May 29, 2013

E.ON starts work on 288MW offshore wind farm (Germany)

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/05/29/EON-starts-work-on-288MW-offshore-wind-farm/UPI-32231369829921/

German utility company E.ON said it started laying down special containers to support foundations for a new wind farm off the northern German coast.

E.ON said it started preparation for the construction of the 288-megawatt Amrumbank West offshore wind farm, to be northwest of German archipelago Heligoland.

E.ON said it was deploying a special type of sand bag made from geotextiles that would prevent seabed erosion from around the foundations of the turbines.

"Separating the scour protection from the installation of the foundations has significant logistical advantages and helps to further reduce the cost of offshore wind energy," the company said in a statement. "E.ON's aim is to reduce the construction and operating cost of offshore wind farms by 40 percent by 2015."

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May 14, 2013

Wind, Solar, & Natural Gas Up In Europe — Coal & Nuclear Down

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/13/wind-solar-natural-gas-up-in-europe-coal-nuclear-down/

Following up on the report I just published regarding EPIA’s 2012–2017 European and global solar PV report, below are some really interesting charts I wanted to highlight. Basically, they show that solar PV, wind power, and natural gas capacity has grown substantially in the EU while coal, nuclear, and oil capacity has fallen.

In other words, despite what some may have you think, increasing of solar and wind power in the EU has not been leading to a surge in coal power capacity due to the nuclear phaseouts taking place in several countries. Rather, coal power capacity has also declined. The only fossil fuel that saw an increase in capacity in 2012 was natural gas.

If you look at 2011 statistics, you can see that coal power capacity also increased (along with solar, wind, and natural gas) as nuclear power capacity dropped. However, with such power plants taking a long time to permit, build, and connect to the grid, this was really due to years of work preceding Fukushima and the strong nuclear phaseout plans that resulted from that.

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