Wind energy plant to bring 215 jobs

A German company plans to build a wind energy plant and bring 215 new jobs to Gainesville. ZF Group, an automotive industry supplier, said the plant will make wind turbine gearboxes for systems that convert wind energy into electricity. The company will invest $90 million in the project.

… word came that General Electric will create 400 new jobs in Cobb County when it opens its futuristic Smart Grid Center of Excellence this year.

As for the wind energy plant, it will be built in the Gainesville Business Park, near an existing ZF facility that makes axle drives and transmissions for passenger vehicles and heavy construction equipment. That facility has been in operation about 20 years, state officials said.

“There is a heightened global focus on renewable energy production, and we believe there is an opportunity to leverage our automotive driveline and chassis technology leadership in this exciting and growing alternative energy sector,” ZF executive Elizabeth Umberson said in a statement.

Construction is scheduled to begin immediately, with the plant to open in February 2011. Production is set to start January 2012.

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first published week of:   04/26/2010

Wind Potential Giving Way to Coal

The United States has a ton of wind potential and especially offshore. But its inability to develop a reliable energy policy is not just hurting the wind sector, it’s also working to benefit the coal industry. That’s the view from one manufacturer, which also says that the recession has taken its toll.

Tough times have dented economic production and thus affected energy consumption. But coal has proved itself to be among the most durable fuel. If wind is prioritized, the industry says that it could surpass the expectations. That would entail the new Congress extending the favorable tax breaks that are now given to developers as well as enacting a renewable portfolio standard that mandates more green energy.

“This year, coal is leading,” says Randy Williams, chief financial officer for Chattanooga-based SIAG Aerisyn, which builds wind towers. “The install rate for wind this year is a disaster.”Undefined Shortcut In a talk with reporters who visited Aerisyn’s warehouse, he went to say that this country will lag behind other nations. That’s because it has been unable to commit to a sustainable green energy policy that includes permanent tax breaks and standards that would require utilities hold certain portions of their generation mix in green fuels. The U.S. wind industry added just 395 megawatts of wind-powered electric generating capacity in the third quarter of 2010, making it the lowest quarter since 2007, says the American Wind Energy Association. Year-to-date installations stood at 1,634 MW, down 72 percent versus 2009, and the lowest level since 2006. Altogether, about 36,700 MW of wind power currently exist in this country.

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first published week of:   12/06/2010

Wind Slowdown Continues

There’s more evidence that wind project development in the United States may have reached its high-water mark last year, at least in the short run. The industry lauded its 10,000 megawatts of new capacity in 2009, and knew it would be tough to match this year, even with a strong economic recovery.

But now, the largest owner of wind energy assets in the country is scaling back its wind energy expansion for the year due to “market conditions.”  NextEra Energy Resources, a unit of FPL Group, will reduce its planned construction from 15 percent to 40 percent below its previously announced target. 

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first published week of:   05/03/2010

Xcel slammed for response to fatal tunnel fire

Xcel slammed for response to fatal tunnel fire. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board slammed Xcel Energy Inc. August 23 for the company’s handling of the aftermath of a tunnel fire that killed five workers at a hydroelectric plant in Denver, Colorado, as well as for a host of “troubling episodes.” The board cited the electric and gas utility’s failure to cooperate in the agency’s probe, and said that investigators had to turn to the the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Division in Denver to compel the company to turn over information. The board, an independent federal agency that investigates serious chemical accidents and makes safety recommendations, plans to release its final report and recommendations August 25. That report comes about 2 weeks after Xcel decided to release a draft version after initially trying to block it. The company feared it would be released close to the criminal trial in the case, possibly influencing jurors. The five workers died from smoke inhalation after the October 2007 tunnel fire at Excel Energy’s Cabin Creek plant, 35 miles west of Denver.

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first published week of:   08/30/2010

Yankee decommissioning faces House vote

A bill on financing the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee will come to a vote in the state house of representatives during the week of April 12-16. The governor has vetoed two similar bills but this one does not call for decommissioning to be fully funded by Yankee’s scheduled shutdown date in 2012. The new bill requires Entergy to add $10 million to that fund next year and $10 million in another six years. The firm would also have to pay to manage all the nuclear waste on site and turn the Vernon site into a green field within 10 years. The bill is expected to pass. It will then go to the Senate, where it is also expected to pass.

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first published week of:   04/19/2010

Yucca not buried yet, official says

Nevada still has much work to do to bury the federal government’s plan for storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, the chief of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects (ANP) said August 17. The matter may wind up in a federal appeals court, depending on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission overturns a licensing board’s rejection of the Energy Department’s request to end the project. A decision is expected within weeks. Most of the work ahead is legal work, “and we may have to go back into licensing, which would be a long and expensive process,” said ANP’s executive director. His comments were made at a meeting of the state legislative committee on high-level radioactive waste. He also spoke about reprocessing and recycling used nuclear fuel at the site. The official noted it would violate federal law for Nevada to be an interim site for storing nuclear waste for reprocessing while Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is still designated as a permanent repository site. In addition, there is no water available for constructing a large nuclear reactor at Yucca for reprocessing.

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first published week of:   08/23/2010

Volume 31

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