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Connecticut Gives Go-Ahead for 804-MW Offshore Wind Project

December 8, 2019

The post Connecticut Gives Go-Ahead for 804-MW Offshore Wind Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Vineyard Wind’s 804-MW Park City project was given the go-ahead by Connecticut officials on Dec. 5, with regulators saying Vineyard’s bid in an offshore wind solicitation was “lower than any other publicly announced offshore wind project in North America.”

Vineyard Wind competed against other groups in the bidding, including developers backed by Ørsted and Shell. The company now will negotiate contracts with the state’s two major utilities, Eversource and United Illuminating Co.

The Park City development is considered the largest renewable energy project in Connecticut history. State officials said it could provide about 14% of the state’s electricity. The project’s turbines would be located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and would not be visible from Connecticut’s shoreline.

The project includes redevelopment of port facilities in Bridgeport Harbor. Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Thaaning Pedersen in a conference call on Thursday would not disclose the project’s cost, but the price for a similar Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast is about $ 3 billion.…

Dominion Solar, Wind Projects Will Power Virginia Government Buildings

October 23, 2019

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The post Dominion Solar, Wind Projects Will Power Virginia Government Buildings appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Dominion Energy has entered a partnership with the commonwealth of Virginia in which government-owned buildings and facilities in the state will get power from Dominion’s solar and wind energy projects.

The agreement, signed by Dominion and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Oct. 18, is the largest procurement of renewable energy to date by the state as part of Northam’s plan to power the whole of state government with clean energy.

The deal includes a 75-MW wind project—the first onshore wind farm in Virginia—along with four proposed solar farms with total generation capacity of 345 MW. The projects are expected to come online in stages over the next three years, if all are approved.

The governor’s office said the new generation, along with previously announced solar projects, should produce enough power to support as much as 45% of the state government’s annual energy use. The agreement comes after Northam in September announced that state government agencies would lead the commonwealth’s push for renewables.…

Buffett Still Banking on Energy—BHE Announces Canadian Wind Farm

October 16, 2019

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The post Buffett Still Banking on Energy—BHE Announces Canadian Wind Farm appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The evolving landscape of power includes not only new types of generation, but also involves new investors, including some of the most well-known names in global business.

Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft with the late Paul Allen, formed Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) in 2016, a group that supports battery energy storage, nuclear power innovation, geothermal, and hydropower technology, among others. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, ranked as the world’s richest individual in Forbes magazine’s annual rankings of billionaires (Gates is second), also is an investor in BEV, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) topped 50% renewable energy usage in 2018. AWS operates several wind and solar farms.

Michael Bloomberg, the media mogul and former New York City mayor, is an investor in BEV. So is Virgin’s Richard Branson, and Alibaba’s Jack Ma.

Berkshire Hathaway a Big Energy Investor

Warren Buffett is ranked third on Forbes’ list.…

ENGIE, Microsoft Seal Innovative ‘Firm Power’ PPA for 230 MW Wind and Solar in Texas

September 26, 2019

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The post ENGIE, Microsoft Seal Innovative ‘Firm Power’ PPA for 230 MW Wind and Solar in Texas appeared first on POWER Magazine.

ENGIE, the world’s largest independent power producer, has signed an innovative volume firming agreement (VMA) with Microsoft that will allow the technology giant to buy “firm” power from wind and solar projects in Texas under a specially structured power purchase agreement (PPA).

The companies on Sept. 24 said the long-term PPA will allow Microsoft to buy a total of 230 MW that ENGIE plans to put online in January 2021 on a fixed, 24/7 basis, to match hourly consumption from a Microsoft data center in Texas. The majority of output will come from the 200-MW Las Lomas wind project in Starr and Zapata Counties in south Texas, but Microsoft will also buy 85 MW from the 200-MW Anson Solar Center project in Jones County, central Texas.

ENGIE and Microsoft on Tuesday also announced a partnership to integrate Microsoft Azure intelligent cloud services with ENGIE’s Darwin energy software to optimize performance of ENGIE’s wind, solar, and wind + solar hybrid assets worldwide.…

Texas’ Impending Reliability Issues With Wind Power

September 20, 2019

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COMMENTARY

Texas has the most wind capacity of any state, generating about 16% of its electricity from wind. In August, as temperatures rose above 100F and consumers increased their use of air conditioning, Texas’ grid operators struggled to meet the record demand for electricity.

Many of the wind turbines could not operate because the wind was stagnant, a common occurrence on very hot days. As a result, energy costs skyrocketed. In Houston, wholesale power prices spiked 49,000% (to $ 9,000 per megawatt-hour). The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned that reserve margins were so low that it might have to institute rolling blackouts, or controlled interruptions of power service. The independent system operator called for the construction of more gas-fired generating plants.

Mary J. Hutzler

Facing a second consecutive year of strain on its grid, ERCOT mandated all available power plants to run flat-out, called on factories to cut power consumption, and imported electricity from Mexico.…

GE Is Speeding Massive Offshore Wind Turbine to Market

July 23, 2019

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GE Renewable Energy’s mammoth offshore wind 12-MW Haliade-X turbine is on track for an accelerated commercial launch in 2021, the company said as it unveiled the turbine’s first manufactured components on July 22.

Haliade-X features a 220-meter (m) rotor and a 107-m blade designed by GE subsidiary LM Wind Power. The turbine design also includes digital capabilities. GE says the wind turbine model features a 63% capacity factor—which is “five to seven points above the industry standard.” For GE, scaling up is important. “Each incremental point in capacity factor represents around $ 7 million in revenue for our customers over the life of a wind farm,” it noted. In January, the company said it would install a Haliade-X 12-MW offshore wind prototype in the Netherlands this summer.

On Monday, the company unveiled the first nacelle and said it would be shipped from its production site in Saint-Nazaire, France, to Rotterdam-Maasvlakte in the Netherlands “over the coming weeks.” The components will be installed on the prototype, which is land-based to facilitate testing.…