Author: Anela Dokso

Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has, through its Market Intelligence’s services, shown the impact of the COVID-19 to wind auctions which have been delayed or postponed in a few countries, while other countries have found solutions to continue their scheduled auctions and continue driving forward wind power growth. From January to April 2020, a total of 3.35 GW of wind power capacity was auctioned, with 2.1 GW in Europe and the remaining 1.2 GW in Asia. During the same period in 2019, nearly 5 GW of capacity was auctioned. This significant difference can predominantly be attributed to the COVID-19 crisis,…

Strata Solar has completed pre-construction development of its landmark battery project, Ventura Energy Storage (VES), a 100-megawatt, 400-megawatt hour battery energy storage system in unincorporated Ventura County, California. The project, developed by Strata, has awarded an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to Tesla for the Megapack battery system. Construction is scheduled to start in July 2020. Strata Solar’s Ventura Energy Storage project was competitively selected by Southern California Edison (SCE) for a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in April 2019 to supply local capacity. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously approved the PPA in December 2019. “This precedent…

Pivot Energy has completed a 431 kilowatt (kW) solar carport installation for the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA). The solar carport, located at IREA’s headquarters in Sedalia, Colorado, combines aesthetics with functionality, utilizing high-efficiency solar panels. The solar carport is scheduled to begin producing clean energy in May to help power IREA’s headquarter building. The annual amount of solar energy generated by the carport will avoid the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to driving 100 vehicles for one year or the amount of CO2 emissions from consuming 53,000 gallons of gasoline. The structure is able to house 130 vehicles and includes…

Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and MEC+ (MEC Intelligence) have released a new report stating that India’s wind energy capacity can only realistically reach 50 GW by 2022. ‘India Wind Outlook Towards 2022: Looking beyond the headwinds’ objectively analyses the factors which have led to a drag on market growth for India’s wind energy industry over the past two years, and provides an assessment on the forecast along with a pathway to overcome these challenges to realize the high potential of the market. The report highlights key challenges that must be overcome to restore strong wind market growth in India, including: grid and…

Infranode, a Nordic infrastructure fund, plans to invest up to one billion Danish kroner into Port Esbjerg’s infrastructure facilities for the wind turbine industry. The project could create thousands of “green” jobs in Esbjerg and the rest of Denmark. Investments of potentially up to one billion Danish kroner will go into port facilities for storage, preassembly and manufacturing of components for the offshore wind industry. Investments will be made available gradually as manufacturers of wind turbine components and offshore wind service providers expand their businesses in the wind turbine industry. The investments to be made in the port of Esbjerg…

EBAS, the energy consulting division of NRGi, will take over Ørsted’s energy consulting business, which provides consulting and project management services to the companies in Denmark on how to achieve energy savings for the most energy-consuming plants. EBAS will take over all 20 employees with special competences within industrial energy optimization. “We’re very pleased that we’ll now have an additional 20 highly specialized colleagues from the very top shelf who’re well-known in the industry for their professional skills, special know-how, and long-term customer relations which will be continued. With the acquisition, EBAS supplements its already strong competences within consulting and…

NKT has received an order for 135 km 72 kV XLPE power cable to connect the Danish utility N1’s solar farm Vandel III to the power grid. When fully operational Vandel III will be one of Europe’s biggest solar farms with a production capacity of 152.000 kWh which is enough to cover the supply for 34.000 households. For NKT, the project win marks one of the biggest orders for solar power. “We are proud to support N1 with an upgraded infrastructure for one of the most ambitious solar power projects in the Nordics. A reinforced power grid is essential if…

E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), E4TheFuture, and BW Research Partnership have released a new analysis of unemployment data showing nearly 600,000 U.S. clean energy workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic after 447,208 new workers filed unemployment claims in April— tripling the claims filed in March. The analysis of Department of Labor data found that 594,347 workers in clean energy occupations, representing 17.8% of the industry’s workforce, filed for unemployment benefits in April and March. The number of jobs lost is more than double the number of clean energy jobs created…

MacGregor, part of Cargotec, has received equipment orders for a total of four offshore wind service vessels which will expand the Edda Wind fleet, the offshore wind segment of the Østensjø Group. Two of the equipment packages were awarded by the shipbuilder, Astilleros Gondán in Asturias, Spain, for Edda Wind’s zero emission prepared Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOV), the first of which will enter into a firm charter period of 11 years starting Q1 2022.Each of these vessels will be equipped with a Horizon all-electric walk-to-work gangway, including the integrated passenger lift, which is interconnected to a Colibri 5 tonne…

Excelsior Energy Capital has acquired five ground-mount solar projects from development partner, Nokomis Energy. The Kingfield Portfolio, located across Southern Minnesota, totals 6.3 MWDC and brings Excelsior’s total portfolio of ground-mount solar projects in Minnesota to 21.6 MWDC, all as part of a broader partnership with Nokomis Energy. Excelsior will invest equity in the portfolio at the start of construction and will work with its existing financing partners to arrange the tax equity, construction debt and permanent debt. In addition to acquiring its second tranche of projects from Nokomis Energy, Excelsior has achieved commercial operation for the first 10 projects…