Power Air Quality Insights No

				Power Air Quality Insights No. 37 January 5, 2012

WELCOME

The following insights can be sent to you every week. This alert contains the details on the upcoming hot topic hour, breaking news, and the headlines for the Utility E Alert for the previous week. This is one of a number of free services. You can sign up for any of these newsletters and of course request to be removed from the mailing list at any time. See registration following the newsletter.

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed the implementation of the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) pending a full court proceeding pertaining to petitions filed by Texas and six other states. CSAPR was scheduled to begin on January 1 and would have placed a cap on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_X) emissions from electricity generators in 28 states. With the stay, the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), the rule that preceded CSAPR, will remain in operation pending resolution by the Court.

Oral arguments are expected to be heard by April 2012, although a final decision on the merits of the case could be delayed for several months following that date. The stay contributes to the climate of uncertainty permeating the power sector, which has been bracing for the implementation of a number of EPA rules which could be implemented in the next few years. For example, on December 16, 2011, the EPA signed the final version of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) Rule, which will, for the first time, regulate mercury and other air-toxic emissions from power plants. The combined impact of MATS and CSAPR, along with rules impacting coal ash disposal and cooling-water-intake structures, is expected to drive investment in pollution control equipment and the retirement of older, less efficient generating units, and increase electricity costs, particularly in regions with large coal fleets.

Pace Global has weighed in on this development. They observe that there are a number of potential outcomes that could result from the Court proceedings set to take place later this year: the Court will likely review Texas's participation in the trading programs. In addition, a number of states have argued that their units need more time to install pollution controls. At a minimum, the Court's stay delays CSAPR implementation, and contributes to the regulatory uncertainty that has defined the SO₂ and NO_X emission markets since EPA signed CAIR in 2005.

EUEC 2012: The 15th Annual Energy & Environment Conference & Expo will host about 2,000 delegates on January 30^th – February 1st, 2012 at the Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Arizona. An outstanding list of over 600 speakers will make expert presentations in 13 tracks. Exhibiting companies include equipment suppliers and the following consulting and EPC companies:

The exhibits will be well worth visiting. Here are pictures and coverage from the stands last year.

Offshore wind projects face special challenges as the following excerpts from McIlvaine’s Renewable Energy Projects and Update make clear. Nevertheless Europe continues to move forward with this technology.

Iberdrola has announced that EOLE-RES, specialists in the design, development, construction and operation of renewable energy projects, has joined its consortium preparing to bid for two offshore windfarm sites in France, adding to this strong line-up of experienced organizations.

Iberdrola initially announced that it will be working with AREVA, who will supply the turbines for the projects, in its bid for up to 1.25 GW of offshore wind capacity as part of the French government’s plans to reach a 6 GW target by 2020. Technip, a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry, joined as the construction and engineering partner in August. EOLE-RES, one of the leading wind energy developers in France, will bring significant additional development, technical and engineering knowledge and expertise to the consortium supported by its sister company RES Offshore, which has already helped deliver over 350 MW of consented offshore capacity in the UK and is currently supporting over 5000 MW in development in Europe and the U.S.

The consortium has announced that it will bid for the Saint-Brieuc zone in northern Brittany, which has the potential for up to 500 MW and the Saint-Nazaire zone, which is off the Atlantic Coast, with up to 750 MW of power. Tender submissions will be made to the French Government in January 2012, with successful bidders selected by April 2012.

Vestas and DONG Energy have entered into cooperation on testing of Vestas' new V164-7.0 MW offshore wind turbine at DONG Energy's demonstration site in the waters off Frederikshavn. Vestas will be supplying a V164-7.0 MW turbine, which is a dedicated offshore wind turbine designed specifically for the harsh conditions at sea.

DONG Energy's total investment in the establishment of the test site will amount to approximately DKK 240 million.

The V164-7.0 MW turbine is scheduled for installation in 2013 at the demonstration site, where DONG Energy has permission to install a total of six demonstration turbines. As part of the demonstration, DONG Energy and Vestas will cooperate on a technical due diligence of the V164-7.0 MW turbine.

RWE Innogy has signed agreements on the use of areas at Birkenhead port near Liverpool. From October 2011, RWE Innogy will use these areas as a base port for constructing the offshore wind farm Gwynt y Môr (Welsh for “sea wind”).

The lease agreements concluded between RWE npower renewables and the Cammell Laird shipyard are to run for a term of three years. The leased port area covers around 14 hectares and includes a nearby quay of 230 meters on the western bank of the mouth of the River Mersey. It is from here that over the coming months the foundations for a total of 160 wind turbines of the 3.6 megawatt class will be preassembled, loaded and shipped to the wind farm site in Liverpool Bay around 18 kilometers off the Welsh coast.

RWE Innogy will build the Gwynt y Môr wind farm using its own offshore installation vessel called "Friedrich Ernestine". The Gwynt y Môr wind farm is currently one of the largest offshore wind projects in the world. The wind power plant with an installed capacity of 576 megawatts (MW) is scheduled to come on stream in 2014. RWE Innogy has a stake of 60 percent in the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, the municipal utility of Munich and Siemens hold shares of 30 percent and 10 percent respectively.

"The space required to store and preassemble the large-scale components is enormous. With the port area in Birkenhead we have now found an ideal construction site to cope with the complex logistics involved. It will take our offshore installation vessel about six hours to cover the 48 kilometers distance to the construction site out at sea. This fits in excellently with our logistics concepts", says Professor Martin Skiba, Head of Offshore Wind Power at RWE Innogy.

To build the Gwynt y Môr wind farm, the offshore installation vessel will transport up to three so-called monopile foundations plus transition pieces at a time and install them at a water depth of between 12 and 28 meters. Each of these foundations is between 50 and 70 meters long and weighs up to 700 tons. Subsequently, the actual wind power systems will be installed, including tower components, nacelle and rotor star. The installation vessel can transport and install up to six complete sets of turbines of the 3.6 megawatt class at the same time.

RWE Innogy uses a so-called mono-vessel concept in the construction of its offshore wind power plants. According to this concept, the Seabreeze offshore installation vessel is loaded with the individual components at the base port. It then leaves the base port for the construction site at sea where it installs the foundations and wind turbines on site. While the installation vessel is at sea, further components are preassembled at the base port and prepared for shipping. This concept helps to avoid expensive waiting times for the installation vessel at port. Moreover, the number of jack-up operations for large components at sea is limited to a minimum in contrast to other concepts which work with a platform firmly installed at sea and a ship shuttle service between base port and jack-up rig.

All foundations of the offshore wind farm Thornton Bank 2 have been successfully installed off the coast of Belgium. The installation work started in June this year and has been accomplished on schedule. In total, 25 jacket foundations for the wind turbines and one offshore transformer station have been installed 30 kilometers off Oostende in water depth between 12 and 25 meters. Every steel foundation is 50 meters high and weighs around 550 tons. Using a heavy duty crane, the foundations were placed on top of pre-installed piles on the seabed and attached to them. The foundation structures were manufactured in Hoboken near Antwerp, and transported via pontoons through the Scheldt estuary to its final destination on high sea.

By the end of this year, it is planned to complete the inter array cabling for Thornton Bank 2. At the beginning of 2012, the wind turbines themselves will be installed as well as the offshore substation. Thornton Bank’s second construction phase will have 24 6-megawatt wind turbines on around 10 square kilometers. The total weight that the individual foundations will carry is around 700 tons.

The third construction phase will be from 2012 until 2013 on a 12 square kilometer area, also with 24 wind turbines. The laying of a second 150 kilovolt underwater cable, which will transport the generated electricity ashore to the feed-in station in Sas Slijkens is also planned in spring 2012.

On completion, Thornton Bank wind farm will have installed capacity of around 325 MW, which corresponds to an annual electricity supply to around 600,000 people. The first construction phase of Thornton Bank has been underway since 2009. The 5-megawatt rotating plants at Thornton Bank 1 have since delivered around 97 percent availability.


[]	1/31/2011	EUEC 2011