Energy

The UK government has announced a £6.5 million investment in engineering skills for the renewable energy industry.

Business secretary Vince Cable said the scheme would provide training for up to 50 of the best engineering students as part of a new Industrial Doctorate Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy, delivered through leading universities and industry.

The students will be trained in technologies such as designing cost-efficient new windmill blades and testing the latest wave energy technology.

The concentrated solar power industry (CSP) is gearing up for its second annual conference in San Francisco, California next week.

The 2nd CSP Plant Optimization Summit USA will take place on the 7-8th September at the Parc 55 Hotel in San Francisco. The event will bring together leading technical experts throughout the CSP industry and will tackle the immediate roadblocks faced in the design, engineering and operation of large-scale CSP plants.

Subjects on the agenda include:

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp, broke ground today on a new emergency operations facility in Lindsey, Ohio, for the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.

The new 12,000 square-foot facility will allow for improved coordination between the plant and state and local emergency management agencies during the unlikely event of an emergency at the plant.

UK bank Barclays has launched a £100 million fund for UK farmers investing in renewable energy.

Developed with sector specialists, the fund is available for solar, wind, and hydro projects in the UK, with Barclays including projected feed-in-tariffs when assessing each loan.

The bank said that new figures show that over one third of the UK’s 200,000 farmers are expecting to invest in renewable energy, with the majority doing so within the next year. It added that farmers expect the investment to generate returns averaging £25,000 per year.

Namibian power utility NamPower is working hard to overcome the challenges presented by securing the country’s energy supply.

NamPower’s major investment projects are among some of the largest ever carried out in Namibia and serve as the backbone of dynamic growth and diversification. As Namibia’s national power utility, NamPower was established in 1964 with the ambitious vision of powering Namibia to new commercial heights.

These days, the task of energy procurement is becoming increasingly critical as users struggle against relentlessly rising costs. Adrian Newton, event director of Energy Solutions, discusses ways in which to tackle the challenge head-on.

Uranium mining plays a significant role in the nuclear energy chain—and in Namibia, the Trekkopje uranium mine and desalination plant represent the largest direct foreign investment ever made in Namibia.

Bermuda-based oil services provider Archer Limited is to acquire Great White Energy Services for $742 million on a cash and debt free basis, it was announced today.

The acquisition will give Archer an entry point into the rapidly expanding frac market and effectively double its coil tubing and directional drilling capacity in the United States where development of unconventional oil and natural gas shale plays continue to drive E&P investments. The combined company will be operational in all major oil and gas regions in the US.

Dutch construction and engineering company Ballast Nedam is to be part of a consortium that will build a new biomass power plant in the port of Delfzijl in the Netherlands later this year.

Ballast Nedam will join forces with Germany’s Areva Renewables and with Finland’s Metso Power to build the 49 megawatt plant, which will produce energy from recycled waste wood chips—enough to meet the needs of 120,000 households.

The plant will be located alongside the maritime channel at Delfzijl and will begin operations in the summer of 2013.

The boards of directors of Ecolab Inc. and Nalco Holding Company have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Nalco will merge with a subsidiary of Ecolab.

Ecolab Inc. is a global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services. Nalco is the world's largest sustainability services company focused on industrial water, energy and air applications, and is seen as a natural complement to Ecolab’s portfolio.