Deepwater Wind Block Island, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deepwater Wind, has secured debt and equity funding needed to construct and operate the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm. The company highlighted that it is the only US offshore wind company to...

By Ritesh Gupta

Companies mentioned: Deepwater Wind Block Island, Scottish Power, Acciona, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA), Renewable Energy Systems Americas

Deepwater Wind secures funding for Block Island

Deepwater Wind Block Island, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deepwater Wind, has secured debt and equity funding needed to construct and operate the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm. The company highlighted that it is the only US offshore wind company to reach this critical milestone.

The project, located three miles southeast of Block Island, is under construction. The project is slated to be in-service in the last quarter of 2016.

Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski mentioned that the team is on the cusp of bringing offshore wind from theory to reality in the U.S. He said the project’s progress is going to be buoyed by the blend of US and European expertise, which is now in place to with a competent project and finance team.

The company reached financial close on more than $290m in project financing, provided by Mandated Lead Arrangers Societe Generale of Paris, France, and KeyBank National Association of Cleveland, Ohio.

This financing is in addition to more than $70m in equity funding already provided by Deepwater Wind’s existing owners, principally an entity of the D.E. Shaw Group.

Alstom will supply five Haliade 150 6 MW offshore wind turbines for the project.

Sturgeon calls for greater offshore support

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon believes that the U. K. government needs to act immediately to boost the offshore wind industry.

Sturgeon, during her recent visit to Whitelee Windfarm, Scotland’s largest onshore windfarm, emphasised that onshore wind success shows need for “greater offshore ambition”. She pointed out that considering the way onshore wind development has shaped up in the last decade or so, the offshore wind industry definitely needs support for both large-scale deployment and further cost reduction at this juncture.

“The results of the UK Government’s first Contracts for Difference auction (announced recently), show that real cost reductions are now being achieved in the supply of wind energy in Scotland. Onshore wind projects are now bidding successfully to supply power at a price substantially less than the £92.50 per megawatt hour that consumers will have to pay for the Hinkley C nuclear project,” she said.

“However it is now clear that the future budget for offshore wind is unlikely to support Scottish ambitions to develop an industry. Only one Scottish offshore wind farm received a contract, while two major offshore wind farms were refused – leaving uncertainty over their future development.”

She stated that the U. K. government needs to make sure that sufficient money will be available in future allocation rounds.

She also congratulated the Neart na Gaoithe project in the Firth of Forth and Scottish Power’s East Anglia development for securing contracts, resulting from the CFD Auction Allocation Round One.

ScottishPower opens operations centre at Whitelee

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has opened ScottishPower Renewables’ new £1m operations centre at Whitelee.

The facility controls nearly 930 turbines. The facility can remotely monitor all of ScottishPower Renewables’ windfarm developments, currently 31 operational sites.

Operators continuously monitor the 929 turbines, using weather software to plan the operations and maintenance and communicate with National Grid.

The company has 1,600 MW of wind power in operation and around 500 MW consented or under construction.

Iberdrola Chairman Ignacio Galan said that based on the development pipeline, the group will soon have 2 GW of wind power in operation.

Acciona opens concrete operations in Mexico

Acciona Windpower has inaugurated its maiden operational plant in Mexico for the production of concrete towers for wind turbines at General Escobedo, near Monterrey.

The initiative is going to result in 300 direct and more than 1,500 indirect jobs.

The new facility is contributing to a major contract won by Acciona Energy for the Ventika and Ventika II wind farms last year.

The group signed a deal for the engineering, construction and start-up of two wind farms in Mexico and the supply of wind turbines totalling 252 MW. The investment associated with these projects is around $650m.

The contracts, which also include O&M of the farms, were signed with a company formed by Fisterra Energy, a company majority owned by funds managed by Blackstone, CEMEX and private investors. Commercial operation is expected by the second quarter of next year.

The use of concrete means that greater tower heights can be achieved. The tower size also facilitates the local supply and manufacture of the segments due to proximity to the farm sites.

Wind power ranks 5th for US power

Wind energy accumulated more new electricity in the US than any other resource last year, as per the data released by the U.S. Department of Energy. Wind power generated 4.4 percent of all the electricity in the nation in 2014.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA), wind power sustained its rank as the fifth largest electricity source.

Wind energy provided more than 15 percent of electricity in a total of seven states. Wind provided enough electricity to power the equivalent of 16.7 million homes last year.

Iowa led the nation by producing 28.5 percent of its electricity from wind power, followed by South Dakota at 25.3 percent and Kansas at 21.7.

From a regulatory support perspective, the American Wind Energy Association mentioned that the Production Tax Credit (PTC), the primary federal tax incentive for wind energy, has led to this growth. The incentive needs to stay to provide long-term policy certainty, asserted the association. For its part, Congress is currently evaluating whether to extend the PTC or not.

110 MW Keechi Wind Project starts commercial operation

Renewable Energy Systems Americas (RES) has commenced commercial operation of the 110 MW Keechi Wind Project in Jack County, Texas.

The construction phase of the project started in late 2013. Keechi Wind was developed by RES Americas and constructed under a fixed-price, engineering, procurement, and construction agreement.

This was RES Americas’ first project in which it self-performed the turbine installation. In all, the project paved way for nearly 250 jobs during the peak of construction and nine permanent O&M jobs.

The project, which is owned by Enbridge, connects to Brazos Electric’s Joplin substation via a 12-mile generation tie line. The facility features 55 Vestas V100-2.0 MW turbines.

RES mentioned that the project was completed with only one recordable injury accident in over 300,000 man-hours worked, with a Total Recordable Incidence Rate (TRIR) of 0.65.

Vestas will provide turbine O&M services for the first five years of the project.