The Timken Company has received a contract worth $26 million to supply wind turbine products and services to China’s Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Company, one of the world’s top five wind power equipment manufacturers. In 2009 Goldwind received new wind power capacity orders for about 2,722 megawatts, accounting for approximately 19.7 percent of the wind generation added in China last year. Goldwind’s contract with Timken will support more than 1,500 megawatts of new wind power capacity, with a broad scope that reflects Timken’s long-term commitment to develop wind energy technology. It will contribute meaningfully to the company’s expansion in the industry, with Timken providing engineering support, advanced bearings that include the new Timken® UltraWind tapered roller bearings and condition-monitoring systems and services for Goldwind’s current 1.5-megawatt and 2.5-megawatt platforms. The companies also will collaborate on future wind-turbine developments.

The agreement reinforces Timken’s position as a leader in the sector, providing a customer-focused breadth of bearings and gearbox systems for multi-megawatt wind turbines. The company’s product offering also includes a full complement of seals, lubrication, and online condition monitoring and support services for the life of the equipment.

“The collaboration between our companies brings together two leaders developing advanced technologies for efficient, green power generation,” says Leong Fang, president of Timken China. “Combining Timken’s century of experience with Goldwind’s leading innovation in large-scale wind turbines, we are prepared to serve China’s needs for renewable energy, and to promote global development as well.”

Christopher Coughlin, president of Timken Process Industries, says that “The opportunity to support Goldwind’s leadership on these platforms plays to Timken’s strength: engineering sustainable systems for large turbines, from a range of proprietary materials to a breadth of power transmission products and services for the extended life of the equipment.”

Coughlin notes that the companies have agreed to collaborate further on development programs, including using Timken’s advanced engineering design to reduce cycle times for new platforms and incorporating the company’s “life cycle” service approach to contribute to sustainable performance and uptime of Goldwind’s projects around the world. “We’ve established wind power manufacturing and service capabilities on three continents, which is important as Goldwind looks to grow globally,” he says.

“Goldwind maintains its momentum as a leader in the global wind turbine industry, and we are delighted to partner with companies like Timken, which earned this opportunity on its performance during our test period last year,” according to Wu Gang, chairman and CEO of Goldwind. “We look forward to working with Timken to expand the rapid development of the wind energy industry in China and abroad.”

Timken supplies a broad range of wind-power solutions for the global market including engineering design; development and testing support; high quality alloy steels; gearbox components and systems; tapered, cylindrical, and spherical roller bearings; seals and lubrication products; online condition-monitoring; and global field services and technical support. To learn more go to www.timken.com.

Vestas has received a 570 MW order for 190 V90-3.0 MW turbines for Terra-Gen’s Alta Wind Energy Center near Tehachapi, California. The order has been placed by subsidiaries of Alta Wind Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Terra-Gen Power, LLC. Terra-Gen’s V90-3.0 MW purchase is Vestas’ largest order for a single site. The Alta project also sets several important benchmarks: it will be one of the largest wind power plants in the United States; and together with the bank financing, bond issue, and the sale leaseback financing, the Alta project is the largest financing of a North American wind-energy project, and the first wind-energy leveraged lease to be placed in the debt capital markets.

“The entire Vestas team looks forward to helping Terra-Gen bring this exceptional project to reality,” according to Martha Wyrsch, president of Vestas Americas. “When completed it will be the largest wind farm we will have supplied turbines to in our 31-year history as well as the biggest in California. Terra-Gen has selected an excellent turbine and service package. We will work closely with their financiers and customers to make this project successful.”

The contract includes delivery and commissioning, as well as a five-year service and maintenance agreement. Delivery is scheduled for late 2010. The first 50 turbines will be commissioned by the end of 2010, and the remaining ones will be online in the first half of 2011.

“We are delighted to have closed this financing and to be working with Vestas on the Alta project,” says Jim Pagano, CEO of Terra-Gen. “The project represents an important expansion to the renewable generating base of California and helps us advance our nation’s goals of achieving energy independence in an environmentally responsible manner.”

Vestas’ manufacturing operations in Colorado will produce wind components for this order. All blades for the Alta project will be produced at Vestas’ blades factory in Windsor. And a majority of the towers will be manufactured at Vestas’ new tower factory in Pueblo. Terra-Gen Power, LLC, is an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners and Global Infrastructure Partners. With more than 830 MW of generating capacity in operation and 720 MW of generating capacity under construction, Terra-Gen is one of the nation’s leading renewable energy providers and the only U.S. company that provides electricity on a utility scale from all three major renewable-energy sources: wind, solar, and geothermal power. Terra-Gen has 21 renewable-energy facilities operating in six states, and more than 5,000 MW of renewable energy capacity under development.

Vestas is the world leader in providing high-tech wind power systems. Since 1979 it has supplied more than 40,500 wind turbines in 65 countries. Vestas is investing upwards of $1 billion in the United States to establish its North American manufacturing base, which includes a tower manufacturing facility, a nacelle-assembly factory, and two blade factories. Go online to www.vestas.com.

AWS Truepower, LLC, announces a new version of its industry-leading wind prospecting and resource analysis application. windNavigator® 2.2 sets a new industry benchmark for on-demand high resolution wind data and allows wind project developers to expedite all aspects of project design and assessment. windNavigator 2.2 supports wind project siting, resource assessment, and now project design and automated business processes with fast, convenient access to high-quality wind project design data. Users can easily conduct initial project design work including preliminary turbine layouts, initial energy estimates, meteorological tower siting, and more when they combine windNavigator data sets and wind farm design software to capture a true picture of a site or project area’s potential for wind development.

AWS Truepower arms professional wind organizations from utility-scale project developers to small wind manufacturers with accurate, science-based intelligence to drive smarter project decisions. Using windNavigator 2.2 developers, manufacturers, dealer networks, wind advocates, academic institutions, and government agencies receive subscription-based access to high-resolution wind data and reports to help them quickly analyze and prioritize business opportunities. The windNavigator application programming interface (API) gives subscribers the ability to “plug in” to windNavigator’s wind resource database so they can target, automate, and expedite their marketing and sales processes. windNavigator 2.2 also includes hourly resource information for small wind application load assessments and high-quality modeled data for Measure-Correlate-Predict (MCP) analyses.

“The windNavigator API provides our marketing and sales staff with high-quality data to make efficient and informed decisions about leads and opportunities. Using high-resolution, 200-meter wind data in conjunction with our customer relationship management system (CRM) we can prioritize sales opportunities in minutes,” says James Jennings, director of market development for Northern Power Systems.

In the case of multi-turbine wind projects, today’s increased focus on reducing development cost and timeline has caused project developers with in-house analysts to seek ways to design and analyze project potential much earlier on in the development process. windNavigator is the first Web-based application that enables wind project developers to purchase 200-meter resolution wind resource grid (WRG) data. With windNavigator 2.2 wind developers can purchase high-quality data sets online, import them directly into their preferred wind farm design software, and go through multiple iterations on a project layout to better understand energy potential on their own schedule with no wait and no extra cost for iterations. For more information go to www.windnavigator.com or www.awstruepower.com.

Portland General Electric Company announces the first turbines assembled for Phase 3 of its Biglow Canyon Wind Farm have begun generating electricity and supplying power to the Pacific Northwest’s electricity grid. Twenty-four turbines are currently generating power, with all 76 turbines in Phase 3 expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2010. “Bringing the first turbines of the final phase of Biglow Canyon Wind Farm online represents a big step in developing more renewable energy resources for our customers and for the growing wind energy development in the region,” says Jim Piro, PGE president and CEO. “We expect to have the entire 450-megawatt wind farm online on time and on budget.”

The $1 billion Biglow Canyon Wind Farm is PGE’s first fully owned wind power facility. Phase 1 of the project began producing power in December 2007 with 76 turbines and Phase 2 in August 2009 with 65 turbines, with a combined generating capacity of 275 megawatts. The addition of the final phase will bring the total installed capacity to 450 megawatts. Given the variability of wind power the plant is expected to produce an average of around 150 megawatts, enough to power the homes of about 125,000 average PGE residential customers.

Trucks carrying wind-turbine parts for the final phase began arriving at Biglow Canyon in April 2010, with about 10 truckloads required to assemble a single wind turbine. Each of the 415-foot-tall turbines, from base to tip of blade, has a generating capacity of 2.3 megawatts. Phase 3 is providing jobs for about 150 employees and contractors during construction.

The Biglow Canyon Wind Farm is located near Wasco in Sherman County, Oregon. It is PGE’s largest renewable energy project. When complete it is also expected to be one of the largest wind power facilities in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to providing carbon-free and emissions-free generation of electric power the wind farm is creating jobs, providing income for local businesses, generating tax revenues for local government, and providing easement payments to landowners. The Biglow Canyon project was developed by Orion Energy LLC. It is being built by PGE, which also owns and operates it. Headquartered in Portland, PGE is a fully integrated electric utility that serves approximately 817,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Oregon. Visit online at www.portlandgeneral.com.

WindPower Innovations, Inc., announces that its wholly owned subsidiary Energetic Drives, LLC, has been unveiled as its “innovation division.” According to John E. Myers, president of WindPower Innovations, “We welcome president and CEO of Energetic Drives, Ian K. Griffiths, to our management team. With background spanning multiple disciplines, Mr. Griffiths and his team of engineers and Ph.D.s complete the foundation for positioning us as a leading wind power infrastructure and smart grid solutions company, able to cater to every aspect of the wind power industry.”

Energetic Drives’ Grid Tie Inverter software, the subsidiary’s flagship technology, utilizes proprietary algorithms that dramatically increase the range in which sustainable energy sources can deliver a useable 60 Hz AC to the power grid. “We estimate an increase in efficiency of up to 25 percent,” says Griffiths. “For example, a traditional wind turbine has to be turning at a sustained rate, generating 1,200 to 1,800 RPMs, depending on the number of poles per generator, in order to produce useable electricity. Outside of that range, the power is referred to as ‘dirty’ as it is inconsistent and unusable. Our technology allows the wind turbine to be utilized at a constant 120 percent of the generator rating with our cooling system employed. This proprietary innovation allows ‘clean’ power to be produced over a much wider range of wind speeds throughout, from 30 to 120 percent of the generator’s rating.
The technology also provides for a consistent flow of clean, synchronized, unity power energy to the grid, compatible with IEEE 519 and 1547 certifications. Not only does it result in greater profitability for the operator, it is a dynamic tool for smart grid compatibility.”

WindPower Innovations—along with its subsidiaries Energetic Drives and XH Industries—is on course to become a leading energy innovation company, featuring new and more efficient proprietary gearbox designs, grid tie components and electronics, and improvements of existing equipment to higher than industry standards at lower than industry rates. For more information go to www.windpowerinnovationsinc.com.

The largest commercially available collection of numerical algorithms for C and C++, the NAG C Library—widely used for alternative energy research application development—has now been expanded by the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) with the addition of over 150 functions for a total of well over 1,300 user-callable functions. The release includes two new chapters on wavelet transforms and global optimization, and a new sub-chapter has also been introduced on option pricing. Enhancements have been made in the areas of statistics, optimization, linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, regression, random numbers, sorting, and special functions.

“We are looking forward to this release because we have found that the NAG Library is very reliable and is easy to work with, through its extensive documentation and very knowledgeable support team,” says Bo Yuan, chief technology officer of Ibbotson Associates, a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research. “NAG offers us powerful optimization techniques and broad environment support. NAG also enables the use of both serial and parallel processor based numerical computation.”

With origins at several UK universities, NAG is a not-for-profit numerical software development organization that collaborates with world-leading researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. NAG serves its customers from offices in Oxford, Manchester, Chicago, Tokyo, and Taipei; through field sales staff in France and Germany; and via a global network of distributors. The mathematical and statistical functions of the NAG Library are widely regarded as the most rigorously tested and extensively documented numerical programming components available. Visit the organization’s Web site at www.nag.com.

ICF International’s newly released second-quarter Integrated Energy Outlook projects a significant shift to renewable, gas, and nuclear sources of energy should new carbon legislation be passed by the U.S. Congress. Energy experts at ICF International, a leading provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients, foresee the retirement of a substantial number of coal-fired electric generation facilities because Hazardous Air Pollution (HAPS) regulations will require large capital outlays for pollution control equipment.

“Uncertainty has become a constant in the energy industry in the wake of unstable commodity prices, price volatility, and looming environmental regulations,” says John Blaney, senior vice president. “The ICF Integrated Energy Outlook provides thorough analysis by energy experts and gives guidance that makes sense of the complicated energy landscape.”

The latest version of ICF’s quarterly Integrated Energy Outlook seeks to answer the key industry questions of whether energy market prices will continue to recover or slip back to 2009 levels, and how energy prices and new regulations will influence power markets. Using a suite of proprietary analytical tools, ICF has worked to integrate the areas of wholesale power, transmission, fuel, and emissions markets in order to offer the most complete picture of the energy industry. By incorporating expertise from all areas of the industry the Outlook is able to provide big picture guidance, as well as market-specific projections and forecasts. For more information visit www.icfi.com/energyoutlook.

3TIER, the global leader in renewable energy information services, has released its Quarterly Wind Performance Map showing that the intensity of the wind in the second quarter of 2010 has increased significantly in large portions of the United States. This upswing in wind is in marked contrast to the depressed average wind speeds experienced during the last quarter of 2009 and extending into the first quarter of 2010. These abnormally low wind speed conditions were the result of a long-lasting El Niño effect coupled with a strong, negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) event.

“Swings in wind performance are common and part of the inherent nature of the resource,” says Scott Eichelberger, Ph.D., 3TIER director of advanced applications. “It’s clear that both the El Niño and NAO phenomena have weakened significantly and continue to wane. As a result above-average wind speeds have been experienced in the majority of the western U.S., extending from Washington State to Texas. Wind speeds in other areas of the U.S. were much closer to their long-term average.”

3TIER generated the Q2 Wind Performance Map using observational data and numerical weather prediction modeling. The map illustrates departures from the long-term mean that range from -10 percent to +10 percent, showing a pattern that is indicative of the climate state during the quarter. It provides an indication of how wind farms should have performed relative to their long-term production average based on their location. As a result of the weakening El Niño and NAO effects, the second quarter saw significant storm activity off the Pacific Coast, which helped drive the overall increase in wind performance in the western U.S. Texas, the country’s largest producer of wind energy, rebounded particularly well from the first quarter. Wind speeds over Texas were elevated enough to make up for the first quarter lull and push the state to above average for the year.

“Texas is a good example for how quickly wind resource strength can change,” Eichelberger says. “Our data showed below average values during January and February of 2010, the height of the recent El Niño, with a rapid shift to above average values during March and April as it weakened. While our clients are observing these variations at individual wind farms, our global wind resource data allows us to understand these patterns over broad geographic regions. The good news is that wind is predictable. Our computer modeling technologies are able to both quantify and anticipate these shifts, and in the short term, even predict the impacts on wind speed with a high degree of accuracy.”

As the wind industry continues to mature and the financial markets remain constrained, 3TIER believes project siting will demand a higher level of rigor when performing due diligence and accounting for long-term historical wind performance. To learn more go online to www.3tier.com.

SynapSense Corporation, whose technology improves energy efficiency and cuts power and cooling costs in data centers, is deepening its relationship with GE by securing an investment and commercial partnership as part of a focus on digital energy services, the Smart Grid, and ecomagination. GE Energy Financial Services is joining SynapSense’s investors Emerald Technology Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, American River Ventures, Nth Power, and DFJ Frontier in a combined $5 million investment for the development and market expansion of SynapSense’s data center monitoring, adaptive control, and energy management technology. Additional financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

“Deepening our relationship with GE through this investment and commercial collaboration will play a major role in helping SynapSense deliver digital energy services that extend wireless control and resource management to the entire IT facility infrastructure,” says Peter Van Deventer, CEO of SynapSense.

GE, which has used SynapSense technology in many of its data centers including GE Corporate and NBC Universal since 2008, will now collaborate with SynapSense on digital energy through a commercial partnership with GE Intelligent Platforms, a high-performance technology business that provides software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. The partnership will combine SynapSense’s technology with GE Intelligent Platform’s Proficy software and control platform. This combined offering will enable data center operators to optimize energy use by continuously aligning cooling capacity with changes in IT load, saving up to 35 percent of cooling costs while ensuring security, redundancy and resiliency. GE’s Proficy software provides real-time insight on data center and other operational performance metrics to give customers information to make better business decisions.

“SynapSense is a strong addition to GE’s digital energy, Smart Grid, and ecomagination-related investments, offering multiple commercial and development collaboration opportunities in a data center equipment market estimated at $40 billion a year, with annual electricity consumption costing $7 billion,” says Kevin Skillern, head of venture capital investing at GE Energy Financial Services.

Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to environmental challenges while driving economic growth. It is designed to help meet customers’ demand for more energy-efficient products and drive GE’s reliable growth. GE Energy Financial Services has been an active investor in emerging, market-leading ecomagination-, Smart Grid- and digital energy services-related technology companies. SynapSense’s data center monitoring and energy management solutions have been deployed in data centers operated by Fortune 500 companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. For more information visit www.SynapSense.com. To learn more about GE Financial Services go to www.geenergyfinancialservices.com.

SMP’s chokes for inverters in wind turbines are now also approved for use in offshore installations. These inductive components feature low losses, very low stray fields, and a highly compact design. The chokes’ cores consist of powder composites, which SMP has specifically engineered for this application.

The direct current from the wind turbines must be converted into a sinusoidal waveform with the values required by the grid. The converter’s filters, which consist of capacitors and filter chokes, ensure that the current being fed into the grid exhibits a near sinusoidal waveform. To maximize the inverter’s efficiency, its components must exhibit low losses. The materials that SMP developed especially for use in its energy-efficient, high-performance chokes have low magnetostriction and exceptionally low eddy current and hysteresis losses. Their encapsulated design ensures that the power converters emit only low-intensity stray fields, so that they do not affect other components. The chokes have a space-saving compact design, are maintenance-free, and have a long lifespan—a significant contribution to cutting the maintenance costs for offshore wind turbines.

Offshore wind turbines are prone to corrosion. To protect them from the corrosive action of the seawater, special salt-resistant materials, additional corrosion protection, and a complete encapsulation of certain subassemblies are necessary. SMP’s inductive components for wind turbine inverters are now certified IP66 and approved for use in offshore installations. Because of their high protection class of IP66, these chokes can be fitted outside the inverters, which means that the heat generated by the choke is not discharged inside the inverter. This results in a lower internal inverter temperature, which removes the need for cooling fans, saving both energy and installation space.
Placing the choke outside the inverter has the further advantage of reducing the inverter’s overall dimensions, which further cuts space and energy demand. To simplify mounting outside the inverters, SMP provides the chokes with special mounting fixtures. The choke and the mounting plate are fitted on the device’s outside and the connecting cables pass through a sealed opening.

SMP’s product range includes low-loss inductive custom components based on in-house-developed powder composites, such as filter, commutating, step-up converter, power recovery and single-conductor chokes. Many of its products are used in the railway industry. The market for inverters for photovoltaic systems that feed solar energy into the electricity grid and for converters for wind turbines is also experiencing strong growth. In the United States contact Keith Westendorf, Westendorf Associates, Inc., at (414) 380-9730, kwestendorf@westendorfassoc.com, or www.westendorfassoc.com. Also go to www.smp.de.

Tres Amigas, LLC, a merchant transmission company, and CH2M HILL—a global full-service consulting, design, construction, and operations firm—announce that CH2M HILL has received a contract to provide program management services for building the Tres Amigas SuperStation in Clovis, New Mexico. Once completed it will tie together America’s three power grids for the first time. Construction is projected to commence in 2012 and be completed in 2014. Under the terms of the contract CH2M HILL will provide overall program management services and logistical support to ensure that the project remains on schedule.

“CH2M HILL is pleased to assist Tres Amigas with this landmark project,” says Don Zabilansky, president of CH2M HILL’s Power Group. “The Tres Amigas SuperStation will enable cross-regional marketing of clean electricity, enhance power grid reliability and security, and provide new opportunities for renewable energy producers. This strategic infrastructure program will transform the way electricity is delivered to customers across the United States utilizing the most advanced technology.”

Phil Harris—the former CEO of the world’s largest transmission balancing area (PJM Interconnection) and CEO and founder of Tres Amigas—says that “The Tres Amigas SuperStation will offer multiple benefits to power consumers and energy producers across North America, including savings projected in the hundreds of millions of dollars due to the more economic dispatch of electric power. Tres Amigas will also increase the value of several large transmission projects planned for the Southwest and will support the expansion of a reliable national corridor system. Tres Amigas is committed to completing the SuperStation in its projected timeline, and CH2M HILL has the expertise and experience needed to ensure that happens. We’re pleased that this leading firm will provide Tres Amigas with planning, organization, and logistical support throughout the construction of the project.”

The SuperStation project site is at the intersection of the nation’s three grids: the Eastern Interconnection, Western Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection. It will serve as a market hub and balancing authority, enabling the economic transfer of thousands of megawatts of power among the three interconnections. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global leader in consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management for government, civil, industrial, and energy clients. Go to www.ch2m.com. Tres Amigas, LLC, headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is uniting the nation’s electric grid as a merchant transmission entity composed of electric utility industry operational, technology, and thought leaders. More information is available at www.tresamigasllc.com.

MobileCal, Inc., has been certified by A2LA (The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation) of Maryland as accredited by certificate number 3040.01 which assures customers that its quality system meets the requirements of ISO 17025 proficiency testing and proves the validity of its documentation and test results. As this scope of accreditation had never been granted previously, MobileCal had to establish new standards before the process of certification could begin. This process delivers heavy industry a new level of quality and process documentation not available before which will improve process resulting in the prevention of large scale industrial accidents and other injuries. The process took about three years to complete, mainly due to the fact there exists no published standards for the calibration of hydraulic and pneumatic torque wrenches of high capacities. Process has been established for decades for the calibration of small sized torque wrenches used in manufacturing and assembly, such as those below 1,000 ft/lbs.

MobileCal’s target market is heavy industry, with the majority of their customer’s tools being larger in capacity. By adapting established procedures to the larger sized equipment the company was able to bring a higher level of quality and process documentation to the heavy industrial marketplace. Because of their work establishing the new procedures, MobileCal was able to become the world’s first accredited organization for mobile calibration of hydraulic and pneumatic wrenches.

MobileCal is the world’s oldest and largest provider of on-site calibrations for high capacity torque wrenches. In their five service vans and in-house laboratory they provide calibrations of hydraulic, pneumatic, and manual torque wrenches up to 20,000 ft/lbs for industries such as natural gas pipelines, power generation, wind turbine construction and maintenance, and petrochemical facilities. For more information contact Thomas Smith at (316) 686-3010, or go to www.mobilecal.net.

Siemens Energy has secured an order for the supply of 98 wind turbines for the Crossroads wind power plant in Oklahoma. The owner of the project is OG&E (Oklahoma Gas & Electric). Siemens will supply 95 units of the SWT-2.3-101 to the Crossroads project. Furthermore, the contract includes three units of the new SWT-3.0-101, Siemens’ new gearless direct drive wind turbine. The SWT-3.0-101 was launched for sale in America just a few months ago.

Construction of the 227.5 MW wind power project will begin in late August, with the first wind turbines being delivered in April, 2011. The Crossroads project will be built in Dewey County in northwest Oklahoma, approximately 160 km (100 miles) from Oklahoma City. The scope of supply for the Crossroads wind farm includes the delivery, installation, and commissioning of all turbines. Siemens will also provide services for turbine service and maintenance for an initial period of three and one-half years. Upon completion in the second half of 2011, Crossroads will be able to meet the electrical needs of more than 68,000 average U.S. homes. This is already the third Siemens wind power plant that will provide clean energy to OG&E, following the OU Spirit and Keenan II wind farms, built in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

“We are proud that OG&E has chosen Siemens again as the supplier to their wind power projects,” says Jens-Peter Saul, CEO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. “This is the first time that the new SWT-3.0-101 direct drive turbine has been sold in the U.S. Bringing our new generation of direct drive wind turbines to Oklahoma is the first step in establishing this game-changing technology in North America.”

“We are excited to move forward this project, which we have negotiated on very favorable terms for OG&E’s customers,” says Jesse Langston, vice president of utility commercial operations. “By its third year in operation we expect Crossroads to be delivering net savings to our customers for the balance of the projects’ 25-year life. This is possible because of the excellent business partnerships we have formed with Siemens, and also due to the constructive regulatory environment we have in Oklahoma.”

Wind turbines are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009 revenue from the portfolio totaled about EUR23 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London, and Berlin. More information is available at: www.siemens.com/energy.

Cumulative global investment in smart grids—including smart meter implementations, as well as upgrades to the transmission and distribution infrastructure—will approach $46 billion by 2015 according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research. A smart grid is an energy generation, transmission, and distribution system equipped with an advanced two-way communications system that allows for greater visibility, control, and automation over the system for the utility operator. Simultaneously, it provides a greater level of energy usage choice and automation for customers. It’s that communications system that makes a grid truly “smart” because it allows for the real-time monitoring of the current operational state of the network, as well as the ability to respond to those conditions automatically, as quickly as possible.

Larry Fisher, research director of NextGen, the ABI Research unit that published this study, says “Most of the electric utility infrastructure deployed in the industrialized world was built between 60 and 80 years ago. Much of this infrastructure is outdated, and with the continuing increase in demand for power year after year the grid cannot safely and reliably manage the loads of today and tomorrow without significant upgrades.”

The groundwork for smart grids has been laid in a number of countries over the past several years, but the pace of investment and implementation is increasing. “Transmission and distribution (T&D) investments will account for the lion’s share of smart grid investments through 2015,” Fisher says. “On a cumulative basis, a total of almost $41 billion will be invested globally in the electrical transmission and distribution infrastructure through 2015, compared to $4.8 billion for the purchase and installation of smart meters. This infrastructure spending will focus on grid automation and control, distribution automation, distributed generation and demand response programs.”

ABI Research’s new study “Smart Grid Applications: Smart Meters, Demand Response, and Distributed Generation” forecasts the market for smart grid equipment and services for the 2010-2015 period covering North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and selected other countries. For more information call (516) 624-2500 or visit www.abiresearch.com.

CommScope introduces  GroundSmart grounding products into its BiMetals family of wire and cable solutions. These products help reduce the costs of managing and maintaining electricity transmission and distribution networks by deterring theft and vandalism. CommScope’s use of copper-clad steel in its GroundSmart products provides a safe, highly reliable alternative to the use of solid and stranded copper for grounding applications. These products are specifically designed to disperse fault currents and lightning strikes at a lower total cost of ownership compared to pure copper. GroundSmart products offer proven performance for optimizing grounding design in substation, distribution and transmission systems, as well as in wind and solar farms.

“A survey published last year estimated that theft of copper wiring from electrical utility sites creates more than 7,500 hours of downtime and costs the industry more than $60 million annually,” says Paul Bedder, vice president. “Copper-clad steel wire and cable products provide the same reliability, performance, and durability as solid copper but are unattractive to would-be thieves and vandals.

“These facts alone make copper-clad steel the smart alternative to solid copper in most grounding applications,” he continues. “The advantages of this solution increase when combined with CommScope’s reputation for service and reliability. GroundSmart users realize long-term benefits when repairing their current systems damaged by theft and vandalism or when bringing online new systems such as wind and solar farms.”

CommScope’s copper-clad steel wire and cable products meet the relevant National Electric Code (NEC) and ASTM wire and cable standards and are approved by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). They are engineered and manufactured at CommScope’s ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 registered facility in Statesville, North Carolina.

CommScope, Inc., is a world leader in infrastructure solutions for communication networks. Through its Andrew Solutions brand it is a global leader in radio frequency subsystem solutions for wireless networks. Through its SYSTIMAX® and Uniprise® brands, CommScope is a world leader in network infrastructure solutions, delivering a complete end-to-end physical layer solution, including cables and connectivity, enclosures, intelligent software, and network design services for business enterprise applications. CommScope also is the premier manufacturer of coaxial cable for broadband cable television networks and one of the leading North American providers of environmentally secure cabinets for DSL and FTTN applications. Backed by strong research and development, CommScope combines technical expertise and proprietary technology with global manufacturing capability to provide customers with infrastructure solutions for evolving global communications networks in more than 100 countries around the world. More information is available at www.commscope.com.

WindLogics has released OnSite 3.1, a software upgrade to its existing data management system. The OnSite system enables wind energy developers and operators to remotely monitor their met towers and maximize the value of their wind measurement investment. The upgrade provides enhanced functionality in response to customer feedback, including the dynamic generation of wind roses and the ability to attach documents to a met tower’s record.

The OnSite system can quickly detect changes in a wind sensor’s “health” status and send relevant data and alerts directly to a met tower’s owner. Continual data quality checking ensures that problems with equipment are promptly resolved, thereby increasing the value of met tower data for use in formal, bank-worthy assessments. More than 700 met towers have been enrolled on the system since 2005. Currently OnSite is used to manage met towers representing more than 30,000 MW of future wind projects, equivalent to three times the amount of wind power installed in the U.S. during 2009.

OnSite automatically collects, processes, and securely stores wind data gathered from each tower. It also includes Web-enabled user interfaces that allow customers to enter or view tower information, including configurations and maintenance history, and examine quality-checked data from any combination of sensors and towers. Staff meteorologists and wind energy analysts are available to assist with questions or provide additional support as part of WindLogics’ full spectrum of wind energy services.

“We assist many different types of customers with our OnSite service. Landowners with a couple of towers appreciate the peace of mind that results from our secure data storage and find the overall service to be a great value,” says Mike Coriale, product manager. “Larger wind energy developers find our new fleet-wide tower status reports essential in monitoring the health of tens or hundreds of towers.”

WindLogics is a renewable energy consulting services firm that combines leading scientific analysis with deep expertise in the planning, development, and operation of renewable energy projects. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources. For more information e-mail sales@windlogics.com or visit www.windlogics.com.

Avanti Wind Systems is now a strategic distributor and service partner for Cresto ResQ products in the wind energy industry. Previously named ResQ, Cresto has sold more than 25,000 sets of evacuation and rescue equipment for wind turbine towers around the world. The agreement means that Avanti will establish training and service centers for Cresto equipment in Germany, Great Britain, Spain, the United States, India, Australia, and China, where Avanti already has offices and factories. “Safety in wind turbine towers always has top priority at Avanti, so it is natural for us to have entered into this partnership,” says Avanti’s Training Manager, Ole Jensen.

Cresto and ResQ have until now been trademarks for fall safety equipment. Henceforth they will be marketed under the Cresto brand. However, ResQ will be kept as the product name for rescue equipments and related training.

Regulations require that there be an alternative exit route from the top of wind turbine towers so that technicians can get down should fire or other causes block the normal route up and down, for example. Therefore there should be rescue equipment in the nacelle so that technicians can descend externally.

As with everything related to wind turbine tower safety, the evacuation equipment must be inspected and tested at least once annually. But Cresto has developed approved packaging that makes it possible to test the safety equipment just once in 10 years. “The safety equipment is vacuum packed,” says Jonas Cedaas, managing director of Cresto. “That is, put into a foil bag from which all air is pumped out. And when a rescue device, ropes, and other accessories are not in contact with oxygen they last longer, since the materials cannot wear down. The vacuum packing also safeguards the equipment against the wind turbine tower vibrations. However, wind turbine owners must continue to inspect the vacuum packing for air-tightness at least once annually.”

The Avanti-Cresto partnership also means that the two companies will jointly launch new series of harnesses and other personal protection equipment for technicians working on wind turbine towers. Go online to www.avanti-online.com.

Maintaining momentum in its renewable energy investing, GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, has made an equity investment in Idaho’s largest wind power project. The almost half billion dollar portfolio of 11 wind farms under construction was developed by Exergy Development Group.

GE Energy Financial Services made the announcement at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City. The GE unit will own a majority equity interest in the Idaho Wind Partners project. Exergy Development Group will own a minority interest along with manager and operator Reunion Power. The wind farms will sell all of their power to Idaho Power Company under 20-year agreements. Once completed, the portfolio is expected to qualify for the Federal Treasury Grant program designed to stimulate renewable energy projects. Additional financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Through our investment in Idaho’s largest wind power portfolio, GE Energy Financial Services is putting millions of dollars to work to bring jobs and clean energy to Idaho and help the country meet growing demand for domestic, renewable sources of energy,” said Kevin Walsh, managing director and head of Power and Renewable Energy at GE Energy Financial Services.

Construction company Fagen, Inc., initiated project construction earlier this month and expects to complete the wind farms located on farmland clustered near Hagerman and Burley by year’s end. Using 122 of GE’s 1.5-megawatt turbines, over 13,500 of which have been installed worldwide, these wind farms will have the capacity to generate 183 megawatts, enough to power approximately 39,700 average Idaho homes and—according to US Environmental Protection Agency methodology—avoid approximately 331,000 short tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions—the equivalent of taking about 57,000 cars off the road. In addition to supplying the wind turbines, GE will provide seven years of operational and maintenance services to the project.

The project is expected to create approximately 175 construction jobs as well as permanent employment for operations and ongoing seasonal maintenance requirements. In addition to those employed directly, a wind project of this size would typically support the equivalent of over 2,200 full-time jobs in the United States for one year—about half of which would be in-state—and create 25 permanent jobs, based on a National Renewable Energy Laboratory model. Go to www.geenergyfinancialservices.com, or to www.ge.com. 

Windspire Energy announces a partnership with Australian-based AllSafe Energy Efficient Products to be the sole distributor of the Windspire® wind turbine in Australia. AllSafe is recognized as one of the leading and fastest growing energy efficient product providers in Australia. The partnership will now begin the process of certifying the Windspire for the Australian market for an expected sales launch later this year.

Wind energy is the fastest growing renewable energy industry in Australia, driven by government initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2050 and a commitment to ensure 20 percent of Australia’s electricity supply will come from renewable energy sources by 2020. The market for small-scale turbines is expected to grow through rebate programs that can offset the costs for customers by as much as 50 percent. AllSafe is introducing a unique business model that addresses the desire for customers to maximize energy efficiency due to rising energy costs. Unlike most companies that specialize in just one product type, AllSafe offers a complete line of efficiency products including insulation, skylights, solar hot water, solar power, and ventilation. The Windspire was chosen by AllSafe for its innovative and small-scale design, and it will be the company’s only wind turbine product.

“Given their desire to cut emissions and focus on renewable energy solutions, Australia is a very important market for us,” says Windspire Energy President & CEO Walt Borland. “We are pleased to have found a partner in the market who is not only a leader but values innovation as much as we do.”

“Australians are famous for quickly adopting cutting-edge technologies from the U.S.,” says Sean Cochrane, managing director of AllSafe. “The Windspire is a wonderful departure from the old-style windmills and will give our customers a truly unique way in which they can reduce their energy use.”

Windspire Energy, Inc.—formerly Mariah Power, Inc.—is developer of the innovative Windspire wind turbines, which are designed for use in urban, suburban, and rural settings. The propeller-free, vertical-axis design enables silent operation and features patented technology that maximizes energy conversion from wind into electric power, regardless of changing wind speed and direction. Learn more at www.windspireenergy.com.

ARi Industries, Inc., a longtime market leader in temperature measurement, announces immediate availability of its AerOpak mineral-insulated (MI) thermocouple cable in an expanded assortment of sizes and sheath materials. MI cable offers thermocouple fabricators, instruments designers, process engineers, and various equipment builders a unique solution to the challenges of temperature measurement and electrical signal-sending in harsh, corrosive, and other hazardous environments.

Offered as thermocouple and conductor cable, AerOpak products comprise thermocouple or conductor wires insulated with compacted ceramic powder, drawn, and encased in a seamless metallic sheath material. Standard thermocouple or conductor cables up to 10-wire configurations are available in various stainless steel, Hastelloy, and Inconel sheath materials in OD sizes ranging from 0.020” to 0.750” diameter. Cable can be supplied for temperatures up to metal melt points of 2600ºF and over 1000 ft. in length, making these products suitable for all types of process operations and very large equipment. Owing to the strict manufacturing and production standards of ARi, MI cable signal integrity is consistent over the longest length applications. Thermocouple cables in Types K, E, J, T, N, R, S, and B are stocked in calibration tolerances to meet all applicable ASTM, IEC, and ANSI standards.

MI cable from ARi can be welded, brazed or soldered in the field, relative to the application and techniques used. Please consult the manufacturer for details or installation assistance. Custom wire configurations, other sheath materials, and assorted insulation ingredients are also available on request to suit virtually all applications. For more information call (800) 237-6725, e-mail sales@ariindustries.com, or visit www.ariindustries.com.