Renewable Energy News

Phoenix Energy signed agreements to build and operate a biomass gasification plant near Lake Tahoe, California. The 2-MW plant will utilize forest biomass from Placer County's fire threat reduction activities to make electricity, heat and biochar - a solid carbon byproduct that is used as a soil conditioner and filter media. The plant will be the first to use forest-based fuel in California. The Lake Tahoe project is Phoenix Energy's third biomass gasification plant in state and when fully operational it will be the company's largest plant.

JinkoSolar Holding Co. successfully connected its 24MW solar PV power plant in Xinyi, Jiangsu Province and 15MW solar PV power plant in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province to the grid. The company has so far successfully connected to the grid for more than 252 MW of solar PV power projects. The 24MW Xinyi and 15MW Lianyungang power plants were granted blended 20-year subsidies of 1.125 RMB/KWh and 1.1 RMB/KWh, respectively, including subsidies from the local government. Both locations are among areas with the highest insolation level in Jiangsu Province. 

Siemens Canada expanded its wind power footprint, in partnership with Algonquin Power & Utilities, to supply, deliver and commission ten direct drive SWT-2.3-113 wind turbines for the Morse Project. The 23-MW project will be located in southern Saskatchewan near Morse, 60 km from Swift Current. The technology of the SWT-2.3-113 benefits from the experiences of 250 gearless Siemens wind turbines in operation. Construction of the wind farm is expected to begin in summer 2014, with commercial operation expected by early next year.

IKEA made its first wind farm investment in the United States with the purchase of 98-MW Hoopeston Wind in Hoopeston, Illinois. The project is currently being constructed by Apex Clean Energy and is expected to be fully operational by the first half of 2015. The Hoopeston Wind project will install 49 Vestas V100-2.0 MW wind turbines near Hoopeston in Vermilion County, Illinois, approximately 110 miles south of Chicago.

Dominion acquired six solar development projects from Recurrent Energy located in California's Fresno, Kern and Kings counties. Long-term power purchase, interconnection, engineering, procurement and construction - and operation and maintenance agreements have been executed for each of the projects. Recurrent Energy will continue to support Dominion through the completion of these projects. Construction commenced in the first quarter of this year and all of the solar facilities are expected to reach commercial operation in late 2014 or early 2015.

WindMW GmbH (WindMW), a joint-venture of Blackstone Energy Partners and Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH, completed the sale of Meerwind Süd 'Ost, a 288-MW offshore wind farm located in the German North Sea. Construction of the wind farm began in 2012 and was completed on schedule within 18 months. Meerwind was the first German offshore wind project to be fully financed by private investors, was the largest German offshore wind farm to achieve a full financial closing, and was the first to close under Germany's KfW financing program.

Canadian Solar Solutions completed the sale of Little Creek, an 8.5-MW solar power plant valued at over C$53.0 million ($47.95 USD), to a BluEarth Renewables subsidiary (BluEarth). This is the first of four planned solar projects being acquired by BluEarth from Canadian Solar, totaling 38.5 MW. The additional three utility-scale solar power plants being purchased by BluEarth, which are planned to reach commercial operation through Q2 2015, are located in Kawartha Lakes, Belleville and Beaverton, Ontario, Canada.

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ruled in favor of solar as a cost-competitive energy source for Xcel Energy. Geronimo Energy's Aurora Solar Project was selected by the PUC to fill a portion of Xcel's future generation needs. The Aurora Solar Project is a 100-MW distributed solar generation project that will utilize solar arrays ranging in size from 2 MW to 10 MW across Xcel's service territory.

Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development (ConEdison Development) partnered in five solar projects in Nevada and California. The projects include Sempra U.S. Gas & Power's 250-MW Copper Mountain Solar 3 project near Las Vegas, and ConEdison Development's CED California Holdings portfolio: the 50-MW Alpaugh 50, 20-MW Alpaugh North and 20-MW White River 1 facilities in Tulare County, and the 20-MW Corcoran 1 facility in Kings County. The renewable power from all of the projects has been sold under long-term contracts.

SunEdison completed construction of a 24 MW solar power plant located in the California Desert. The Cascade solar power plant will supply renewable electricity to San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) through a 20-year PPA that was awarded under the California Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM). The 150-acre solar power plant is comprised of more than 75,000 SunEdison Silvantis Monocrystalline Solar PV Modules mounted to SunEdison AP90 Single Axis Trackers.