8 July/August 2014 | Renewable Energy Focus

News Digest | Full news service at http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com

Alstom established ‘hydro’ facility in Brazil

ALSTOM HAS inaugurated

its fi rst hydropower global

technology center in Latin

America. The new centre represents

an important extension of the exist-

ing hydropower industrial site of

Taubaté, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will

include a state-of-the-art test rig for

turbine-scale models. What’s more,

Alstom says the facilitiy will support

Brazil’s increasing power genera-

tion needs, developing Kaplan power

plants, designed for low head appli-

cations, between 15 and 60 meters.

These plants are able to adapt to

river fl ow variations, thus allowing

the energy production throughout the

year, both in fl ood and dry seasons.

(Brazil accounts for 45% of the future

worldwide Kaplan market for new-

build power stations.)

“The inauguration of the Brazilian

global technology centre represents a

key milestone for Alstom’s develop-

ment in the country and in the renew-

able market,” said Jacques Hardelay,

Alstom’s Global Hydro chief operating

offi cer. “It will allow us to benefi t from

a feedback of experience of highly

skilled research and development

experts and engineers located close

to our customers, and to continually

improve the products we design.”

The new technology center re-

inforces a global network of centres

based in Grenoble (France), Birr

(Switzerland), Baroda (India), Sorel-

Tracy (Canada) and Tianjin (China). It

will have the complete hydro product

technical expertise in a single location

(turbines, generators, control, hydro-

mechanical equipment and balance-

of-plant, as well as services for hydro

plants, according to Alstom).

Moreover, the technology centre

will leverage the existing manufactur-

ing expertise of the Group, and local

industrial facilities of Taubaté site.

Major investments allocated for

Scottish renewable energy market

SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE has

committed £3.5 million of new

investment in country’s renew-

able energy sector. The funding hinges

on four ambitious projects are being

supported through the enterprise

agency’s Renewable Energy Invest-

ment Fund.

The four projects set to receive

funding are as follows:

Islay Energy Community Benefi t

Society will receive a £735k loan to

install a community owned 330Kw wind turbine on the island, with the

potential to power the equivalent of

300 homes.

Edinburgh-based Nova Innova-

tion has secured a £700k loan from

REIF to support the fi rst phase of

the 0.5MW Shetland Tidal Array,

believed to be the world’s fi rst deploy-

ment of a tidal energy array. Scottish

Enterprise is backing the project with

a £1.2 million R&D grant that will

lever in an additional £1.85 million of

private sector investment.

Fintry Development Trust, a body

dedicated to making the village in

Stirlingshire a zero-carbon, zero-

waste community, is being supported

with a £615k loan. It will help refi -

nance a commercial agreement that

gives the trust an income stream from

the nearby Earlsburn Wind Farm. This income will be invested in local

renewable projects.

Finally, Inverness company AWS

Ocean Energy has received a loan of

£250k to support further development

and testing of its AWS-III, a wave en-ergy device which off ers the prospect

of wave energy on a farm scale. AWS

also received support through the fi rst

round of WATERS funding.

“This latest round of Scottish En-

terprise funding underlines the Scot-

tish Government’s commitment to

Scotland’s growing renewable energy

sector,” said Energy Minister Fergus

Ewing while attending the All-Energy

Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland

recently. He noted that clean, green

energy is creating opportunities for

communities across Scotland and

delivering jobs and investment at the

same time.

Andrew Smith, head of the Renew-

able Energy Investment Fund, wel-

comed the news. “These are really

ambitious and exciting projects which

clearly demonstrate the wide range

of initiatives that REIF was set up to

support,” he stated. “They also show

how, by working with other funders,

we can leverage signifi cant investment

from the private sector.”

DoE announces

biofuel research

awards

THE US Department of Energy

has awarded $6 million to

advance cost-competitive bio-

fuels. The research and development

projects, located in California and

North Carolina, will focus on lowering

production costs by maximising the

renewable carbon and hydrogen from

biomass that can be converted to fuels

and improving the separation proc-

esses in bio-oil production to remove

non-fuel components.

These projects are as follows:

SRI International of Menlo Park,

California, will receive $3.2 million

to produce a bio-crude oil from algal

biomass designed to maximise the

amount of renewable carbon recov-

ered for use in fuel and reduce the ni-

trogen content of the product in order

to meet fuel quality standards.

Next, Research Triangle Institute (RTI) of Research Triangle Park,

North Carolina, will receive $3.1 mil-

lion to maximise the biomass carbon

and energy recovery in a low-pressure

process, thereby lowering production

costs. The projects are a part of the

DoE’s eff ort to develop technologies

that will enable the production of

cost-competitive drop-in biofuels.

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