Renew On Line (UK) 50

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 150 July-Aug 2004

11. New Renewable projects around the UK

Wind farm for oil rig

The government and the Scottish executive are backing plans to build the world’s first deep- water wind farm on the remains of a North Sea oil platform in the Moray Firth.  The  idea of creating  a 1000MW 200-turbine wind farm using the infrastructure of the Beatrice field, has been proposed by Talisman Energy, the Canadian oil group, and Scottish & Southern Electricity, who  have won government funding for a “demonstrator project” and are seeking EU and UK grants for the farm.  Though parts of the three platforms, 12 miles offshore, would be decommissioned, the main one would be used to link the wind farm to the onshore grid. 

Source:  The Guardian  23/3/04 

£2m more  for PV Solar

£2m more has been allocated in grant awards for investment in solar energy projects in the 7th round of the Government’s £25 million Major Photovoltaics (PV) Demonstration Programme. Energy Minister, Stephen Timms said: “Including today’s announcement, we have awarded £13 million worth of grants to 110 different projects throughout the UK”. The larger projects include the national Trust HQ in Swindon, the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and Middlesborough Football Club.  Others are the first solar powered fire station at Richmond in Surrey, Birmingham Art Gallery and Edinburgh University.  Full details in Renew 151.

Drax goes greener

Drax, Europe’s biggest coal-fired power station, is to test the use of wood chip from short rotation willow coppice, making it the first large scale wood-fuelled power station in the UK.  The plant burns 9.5m tonnes of Yorkshire coal every year, and produces around 8% of the electricity used in England and Wales.  But during the nine-month trial it will also use biomass provided by  York based Renewable Fuels, who have agreed to supply Drax with an initial 14,100 tonnes of wood chip from short rotation coppice, harvested from 1,500 hectares planted by North Yorkshire farmers at Eggborough- the site of the failed ARBRE biomass plant.  It’s good to see that a use has been found for the SRC they planted under contract for ARBRE. It is estimated that the trial, which will be carried out in one of Drax’s six power units, will displace some 10,000 tonnes of coal- and 22,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Moreover, if the tests are successful, willow-based biomass could provide 5% of the station’s fuel by 2009 and cut out 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.  The plant currently gets its coal from the nearby Selby mine which is due to close by the end of this summer.  Source:  The Guardian 19/3/04

Tidal power for Guernsey

Guernsey Electricity has invested £250,000 in the SeaGen tidal-power project- the £3m next stage of the Marine Current Turbine Ltd’s development programme, which aims to build on the success of the Seaflow turbine installed off Lynmouth last year.  Through the £6m SeaGen programme, which is also backed by French Utility EDF, Marine Current Turbines (MCT) hope to develop the world’s first commercially-viable underwater turbine, based on a twin rotor design. 

The Guernsey Press & Star (23/3/04) was clearly impressed with the energy potential of tidal flows in the area and quoted the view that  ‘One day, we could be a net exporter of energy because we have more than we could possible use on a daily and annual basis’.  MCT say that the Seaflow performed very well: it reached its rated power of 300kW, had a rotor efficiency consistently in excess of 40,% and the energy capture was up to 25% better than expected.   www.marineturbines.com