GE Grid Solutions in Neom
According to a news release, GE Grid Solutions has obtained a substantial contract from Larsen & Toubro to deliver 380 kV T155 gas-insulated substations (GIS) for the world’s biggest utility-scale green hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia.
Neom Green Hydrogen Company is an equal-owned joint venture involving ACWA Power, NEOM, and Air Products.
The mega-plant will be built in Oxygen, NEOM’s proposed smart metropolis in northern Saudi Arabia.
The GIS design by GE and the 1.5 breaker arrangement will help guarantee that the hydrogen plant and the wind and solar facilities, which will supply captive energy for the plant, operate continuously.
The NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) intends to create carbon-free hydrogen at the facility using only wind and solar electricity by the end of 2026, with a capacity of 600 tones per day.
The equipment is being constructed at Grid Solutions’ location in Aix-les-Bains, France.
Larsen & Toubro was granted the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to develop a 2.2 GWac PV solar plant, a 1.65 GW wind generating balance of plant, and a 400 MWh battery energy storage system under the power components package.
Larsen & Toubro will also build three 380 KV substations, 306 km of 380 KV overhead lines, and subterranean cables necessary for the Kingdom’s electrical infrastructure.
SOURCE : GE Grid Solutions
The largest floating solar array in North America
The 8.9-megawatt (MW) capacity solar array, which consists of 16,510 solar panels, spans 17 acres of the Canoe Brook reservoir in Short Hills, New Jersey. The renewable energy generated is enough to power 1,400 households per year and will meet roughly 95% of New Jersey American Water’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant’s electricity demands.
The array is owned and maintained by NJR Clean Energy Ventures (CEV), New Jersey Resources’ renewable energy company. It employs an innovative racking mechanism that allows the panels to float on water. Projects like this one provide a fresh approach to solar development as well as a practical answer to the problem of identifying suitable places for large-scale commercial solar arrays.
Floating solar projects convert useful space into clean energy by being built largely on man-made lakes or reservoirs where tides and seawater will not affect the panels. Innovative sustainable energy techniques, such as Canoe Brook, are becoming increasingly significant in densely populated places such as New Jersey.
Canoe Brook is the company’s second floating solar installation. The first, a 4.4 MW array in Sayreville, New Jersey, went into commercial service in 2020.
In January 2023, the Canoe Brook solar project went into full commercial operation. The array has other benefits in addition to delivering sustainable, clean electricity.
When compared to typical power sources, the solar energy produced is equivalent to eliminating 8,121 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the environment. Floating solar panels can also help prevent evaporation, which helps safeguard the water supply and the environment.
CEV has invested over $1 billion in commercial and residential solar installations since 2009. As one of the state’s major solar owners and operators, it now has 65 commercial solar properties spread across four states and a portfolio of more than 440 MW of installed capacity.
SOURCE : NJR Clean Energy Ventures (CEV)
The Radian in Texas, by capacity, is 415 MW/320 MW
Intersect Power’s Radian solar project, which uses First Solar panels and is located in Brown County, Texas, has the capacity to generate 415 MW/320 MW of solar energy, enough to power approximately 114,000 homes.
Over 500 jobs were generated throughout the project’s three-year construction period.
“Renewable energy is a critical piece of the overall American energy production story,” stated Intersect Power CEO Sheldon Kimber. Investing in clean energy is a wise business decision, and Texas continues to lead the way in terms of significant investment, development, and output.
“Texas clean energy production has spurred significant economic development and job creation in the state while also bringing energy security and independence to the US.”
Intersect Power’s Radian solar project is just one part of its near-term portfolio, which includes 2.2 GW of solar PV capacity and 1.4 GWh of co-located storage. The entire portfolio is projected to be completely operational by the end of 2023, demonstrating the company’s commitment to renewable energy and storage solutions.
SOURCE : Texas Government
The world’s biggest torque measurement instrument for wind turbines is now operational
A new wind power research project at Germany’s national metrology institute PTB (Physikalisch – Technische – Bundesanstalt) offers the world’s largest facility for precisely measuring torque in wind turbines, which is especially important for the development of offshore wind installations, according to the PTB.
The facility at the institute’s ‘Wind Power Competence Center” in Braunschweig will aid in better understanding and responding to the massive pressures acting on turbines during high winds.
The installation’s centerpiece, Torque standard measurement device is a one-of-a-kind feature that, according to PTB president Cornelia Denz, will assist in making massive wind turbines more durable and dependable. “The wind industry will significantly benefit from the PTB’s ‘Made in Germany’ quality services”.
Wind power is expected to become Germany’s primary source of electricity throughout the energy transition, and the country is home to some of the world’s leading turbine manufacturers.
While the domestic sector has been hampered by weak expansion numbers and economic challenges in recent years, the increased push for energy transition in Europe and other areas of the world has restored business optimism. Green technology research and development are viewed as critical to the country’s long-term competitiveness.
SOURCE : Germany’s national metrology institute
The construction of the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States has begun
The assembly of the 800-MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, the United States’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, began this week with the placement of the first of 62 foundations.
The project is a collaboration between Avangrid Inc. (NYSE:AGR) and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and is located off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
DEME’s floating offshore installation vessel, Orion, laid the first foundation. DEME Offshore US is in charge of transporting and installing the monopile foundations, transition components, offshore substation and scour protection, and offshore substation foundation and platform. The wind turbines will also be installed.
“We can finally say it: there is “steel in the water’ as of today,” remarked Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller.
“After receiving the first turbine components in New Bedford last week, Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1 project has achieved another historic milestone for offshore wind in the United States as we begin foundation installation,” Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said.
SOURCE : United States Government
The United States’ first facility for wave energy technology testing
Jacobs company announced This week, it announced that it has finished the underground infrastructure engineering for the Pac-Wave South project in Oregon, which will become the United States’ first full-scale test facility for wave energy technology.
The engineering firm led the work for the HDD Company, the project’s design-build contractor, which is being delivered by the US Department of Energy, the state of Oregon, and Oregon State University.
The Pac-Wave South location will allow for the testing of up to 20 wave energy devices seven miles (11.3 kilometers) off the coast of Oregon.
The project involves four offshore steel conduits up to 120 feet (36.6 meters) below the seafloor and reaching a mile offshore. They link to a network of five onshore high-density polyethylene (HDPE) conduits, which eventually connect to Pac-Wave’s Utility Connection and Monitoring Facility. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) was used to install the conduits.
According to Pac-Wave’s deputy director Dan Hellin, the Jacobs team came up with innovative solutions, such as “the collaboration on disguising the large concrete vault built at the state park, which was designed to splice and transition energy from offshore to onshore conduits as a reconstructed parking lot, ensured beachgoers would not see any disruption from the added wave energy testing infrastructure.”
SOURCE : Jacobs Company
KBC launches a revolutionary emissions management solution
Merging emissions reporting with energy-saving initiatives enhances emissions management. KBC (a Yokogawa Company) announced the debut of a breakthrough emissions management system, Visual MESA.
to greenhouse gas emissions management for industrial process facilities. Whether cloud-based or on-premises, this technology combines the emission management process throughout the whole plant to simplify reporting and minimize Scopes 1 and 2 emissions.
Visual MESA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management software uses real-time emissions data to indicate crucial operational areas that can increase the accuracy and frequency of greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting. This information helps the plant adopt strategic decarbonization steps, reduce emissions, and achieve sustainability objectives.
The KBC Visual MESA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management System analyzes emissions and energy consumption from plant operations using digital data sources. With the technology’s extensive capabilities, the program gives practical advice to minimize energy and emissions while automating official emissions reporting.
The following is an overview of the capabilities of the greenhouse gas emissions management software:
- Real-time carbon emissions monitoring avoids delays in examining time-sensitive data.
- Real-time energy optimization enables different scenarios to maximize energy and carbon reductions as well as satisfy sustainability objectives.
- Actionable advice for operations processes and visualization of emissions data campus-wide enable speedy and informed decision-making in important areas.
- Factor-based emissions calculations streamline the emissions accounting and reporting process, allowing engineers and accountants to focus on higher-value operations.
- Visual MESA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management software effectively monitors, manages, analyzes, and visualizes Scopes 1 and 2 emissions data in real time across the whole plant. Whether cloud-based or on-site, this sophisticated technology solution is meant to deliver rapid and precise decision-making on important areas impacting emissions.
SOURCE : KBC (Yokogawa Company)
The Electrification in New York
Key Capture Energy, an energy storage company situated in Albany, N.Y., announced the electrification of its third New York utility-scale storage project, the 20 MW/45.6 MWh KCE NY 6 plant, located several miles south of downtown Buffalo, N.Y. The installation includes Sungrow’s lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery energy storage technology.
The project is hooked up with National Grid’s western New York service zone, which has witnessed a boom of distributed energy system installations from solar and storage projects recently owing to grid restrictions.
“We are thrilled to announce that KCE NY 6 is now operational, which is a significant step toward New York’s ambitious goal of achieving 70% renewable energy by 2030,” said Taylor Quarles, vice president of development at Key Capture Energy. “The NY 6 project will help to create a more resilient and reliable grid while reducing emissions and improving air quality for communities across the state.”
The state’s Energy Storage Plan, issued on December 28, 2022, asks for the deployment of 6 GW of energy storage by 2030, representing at least 20% of the state’s peak electrical usage.
In addition to the 1.3 GW of existing storage projects that have been built so far, the roadmap calls for the construction of 4.7 GW of additional storage to cut future statewide electric system expenditures by more than $2 billion. Another advantage of the distributed energy system is that it improves public health by reducing exposure to natural gas and other fossil fuel power plants.
SOURCE : Key Capture Energy Company
