GE has signed a ten year contract with Spanish wind developer Cobra Energia to provide advanced services for 178 GE wind turbines installed at eight wind farms across Spain. The agreement is GE’s largest wind energy services contract in Europe, and reinforces the company’s position in Europe’s highly competitive wind turbine services sector.

The agreement provides the flexibility for Cobra Energia to complete routine maintenance with GE contributing advanced solutions for advanced unplanned maintenance, troubleshooting, upgrades and parts. The GE service agreement covers Cobra Energia’s entire fleet of GE 1.5-megawatt wind turbines coming off warranty between 2010 and 2012.

A subsidiary of Spanish building company ACS, Cobra Energia operates some of the largest wind farms in Spain. Spain ranks among the world leaders in the use of renewable energy, including wind and solar.

Three new pan-European energy research infrastructure projects have been announced by the EU. A wind research facility is planned in Denmark, a concentrated solar power installation in Spain and a nuclear research reactor in Belgium. The overall investment is about Eur1.2 billion.

They will be part of the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). Energy research infrastructures play an important part in realising the European Strategic Energy Technology (SET)-Plan.

In its updated Roadmap 2010, ESFRI has identified 50 new research infrastructures or major upgrades of existing ones, in order to stay at the forefront of research over the next 10–20 years. Their total construction cost amounts to some Eur20 billion and their operational cost would be around Eur2 billion per year.

One of the objectives of the Innovation Union is to launch by 2015 the construction of 60% of these priority European research infrastructures, primarily financed by EU Member States, but with the support of European Programmes.

In Denmark, the WindScanner project has the capacity to produce detailed maps of wind conditions at a wind farm covering several square kilometres. This knowledge will lead to more efficient, stronger and lighter wind turbines. The facility will be in operation from 2013 and costs will be between Eur45 and Eur60 million. WindScanner will be operated by the Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy near Roskilde, leading a consortium with six other partners, from Germany, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.

The solar research infrastructure EU-SOLARIS at the Advanced Technological Centre for Renewable Energy in Tabernas, Almeria (Spain) focuses on developing new technologies for concentrated solar power and has a construction cost of about Eur80 million. Other complementary sites at several leading European laboratories – representing European countries with the most solar potential (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey) and Germany (technological provider) – will be part of the new research infrastructure.

The Belgian nuclear fission research infrastructure MYRRHA, in Mol, has research capacity on the reduction of radioactive nuclear waste. The detailed engineering design of the facility is scheduled to be completed in 2014. The total construction cost is budgeted at approximately Eur960 million (2010-2023). MYRRHA will be the first large facility in the world for research on radioactive spent nuclear fuel and its reduction via partitioning and transmutation. The infrastructure can also be used to test the feasibility of a new generation of nuclear power plants – the Lead Fast Reactor technology. MYRRHA is a complementary infrastructure to the Jules Horowitz Reactor (thermal spectrum reactor), under construction in Cadarache, France.

The European Investment Bank has announced a Eur500 million loan to Medgaz for the construction of a gas pipeline between Algeria and Spain. The financed project consists of transporting gas energy from Algeria to Spain over a length of 210 km. It comprises the construction and operation of a sub-sea gas transmission pipeline between Beni Saf in Algeria and a landfall close to Almeria in Spain, including a gas receiving terminal on the Spanish side, a compressor station at Beni Saf of initially 99 MW, a pipeline with a diameter of 24 inches, a capacity of 8 Gm³/a and short near-shore sections for a potential future second 24-inch sub-sea pipeline. The total project cost is estimated at Eur1.01 billion.

The project has a real added value in terms of energy supply, competitiveness and security. It will contribute concretely to meeting growing gas demand in Spain by diversifying supplies; and encouraging competitive operation of the internal market by making all the resulting import capacity available to competitors of the main market player of natural gas. It will also reinforce the security of EU energy supply.

The energy challenge in the Mediterranean is an operational priority for the EIB, which between 2002 and 2009 provided energy financing totalling Eur3.7 billion in the Mediterranean, with flagship projects such as the Tillouguit hydropower plant and the Tangiers wind farm in Morocco, the Gabal el-Zait wind farm in Egypt, the Jordanian pipeline in Jordan, the Ghannouch power plant in Tunisia and the Deir Ali I and II projects in Syria.

Findings from a new survey show that, despite the difficult conditions of the last 18 months, renewable energy deal-making has remained remarkably robust and is expected to dramatically increase in the next 12 month

Commissioned by Rodl & Partner, the leading independent professional services firm, and carried out by mergermarket, the comprehensive overview of the global renewable energy M&A market found that in 2009 there were 228 deals announced worth a collective €49.7bn – a deal volume mirroring the level of activity witnessed at the height of the M&A boom in 2007 – and that the first two quarters of 2010 have also seen brisk deal flow.

The survey, which was conducted earlier this year, garnered the opinions of 100 senior M&A professionals from across the globe who are directly involved in the renewable energy sector and asked their opinions on the key challenges and opportunities that exist in the market, as well as the M&A outlook over the coming year.

Key report findings include:

* 78% of respondents expect M&A activity to increase over the coming 12 months.

* 70% of survey respondents note that accessing finance has been the most significant obstacle to deal-making in the space.

* 41% of respondents expect utility companies to be very active acquirers of assets going forward, as renewables drive to meet parity with traditional forms of energy, suggesting that buy-side interest is no longer dominated by niche investors.

* 67% of respondents expect private equity investment in the sector to increase in the coming months.

The geographic breakdown of activity shows that North American and European markets continue to dominate, accounting for 74% of overall deal flow since the beginning of 2005. Nevertheless, there is huge potential in emerging markets and countries in South America and Asia-Pacific are beginning to attract a degree of investment.

“The renewables industry has proven to be a major driver for global economic growth. The increase in deal-making across the globe is a solid indicator for the continuation of high transaction activity in the coming years. Even in the light of reduced feed-in-tariffs in important markets like France, Germany, Italy and Spain, investments in renewable energy continue to be highly attractive,” comments Dr Marcus Felsner, partner of Rodl & Partner,

Additional findings include:

* Europe is identified as the region likely to witness the greatest level of renewables M&A activity in the coming year, with 80% expecting the region to witness significant activity and 45% identifying it as the region that will witness the most activity globally. Respondents point to markets in Western Europe – particularly France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy – as those that will comprise the principal hubs of activity, as these are countries where there is public awareness regarding climate change, and w here there is government support for the sector.

* Wind power is identified as the renewables niche poised to see the greatest upturn in M&A in the coming 12 months, with 83% of respondents expecting the wind power sub-sector to experience significant M&A activity in the next year. Also 73% say that this is the most probable destination of private equity funding.

* Government support is viewed as the principal external factor that will drive M&A over the next 12 months by 84% of respondents.

* 55% of respondents identify tax breaks as the most effective policy in driving renewables investment. Feed-in tariffs are cited by 44% of the respondent pool, while just over one-quarter of respondents (26%) point to capital grants.

* Two-thirds of respondents expect electricity prices to rise in the coming 12 months, with a respondent suggesting that this will be due to rising oil and gas prices, as well as the general economic recovery increasing demand.

* Just one-in-ten respondents expect IPOs of renewables firms to decrease in the year ahead – 9% expect it to decrease slightly and a further 1% expect that it will decrease greatly.

* European and North American bourses are tipped to be the main locations for listings by 56% of respondents expecting an increase in IPO activity. Just 19% of respondents expect APAC bourses to lead listings activity.

Renewable energy deals have continued to come to the market since the onset of the financial crisis, but the austere financing environment has curtaile d the M&A aspirations of some would-be acquirers. Despite this, when compared to other industry sectors, banks have been generally willing to finance transactions in the renewable energy sector, often due to the level of government involvement and stable income streams generated.

Regardless of the incentive schemes that are on offer, the renewable energy sector’s fundamental value is only set to increase as the pricing of renewables sources reaches parity of traditional fossil fuel sources. This is likely to ensure that the boom of recent years is sustainable and therefore investment is likely to increase as the space becomes more attractive to traditional utility companies, industrials groups and large private equity funds. The full survey is available at: www.roedl.com.

ScottishPower Renewables is to expand the capacity of its Whitelee wind farm by 217 megawatts (MW) to 539 megawatts, cementing its position as the largest wind farm in Europe.

Using Alstom technology, the new capacity is slated to come on stream in 2012. The project will use 69 Alstom ECO 100 wind turbines with a 3 MW capacity and six ECO 74 turbines with 1.67 MW capacity each.

Whitelee windfarm is located south of Glasgow and currently has installed capacity of 322 megawatts (MW). It is one of the world’s flagship windf arms and also houses Scotland’s first renewable energy learning centre.

ScottishPower Renewables is a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola Renovables, which has operations in 23 countries and is the world leader in its sector by both installed capacity (more than 11,400 MW at the end of the first half of 2010) and output (close to 13,000 million kWh in the first half of 2010).

The expansion of Whitelee is part of the agreement with Alstom to install 250 of its wind turbines in nine of Iberdrola Renovables’ facilities in Spain and the UK with a combined capacity of 500 MW.

The UK, along with the US, will be the key market for Iberdrola Renovables in the coming years, with a particular focus on offshore wind energy projects.

Iberdrola Renovables plans to invest Eur9 billion over the 2010-2012 period to bolster its position as the global leader in wind power and to drive international expansion, focusing on more profitable markets. The company’s growth in this three-year period will come mainly from the US, where it will invest Eur4.9 billion. It will invest Eur1.9 billion in the UK, Spain will receive Eur1 billion and it has earmarked Eur1.2 billion for the rest of the world. The goal is to accumulate more than 16,000 megawatts (MW) in installed capacity by 2012.