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Thirty percent of the offshore construction for the TurkStream natural gas pipeline has been completed, according to South Stream Transport B.V., the project owner of the offshore section late on Wednesday.

The company said that the world’s largest construction vessel, Pioneering Spirit, currently completed pipe laying of around 555 kilometers in length for both of the two TurkStream lines.

The vessel, which moves at an average speed of 5 kilometers per day, completed this segment of the project in under seven months.

"In total 555 kilometers of the pipeline were laid down, equally divided over the two lines. Construction of 30 percent of the offshore pipeline section has been realized in less than seven months," the company announced.

When complete, the TurkStream project will consist of two offshore pipelines with a total capacity to transport up to 31.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

The company announced that the Pioneering Spirit will now continue construction of the two pipelines that will be laid all the way close to Turkish landfall near the town of Kiyikoy, located approximately 100 kilometers west of Istanbul.

Source : aa.com.tr

Turkey succeeded in boosting its installed wind power capacity by over 20 percent in the first nine months of the year, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) said Thursday.

Turkish wind power installed capacity increased by 20.2 percent to 6,278 megawatts in the January-September period of 2017, compared to the same period last year, official information gathered by Anadolu Agency (AA) reveals.

The country's wind power production increased by 15.7 percent to 13.2 million megawatt-hours in the first nine months compared to the same period last year.

Capacity saw 43-fold boost in almost ten years

Turkey increased its installed wind capacity from 2007 with 146.3 megawatts (MW) by over 4,191 percent, or a 43-fold boost, up to September 2017.

Since the end of 2007, Turkish installed wind power capacity saw a rapid increase through government subsidies and with the support of the regulatory body EMRA in streamlining the licensing process.
The Supporting Mechanism for Renewable Energy of Turkey, YEKDEM, offers feed-in tariffs to wind, solar, hydropower energy and biomass geothermal plants. The tariffs are currently available for renewable energy projects that will become operational at the latest by the year-end 2020.

Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak announced last month that the YEKDEM scheme would expire at the end of 2020.

By the end of September 2017, Turkey enhanced its share of wind power capacity to 7.9 percent of total power generation capacity, compared to the end of September 2016.

The country plans to hold further auctions in the next few months to increase wind capacity through the Renewable Energy Resources Zone Areas (YEKA) project and by holding wind capacity tenders. Through these initiatives, Turkey could add a further 3,840 MW on top of the 6,278 MW already installed to cross a 10,000 MW threshold.

As an energy importing country, Turkey is heavily dependent on foreign energy resources including oil and natural gas, and energy costs are an important share of the country's current account deficit. Consequently, part of the country's target is to increase the share of domestic and renewable sources in its total electricity generation.

In 2016, Turkey produced 32 percent of its electricity from natural gas, coal accounted for 32 percent, 25 percent was produced from hydroelectricity and the remaining share was generated through wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass power plants.

Source: aa.com.tr

COPENHAGEN– Denmark remains a global leader in decarbonising its economy and is on track to meet its ambitious goal of becoming a low-carbon economy by the middle of the century, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest reviews of the country’s energy policies.

Denmark has a long tradition of setting ambitious national energy targets, based on nation-wide Energy Agreements. In 2030, it aims for renewables to cover at least half of the country’s total energy consumption. By 2050, Denmark aims to be a low-carbon society independent of fossil fuels. The IEA’s latest review of Denmark’s energy policies finds it is moving convincingly to meet these world-leading targets.

The growing share of wind power creates new challenges and opportunities for the Danish electricity and heating sectors, as well as for end-use sectors such as transport, buildings and industry. This review of Denmark’s energy policy has a special focus on two interrelated issues: how to increase the share of renewables in the power system beyond its current share of 45%, and how to decarbonise the heating sector. These two areas are critical for further advancing decarbonisation in Denmark and they also offer an attractive potential for energy system integration. The report also offers a series of recommendations.

Electricity generation in Denmark has changed fundamentally over the past two decades. Coal generation has been steadily replaced, and the bulk of power generation now comes from wind and bioenergy. Since the previous in-depth review in 2011, Denmark has made impressive progress towards decarbonising its energy sector while maintaining robust security of supply. Denmark’s energy intensity and carbon intensity are among the lowest of all IEA member countries.

The country has also become a world leader in system integration of variable renewable energy (VRE); it has the highest share of wind power in electricity generation, and electricity supply is stable and secure at both transmission and distribution levels. Denmark is also among the global leaders in using energy-efficient technologies, including combined heat and power (CHP), which provides half the electricity and two-thirds of heat sold in the country.

“It is highly encouraging to see that wind power is becoming market competitive,” said Paul Simons, the IEA Deputy Executive Director, who presented the report in Denmark. “Tapping into the large offshore wind resource will help Denmark decarbonise even further.”

“Denmark is now widely recognised as a global leader in integrating variable renewable energy while at the same time maintaining a highly reliable and secure electricity system, thanks to a flexible domestic power system and a high level of cross-border connections,” said Mr Simons.

The heating sector is also critical for Denmark’s low-carbon ambitions. Denmark is already switching from coal to biomass in district heating, and is favouring renewables over oil and natural gas in individual heating. These trends will have to continue in order for Denmark to meet its targets.

Denmark’s large-scale use of combined heat and power plants with heat storage capacity, and the increasing deployment of wind power offer great potential for efficient integration of heat and electricity systems, for example through large heat pumps. Smart policies and measures are essential to realise that potential at least cost. Finding the right levels of taxation for fuels and electricity is particularly important.

Energy-related CO2 emissions are declining overall, thanks to a combination of energy efficiency improvements and fuel switching to renewables. As in all countries, more needs to be done to limit emissions from transport.

Source: IEA

The European Union has launched a new strategic partnerships program for the implementation of the Paris Agreement to scale up European climate policy collaborations with other major economies, the EU announced late on Wednesday.

The program is co-financed by the EU's Partnership Instrument with €20 million and with €5 million from the German International Climate Initiative.

The EU views that cooperation between major economies is necessary to achieve the climate objectives that have been agreed. "A decisive and confident response from all major economies is required to curtail climate change as they represent a large share of global population, economic output and greenhouse gas emissions," the statement shows.

According to the EU's statement, "the EU will back up its political commitment with concrete action to cooperate more closely with major economies to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and environmentally-friendly practices more broadly."

The EU views these partnerships as facilitating the exchange of climate policy options to advance bilateral cooperation on investment and to contribute to improving public awareness.

The program will also cover small projects at national level, study visits, workshops and business forums, the EU said.

In addition, the EU has adopted a joint project, the Business Support to the EU-India Policy Dialogues. This project will provide €3.8 million in funding to further develop EU-India partnership by promoting sustainable energy and urbanization, as well as environmentally-friendly practices.

Source: aa.com.tr

Tesla is about to complete the construction of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in South Australia and fulfil Elon Musk’s assurance to deliver the project within 100 days.

Jay Weatherill, the Premier of South Australia, reported that Tesla has finished installing the battery powerpacks, and that the 129 megawatthour (MWh) battery project will be energised and tested to ensure that it meets the government’s regulatory requirements and that it serves the Australian energy market properly.

He said: “The world’s largest lithium-ion battery will be an important part of our energy mix and it sends the clearest message that South Australia will be a leader in renewable energy with battery storage”.

“While others are just talking, we are delivering our energy plan, making South Australia more self-sufficient and providing backup power and more affordable energy for South Australians this summer”, he added.
The battery facility is located in Jamestown, connected to the 270MW Hornsdale Wind Farm wind farm aiming to stabilise the grid.

Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday: “Congratulations to the Tesla crew and South Australian authorities who worked so hard to get this manufactured and installed in record time”.

The mega battery project is a key part of South Australia’s $550 million energy plan which in the wake of the recent state-wide blackout is particularly focused on energy security.

Jay Weatherill had then stated that “battery storage is the future of our national energy market and the eyes of the world will be following our leadership in this space”.

It is expected not only to prevent power blackouts, but also improve network reliability, better integration of renewables and help even out energy prices volatility.

When the project was announced, Elon Musk put a self-imposed deadline of 100 days to deliver the project after the signing of the agreement, which took place this September.

Had he failed, the project would be delivered for free, meaning that the company would lose approximately $50 million, according to Musk’s statement.

Tim Flannery from Climate Council, an Australian consultancy, had praised the project by saying that “South Australia is tackling climate change head-on and should be congratulated for its innovation and leadership as it transforms our energy system into one that’s clean, affordable, efficient and secure”.

Source: Climateaction

The European wind industry contributed €36 billion to the European Union’s GDP in 2016, according to WindEurope's Local Impact, Global Leadership report on Tuesday.

The amount supports 263,000 jobs and generated €8 billion in exports outside Europe.

The report carried out by Deloitte for WindEurope outlines what the wind industry saves Europe in terms of reduced fossil fuel imports (€32 billion from 2011-2016) and CO₂ emissions (166 million tons of CO₂ in 2016) and what it contributes to government tax revenues (€4.9 billion in 2016).

According to the report, every €1,000 of turnover generated in the wind industry generates €250 of economic activity in other sectors such as metals, chemicals, electrical equipment and machinery, construction and engineering. Much of the industry and supply chain is located in economically less-advantaged areas.

"This brings quality jobs to those areas: 82 percent of the 263,000 jobs are high-skilled,” the report added.
Giles Dickson, WindEurope's CEO said that wind energy is a smart choice for the economy.

“It's a European industrial success story. But it's at risk. Clear and ambitious targets and policies are essential to sustain the jobs and growth our industry supports," he said.

He also stated that the EU needs a renewables target of at least 35 percent by 2030.

Anders Runevad, group president & CEO of Vestas said the wind industry is key in lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

"Wind energy is cheaper than many fossil fuels and it’s time for the EU to review its 2030 renewable energy target and raise it to at least 35 percent," he said.

"On top of that, we need to continue working on adapting markets, policies and public infrastructure to reflect a future energy system with more renewables. By doing so, the sector will continue to grow, create jobs and investments, and a more sustainable energy mix," he explained.

Source: aa.com.tr

Article

Local impact, global leadership
The impact of wind energy on jobs and the EU economy

Wind energy has transitioned in the last decade from a niche technology to an industrial sector that Provides Europe with clean, competitive and reliable energy. In the process Europe has built up a world-beating wind energy industry with turbine manufacturers that lead the global market, developers with an international footprint and unmatched research and innovation capability.

This report details the economic footprint of the wind sector from 2011 to 2016 to inform the discussions on Europe’s energy future as part of the Clean Energy Package1 . It also recommends the policy and other measures that are needed to ensure Europe gets the most out of wind energy.

Click here to read the full report.

Source: Wind Europe and Deloitte

Source: EMRA