In preliminary discussions with Cape Wind, Siemens Energy has offered to provide debt and equity financing for up to $2.6 billion for the alternative energy supplier’s proposed 130-turbine, 468-MW wind farm off the Massachusetts coast. Cape Wind agreed to purchase 130 of Siemen’s 3.6 MW turbines from Cape Wind last March, according to Mark Rodgers, spokesman for Cape Wind.“Nothing is finalized, but we appreciate the expression of interest,” Rodgers says.“We’ve always made it clear that we are not only willing but also capable of helping to support the whole project,” said Josef Kaeser, chief financial officer of Munich-based Siemens at
While contractor staff salaries are static and salary increases have reached record-low levels, recruiters say hiring is improving modestly. Heavy industrial, highway and heavy civil construction are showing positive signs, with compensation requests from wind and solar, says Jeff Robinson, president of construction-compensation consultant Personnel Administration Services Inc., Saline, Mich. Related Links: View the Full ENR 2011 Second Quarter Cost Report Hard Times Draw the Line for Bargaining How John Deere's New Hybrid Wheel Loaders Get Their Juice Creating Cash from Trash Floods Disrupt Deliveries Fears About the Economyu Shake Industry A Deep and Dogged Recession Will Take a Bite
Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor crisis in Japan, the U.S. nuclear industry is more closely scrutinizing existing facilities, and long-standing problems are placing some plants under the microscope . Courtesy of Progress Energy Crystal River plant has cracks in walls. Courtesy of NextEra Energy Engineers note alkali silica reaction at Seabrook. “U.S. nuclear facilities are under constant inspection regimens, but since the earthquake we are going at it even stronger,” says Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based industry organization.In one example, Progress Energy's Crystal River plant in Florida—offline since September 2009 for a refueling
Two U.S. steel fabricators and a German pipe manufacturer have announced the formation of a joint venture to produce components for the 130-turbine Cape Wind farm in development off Nantucket Sound and other offshore wind farms emerging along the East Coast. EEW Group Monopile foundations at at EEW's Rostock, Germany facility, similar to the facility that will be built in Massachusetts to serve nascent offshore wind industry off the U.S. Atlantic coast. Related Links: Building Cape Wind Wont Be a Breeze Offshore Support for Onshore Wind “The announcement signals the beginning of a domestic supply chain that will create new
Ten capped landfills will be reused as solar fields under an agreement between Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, located in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and American Capital Energy, North Chelmsford, Mass. The 18.3-MW project on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, the largest of its type in New England, is expected to produce 22,500 MWh per year, enough energy to power 3,132 Cape and Vineyard homes, according to the cooperative. Energy produced from the project will provide about 1.1% of electric power for cooperative customers. A construction date for the $83-million project has not yet been scheduled. The federal government
Preliminary analysis of a ceiling light fixture that fell into moving traffic in early February at Boston's Big Dig tunnel system suggests the fixture shows signs of severe corrosion caused by salt from snow and ice treatment. Related Links: Corrosion's High Cost: Rust Never Sleeps Performed by West Boylston, Mass.-based Massachusetts Materials Research, the analysis indicates the fixture failed because of severe corrosion to the aluminum wire way at the locations where the light assembly was attached with stainless-steel clips, according to a Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation report released on April 13. The incident caused no injuries and no property
Even though corrosion causes substantial damage to U.S. infrastructure every year, “corrosion is not well understood,” says Ted Greene, professor of mechanical engineering at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. Related Links: MassDOT Study Blames Salt For Big Dig's Fallen Light Fixture Receiving support from NACE International—originally known as the National Association of Corrosion Engineers—a Federal Highway Administration study on the direct costs associated with metallic corrosion in nearly every U.S. industry sector suggested the total annual estimated direct cost in the U.S. is $276 billion, about 3.1% of the nation's GDP. When indirect costs are included, that total is
Even though corrosion causes substantial damage to U.S. infrastructure every year, “corrosion is not well understood,” says Ted Greene, professor of mechanical engineering at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. Receiving support from NACE International—originally known as the National Association of Corrosion Engineers—a Federal Highway Administration study on the direct costs associated with metallic corrosion in nearly every U.S. industry sector suggested the total annual estimated direct cost in the U.S. is $276 billion, about 3.1% of the nation's GDP. When indirect costs are included, that total is estimated to be as high as $552 billion.The corrosion of metals depends
Preliminary analysis of a ceiling light fixture that fell into moving traffic in early February at Boston's Big Dig tunnel system suggests the fixture shows signs of severe corrosion caused by salt from snow and ice treatment. Performed by West Boylston, Mass.-based Massachusetts Materials Research, the analysis indicates the fixture failed because of severe corrosion to the aluminum wire way at the locations where the light assembly was attached with stainless-steel clips, according to a Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation report released on April 13. The incident caused no injuries and no property damage.In a report released on April 6, MassDOT
New Hampshire landowners are fighting the Northern Pass project, a $1.1-billion transmission line designed to import a reliable source of renewable hydropower from Canada into New England, where transmission and generation are constrained. Developers of the 180-mile line recently agreed to remove five alternatives for the line and focus on routes that would use existing rights-of-way south of Groveton, N.H., as well as a preferred route and several alternatives to the north that would require new rights-of-way. In an April 12 filing with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Northern Pass officials successfully obtained an extension until June 14 to identify
