German steelmaker thyssenkrupp is supplying electrolysers for a massive green hydrogen project that will produce up to 650 tons of the climate-neutral gas per day. The plant, powered by 4 GW of wind and solar energy, will be built in Saudi’s futuristic city NEOM by 2025.
GERA Amazonas has awarded a contract to Wärtsilä to convert the UTE Ponta Negra power plant, situated in Manaus, to operate on natural gas instead of diesel. The fuel switch will increase the plant’s performance and lower operating costs once completed in spring 2022.
Entrade, part of the Turkish construction firm ENKA, has contracted Atlas Copco to supply three fuel gas booster compressors for a combined-cycle power plant that is used for cogeneration in Kazan, Russia. Construction is underway and the 250 MW plant is due operational in March 2023.
Freight rates for shipping US LNG to Asia will fall once the Panama Canal congestion eases in early February 2021. However, analysts expect Northeast Asia’s call on US supply will fall as the region burns less gas for power and relies more on supplies from Australia or the Middle East.
Costa Rica’s textile firm Proquinal is producing climate-friendly with a hybrid solar and battery storage system at its San Jose site. The system contains MTU batteries with a storage capacity of 4,275 kWh and an output of 1,500 kVA as well as photovoltaic panels with 255 kWp capacity.
Elering, Estonia’s national TSO, has contracted Siemens Energy to build three synchronous condensers, based on the Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS). The units, set to stabilise the grid and integrate intermittent renewable power supply, are due to be commissioned successively between April 2023 and May 2024.
Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem has told EDF Energy to pay £6 million for breach of energy market rules. From September 2017 to March 2020, EDF frequently inflated the minimum amount of power it said its West Burton B plant could supply, making National Grid buy more electricity than needed.
Myanmar’s Thanlyin LNG-to-Power venture has reached its full capacity in December, having ramped up fuel supplies and electricity output to an equivalent of 350 MW since June. The scale-up was helped by the arrival of its permanent floating storage unit (FSU), called CNTIC VPower Energy.
Green energy from wind and solar photovoltaic looks set to cover over 46% of Germany’s electricity consumption in 2020, up 4% from pre-year levels. The sharp rise in the contribution of renewables was largely caused by a plunge in overall power consumption due to the pandemic.
China's economy is staging a V-shaped recovery from the pandemic and electricity demand continues to rebound. The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees China’s electricity demand increase 5.2%, or 350 TWh, in the coming year – way larger than by India’s 3.6%, or 40 TWh, demand growth.
Doosan Heavy Industries has contracted Air Liquide to provide engineering and procurement of a hydrogen liquefier for a H2 plant under construction in Changwon, South Korea. The plant is intended to produce 5 tons of liquid hydrogen per day starting from early 2023.
General Electric has synchronised two GT13E2 gas turbines to Iraq’s national grid at the Zubair power plant that support Basra Oil Company’s upstream operations at the Zubair oil field. The two new turbines take the plant’s total generation capacity up to 700 MW.