Tallest, mightiest and widest

Cutting the cost of wind power by 30%

 

From RenewEconomy

The Spanish wind turbine technology company Nabrawind has confirmed that it will supply 17 of its giant, self-lifting wind turbine towers for Fortescue’s first wind project, describing them as “the tallest, the mightiest, the widest” in the world.

Nabrawind, now fully owned by Fortescue following a deal announced last year, has been testing the first of its installations for Fortescue’s 133 megawatt (MW) Nullagine wind farm in the Pilbara with Chinese turbine supplier Envision.

“This project brings together, for the first time in an onshore wind farm, the highest hub height (188 metres), the highest power rating (7.8 megawatts), and the largest rotor (182 metres) ever deployed in combination,” Nabrawind said in a LinkedIn post this week.

Nabrawind, which was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Pamplona, Spain, was fully acquired by Fortescue last year, following at least two investments into the company in 2023 and 2024.

The main interest in Nabrawind technology is its Self-Erecting System (SES) that negates the need for large-size cranes in favour of a self-erecting, three-column framed structure that can be installed in segments under an integrated wind turbine generator consisting of tower, nacelle, and rotor.

According to Nabrawind, the full cost of its towers, including foundation, logistics, and installation, is between 15 to 30 per cent less than traditional towers. Similarly, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 40 per cent, compared to traditional towers, as is the assembly platform’s emissions.

Additionally, despite boasting a hub height of 188 metres, the Nabralift towers maintain a maximum tubular diameter of around 4.6 metres, making them easier to transport by adhering to standard road infrastructure, thus helping to reduce logistical complexity in remote locations.

Nabrawind says the self-erecting allows super-tall towers to be installed with standard cranes, and it means that the turbine can be installed at wind speeds of up to 15 m/s [33.5 mph], significantly reducing delays caused by strong winds.

The extra height is useful to access the best possible conditions in low-wind areas (such as Pilbara).

The Nullagine project is likely to be the first stage of a potential 2 gigawatt facility, mostly on the adjoining Bonney Downs lease, and will form a major part of the five gigawatts of wind, solar and battery capacity that Fortescue needs to reach its target of “real zero” in the Pilbara by 2030.

That target means burning no fossil fuels for terrestrial activities by the end of the decade, and the full electrification of transport and mining equipment. It has now installed 12 fully electric excavators, has taken delivery of its first two electric locomotives and is trialling giant 274 tonne electric haul trucks.

Meanwhile, Envision has announced that it has successfully grid-connected the first AI wind turbine prototype for the Nullagine project, it’s its first major project in Australia.

“The achievement marks a major milestone in Envision’s presence in the Australian renewable energy market and underscores the potential of physical AI system to enable large-scale industrial decarbonization across the country,” it said in a statement.

Replacing coal in the world's largest isolated grid

 From RenewEconomy

The Western Australian government is about to embark on an ambitious investment to replace its last two publicly-owned coal generators with wind, solar and battery storage – enough to take the state’s main grid – the biggest isolated grid in the world – to 70 per cent renewables.  

Earlier this week, Western Australian energy minister Bill Johnston unveiled a plan to invest $3.8 billion in new projects before the end of the decade, to build the capacity needed to replace the soon to be closed Muja and Collie coal fired power station.

The investment – which will be managed by government-owned utility Synergy – is expected to deliver upwards of 800MW of new wind generation capacity and more than 1,100MW of new energy storage capacity – the latter to consist mostly of big battery projects.

It would mark an almost doubling of WA’s wind generation capacity, which currently sits at around 1,000MW, and a substantial increase to the state’s energy storage capacity.

Synergy is currently developing a 100MW/200MWh ‘big battery’ project at the site of the Kwinana Power Station, expected to be operational by the end of this year.

Alinta also has a proposal for a big battery near the Wagerup refinery, but apart from existing and proposed big batteries in the Pilbara, a separate grid, Western Australian main grid does not feature any large scale battery projects.


Synergy says the specific details of the future renewable energy and storage projects are yet to be finalised, but will almost certainly involve the roll out of a number of additional battery projects, potentially repurposing infrastructure at the Muja and Collie power stations – similar to a proposal put forward by Ross Garnaut’s Sunshot Energy.

The WA government expects that by the end of the decade, the state will host as much as 4,400MW of energy storage capacity, when other energy storage projects, community battery projects and residential battery systems are accounted for.

This could include the state’s first pumped hydro energy storage project – with the WA government understood to be aiming for between 400 and 800MW of pumped hydro capacity – with Synergy to kick-start a feasibility study.

Under the plan announced on Tuesday, the 340MW Collie power station will close in 2027. The last two remaining units of the 1,100MW Muja power station – the C and D units – will close in 2024 and 2029, respectively.


Johnson says the viability of the two coal fired power stations is becoming eroded by strong growth in renewables uptake, particularly in rooftop solar, and it not longer made sense to prop up the generators.

Just over a third of WA households – around 400,000 in total – currently have solar installed with a combined capacity of more than 1,350MW. The state government expects uptake will grow until 2030 and beyond, with more than half of all WA households set to feature rooftop solar by 2030.

A new planning report by the Australian Energy Market Operator released on Friday predicts “distributed solar”, which includes household rooftop solar mentioned above, commercial solar and small PV plants, will grow by at least 240MW a year from 2.2GW to more than 4.5GW in ten years.

The growth in distributed solar, and the government’s active investment in new large-scale solar, wind and storage projects will help the state reach 70 per cent renewables by 2040, with the remainder largely provided by gas generation.

That share of renewable energy generation represents a doubling of the state’s renewables share, and may disappoint some energy activists who say a faster and bigger switch to renewables is possible.

Western Australia's grid is isolated from the interlinked grid of eastern Australia because of distance not ideology, unlike Texas's isolating from the North American grid.   WA is 4 times the size of Texas.  WA has excellent solar and wind resources, so that running a 100% renewables grid is perfectly feasible.  

World's largest renewable hub

 From The Guardian

An international consortium wants to build what would be the world’s biggest renewable energy hub in Australia’s south-west to convert wind and solar power into green fuels like hydrogen.

The group of energy companies announced the proposal over a 15,000 sq km area that could have a 50 gigawatt capacity and cost $100bn.

An area bigger than the size of greater Sydney has been identified in the south-east of Western Australia with “consistently high levels of wind and solar energy”.

Guardian Australia understands the Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) could cost about $100bn.

The project’s 50gW capacity compares to the 54gW of generation capacity of all the coal, gas and renewables plants currently in the National Energy Market, which includes all states except WA and the Northern Territory. Australia’s biggest coal plant is just 2.9gW.

InterContinental Energy, CWP Global and Mirning Green Energy Limited announced plans for the mega project on Tuesday, saying it wants to build the scheme in three phases to produce up to 3.5m tonnes of green hydrogen or 20m tonnes of green ammonia each year.

Guardian Australia understands the consortium is looking to produce the first fuels from the project by 2030, and will look to construct an offshore facility to transfer fuels onto ships.

The consortium – which includes an Indigenous-owned energy company – said it wanted to tap into a global market for green hydrogen it expects will be worth US$50tn by 2050. About 30gW of the hub would focus on wind, with the rest coming from solar power.

Hydrogen and ammonia produced at the hub would be destined for use in power stations, shipping, heavy industry and aviation.

The hub would be larger than a 45gW renewables project announced by German company Svevind Energy and planned for Kazakhstan, reported to be the world’s biggest renewables project proposed so far.

[The hub will be located between the town of  Kalgoorlie and the Shire of Dundas, which runs along the WA south coast]

The old gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie, WA