The world’s first wind park with 7 MW wind turbines has opened in Belgium, using largest units ever placed into operation to generate electricity.
30 November, 2009
A report on net metering and interconnection practices that could enable renewable energy adoption across the United States, has given top marks to California, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon, but failing grades to Georgia, Idaho and Texas.
30 November, 2009
Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK aim to make use of a much wider range of vibrations from the environments we live and work in than is currently possible. It is hoped that within five years ‘energy harvesting’ could be powering many more of our devices, from heart monitors to cell phones.
30 November, 2009
REpower Systems AG has signed a framework contract with EDF Energies Nouvelles and RES Canada comprises the delivery of up to 954 MW for five wind farm projects in Québec, Canada.
30 November, 2009
Bombardier Aerospace has started construction of its new facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the manufacture of the composite wing for its CSeries aircraft.
30 November, 2009
Knight & Carver Wind Group, a wind turbine blade repair, service and fabrication firm, has entered into a long-term blade service agreement for the North American wind market with GCube - a provider of insurance services for renewable energy initiatives – to reduce the amount of time a wind turbine is considered inoperative.
27 November, 2009
Vestas has decided to make it as simple and easy as possible for pupils, students, teachers, and others to learn about wind power and the energy challenges facing the world by making its e-learning programme on wind power freely available.
27 November, 2009
167 large filters with composite housings manufactured by Appalachian Plastics Inc have been supplied to the Atlantis The Palm resort in Dubai by Neptune-Benson.
27 November, 2009
VISTAGY Inc, provider of the FiberSIM® composites engineering software, has entered a strategic partnership with Maxoft Inc, a Korean supplier of virtual product development software, under which Maxoft will sell and support FiberSIM® in the aerospace, wind, automotive and marine markets in Korea.
26 November, 2009
The UK government has announced a £22 million investment to advance the development of composite materials as part of its new UK Composites Strategy published today.
26 November, 2009
E.ON has opened its Stony Creek wind farm in Western Pennsylvania at the site of a former coal mine.
26 November, 2009
Boeing has held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of the second final assembly site for the 787 Dreamliner aircraft programme at its North Charleston, South Carolina, USA, facility.
25 November, 2009
Lincoln Composites Inc has completed the required testing on its TITAN™ tank designed for the bulk transportation of compressed natural gas (CNG).
25 November, 2009
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide €100 million to Pakistan and another €170m to Iceland, to finance renewable energy projects.
25 November, 2009
The Department of Energy (DoE) will fund US$18 million to support small business innovation research, development and deployment of clean and renewable energy technologies, including projects to advance wave and current energy technologies, ocean thermal energy conversion systems, and concentrating solar power (CSP) for distributed applications.
25 November, 2009
Funding to the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) Investment Plan in South Africa will allow the country to move towards its goal of 4% of electricity from renewable energy by 2013.
25 November, 2009
Renewable Energy Systems Canada will develop a wind farm in southwestern Ontario, in partnership with a major Canadian gas company.
25 November, 2009
Portugese wind energy developer EDP Renewables will devote US$4 billion to build new wind farms in the United States through 2012, following US$1.5bn of new capacity installed in 2009.
25 November, 2009
Kayak manufacturers Hangzhou Epic Boat Co Ltd, China, and Nelo M.A.R. Kayaks Lda, Portugal, are now using the latest polyester ‘epoxy bonding’ spray gel-coat technology from Scott Bader.
24 November, 2009
The levelised costs for solar energy will drop 50% in 2009, while the pre-subsidy cost for other renewable energy technologies will decline by 10%, according to a quarterly research note from New Energy Finance.
24 November, 2009
The following stories were the most popular with visitors to the Reinforced Plastics website last week:
24 November, 2009
Materials testing systems manufacturer Zwick is offering a patented new fixture for the testing of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) composites.
24 November, 2009
Clemson University in South Carolina will receive US$45 million from the federal government to develop a wind energy test facility that will enhance the performance, durability and reliability of utility-scale wind turbines.
24 November, 2009
More than half a million residential and 20,000 commercial customers purchased 13 TWh of certified renewable energy last year, according to the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS).
24 November, 2009
Wind turbine blade maker LM Glasfiber has announced plans to phase out large scale manufacturing at two factories in Denmark and one in Spain, while continuing to build its presence in high growth markets such as China. Around 900 of the company's employees in Europe could lose their jobs.
24 November, 2009
Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG) has been selected as the official prepreg supplier to the Multi One Design (MOD) 70 racing boat project.
23 November, 2009
REpower USA Corp, a subsidiary of Germany’s wind turbine manufacturer, REpower Systems AG will supply 9 of its 2 MW MM92 wind turbines with a total output of 18.45 MW to the US project developer Heritage Sustainable Energy LLC.
23 November, 2009
QinetiQ’s Zephyr High-Altitude Long-Endurance unmanned aerial system (HALE UAS) program recently resumed flight testing and payload evaluations in Yuma, Arizona when a joint US/UK team undertook the first operation of the Zephyr system with a US flight crew.
23 November, 2009
An energy fund created by Texas oil billionaire Pickens, which includes renewable energy, has filed a preliminary prospectus from securities regulators in each province and territory of Canada.
23 November, 2009
Matrix Composite Materials Co Ltd (MCMC) in the UK is offering two alternatives to the current fossil fuel based products used in modern composite boat construction.
20 November, 2009
New appointments and staff changes – Axel Plastics, High Modulus, Outsourcing B2B Marketing, AOC.
20 November, 2009
Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG) is introducing a phenolic resin system available as a prepreg suitable for mass transit, industrial and construction applications.
20 November, 2009
The world's longest wind turbine blade – 61.5 m – traveled to be displayed at COP15 in Copenhagen in December last weekend. LM Glasfiber has released a video showing the enormity of the wind turbine blade.
20 November, 2009
ACCIONA has agreed long-term finance amounting to €18.14 million with the State Bank of India (SBI) for its two wind farms totaling 29.7 MW in India.
20 November, 2009
The wave energy device Oyster from Aquamarine Power was officially launched on 20 November at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
20 November, 2009
The energy performance of buildings constructed after 2020 must improve and rely “to a large extent” on renewable energy, according to a deal reached between the EU Parliament and its Council.
19 November, 2009
Carbon fibre supplier Zoltek Corporation has launched a new website.
19 November, 2009
The best prospects for large-scale renewable energy production and net-energy performance remain wind and certain forms of solar, according to a study released by two California-based think tanks.
18 November, 2009
Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG) is launching a ceramic tooling block material which can be used to produce composite tooling for use in the autoclave processing of composite parts.
18 November, 2009
Met-Pro Corporation's Duall business unit has received orders worth approximately US$2.8 million for composite equipment from two municipal water treatment facilities in the USA.
18 November, 2009
The economic recession has prompted utilities in Europe to invest less in renewable power and the smart grid, even though they need to invest more to meet goals, says the European Energy Markets Observatory.
18 November, 2009
Seven new designs for offshore wind turbine foundations have been short-listed for funding by the Carbon Trust in Britain.
18 November, 2009
Airbus SAS has selected the Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to produce composite structures and tooling for its next-generation A350 XWB (Xtra Wide Body) aircraft. ATK expects total revenues of approximately $1 billion from the project.
17 November, 2009
Bombardier Aerospace has selected VISTAGY's FiberSIM® software suite as the standard composite engineering solution for all its aircraft programmes, including the new CSeries and Learjet 85.
17 November, 2009
SP has launched three new products for manufacturers of composite boats at METS 2009 in Amsterdam.
17 November, 2009
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu is travelling in India and China as part of the Department of Energy’s (DoE) efforts to advance opportunities for international clean energy cooperation. During the China portion of the visit, Secretary Chu will join with President Barack Obama as part of the official White House delegation.
16 November, 2009
PPG Industries will receive a US$741 000 grant from the US Department of Energy to support the development of materials and automation processes for wind turbine blade manufacturing.
16 November, 2009
The following stories were the most popular with visitors to the Reinforced Plastics website last week.
16 November, 2009
Boeing has completed installing reinforcements within the side-of-body section of two more of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
16 November, 2009
3M is introducing an epoxy resin for carbon fibre composites called 3M™ Matrix Resin 3831.
15 November, 2009
Euroresins Europe Holding GmbH & Co KG is to be distributor for SAERTEX GmbH & Co KG’s non-crimp fabrics and SAERcore materials in Norway, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and France.
14 November, 2009
Core materials manufacturer DIAB has signed a global distribution agreement with French syntactic foam producer BMTI, giving DIAB a complete product range for the offshore and subsea markets.
13 November, 2009
Cannon Power Group has received US$19.4 million in federal renewable energy grants to spur construction of its 400 MW wind farm in Washington State.
13 November, 2009
Construction starts this month on the Wave Hub project wave energy project in South West England.
13 November, 2009
VISTAGY Inc, provider of the FiberSIM® composites engineering software, and BETA CAE Systems SA, a specialist in computer aided engineering (CAE) software systems, have announced a technology partnership designed to help manufacturers in the automotive, aerospace and other industries to optimise the use of composites for complex applications.
13 November, 2009
The European Pultrusion Technology Association (EPTA) is looking for presentations for its 10th World Pultrusion Conference, which will take place in Barcelona, Spain, on 8-9 April 2010.
12 November, 2009
Wave and tidal energy companies are to be asked for their views on the future development of the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).
12 November, 2009
Siemens Energy will supply 70 wind turbines for the Los Vergeles wind farm in Tamaulipas, Mexico.
12 November, 2009
GE and E.ON Climate & Renewables North America have signed a 7-year operation and maintenance (O&M) agreement covering E.ON Climate & Renewable’s complete fleet of 529 GE wind turbines installed in the United States.
12 November, 2009
Wind turbines in Europe could displace the annual emission of 333 megatonne of CO2 by 2020, says the European Wind Energy Association.
11 November, 2009
Four renewable energy projects will receive AU$235 million from the federal government in Australia, including a 19 MW wave farm off the coast of Victoria.
11 November, 2009
Wind turbines supplied 54% of Spain’s total electricity demand, for a short period on the weekend.
11 November, 2009
During COMPOSITES EUROPE 2009, DSM Composite Resins, Dieffenbacher and Fraunhofer ICT unveiled a direct compounding technology for the production of thermoset composite components.
11 November, 2009
A solar car built at Tokai University in Japan has won the solar race across Australia, at an average speed of more than 100 km/h.
11 November, 2009
Bulgaria’s wind power is set to boom over the next decade, according to a presentation at a workshop on integrating wind power in Bulgaria, predicting wind power will increase from the current 330 MW installed to over 3 GW by 2020 meeting 13.5% of Bulgaria’s electricity demand.
11 November, 2009
First Wind, a North American wind power company, has completed the first 203.5 MW phase of its Milford Wind Corridor project in Millard and Beaver County, Utah, USA.
11 November, 2009
Energy Composites Corporation (ECC) has reached agreement with the City of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, USA, to develop two areas of land into a wind turbine blade production facility.
10 November, 2009
Wind energy developer Wind Capital Group has closed US$240 million financing for the Lost Creek Wind Project in DeKalb County, Missouri, USA.
10 November, 2009
Australian Composites Pty Ltd has signed a partnership agreement with Sunrez Corporation, a US producer of ultra-violet (UV) curable resins, putties and prepregs, to expand sales of its UV curing prepregs into North America.
10 November, 2009
Wind energy will receive US$80 million in federal government funding appropriations, a 45% increase over the last fiscal year.
10 November, 2009
The United States could net 4.5 million new jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors by 2030 if it addresses climate change, according to a report prepared for the American Solar Energy Society.
10 November, 2009
Three UK-based banks will offer new loans to onshore wind farms, in a scheme that could enable £1.4 billion of onshore wind projects to move to construction over the next three years.
10 November, 2009
The strategy outlines an action plan to advance these industries, which are big users of composite materials, in Scotland.
09 November, 2009
The German Federation of Reinforced Plastics, AVK, presented its awards for outstanding developments in reinforced plastics at the COMPOSITES EUROPE 2009 trade show in Stuttgart in October.
09 November, 2009
Four offshore wind farm developers have announced their plans for major offshore wind farm developments in the outer Forth and Tay areas outside Scotland.
09 November, 2009
Ashland Performance Materials is joining a consortium of companies and university experts to develop and test three wind turbines off the coast of Maine, USA.
09 November, 2009
Prepregs from Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG) are being used by Donkervoort Automobielen to build its new D8 GT race car for the 5th Dunlop 24 hour race in Dubai scheduled for January 2010.
08 November, 2009
The Biotex family of materials based on flax natural fibres was launched at the COMPOSITES EUROPE 2009 trade show in Stuttgart in October.
07 November, 2009
SeaEnergy and Taiwan Generations Corporation (TGC) have concluded an agreement under which they will undertake the joint development of TGC’s pipeline of offshore wind farm projects.
06 November, 2009
The World Future Council proposes the issuing of money by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance the global renewable energy transition and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
06 November, 2009
Louisiana is now home to the first installation of an Alcan balsa-cored composite bridge deck containing Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs).
06 November, 2009
Gurit’s European patent covering the use of its SPRINT product in the manufacture of wind turbine blades and other markets has been upheld by the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office. Hexcel’s opposition to the patent was rejected.
06 November, 2009
The COMPOSITES EUROPE 2009 trade show attracted over 6100 visitors to Stuttgart, Germany, on 27-29 October.
06 November, 2009
As the use of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) continues to grow within the power industry, Korean company Hankuk Fiber Glass Co Ltd (HFG) is replacing the cast iron ash transfer pipes of power plants with composite pipes.
05 November, 2009
Quickstep Holdings has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Systems intended to secure contracts to manufacture composite components for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft. The deal could potentially be worth US$630 million.
05 November, 2009
The hydropower industry in the United States could add 60 GW of renewable energy to the country’s electricity grid by 2025, while creating 700,000 new jobs.
05 November, 2009
A survey in Rhode Island shows that 89% have positive opinions on the use of wind turbines to generate electricity, but 50% rate the cost of wind as an important issue and 44% say noise is an important consideration.
05 November, 2009
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the UK Ofgem E-Serve say the EIB is considering provision of over £300 million of funding to investors in high voltage transmission links to offshore wind farms in the UK.
05 November, 2009
The US wind energy market could reach 8 GW installed in 2009, (including project spill-over from 2008 and new wind build), despite initial fears of a major drop in megawatts resulting from the financial crisis, according to a brief from Emerging Energy Research.
05 November, 2009
Improved productivity and enhanced product performance are reported to be two benefits pultruders have witnessed when using the new Crestapol® 1212 resin from Scott Bader.
05 November, 2009
Fifty companies and organisations in the United States purchase 12.5 TWh a year of green power.
04 November, 2009
Four of the top publicly-traded clean tech employers in the United States are renewable energy companies from abroad.
04 November, 2009
Resin supplier Reichhold has opened a resin manufacturing facility at Ranjangaon, in Pune, India.
04 November, 2009
Buenos Aires based sheet moulding compound (SMC) parts manufacturer Pilot Automotive Srl has increased its supply of parts to the Ford Motor Company with the addition of a heat shield.
04 November, 2009
Polygon has pushed the boundaries for the design of pneumatic actuators by creating a completely non-metallic cylinder assembly.
04 November, 2009
Installation of renewable energy solutions such as solar electric panels and solar film are prominent among 37 projects funded by the Australian Department for Innovation, Industry, Science & Research.
04 November, 2009
Composite materials producer Gurit reports sales of CHF238.9 million for its target markets for the first nine months of 2009 (at constant currency translation rates), 18.7% down on the same period of 2008.
04 November, 2009
Comprehensive clean renewable energy and climate policies would create jobs, increase consumers’ income and strengthen the economy, according to a study conducted by three universities in the USA.
03 November, 2009
The US Department of Treasury has allocated US$2.2 billion in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB) as part of the Obama administration's efforts to spur production of renewable energy.
03 November, 2009
Targets for renewable energy in Britain and the government’s carbon budgets could be missed, under one of the scenarios for future energy supply envisaged by Ofgem, the country’s energy regulator.
03 November, 2009
The following five stories were the most popular with visitors to the Reinforced Plastics website during the month of October.
03 November, 2009
Gibson Fiberglass has announced a price increase for glass fibre direct and multi-end roving products, chopped strand, chopped strand mat, woven roving, and all other roll goods.
03 November, 2009
Ocean Power Technologies has completed trials of its Underwater Substation Pod (USP) product in Spain, which is designed to facilitate the collection, networking and transforming of offshore power and data generated by up to 10 of its wave power device, PowerBuoy, for transmission to a shore-based electricity grid by one subsea power cable.
03 November, 2009
Risø DTU has produced a detailed map of the wind resources in South Africa showing the best locations for wind turbines and is a prerequisite for funding wind farms.
03 November, 2009
During the COMPOSITES EUROPE 2009 trade fair, the European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA) introduced several EU-financed projects on sustainable composites.
03 November, 2009
SAMPE's Fall Technical Conference and Exhibition 2009 in Wichita, Kansas, USA, on 19-22 October, attracted over 1350 visitors and more than 120 exhibitors.
02 November, 2009
For its pioneering work in the area of natural fibre reinforced plastics, the BioConcept Car project of Four Motors GmbH was presented with the COMPOSITES Pioneer Award 2009 at the COMPOSITES EUROPE trade fair in Stuttgart on 27 October.
02 November, 2009
Composites tooling manufacturer Janicki Industries has launched a new website to better serve its markets, which now the alternative energy sector.
02 November, 2009
The EU database on renewable energy legislation, www.res-legal.eu, providing information for all 27 EU countries is now complete.
02 November, 2009
Spirit AeroSystems Inc has officially opened its aerospace manufacturing and design facility in Subang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
01 November, 2009