Based on an analysis of more than 700 projects and prospects in the company’s database, ODS-Petrodata forecasts US$61.4 billion of capital expenditure in the sector between now and 2014. For 2016 to 2020, total capital expenditure could be double that.

Bottlenecks in the supply chain are already being relieved by new entrants. Several emerging European manufacturers of offshore-rated turbines will challenge the dominance of Siemens of Germany and Vestas of Denmark in the next few years, and will later be joined by a batch of Asian manufacturers, including such South Korean conglomerates as Hyundai, and at least 10 Chinese firms. More at www.ods-petrodata.com

Mr Bengel has successfully treated the residue from rice and sugarcane in boilers with atmospheric fluidised bed combustion systems, to produce energy in China and Thailand, and he thought a similar process could be developed for the breweries’ spent wet grain. Mr Bengel said: “Beer making is energy intensive – you boil stuff, use hot water and steam, and then use electric energy for cooling – so if you recover more than 50% of your energy costs from the spent grain that’s a big saving.”

More at www.bmp-biomasse.de

Japanese taxis represent a mere 2% of all passenger vehicles on the road in Japan, yet they emit approximately 20% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) from vehicles due to their average distance travelled in a given day. In Tokyo alone, there are approximately 60,000 taxis, a far greater number than in New York, Paris, or Hong Kong.

The electric taxi pilot scheme will involve the construction of a Better Place battery switch site at a location in the Roppongi Hills area in Central Tokyo. Up to four newly modified and fully operational electric taxis will be operated from an existing taxi lane for environmentally-friendly vehicles at the Roppongi Hills complex.

More at www.betterplace.com

MotionPower technology is a roadway-based system that is designed for installation in locations where vehicles decelerate or stop. It assists vehicles in slowing down, and in the process of doing so, captures the vehicles’ motion energy before it is lost as brake heat, and creatively converts that energy into clean ‘green’ electricity.

This newly-developed technology complements the company’s previously prototyped MotionPower system for cars and light trucks. There is a video of a small-scale first-generation prototype at www.newenergytechnologiesinc.com/motionpowerheavyvehicleprototype.html

CEO of BioPower, Dr. Tim Finnigan, said: “BioPower Systems is planning to strategically develop low-cost electricity generation and systems integration technologies to ensure the cost-competitiveness of its bioWAVE™ and bioSTREAM™ products in ocean energy farms.”

BioPower Systems is commercialising wave and tidal energy systems that incorporate revolutionary designs based on the concept of biomimicry. It is designing systems to naturally avoid extreme ocean forces, using light-weight construction, resulting in anticipated cost savings. The company is currently beginning tests on power conversion equipment, including Siemens generator and drive technology, at a factory location in Sydney.

More at www.biopowersystems.com

OVIEDO, Spain – Mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns. This is the conclusion of two engineers from the University of Oviedo, whose research is being published in the journal Renewable Energy. The method they have developed makes it possible to estimate the amount of heat that a tunnel could potentially provide.

Rafael Rodríguez, from the Oviedo Higher Technical School of Mining Engineering, tells SINC: “One way of making use of low-intensity geothermal energy is to convert mine shafts into geothermal boilers, which could provide heating and hot water for people living nearby.”

The engineer and his colleague, María Belarmina Díaz, have developed a “semi-empirical” method (part mathematical and part experimental) to calculate the amount of heat that could be produced by a mine tunnel that is due to be abandoned, based on studies carried out while it is still in use.

Rodríguez and Díaz highlight the benefits of building geothermal boilers in mine shafts in that, aside from their predictable energy production levels, they also function practically as an open tube system “but without any risk of heat contamination of aquifers.”

More at www.plataformasinc.es (Spanish only) and www.uniovi.es

STFG’s plan involves a line of underwater turbines that would use the strong current of the Bristol Channel to generate energy. The development would have the capacity to generate 1.3 gigawatts (GW). STFG comprises major multi-national organisations including AMEC, BMT Group, Econnect, Edinburgh University, IT Power, Marubeni Europe, NaREC, and Pulse Tidal Ltd.

March Paish from the STF Group says: “The Group’s preliminary investigation into a tidal fence in the same area as the proposed Weston–Cardiff barrage shows a fence would allow shipping to pass through and so keep open the ports of Cardiff and Bristol, whereas the barrage risks their closure. The fence also allows the migration of salmon, and it would only slightly reduce the areas of mudflats that are an important habitat for migrating birds.”

More at www.sigmaoffshore.com

Agricultural and forestry waste is mainly ligno-cellulose, which is comprised of sugars but in a form that makes them difficult to be used by microbes in the production of ethanol. The project develops enzymes that can be used to cut ligno-cellulose into sugar compounds suitable for fermentation.

The objective also is to tailor the metabolism of microbes so that they can produce large volumes of ethanol out of the biomass sugars, economically and efficiently. The project evaluates the suitability of the developed enzymes and yeast strains for industrial biofuel manufacturing processes.

The four-year €8.2 million NEMO project (Novel high performance enzymes and micro-organisms for conversion of ligno-cellulosic biomass to bioethanol) is developing the next, second generation production technology for the utilisation of ligno-cellulose raw material in the production of ethanol. The cost-effective production of the next generation biofuels requires the technology to be developed further. More at www.vtt.fi

The emphasis of the European Union on shifting away from landfills towards better alternatives has indirectly helped the waste-to-energy business. This diversion of waste from landfills has resulted in the planning and commissioning of many waste-to-energy plants in the past five years. However, the delay in obtaining environmental and other permits has considerably restrained the growth of this market.

Research associate at F&S in London, Karthikeyan Ravikumar, says: “The most important driver for the waste-to-energy plants market in Europe has been the Landfill Directive and its waste diversion targets. This has resulted in the diversion of waste from landfills to waste-to-energy plants.” More at www.environmental.frost.com and www.frost.com

Meridian is very excited to be able to proceed with Cleantech America’s first project, CalRENEW-1. The five-megawatt (MW) solar facility in Mendota, California is the first utility-scale solar PV project to be approved by the California Public Utilities  The company will operate as Cleantech America, a Meridian Energy company, and will continue to be based in the San Francisco Bay area.

Meridian is currently building a wind farm in Antarctica to help in reducing the environmental footprint of the New Zealand and USA scientific bases by integrating wind generation into the operation and displacing the current reliance on diesel fuel. More at www.meridian.co.nz and www.cleantechamerica.com