is located approximately 12kms from shore. At the site, each wind turbine was erected in five heavy lifts with a maximum weight of approximately 185 tons. The average erection time per turbine, weighing almost 500 tons each, was less than half a day.

The Burbo Wind Farm is the first in a series of offshore projects to be built by Siemens. In August, erection of 48 turbines of the SWT-2.3-93 type commenced offshore at Lillgrund near the Swedish city of Malmö. With a capacity of 110 MW, this will be the largest wind farm in Sweden. The Lillgrund project will be operated by the utility company Vattenfall.

In 2008, Siemens will start erection of the Lynn and Inner Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm on the East Coast of Great Britain. The project comprises 54 SWT-3.6-107 wind turbines and will have a maximum capacity of 180 MW. The wind farm will be operated by the British gas provider Centrica. Once finalised, the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm will be the largest offshore project in the world - until the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm goes into operation two years later.

In 2009, Siemens will also install and commission 25 of its STW-3.6-107 type turbines for the Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm off the Welsh Coast. The customer is RWE npower plc, the UK arm of RWE AG.

source: Engineer Live

Tags: Siemens, Greater Gabbard, wind farm

Finavera Renewables Inc. has signed an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to acquire a 20 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Germany, subject to completion of a final purchase and sale agreement and due diligence. The wind farm project is currently under construction and is expected to reach commercial operation in December 2007.

Finavera Renewables CEO Jason Bak said, “This opportunity is an important milestone in the development of our Company as we grow from a project developer to an owner-operator and asset manager. This project is already under construction and is anticipated to generate clean, green electricity by the end of this year.”

“Detailed due diligence thus far has made us aware of several factors that make this project very attractive: it has a two tranche debt financing package offered by a major German lender, there is a guaranteed power sales agreement until 2027, and it provides the company with the opportunity for near-term revenue,” added Bak.

Key project highlights include:

• A Feed-in Tariff power sales agreement providing long term
predictable cash flow as the German Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (”EEG”) guarantees a sales price of EUR 0.0819 cents per kWh fed into the grid until 2027.

• The Project has an estimated electricity yield of 38,550,000 kWh at
P50 levels.

• The Project will utilize ten proven 2MW turbines, under
warranty by the manufacturer and subject to a 12-year maintenance agreement with the same German turbine manufacturer.

• The Project Vendor is a leading developer in the German wind energy
sector and is responsible for the installation and operation of more than 50 MW of wind projects.

Bak concluded, “This acquisition strategy represents the next stage in the corporate development of our company… Generated profits can then be reinvested in achieving key wind project milestones and the development of our AquaBuOY wave energy technology.”

source: Renewable Energy Access

Tags : Finavera, wind farm, AquaBuOY,

German utility E.On AG said Tuesday it is buying Energi E2 Renovables Ibericas, which operates wind farms in Spain and Portugal, from Denmark’s DONG Energy in a deal worth €722 million (US$997 million).

E.On said E2 currently has a generating capacity in Spain and Portugal of about 260 megawatts, mostly from wind farms but also including smaller hydroelectric and biomass plants.

It has further wind farms with an extra capacity of 560 megawatts planned for completion in the next four years.

The deal’s total value includes €256 million (US$354 million) in net debt to be assumed by E.On, the Duesseldorf-based company said.

“Energi E2 Renovables Ibericas ideally supplements our future activities in Spain,” Chief Executive Wulf Bernotat said. “Wind power will play an important role in our future energy mix.”

On Monday, E.On won European Union approval to buy Spanish power utility Viesgo from Enel SpA and acquire additional generation capacity from Endesa SA, making it the fourth-largest player on the Spanish power market.

source: International Herald Tribune

Tags : E.ON, wind farm

German-based energy company E.ON is planning to build a massive windfarm off the Yorkshire coast.

The company says that the windfarm could have as many as 83 turbines, which will be around 410 feet high and visible from the Holderness coast. However, there is dismay among fishermen as they say that the windfarm will be located in one of the top shellfish areas - with boats from Bridlington and Withernsea and Hornsea fishing in the area.

Government regulations state that wind farms must have a 50 metre safety zone around them, which would mean Yorkshire fishermen being unable to fish in some of the most productive areas.

The Humber Gateway development will be located five miles off Easington and only eight miles from another proposed offshore wind farm - Westernmost Rough. This could mean that two fishing areas will be off-limits to local fishermen.
Fishermens’ representatives have condemned the plan, saying they are disgusted that no one had consulted them over the plans and that those who would be most affected were always the last to find out.

Only last year the fishermen of East Yorkshire suffered their equipment being damaged by illegal French fishing. This is another blow to a traditional industry of the Yorkshire coast.

source: British National Party

Tag: E.ON, windfarm, Humber Gateway