ROW

Boost for sun and wind power in China

Concentrating solar power specialist eSolar has announced a deal with Chinese power equipment manufacturer Penglai Electric to build 2 GW of solar thermal power plants in China in the next decade.

Penglai Electric will develop the power plants using eSolar’s solar thermal technology and will co-locate them with biomass electricity generation facilities.

The technology uses mirrors to concentrate solar energy onto a central tower, where the heat produces steam that in turn drives a turbine to produce electricity.

“eSolar’s technology minimizes the environmental impact on manufacturing and deployment while maximizing land and cost efficiency,” says Liu Guangyu, chairman and CEO of Penglai Electric.

Groundbreaking on the first 92 MW at the 170 km² Yulin Alternative Energy Park could start later this year, with construction led by China Huadian Engineering.

The plants, which will be owned and operated by China Shaanxi Yulin Huayang New Energy, are expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by 15 million tons annually.

Meanwhile, GE has received an order from Chinese wind energy developer HECIC New Energy for 88 1.5 MW turbines to be deployed in three projects in Hebei and Shanxi Provinces.

China has set a target of installing 150 GW of wind power by 2020, which requires 11.5 GW of new wind capacity each year from 2009 onwards. In 2008, China increased its installed capacity to 12.2 GW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

“China is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s largest markets for wind power technology,” says GE’s Victor Abate.

The country currently ranks fourth after the US, Germany and Spain in wind power production. The three new farms being supplied by GE will add 132 MW to the country’s wind power capacity.

Away from China, the Scottish Government has approved two wind farm projects that will generate enough power to supply 45,000 homes.

The £80 million Baillie wind farm near Thurso will have a capacity of 52.5 MW, sufficient for 25,000 homes, and feed into the upgraded Beauly-Denny line.

An extension to the Rothes wind farm near Elgin, meanwhile, will boost capacity by 45 MW taking the maximum to 95 MW, sufficient for 20,000 homes. The wind farm is operated by Norwegian company Fred. Olsen Renewables, a subsidiary of Bonheur and Ganger Rolf.

The Scottish Government has set a target of meeting 50% of its electricity demand with renewables by 2020. The region has 6.9 GW of renewable energy capacity installed, under construction or consented, and applications for a further 3 GW are currently under consideration.

“The north of Scotland has huge renewables potential,” says Energy Minister Jim Mather. “We are already on track to surpass our target of meeting 31% of electricity demand from renewables by 2011.”

For further information:
www.esolar.com/
www.ge.com/energy
www.scotland.gov.uk/
www.bailliewindfarm.co.uk/
www.fredolsen-renewables.com/?aid=9074442

13 January 2010

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