Verdant Power Inc., the leading U.S. tidal power developer, and the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), a renewable energy company, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop tidal energy projects in China. The agreement is the first of its kind between China and the U.S. involving marine and hydrokinetic power projects. According to Trey Taylor, president of Verdant Power, the two firms have identified potential sites and are currently gathering data at those locations. The Generation-5 turbines they plan to use in China, says Taylor, “will be demonstrated at pilot project sites in North America as

China has installed the first major offshore wind farm outside of Europe. + Image In China, most offshore wind farms likely will be built in intertidal areas. Located in the East China Sea, near Shanghai, the 102-MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm began transmitting power to the national grid in July. The farm, which is slated to expand in the coming years, eventually will generate annually 267 million kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power 200,000 Shanghai households. It currently is supplying power to the Shanghai Expo and serving as a showcase project at the five-month-long international event. The $337-million Donghai Bridge farm

Work has begun on a $700-million ferronickel plant in eastern Cuba, near Moa, that is slated for completion in 2013. The Las Camariocas plant is the largest construction project now under way in the island nation. It has been undertaken by Quality Cuba S.A., a joint-venture contractor comprising Cuba’s state-owned engineering and construction firm, Quality Couriers International S.E.A., and the government of Venezuela. Upon completion, the plant is expected to annually produce 68,000 tons of ferronickel, which is an ingredient in stainless steel. Quality Cuba S.A. also is partnering with Brazil’s Odebrect to build a $600-million container terminal at the

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave final approval July 27 to Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of the Spanish-owned company Iberdrola USA, to begin work on a $1.4-billion electricity transmission network, one of the largest construction projects in Maine’s history. The project includes five, 345-kV substations linked by 450 miles of new or rebuilt transmission line. The line’s southern end will tie into the New England grid near the New Hampshire border and its northern end will link with Canadian transmission lines in Orrington, Maine. The utility has contracted with Maine contractors Cianbro Corp., Pittsfield, and RJ Grondin &

More than any other European nation, the U.K. is pinning its hopes for a low-carbon-electricity future on offshore wind power. It already has more offshore generation than any other nation, at over 1,000 MW. But with construction costs posing the major hurdle to reach the U.K.’s goal of generating 12,000 MW by 2020, the quest is on for the best foundations in ever-deeper waters. Because of supply bottlenecks and other factors, the real construction cost of offshore wind farms has risen 20% since the first commercial schemes were built seven years ago, says Rob Hastings, head of marine resources at

Aiming to cut costs of offshore wind power, British engineers are developing a vertical-axis turbine that would eliminate the need for a tower, reduce stress on blades and foundations and ease installation work. The developer of the 10-MW device hopes to have a 1-MW proof-of-concept machine at work within two years. A full-scale demonstration would follow. Photo Courtesy Wind Power Ltd./Grimshaw In the vertical-axis concept, blades spin close to the ocean surface, like a fan on its back. The device has two rotors attached to inclined arms. These arms rise from a vertical axle in a module sitting just above

Earthquakes, wind and ice can make electric service transmission poles topple like dominoes, costing millions of dollars to replace. Illustration By Walter Konefal div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Jon Rouse, a civil engineering professor at Iowa State University, hopes to eliminate that cost by incorporating hinges into the base of poles to deflect stress and bounce the poles back—like Weebles, the 1970s toys that “wobble but don’t fall down.” Currently, the industry relies on sturdy and costly “dead-end structures” every five to 10 miles to block poles from cascading. Rouse’s 110-kv poles, now being tested at the university, eliminate

Conceding that they lack the votes--at least for now--to pass a comprehensive energy and climate-change bill, Senate Democrats instead will propose narrower legislation. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said July 22 that he soon will introduce a scaled-back measure that includes more accountability for oil spills and a handful of other targeted provisions. After meeting with his fellow Senate Democrats, Reid told reporters that there are no Republican votes at present to support a wide-ranging energy measure. Reid said that "in the next few days" he will introduce a four-part energy package and that it would move to the Senate

A 290-MW photovoltaic powerplant is on track for construction to start later this summer in Arizona, marking the beginning of a wave of utility-scale solar projects expected to wash over the Southwest. Photo: Courtesy First Solar Designed to provide 290 MW of power, this Yuma-area project is expected to be the first of many solar powerplants. The push to build solar plants like the Agua Caliente project near Yuma is driven by two key factors: state renewable-energy requirements and a drop in solar prices, especially for photovoltaic technology. Nine western states have renewable portfolio standards requiring utility electric sales to

Groundbreaking took place this week for the $452-million Lodi Energy Cen-ter powerplant project in northern San Joaquin County. The California Energy Commission and Northern California Power Agency teamed up to get the project off the ground; the NCPA will construct, own and operate the plant. The center will be a natural-gas-fired, combined-cycle 255-MW power generation facility. Completion is scheduled for June 2012. A major component of the center will be a new technology: Designed to allow for the steam turbine’s earlier startup in a process that decouples the gas turbine from the heat-recovery steam generator, the technology is intended to