The Briefing on Power

The latest news, trends and data from the power industry

In Data:

power in numbers

50%

Irish electricity company Electricity Supply Board (ESB) has agreed to purchase a 50% stake in the Neart na Gaoithe offshore windfarm from EDF Renewables, which originally purchased the windfarm from Mainstream Renewable Power in May 2018.

€182.9m

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to provide a loan of €182.9m loan to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) to improve the country’s electricity transmission network.

1240

ABB has secured a contract worth $2.5m to upgrade Companhia Paranaense de Energia’s (Copel) 1,240MW Governador José Richa hydropower plant in Brazil. The company will provide excitation systems and speed regulation for four generator units at the hydropower plant, which is located in the State of Paraná.

$36bn

Investment in renewable energy in developing nations dropped significantly from $169bn in 2017 to $133bn in 2018, according to the latest Climatescope survey by BloombergNEF (BNEF).

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€94m

The European Commission (EC) has approved around €94m to support the construction and operation of a waste-to-energy cogeneration plant in Bulgaria. Bulgaria informed the EC in October 2019 that it intends to build a high-efficient cogeneration plant in Sofia that will have the capacity to generate electricity as well as heat.

in the news:

top projects kicking off this month

ACWA connects Sakaka solar plant to Saudi Arabia’s electricity grid

ACWA Power has successfully connected the Sakaka Solar PV Plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to the national electricity grid. Built with an investment of SAR1.2bn ($319m), the Sakaka power plant is part of the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative.

Vattenfall extends wind turbine supply contract with Siemens Gamesa

Swedish power company Vattenfall has extended the wind turbine supply contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) for its offshore Hollandse Kust Zuid windfarm located in the Netherlands. The two companies have agreed to extend the Hollandse Kust Zuid turbine contract to now include zone one and two in addition to three and four.

RusHydro opens new thermal power plant in Russia

Russian hydroelectric power generation company RusHydro has opened its new thermal power plant, Sakhalinskaya GRES-2, on Sakhalin Island. The 120MW power plant, which will replace the obsolete Sakhalinskaya GRES scheduled for decommissioning, is capable of generating 840 million kWh of electricity annually. Prior to its opening, it has successfully completed the comprehensive tests.