Ashtead Technology is set to team up with Norwegian subsea equipment specialist Innova. The partnership will see the Aberdeen-headquartered subsea technology company provide customers with Innova products, including high specification hydraulic gear, fibre optic cards and data logging equipment.
Scottish Government plans to manage and protect Scotland’s seas are not yet “fit for purpose”, according to a Holyrood committee. The draft National Marine Plan for Scotland has been developed over five years and was published last month. It aims to balance the development of established industries such as oil, gas and fishing with emerging sectors such as marine renewables and carbon capture and storage.
Solar power almost doubled in the last year, with 650,000 installations ranging from solar farms to panels on homes, figures showed. By the end of 2014 there was almost 5 gigawatts (5GW) of solar photovoltaic panels installed, up from 2.8GW at the end of 2013, the Department of Energy and Climate Change figures showed. The solar industry said there were now enough panels installed in the UK to supply the equivalent of 1.5 million homes.
North Sea nations will hold the key in Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy but political ambition will be essential. A report by Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS) made the analysis as it issued a report which calls for specific policy support and wider political ambition within the EU. The European Commission will meet stakeholders today in Edinburgh to discuss a strategic vision for energy infrastructure in the North Sea basin.
Residents from a village which was at the centre of huge anti-fracking protests have seen the completion of their first community-owned solar panel project. A total of 69 panels have been installed on a cow-shed as part of a long-term plan to generate enough power to match the entire electricity use of Balcombe in West Sussex. Thousands of protesters converged on Balcombe in the summer of 2013 after energy firm Cuadrilla started exploratory drilling for oil, sparking fears that it would go on to frack there.
Scotland’s Energy Minister Fergus Ewing hopes four major wind arrays in the firths of Forth and Tay will be built despite a major legal challenge to their development. Bird protection charity RSPB Scotland sent shockwaves through the sector in Scotland earlier this month after a last-minute move to seek judicial review of Mr Ewing’s decision to grant consents for the Neart na Gaoithe, Inch Cape and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo arrays. It is understood the RSPB’s application will come before the courts for the first time in late May and there are concerns within the industry the legal process will prove both costly and lengthy.
The Força Eólica do Brasil consortium have awarded Gamesa a contract to supply 42 state-of-the-art wind turbines to the three wind farms in Brazil. Gamesa will install the G114 wind turbines with a unit capacity of two megawatts (MW) at the windfarms and will be in charge of supplying, transporting, installing and commissioning 15 wind turbines for the Santana 1 windfarm.
BRE Wales & South West along with a consortium of partners have won funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to boost innovation in the heat network industry. A number of proposals were successful under the competition and will be allocated a share of £1million to carry out feasibility studies on their proposed innovation. The consortium which includes BRE, Barden Energy, Bizcat UK, Elgocell, the Home Group (and some of its Cumbrian tenants), will use the capital to look at how viable it is to create a super-efficient district heating network in low rise social housing using innovative Swedish technology.
The north-east can become a carbon capture and storage (CCS) “powerhouse” of Europe, benefiting from job creation and other economic rewards as the fledgling industry takes off, seminar delegates will hear today. Chaired by Aberdeen Harbour Board chief executive Colin Parker, the event throws the spotlight on new CCS opportunities facing the region as it battles to overcome a big slump in oil prices. But it will also highlight concerns about the dangers of any sluggish action from Westminster in getting projects off the ground.
Companies with technologies that can cut the cost of oil and gas production will be highlighted in a new showcase at the subsea industry’s leading event this year. In an effort to demonstrate how recent innovations can help operators and oil services firms reduce costs, Subsea Expo will provide a platform for organisations to introduce, discuss and demonstrate their latest innovations. Chaired by Dr Gordon Drummond, project director for the National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI), the session will give a dozen companies ten minutes in the spotlight to outline their innovation and potential applications.
Subsea products and equipment manufacturer Ennsub has finished sealing work on a platform in Australia. The Aberdeen head-quartered firm worked on the design, manufacture, testing and installation and sealing systems for the Wheatstone Liquefied Natural Gas platform off the Australian coast.
Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) has finished a major project in Yorkshire for a northern European energy giant. ESS completed a boulder clearance and seabed preparation campaign for Dong Energy at the Westermost Rough wind farm, eight miles off Yorkshire coast.
Aberdeen energy service firm Hydro Group has invested £300,000 in a fancy new piece of kit to help it make tougher underwater cables for the oil and gas industry. The company said yesterday it had installed and commissioned an advanced armouring line at its Bridge of Don facility, becoming one of only a few UK businesses to have the technology. Hydro Group, which designs and manufactures cables and connectors for subsea and onshore use, said its custom-designed single and multi-layered steel armoured cables were able to withstand higher stresses in subsea and defence operations.
Just Energy Group has struck a deal with Clean Power Finance (CPF) to sell residential solar electricity. The agreement will provide CPF’s networks with a large solar sales pipeline as well as access to Just Energy’s 1.6million residential energy customers. The companies plan to roll out the solar program beginning in the first calendar quarter of 2015 in New York and California, before expanding the offering into key target solar markets across North America.
The RSPB has called for a judicial review after the Scottish Government gave consent for four offshore windfarms in the east of Scotland. The charity mounted a legal challenge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh over permission granted last October for four Scottish territorial and round three wind farms. The projects, in the Outer Forth and Tay, include Mainstream's 450MW Neart na Gaoithe, Repsol and EDP's 784MW Inch Cape and SSE and Fluor's 525MW Seagreen Alpha and 525MW Seagreen Bravo.
Money and lots of it . . . public and private . . . is needed to initiate a credible wave and tidal energy power generation sector in the UK, which a new report claims could be worth up to £76billion to the economy. However, the idea that the oil and gas supply chain can kick-start the market “is not easily realised” because it is “too expensive”, according to a new report by the Glasgow-based ORE Catapult initiative. It claims that this is because the oil and gas supply chain designs and makes equipment to “operate at extreme depths, in benign tidal flows, and low oxygenated waters”.
Scotland’s electricity system could be powered almost entirely by renewable energy by 2030, according to a report by an environmental charity. WWF Scotland’s report uses independent analysis by an engineering and energy consultancy to test the Scottish Government’s policy to decarbonise the country’s electricity supply over the next 15 years. It found that an electricity system based on “proven renewables and increased energy efficiency” is a credible way of meeting the target.
Coal will remain an important contributor to the UK's energy mix into the mid-2020s at least, a Scottish supplier says. Fergusson Group's forecast came as it reported increased sales in its most recent financial year in the face of "challenging market conditions across the energy sector".
Cape has been awarded a five year contract extension by EDF Energy for the supply of access, insulation and associated service in support of its eight nuclear power stations in the UK. The contract will see the company provide its services until 2021 in support of the energy suppliers. Around one fifth of the UK’s energy supply comes from EDF’s nuclear power stations, two coal fired power stations, combine gas cycle turbine power station and wind farms.
Scotland’s solar power capacity has increased by almost a third in the past year, according to new figures. More than 35,000 homes and 600 business premises now have solar photo-voltaic (PV) systems, December figures from regulator Ofgem show. The capacity of these systems has reached 140 megawatts, a rise of 32% from 106 megawatts last year and a huge increase on just 2 megawatts in 2010.
Figures have revealed windfarm companies have submitted almost 200 planning bids for major developments in the past 18 months. The Freedom of Information statistics show the level of applications for windfarms of more than three turbines, with rural local authorities bearing the brunt of submissions. The data compiled also revealed the Western Isles received the most applications for windfarms in that time period, followed by Dumfries and Galloway and Highland.
A green energy company has been paid £7.5million – to switch off its turbines and stop producing electricity. This year alone Falck Renewables Wind Ltd received £2.8million not to generate power on 77 separate occasions. The firm was under fire from politicians and campaigners last night as it emerged it wants to extend its Millennium development in the hills above Loch Ness.
Wave power company Pelamis has made its remaining staff redundant after no final offers were made for the business. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has been selected as the preferred bidder to take over the company’s assets. Administrators were called in last month after Pelamis failed to secure enough funding to develop its technology.
Construction of the largest planned tidal energy project in the world is expected to begin off the Scottish coast next month, developers have announced. Atlantis, majority owner of the MeyGen project, said it has finalised all of the conditions required to initiate its first drawdown from financiers The Crown Estate and Scottish Enterprise. The project has the potential to power nearly 175,000 homes through a network of 269 turbines on the seabed at Ness of Quoys in Caithness.
Cheniere and GE have entered a $1billion contract for the Sabine Pass LNG export terminal. The 20-year deal will see GE provide spare parts and planned inspections, maintenance services and technical support for the gas turbines and refrigerant compressors on the first four LNG trains currently under construction.