20110811 1020 Renewable Energy Related News.

SPAIN HYDRO, IRRIGATION RESERVES EBB BUT ABOVE AVG
MADRID, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Spain's reservoirs had less water than a week ago to generate hydro power and irrigate crops, official data showed on Tuesday, but reserves were still well above average in the major importer of gas and grain.
Hydropower reservoirs were full enough to produce 13,579 gigawatt-hours, down 326 GWh on the week , the Ministry for the Environment and Rural Affairs said.

SUNPOWER, FIRST SOLAR PLANTS WIN ENVIRONMENT DEALS
NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - First Solar  and SunPower Corp  reached agreements with environmental groups to help protect endangered animals around two of the largest planned solar power plants in the United States, the companies said on Tuesday.
The agreements help clear the way to build First Solar's 550-megawatt Topaz solar farm and SunPower's 250-MW California Valley Solar Ranch plants in the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County.

CHINA JULY POWER OUTPUT AT 425.2 BLN KWH, UP 13.2 PCT
BEIJING, Aug 9 (Reuters) - China produced 425.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in July, up 13.2 percent year on year, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Tuesday.
The monthly figure amounted to an average of 13.7 billion kWh a day, up from 13.2 billion kWh in June.
China has so far managed to avoid the crippling power shortages predicted earlier this year, with heavy rainfall cutting air conditioner use and replenishing hydropower plants.

VESTAS SAYS TO SET UP BRAZIL ASSEMBLY PLANT BY Q4
COPENHAGEN, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas  is to establish its first assembly plant in Brazil and expects it to be operational in the fourth quarter.
"The investment is included in Vestas's CAPEX program for 2011," Vestas Wind Systems A/S said on Monday.
The assembly plant and a new service operations cluster will be situated in a new 10,000 square metre facility, including building and land, in Fortaleza, Ceara.

INT'L POWER SIGNS WIND POWER DEAL IN ONTARIO
LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - International Power , 70 percent owned by French utility GDF Suez , said it has signed power purchase agreements(PPA) for two wind farms in Ontario, Canada.
IPR-GDF SUEZ North America has secured 20-year PPAs with the Ontario Power Authority for all the output from the 99 megawatt Erieau and East Lake St. Clair wind projects, the company said on Monday.

SHOWA SHELL, SAUDI ELECTRICITY START SAUDI SOLAR PLANT
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Japan's Showa Shell Sekiyu KK  and Saudi Electricity Co (SEC)  have started a 500-kilowatt (kW) solar power plant in Saudi Arabia, an executive at the Saudi state utility said on Monday.
The pilot plant, located on Farasan island, southwest Saudi Arabia, is expected to reach full capacity later this month, Amer al-Swaha, head of Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects at SEC, said.

JAPAN'S TOHOKU TO GET MORE POWER AS DEMAND NEARS CAPACITY
TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Japan's Tohoku Electric Power Co  said on Monday it has secured an additional 300 megawatts of power supply from Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco)  to avoid rolling blackouts as demand threatens to rise near available supply capacity.
The company said it would receive up to 1,100 MW of power from Tepco, raising its power supply to 12,760 MW. In late morning, demand rose as high as 12,230 MW as temperatures rose.

BLACKSTONE TO INVEST $3.5 BLN IN GERMAN WIND FARMS
FRANKFURT, Aug 5 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity group Blackstone  said it would invest 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in two offshore wind farms in German waters, boosting the emerging industry in the North Sea.
"This is a long-term commitment for us," Sean Klimczak, Blackstone's managing director, told journalists in Berlin on Friday.

FIRMS PLAN SCOTTISH OFFSHORE WIND DEMONSTRATION SITE
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall, French energy services firm Technip  and a Scottish renewable energy group said they had applied to build a wind turbine demonstration plant of up to 100 megawatts (MW) off the coast of Aberdeen.
The wind farm will host up to 11 offshore wind turbines, which the three parties expect will contain more than one model to showcase new turbine types in realistic conditions.

JAPAN'S TOHOKU LOST 1,000 MW HYDRO POWER DUE TO RAIN
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Tohoku Electric Power Co  said its 29 hydro power plants had been halted since late July when heavy rain in the Fukushima and Niigata prefectures of northern Japan damaged them, cutting its generation capacity by 1,000 megawatts from the pre-rain levels on July 27.
It is  unclear when the plants will be fixed and restart, a company spokesman said on Friday.
But the northern utility has not and does not immediately plan to add extra fossil fuel generation to make up the loss as the neighboring utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co , is supplying surplus power.,

GERMAN UTILITIES LAUNCH OFFSHORE WIND SERVICE BASE
FRANKFURT, Aug 5 (Reuters) - German utilities E.ON  and RWE  said on Friday they will launch an offshore wind service base on the islands of Helgoland with a third partner, WindMW, boosting the emerging sector off the North Sea coast.
The Berlin government plans to have 10,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power capacity installed by 2020 among wide-reaching plans to replace closed nuclear facilities with green energy.

KANSAI ELECTRIC CURBS WIND FARM OVER NOISE CONCERNS
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A utility in western Japan said on Friday it will limit planned operations at its first wind farm to take account of residents' concerns about noise, highlighting a snag in the nation's efforts to encourage renewable energy.
Kansai Electric Power Co  said it would cut the capacity of the wind farm on Awaji Island, about 70 km (40 miles) west of Osaka, to 14 megawatts using seven turbines, and limit nighttime operations to four of the turbines.

CHINA EYES 26 GW NEW ON-GRID WIND POWER BY END 2012 - PAPER
BEIJING, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Chinese government will approve 26 gigawatts (GW) of grid-connected wind power generating capacity in its first centralised industry development plan, the China Securities Journal reported on Friday.
For wind power projects not included in the plan, access to grid networks and power price subsidies from a renewable power fund would not be considered, the report said, citing an unnamed source.

BLACKSTONE TO INVEST BLNS IN GERMAN WIND FARM - FT
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Blackstone  is set to announce its largest renewable energy deal with the investment of a combined 2.5 billion euro ($3.5 billion) into the construction of Germany's biggest ever offshore wind farm, the Financial Times said on Friday.
The newspaper said the U.S. private equity firm group will announce on Friday that it has secured financing for an 80-turbine wind farm in the North Sea, which it plans to complete constructing by 2013.

FIRST SOLAR PROFIT FALLS, CUTS 2011 FORECAST
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES, Aug 4 (Reuters) - First Solar Inc  posted lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its 2011 forecast as slack demand in Europe hit prices for its thin-film panels.
Global solar module demand has suffered this year as declines in subsidies in key European markets hurt sales, even as First Solar and rivals such as Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd  and Trina Solar Ltd  expand production.

SEMPRA TO EXPAND COPPER MOUNTAIN SOLAR PLANT
NEW YORK, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Sempra Energy  said on Thursday that it plans to expand its Copper Mountain Solar power plant, the largest in the United States, and would sell the electricity to Pacific Gas and Electric Co .
The plant, in Boulder City, Nevada, will add another 150 megawatts in photovoltaic solar capacity and will be built by First Solar .
Sempra and First Solar built the first Copper Mountain project, which was completed last year and has a capacity of 48 MW. The companies previously built a 10 MW plant in Boulder City that went into operation in 2008.

VESTAS GETS 47 MW WIND TURBINES ORDER FROM INDIA
COPENHAGEN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas  has won an order from the fiercely competitive Indian market for turbines with total capacity of 47 megawatts (MW), the company said on Thursday.
The order from Indian generator maker Powerica Ltd is for 26 of Vestas' V100-1.8 MW turbines for the Vandiya Power Wind Farm project in the state of Gujarat, Vestas Wind Systems A/S said in a statement.

ENEL GREEN POWER ADDS 16 MW WIND CAPACITY IN SPAIN
MILAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) -  Italy's biggest renewable energy company, Enel Green Power (EGP)  has started up a new 16 megawatt wind farm in Spain as it expands in the Spanish renewable energy market, EGP said on Thursday.
Capacity at EGP , controlled by Italy's biggest utility Enel , is keenly watched by investors. It has driven a 35 percent jump in EGP's core earnings in the first half of 2011.

BRIGHTSOURCE TO OFFER SOLAR-PLANT ENERGY STORAGE
LOS ANGELES, Aug 3 (Reuters) - BrightSource Energy Inc on Tuesday said it was now able to store the energy its solar thermal power plants produce, allowing them to function during after the sun sets.
The company, which filed with U.S. securities regulators for an initial public offering earlier this year, said it is combining its power tower solar thermal technology with molten salt storage.