The French nuclear power company, Areva, has acquired the concentrating solar-power plant manufacturer, Ausra, for an undisclosed price. Ausra was founded by Australian, David Mills, who developed the technology when he was head of the Solar Energy Group at the University of Sydney. Dr Mills moved to California to secure funding from venture capitalists including Vinod Khosla.

Ausra’s Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology captures the sun’s power to produce electricity. Mirrors focus sunlight to heat water in  pipes and the resulting steam drives a turbine to generate electricity.

Because concentrating solar power systems produce steam to make electricity, Areva believes that the technology is more closely aligned with its nuclear engineering business, which also uses steam to generate electricity, than with other solar businesses in which photovoltaic cells convert light to electricity.

Areva believes that the market for engineering services around concentrating solar power will expand rapidly this decade and is forecasting a 20 percent per annum growth rate to an installed capacity of over 20 gigawatts by 2020.

The acquisition means that Ausra’s technology is more likely to be deployed on a large scale because utilities and financiers are typically reluctant to work with technology start-ups.

Fresnel solar concentrators

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Contrary to expectations in the light of the global economic turndown, wind power installations grew strongly in 2009.

China was the world’s largest market in 2009, more than doubling its wind generation capacity from 12.1 gigawatts to 25.1 gigawatts at the end of 2009.

The US installed nearly 10 GW in 2009, increasing the country’s installed capacity by 39% to 35 gigawatts.

Europe also exceeded expectations inn 2009 with 10.5 gigawatts of new wind generaion capacity installed, bringing the total installed in Europe to 76 gigawatts.

Within Europe, Spain installed the most with 2.5 gigawatts of new wind generating capacity, bringing its total to more than 19 gigawatts. Germany installed 1.9 gigawatts in 2009, bringing its total installled wind generating capacity to 25.7 gigawatts. The UK and France also installed more than a gigawatt of new  capacity each.

Australia installed 0.4 gigawatts of new wind generating capacity bringing its total installed capacity to 1.7 gigawatts, while New Zealand installed 0.17 gigawatts of new capacity for a total of almost 0.5 gigawatts installed.

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EU member states have approved a plan to share out €4 billion ($au6.3 billion) to develop carbon capture and storage and fund some other high tech renewables projects.

At least eight carbon capture and storage projects will receive funding. Ocean thermal energy conversion technologies and systems to convert cellulose from plant waste into biofuels, biogas or electricity will also be considered.

Specific proposals for projects to be up and running by 2015 must be submitted this year. The European Investment Bank will assess the proposals and determine which projects will receive funding during 2011. It is expected that most of the funding will go to the carbon capture and storage projects. 

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A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers’ homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. Many governments see it as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues.

The United States Department of Energy estimates that modernization of US grids with smart grid capabilities would save between $US46 billion and $US117 billion over the next 20 years in that country alone. As a result, the Obama administration has committed $US7.1 billion to development of a smart grid.

But the US is far from being the only country making a big investment in smart grid technology. China is expected to invest $US7.3 billion in smart grid loans, grants and tax incentives this year. China’s State Grid Corp. has set a goal of building a smart grid by 2020. It is estimated China will need to spend as much as $10 billion a year through 2020 to achieve this.

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The world’s largest tidal power station is to be constructed off the west coast of South Korea at Incheon.

GS Engineering and Construction has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to begin construction next year with a view to completion around 2017.

The power station will have a capacity of 1.32 gigawatts - 3.4 times greater than the capacity of the Rance Tidal Power Station in France which is currently the world’s largest tidal power station. The facility will provide 4.5% of South Korea’s demand for household energy.

Incheon is a city of 2,500,000 close to Soeul. It  has the second biggest tide differences in the world, next to the Bay of Fundy in Canada.

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In an interview with Time magazine, Christophe de Margerie, CEO of the French oil giant Total, has commented that "what will happen very soon is that oil supplies will not cover demand. That won’t mean there is no oil. There are oil reserves, but you will need to invest billions and billions to get it."

In 2007, Mr de Margerie, told a London conference of oil executives that the industry would be unlikely to be able to produce more than 100 million barrels of oil a day and would not be able to produce the 120 million barrels a day which the International Energy Agency says will be needed by 2030.  Mr de Margerie now says that producing even 90 millioin barrels a day is "optimistic".

Even present levels of production require the company to operate in difficult conditioins. For example, Total’s operations in Burma and on the Canadian tar sands and its plans to begin gas production in Iran have sparked strong protest. Last year the company opened a gas pipeline in Yemen. Total employees in Yemen can’t leave the capital and travel with armed escorts.

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The World Future Energy Summit on renewable energy, carbon capture and smart energy technologies is currently underway in Abu Dhabi. It has attracted 600 exhibitors and 9,000 delegates on its first day.

Time magazine has summed up the feeling among conference-goers as "the politicians might have failed to act on climate change, but everybody else is going to push on regardless".

The magazine points out that total investment in clean energy dropped from $155 billion in 2008 to $130 billion last year but spending has already bounced back and may reach as much as $200 billion by the end of 2010.

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New Zealand’s Environment Court has made a positive recommendation to Conservation Minister, Tim Groser, on a proposal from Crest Energy to generate electricity from Kaipara Harbour.

Kaipara Harbour is New Zealand’s largest harbour and is on the west coast just north of Auckland. The project would be the first in New Zealand using tidal flow to generate electricity.

Crest Energy is seeking to build a 200-megawatt tidal power plant at the mouth of the harbour. The system could be generating power by next year with Phase One of the project producing 20MW from an initial installation of 20 turbines. 

Eventually, the power plant would have 200 turbines and could provide up to 4 per cent of the country’s power.

Each turbine would be 24 metres high but would be 6 metres under water at low tide. About 8000 million cubic metres of water pass in and out of the harbour each day, and Crest Energy says Kaipara Harbour is one of the best sites in the world to generate substantial amounts of tidal electricity.

The Environment Court said that the Crest Energy proposal still needed further work to satisfy concerns about the turbines interfering with the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin and the important snapper fishery.

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Despite continuing difficulties getting funding for large projects, Europe’s offshore wind power generating capacity grew by 54% in 2009.

A total of 199 wind turbines, with a combined capacity of 577 megawatts, were installed at eight new offshore wind farms connected to the European grid in 2009.  

The European Wind Energy Association expects ten more European offshore wind farms to be completed in 2010, adding another 1,000 megawatts - equivalent to market growth of a further 75% compared with 2009. The turnover of the offshore wind industry was approximately €1.5 billion ($au2,3 billion) in 2009 - this is expected to double in 2010.

More than 100 gigawatts (100,000 megawatts) of projects are at various stages of planning. These could provide enough power to meet 10% of Europe’s electricity demand - and would be equivalent to about three times Australia’s total power generating capacity.

Wind Turbines off Copenhagen
(Photo by Less Salty ex Wikimedia)

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Carnegie Wave Energy has commenced construction of Australia’s first commercial wave energy project.

Stage One of the project involves the deployment of a single stand-alone commercial-scale CETO unit in the Sepia Depression, between Garden Island and Five Fathom Bank off Freemantle, Western Australia. The first facility was initially planned for Albany but Garden Island was chosen instead because the waves in Albany were too small.

Stage One of the project will have a peak capacity of 5 megawatts, generating sufficient power for around 3,500 households. The Project is forecast to create 30 jobs and save over 500,000 tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions.  Implementation of Stage One and detailed cost and design activities associated with Stage Two will be undertaken during 2010 with construction and commissioning of Stage Two scheduled for 2011.

The project will utilise Carnegie’s $12.5 million grant from the Western Australian Government announced earlier this year.

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