EBIT before PPA and integration and restructuring costs1 amounted to €138m (+4% YoY), the EBIT margin was 6.1%, and reported EBIT amounted to €40m (+13% YoY) Volume totalled 2,129 MWe, driven by the offshore business (+76% YoY) The order book stands at €23b (+8% YoY), covering 92% of the revenue guidance for FY 2019 The company has logged orders worth €11.5bn in the last twelve months (+3% YoY), driven particularly by a 28% increase in onshore orders The global prospects for the wind industry remain sound, with projected 6% annual growth in installations to 72 GW in 2025. Offshore installations will rise…

A new report from Navigant Research offers an analysis of global utility smart meter projects, providing data related to global customer endpoints, meter manufacturers, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) communications vendors, systems integrators, and meter data management system (MDMS) vendors, through 3Q 2018. The smart electric meter market remains strong as developed markets continue to mature...

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers estimate that installing floating solar photovoltaics on the more than 24,000 human-made U.S. reservoirs could generate about 10 percent of the nation’s annual electricity production. Their findings, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, reveal for the first time the potential for floating PV to produce electricity in the United States. While the United States was the first to demonstrate floating PV panels — with the first installation occurring 10 years ago on pontoons on an irrigation pond in Napa Valley, California — the idea has not received widespread national acceptance. The U.S. focus…

Wind turbines are designed to generate energy, not store it. When winds are sufficient, the power goes straight to the transmission grid. But if the grid gets more energy than it can handle, electricity prices drop and turbines are shut down. The reverse is also an issue. When winds are low, turbines earn little to nothing. Energy storage systems are one answer to the variability challenge of wind-generated power. However, most battery-based systems are still too costly to combine with most wind farms. So engineers in Europe have been busy thinking outside the box and inside the turbine tower. Their…

Renewables provided almost one-third of the UK’s total power output in Q3 2018, a record high for that period of the year, boosted by the summer’s heatwave and high wind speeds. That performance also lifted the total share of power from low carbon sources to 56%, another record high for Q3, however this was also aided by a reduction in total power output to 75.3TWh. Furthermore, it was the second successive quarter that the country’s renewables output set a new record, having previously witnessed renewables’ share rise to 31.7% in Q2. The figures were released in the Department for Business,…

Rarely thought of as being the crusaders of the green power transformation, chief financial officers looking to lower energy costs could find themselves at the forefront of a renewables revolution. The commercial and industrial sector accounts for two-thirds of the world’s end-of-use of electricity and as the appetite for more energy gets stronger, so does the need to fight back against rising energy costs. CFOs are doing this by signing corporate power-purchase agreements (PPAs). These are contracts where power users agree to buy energy at a fixed price for a fixed term. As well as fixing costs, PPAs guarantee a…

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted its first EIB Green Loan to Endesa. This financing aims to make it easier to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Although the EIB has financed a number of projects of this kind in its long history of combating climate change, this is the first time it has described a loan in this way, thereby helping promoters such as Endesa to develop their decarbonisation strategy. The operation signed covers EUR 335m in financing to build 15 wind farms with a capacity of 446 MW and three solar photovoltaic plants with a capacity of…

Apologies for the delay in posting this blog. We have all been working tirelessly behind the scenes to finalise the merger between WREA (was) and World of Renewables to form your new body – WoREA. Our name, The World Renewable Energy Association, remains the same but our website and new home has changed: www.worldofrenewables.com. As the Chairman of an association of 300,000+ members, I am often asked which events they should attend for the coming year. This is a broad topic and mostly subjectional, none-the-less, based on my personal experiences, particularly during 2018 I have listed below some key trade shows…

RenewableUK is highlighting the record amount of offshore wind capacity installed this year. More than 2 gigawatts (GW) went operational in UK waters during 2018 – enough to power over 2,300,000 homes all year round. In 2018 eight new offshore wind farms were officially opened, bringing the annual total of new capacity to 2,121 megawatts (MW) – nearly double the previous annual record of 1,154MW in 2012. This near-doubling of capacity was achieved with just 18% more turbines than were installed in 2012 (367 turbines this year compared to 309 turbines in 2012), underlining the impressive growth in turbine power…

EUR 50 million loan to  finance pipeline linking  newly identified gas resources in the Black Sea to national and European gas transmission networks Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria will all benefit from the new connection Loan will also help diversify gas supplies in Europe by allowing off-shore producers to export their gas to the EU The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 50 million – the first tranche of an approved loan of EUR 150 million – to TRANSGAZ, Romania’s public gas transmission company, to finance a new pipeline. This transaction is backed by the European Fund for Strategic…