Renewable Energy News

Siemens secured a large wind power contract in South Africa for an order of 157 wind turbines for three projects in the Northern Cape from Mainstream Renewable Power. The 2.3-MW machines of the Siemens G2 platform will be installed at the wind power plants Khobab, Loeriesfontein 2 and Noupoort, with a combined generation capacity of 360 MW. The new contract includes a service and maintenance agreement for a period of 10 years.

Ormat Technologies’ second phase of its McGinness Hills geothermal power plant located in Lander County, Nevada has begun commercial operation. Since February 1, 2015, the complex sells electricity under the amended PPA with NV Energy through December 2032. The second phase broke ground on March 2014 following resource confirmation and excellent performance of the first phase of McGinness Hills, which had been operational since June 2012.

PSE&G recently put two new landfill solar farms in service as part of the utility's Solar 4 All program. The 10.14-MW Parklands Solar Farm in Bordentown, NJ and the 11.18-MW Kinsley Solar Farm in Deptford, NJ were brought online in late-December 2014 and will supply enough grid-connected solar electricity to power about 3,500 average-size homes annually. These are the two largest centralized solar projects built to date by PSE&G, creating a portfolio of 26 solar farms and 174,000 pole-attached solar units that supply more than 101 MW of electricity.

Dominion Virginia Power will develop multiple large-scale solar projects totaling 400 MW of electricity. All projects will be built in Virginia with the involvement of Virginia-based companies and are expected to be operational by 2020. Together, these solar facilities are anticipated to be capable of generating enough electricity at peak capacity to power 100,000 homes.

Canadian Solar entered into a definitive agreement with Sharp Corporation to acquire Recurrent Energy, for approximately $265 million. Once completed, the acquisition of Recurrent will increase Canadian Solar's total solar project pipeline by approximately 4.0 GW to 8.5 GW, and its late-stage project pipeline by approximately 1.0 GW to 2.4 GW. Total consideration for the acquisition of Recurrent is approximately $265 million in cash.

NRG Renew, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy and SunShare, are partnering to finance and build 8.2 MW of community solar projects along the Front Range of Colorado. Once completed and online in mid-2015, this will be one of the largest operating community solar portfolios in the nation, comprised of five ground-mount sites, four in the Denver area and one in nearby Colorado Springs. The renewable electricity generated through this alliance will be available to residential, municipal and commercial subscribers spanning five counties.

Babcock & Wilcox’s Denmark-based subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund A/S, was awarded contracts by Margam Green Energy Ltd. for more than $200 million to engineer, procure and operate a state-of-the-art biomass power plant in Margam, Wales. B&W Vølund's consortium partner, Interserve Construction Ltd., will build the plant. The plant will be designed to burn 335,000 tons of wood waste biomass annually and generate approximately 40 MW of electricity.

Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to build substantially more solar energy capacity as part of its ongoing strategy of advancing clean energy while keeping electricity affordable for customers. Before the end of 2016, FPL intends to build three new solar PV power plants that are being designed to cost-effectively complement other major system improvements, which include the retirement of some of the company's oldest fossil fuel-burning units and the continued investment in clean, fuel-efficient, 24-hour

sPower, developed an agreement with Hecate Energy, a leading power developer, to develop and own/operate solar PV projects. The first joint initiative is the sale to sPower of a 162-MW portfolio comprised of three projects named Beacon 1, Beacon 3 and Beacon 4. The utility scale projects, near Mojave, Calif., in Kern County, will be designed and built by Hecate, then jointly owned and operated by sPower and Hecate. Groundbreaking is scheduled for Q3 2015, with COD from March to July 2016.

Emera closed the sale of its 49% interest in Northeast Wind Partners II (Northeast Wind) to First Wind Holdings (First Wind) has closed. The proposed sale was announced in November 2014. Northeast Wind owns and operates 419 MW of wind generating assets located in the northeast United States. First Wind purchased Emera's interest in Northeast Wind for $223.3 million. Emera's carrying value of its 49% interest as of December 31^st, 2014, was $204.4 million.