The Scottish Government has launched guidance designed to make planning applications for wind energy developments run more smoothly for developers, planning authorities and the communities affected.

The guidance is a result of the GP Wind Project, a Scottish-Government led EU project which looked at the barriers to development of wind energy and ways of reconciling renewable energy objectives with environmental concerns, and actively involving communities in the planning process.

The guidelines were developed in partnership with a wide range of interested parties, including  the RSPB, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, SSE and Scottish Power Renewables.

The Scottish Government also announced an “onshore wind taskforce”, which will look at ways to improve the planning consent process for onshore wind while keeping communities involved, consulted and informed, by bringing key players in the planning system  including the Scottish Government, developers and statutory consultees (including Scottish Natural Heritage, SEPA, and planning authorities) together to critically examine current procedures.

“The Scottish Government wants to see the right developments in the right places, and this guidance will help to ensure that – while also making sure there are fewer unsuitable applications and that communities are properly consulted and informed,” says Energy Minister Fergus Ewing. “We have set an ambitious, but achievable, renewable energy target and we are determined to ensure that communities all over Scotland benefit from our renewable energy revolution, which is already bringing jobs and investment. But we are determined that this should be done in an sustainable way, sympathetic to the needs of communities and protecting the environment and our fantastic natural heritage.”

David Gardner, Director of SSE Renewables (onshore), says: “Many other countries across Europe will benefit from Scotland demonstrating a leading role in delivering good practice in renewable energy development, but we can always learn to do better, and sharing good practice across the industry in this way is a very positive step.”

Having just officially opened its first developed wind farm, Bord Gais Energy (BGE) plans to bring a second facility on stream in 2012 as part of a €400 million investment programme to create a further 250MWs of wind energy over the next three years. Bord Gáis Energy’s first developed wind farm, Ballymartin Wind Farm, is located at Mullinavat, County Kilkenny. The second windfarm to become operational in 2012 will be Garracummer Wind Farm in County Tipperary, which will bring an additional 42MW of wind energy online.

Bord Gais Energy is a key player in the Irish wind energy market and has 15% of the installed wind capacity in Ireland at present. The company owns and operates 132 turbines on 13 wind farms in eight counties – Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Donegal and Tyrone. The company’s long-term investment in renewable energy reflects and supports the Government’s target of having 40% of electricity produced by renewables by 2020. It is envisaged that wind energy will provide the largest source of renewable energy to achieve these targets.

John Mullins, chief executive of Bord Gais, comments: “The launch of Ballymartin Wind Farm is a significant milestone in Bord Gais’ renewable energy agenda. At present, our windfarms can provide energy to 150,000 homes across this country, and by the end of 2012, this will increase to 180,000 homes. We are committed to providing a sustainable energy product for our customers and we are actively pursuing a portfolio that reduces the carbon footprint associated with providing this energy. Long-term investment in the development of Irish wind is a cornerstone of our investment strategy and we will ensure Ireland maximises the benefit of one of its most precious indigenous resources – the wind.” In the past five years alone Bord Gais has invested Eur2 billion in the Irish economy.”

GE will supply 31 of its 1.6-100 wind turbines for Fina Enerji’s Tayakadin wind project in Istanbul, Turkey, which will supply enough clean, wind-generated electricity to meet the needs of more than 14,000 Turkish households. The project will mark the first European installation of the GE 1.6-100 machine, which offers the highest efficiency of any wind turbine in its class, according to GE.

The 50-megawatt Tayakadin project supports the Turkish government’s plans to increase the country’s wind energy production to 20,000 megawatts by the year 2023. Turkey has one of the most favourable locations in Europe for wind energy development, with a potential wind generation capacity of about 48,000 megawatts. Much of that potential remains untapped, as the country’s existing wind farms produce about 1,800 megawatts.

“GE’s 1.6-100 technology builds on the broad experience of our 1.5 and 2.5 megawatt series, with more than 17,500 of those units installed today,” says Stephan Ritter, general manager of GE’s Renewable Energy business in Europe. “Featuring a 100-meter rotor diameter and 80-meter hub height, the 1.6-100 provides the highest capacity factor of any wind turbine for class 3 sites.”

Fina Enerji currently has 35 units of GE 2.5-100 wind turbines in operation at two wind power plant sites in Izmir and Hatay provinces for a total capacity of 87.5 MW. Tayakadin, near the booming city of Istanbul, is the third site where Fina Enerji will employ GE wind turbines.

A globally proven technology, GE anticipates installing more than 1,200 of these units in the United States within the next two years.

In addition to the wind turbines, GE will supply commissioning and technical advisory services for the Tayakadin project. FINA will do the installation and civil works of the project. The wind turbines will be shipped from GE’s Salzbergen, Germany facility by the end of 2012, with completion of the project expected by the first quarter of 2013.

Ireland has passed a key renewable milestone as installed wind capacity now exceeds 2GW. That is enough power capacity to supply the needs of up to 1.3 million households on the island, depending on weather conditions. This is compared to just a quarter of that capacity connected a decade ago.

Fintan Slye, director of operations at EirGrid, the company responsible for planning and operating the transmission system, comments: “Ireland and Northern Ireland have huge renewable energy potential and EirGrid is committed to ensuring this potential is developed throughout the island as a whole. We now have over 2GW of installed wind and are at times operating with wind supplying 50% of the total demand on the island, one of the highest percentage renewable energy penetration levels of wind on any power system. Meeting our 2020 targets will mean that, at times, the amount of wind energy being generated in Ireland and Northern Ireland will be up to 75% of total demand. This increase of wind on our system has required extensive innovation and planning and further changes will be required to meet the challenges that 75% of wind penetration brings in areas such as system stability, resource flexibility and altered power flows.”

EirGrid is responding to these challenges in a number of ways; though the planning and development of transmission infrastructure, increased interconnection and the development of smart grid technology.

The British Government has confirmed that the UK-wide consortium bid from Ocean Energy Innovation, Carbon Trust and the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec), has been selected to set up the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, a £50 million technology innovation project funded by the Technology Strategy Board.

The centre will establish its primary location in Glasgow, alongside a number of organisations with complementary interests in the International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ) with the operational centre in the North East of England (Northumberland) close to Narec. It will receive up to £10 million per annum over five years (£50 million) from the Technology Strategy Board.

The new Catapult will focus on technologies applicable to offshore wind, tidal and wave power. It will also build strong links with centres of excellence, such as the European Marine Energy Centre, Wave Hub, and the recently announced marine energy park in the South West of England.

The Catapult centre will bring together knowledge, expertise and state-of-the-art facilities to help UK businesses innovate and find new ways to capture and use the power from offshore renewable energy sources. UK businesses engaging with the centre will be able to reduce the risk associated with creating profitable products and services. The centre is expected to focus on areas such as:

* establishing a sustainable supply chain for the more established offshore wind sector in the UK;

* developing capabilities in marine power (tidal and wave) that will help UK business bring new products to market and export new technologies.

The applicable global market for wind, tidal and wave is expected to exceed £64 billion by 2050. The UK is in a strong position to take a significant share of these global markets. The biggest opportunity being to help the UK to gain 12% of the established offshore wind industry, which is the largest of the three. The market share opportunity for the UK in both tidal and wave will be 15%.

“The UK’s reputation and expertise in offshore engineering, gained through many years of commercial North Sea oil activity, makes the UK an excellent base for innovation relevant to the emerging offshore renewable energy sector,  explains Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board,  “The generation and supply of renewable energy is now a major component of global energy and economic policies. UK businesses have an opportunity to be a significant part in this global industry.”

In 2011, 9,616 MW of wind energy capacity was installed in the EU, making a total of 93,957 MW – enough to supply 6.3% of the EU’s electricity, according to figures just published by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). Representing 21.4% of new power capacity, wind energy installations in 2011 were very similar to the previous year’s 9,648 MW. The wind industry has had an average annual growth of 15.6% over the last 17 years (1995-2011).

“Despite the economic crisis gripping Europe, the wind industry is still installing solid levels of new capacity,” commented Justin Wilkes, policy director of EWEA. “But to achieve the EU’s long-term targets we need strong growth again in future years. It is critical to send positive signals to investors by European governments maintaining stable policies to support renewables and for the European Union to commit to put in place a binding renewable energy target for 2030.”

Growth in onshore installations in Germany and Sweden, and offshore in the UK – together with continuing strong performances from some emerging onshore markets such as Romania – offset a fall in installations in mature markets such as France and Spain. Overall, Germany remains the EU country with the largest installed capacity, followed by Spain, France, Italy and the UK.

Altogether, more renewable power capacity was installed during 2011 than any other year. Renewables accounted for 71.3% of new installations: 32,043 MW – up 37.7% on 2010 installations. Both fuel oil and nuclear power saw a drop last year, with more capacity decommissioned than installed.

Overall last year, the EU’s total installed power capacity increased by 35,468 MW net to 895,878 MW, with wind power increasing its share of installed capacity to 10.5%, and renewable capacity increasing its share to 31.1%.

County Cork company Windturbines.ie and L-Power, based in Puglia, Italy, have signed a wind turbine supply agreement for the export of reconditioned wind turbines to Italy. Windturbines.ie will source, recondition and adapt the turbines to suit the Italian wind energy market, while L-Power will market, install and service the turbines for the end user. The turbines will be reconditioned and adapted in our 10,000 sq ft premises in Bandon and transported to Italy as new.

Windturbines.ie has been researching the Italian market for over 8 months and has had a number of visits to Italy with L-Power coming to Ireland in return. Windturbines.ie will be exporting turbines in the size range of 55kw up to 500Kw.

L-Power is currently working on over 72 separate projects for grid connection authorization in the Puglia region and down as far as Sicily. It is expected that the agreement will drive the creation of a number of new jobs within the company starting in the next few weeks.

The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) has welcomed the signing of an historic deal between Ireland and the UK Government that will potentially pave the way for exploiting Ireland’s unique wind energy resources. Both Governments have agreed to co-operate on developing the major wind and marine resource in and around Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

IWEA chief executive Dr Michael Walsh says the deal may be seen in time as a milestone moment for Ireland in terms of maximizing the potential of the wind sector.

“It’s early days yet and we await the detail of what’s in the deal but it certainly is a major step in the right direction and potentially paves the way for what we believe could be a €1.6 billion annual export industry for Ireland and total new employment in the sector of 28,000 jobs,” he explains. “This deal, perhaps more than anything else that has gone before recognises the huge potential from wind energy on the island of Ireland given that it is a trading partner and not just ourselves that has recognised that the wind resource we have here is unique and largely underutilised. We have long since in the IWEA trumpeted the potential for exporting wind energy from Ireland and this deal will hopefully bring it to fruition, sooner rather than later.”

Rising fossil fuel prices, devastating oil spills and the nuclear crisis in Fukushima have in 2011 substantially raised expectations of wind energy. Every month in 2009 and 2010, the global wind energy industry installed new wind energy capacity that can produce as much electricity as 1.2 average nuclear reactors.

According to the wind industry, in 2015 wind power will avoid €23.7 billion of fuel costs – made up of €15.1 billion of avoided coal costs, €6.4 billion of avoided gas costs and €1.7 billion of avoided oil costs to produce electricity. By 2020 wind power will reduce fuel costs by €87 billion globally – made up of €46 billion of gas costs, €27 billion of coal costs, almost €10 billion of oil costs and €4 billion of biomass costs required to produce electricity.

These figures are based on the International Energy Agency’s data on fuel costs (IEA World Energy Outlook 2010) and Global Wind Energy Council data (GWEC, 2011, Outlook 2010) on ‘moderate’ development of wind power.

Dr Michael Walsh, chief executive of the Irish Wind Energy Association.

Opportunity For Ireland

Ireland is showing real signs of grasping the opportunity for developing smart technologies to facilitate the massive hike in demand for global wind energy over the next decade, says to Dr Michael Walsh, chief executive of the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA).

“There is a unique opportunity for Ireland’s innovators and entrepreneurs to develop new business of a global scale arising from the huge demand for wind energy up to 2020 and beyond.,” he comments. “This is an opportunity for Ireland in terms of wind generation but also in developing the technologies to ensure this capacity is delivered.”

He continues: “As countries all over the world are moving more and more towards wind generation, the market for these services will be immense. Ireland has the technical expertise and the opportunity to lead this new global industry. We also have the perfect combination of small local innovative companies and global technology leaders based in Ireland.”

GE has unveiled a first-of-its-kind power plant engineered to deliver an unprecedented combination of flexibility and efficiency. By rapidly ramping up and down in response to fluctuations in wind and solar power, the technology will enable the integration of more renewable resources into the power grid.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle1 Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts and offers fuel efficiency greater than 61%. The plant is the result of an investment of more than $500 million in research and development by GE and a key part of its ongoing work to create and manufacture technologies around the globe that deliver cleaner, more efficient energy.

While power plants today can provide flexibility or high efficiency, this power plant will deliver an unprecedented combination of both. GE calls this combination of flexibility and efficiency ‘FlexEfficiency,’ which is essential if renewable power is going to cost-effectively integrate into power grids around the world on a large scale.

GE drew from the company’s jet engine expertise to engineer a plant that will ramp up at a rate of more than 50 megawatts per minute, twice the rate of today’s industry benchmarks. Operational flexibility at these levels will enable utilities to deliver power quickly when it is needed and to ramp down when it is not, balancing the grid cost-effectively and helping to deploy additional renewable power resources like wind and solar. A typical FlexEfficiency 50 plant will deliver enough energy to power more than 600,000 E.U. homes.

“As our customers seek to increase their use of renewable energy, the challenge of grid stability sharpens. They are under added pressure to achieve higher levels of efficiency and lower emissions for natural gas power plants. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant creates an immense growth opportunity in a new segment for our gas turbine technology and is in lock-step with our commitment to build a cleaner energy future,” says Paul Browning, vice president—thermal products for GE Power & Water. “For years we have been working to develop technology that can, in the same breath, deliver breakthrough efficiency and deal head-on with the challenge of grid variability caused by wind and solar. The need for combined flexibility and efficiency is even more pressing today as countries around the world establish new emissions standards.”

The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is the first product in GE’s new FlexEfficiency portfolio and part of GE’s ecomagination commitment to drive clean energy technology through innovation and R&D investment. The launch follows GE’s recent announcements of the world’s most efficient wind turbine, the highest reported efficiency for thin film solar and $11 billion in acquisitions that strengthen a portfolio supporting natural gas and power transmission.

The EPA has welcomed publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Renewable Energy sources and Climate Change mitigation (SRREN). The report shows that global potential for renewable energy is substantially higher than both current and projected future global energy demand. This is the case globally and in most regions of the world.

Currently less than 3 per cent of the globally available renewable energy is being used. This means that more than 97 per cent is untapped. Realising this resource would be a major step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy. The report projects that 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewable sources by 2050 if enabling policies are put in place.

Commenting on the report Dr Mary Kelly, EPA director general, says: “This is a timely report given the choices we need to make on energy investment, here in Ireland, in Europe and internationally. It shows the potential of renewable energy technologies to provide energy solutions which also have wider economic, social and environmental benefits, including their potential to cut air pollution and improve public health, and increase energy security.”

The six renewable energy technologies reviewed are: bioenergy, direct solar energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean and wind energy.

The report states that the cost of most renewable energy technologies has declined. Some renewable energy technologies are already economically competitive. Technical advancements are expected to further reduce costs. Increasing the share of renewables requires additional short-term and long-term integration efforts. There is a need for advanced technologies to optimize the infrastructure capacity for renewable an area in which Ireland has active research.

The IPCC report notes that enabling policies and measures are required to ensure rapid deployment of many renewable sources. Research is also required to overcome technical barriers. The deployment of renewable energy will benefit from testing centres for demonstration projects.

Two experts from Ireland were lead authors for this IPCC report – Professor Tony Lewis of the Hydraulics & Maritime Research Centre, University College Cork and Professor Mark O’Malley of University College Dublin.

Renewable Energy in Ireland

Ireland is committed to the deployment of renewable energy and aims to reach the European Commission target of 20 per cent of its total energy mix by 2020. Ireland is also implementing its National Renewable Energy Action Plan which all Member States were required to submit in 2010. This plan sets out how we intend to reach EU wide renewable energy targets.

Currently, the majority of Ireland’s renewable energy is generated using onshore wind with a small contribution from offshore. Bioenergy is a growing area through the establishment of bioenergy crops such as miscanthus and rapeseed oils as well as traditional forestry biomass. In the agricultural sector, technologies such as biomethane generation from grass and anaerobic digestion of farm and food wastes have the potential to play a key part in mitigating emissions from this sector. There are proposals in place for a state of the art research test bed in Belmullet for wave energy test site in Belmullet. Irish companies such as WaveBob and Ocean Hydro have already gained international attention for the potential of their technology.

The total global potential for renewable energy “is substantially higher than both current and future projected global energy demand” is the message of the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation just released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report states that renewable energy production will increase “anywhere from roughly three-fold to more than ten-fold by 2050.”

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri cites wind energy’s 32% growth rate in 2009 as an example of “the impressive growth rate of renewables.” The IPCC’s experts on energy and climate science reported that almost half of the new electricity production capacity installed in the world in the two year period 2008-2009 was renewable sources (140 Gigawatts of 300 Gigawatts).

The panel experts state that 19% of the total global electricity supply came from renewable energy in 2008. The share of renewable energy rose to 12.9% of the global primary energy production and provided more than six times more than the global nuclear energy production at 2%.

“During the last two years, our industry installed new wind farms producing electricity equivalent to more than 25 nuclear power stations,” says Christian Kjaer, chief executive of EWEA. “More importantly, the world’s leading scientists have now confirmed that this is merely the beginning of a development that could see wind power providing in excess of 20% of global electricity supply.”