Europe/Middle East/Africa

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Poland Scores Big: Mercedes-Benz Agrees Europe’s First Automotive Sector PPA

Mercedes-Benz has announced Europe’s first automotive Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a Polish wind farm. It is also the first such deal signed in Poland. It will buy electricity generated at the 45MW wind farm to power its manufacturing facility in Jawor, 10km away from the wind farm. The longer-term goal is to source all of its power needs from renewables. Corporate PPA deals like this are expanding rapidly in Europe. There was a 130% increase in the volume of wind energy contracted through such PPAs in 2017 alone.

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Major Role For WorleyParsons’ Advisian On World’s Largest Solar Power Project

Noor Energy 1 has appointed Advisian, the global consulting firm of WorleyParsons, as Owner’s Engineer for the concentrating solar power (CSP) fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai. The 700MW project will be the largest of its kind in the world and as an Owner’s Engineer, Advisian will protect the owner’s interests by ensuring all contractors are adhering to project specifications. It will also provide a review of the basic and detailed engineering, manage risk and provide technical support during construction & commissioning of the plant.

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Europe Adds 4.5 GW Of Wind Energy In First Half Of 2018

Europe added 4.5 GW of wind energy capacity in the first half of 2018, according to figures released by WindEurope. The figure is down on the same period last year (6.1 GW) though is in line with expectations. For the whole of 2018, we expect to see 3.3 GW new offshore wind and 10.2 GW of onshore wind. This will mean 13.5 GW of new wind capacity in total for the year. WindEurope Chief Policy Officer Pierre Tardieu said: “We are on track for a solid year in new wind farm installations”, but expressed concern that “the growth is driven by just a handful of markets”.

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ABB Wins Big: $150m Order To Grid-Connect World’s Largest Offshore Wind-Farm

ABB has won orders worth over $150 million from Danish energy company, Ørsted (previously Dong Energy), to supply a range of technologies that will help integrate and transmit renewable wind energy from Hornsea Project Two, slated to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Upon completion; in addition to powering 1.3 million homes, it will also provide the additional power supply to support economic growth in the UK’s Humber region and help the UK meet its target of generating 15 per cent of energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

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Benelux Infrastructure Forum Returns To Amsterdam For 17th Consecutive Year

Registration is now open for the 17th annual Benelux Infrastructure Forum. The industry-leading event for the Benelux region is returning to Amsterdam, Netherlands on the 21st and 22nd November 2018 for its 17th consecutive year. This year’s event will focus on exploring new financing mechanisms and alternative markets. It will also include an in-depth look at the different project financing models within the Benelux region for infrastructure projects, including; Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), institutional investment schemes, pension funds, debt financing, government funding, project refinancing, and more.

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Industry, Policy Makers Explore South Eastern Europe’s Vast Renewable Potential

Policy makers and industry recently gathered at an event held jointly by WindEurope and Eurelectric to look at how to unlock the vast potential of wind energy in South East Europe. It explored ways to restart local markets in view of the Clean Energy Package, with a focus on Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. An enormous 500 GW of wind energy is available in South East Europe, a potential which is currently not being realised. Following the event, held in Sofia, a series of recommendations to help unlock this potential, were issued.

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Mission E: Porsche’s First Fully Electric Sports Car Is Named Taycan

Porsche have announced that series production of its first purely electric vehicle is set to begin next year. The “Mission E” concept study, the name currently used to describe Porsche’s complete electric offering, will be known as the Taycan. Two permanently excited synchronous motors (PSM) with a system output of over 600 hp (440 kW) accelerate the electric sports car to 100 km/h in well under 3.5 seconds and to 200 km/h in under twelve seconds. This performance is in addition to a continuous power level that is unprecedented among electric vehicles.

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IET’s Renewable Power Generation Conference Comes To Copenhagen

The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s popular Renewable Power Generation conference will be making its first visit to Denmark this year. The conference, now in its 7th iteration, will be hosted by the Center for Electric Power and Energy at DTU, which also manages the world-class experiment platform for research and development of renewables integration – PowerLabDK. Over 180 new research papers will be presented at the conference. Attendees will be able to find out the latest ideas and thinking around wind power plant modelling and control; wave and tidal energy; renewable energy forecasting; power conversion and grid interaction; Hybrid systems combining multiple energy sources; the impact of distributed generation and use of HVDC.

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Major Wins For Solar As EU Increases Renewable Energy Target

The European Parliament, European Council and European Commission have agreed to a binding 32% EU renewable energy target for 2030, up from the original proposal of 27%. James Watson, CEO SolarPower Europe commented ‘The deal is a good one for solar. We see a much more ambitious target than was expected just a few months ago and importantly we have a strong framework for self-consumption and prosumers. Households wake up this morning with the knowledge that they will have a new right – the right to self-generate, consume and store the energy they produce. This is a major achievement.

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Masdar City To Test Latest Concepts In Autonomous Electric Vehicles

ICONIQ Motors, a China-based EV company, has reached agreement to test its autonomous driving concept at Masdar City. The ICONIQ SEVEN, one of the world’s latest EV models is a futuristic vehicle, built on an intelligent, connected vehicle platform integrated with Microsoft’s AZURE cloud technology; and is set to hit the market in 2019. “Masdar City has put smart and sustainable mobility at the centre of its strategy, as highlighted by the historic success of its flagship driverless Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system,” said Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director of Sustainable Real Estate at Madsar. “It is the ideal location to test innovative autonomous driving concepts.”

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European Parliament Gives A Resounding Vote In Favour Of Clean Energy In Europe

European lawmakers have called for a renewable energy target of 35% for 2030 – rather than the 27% which the European Commission proposed in 2016. The MEPs have now backed measures substantially raising the European Union’s clean-energy ambitions. By 2030, more than one-third of energy consumed in the EU should be from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The measures are intended to help cut carbon dioxide emissions. The EU is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, releasing about 10% of global emissions.