news
Natural Power opens new office in Inverness
août 2010
Leading renewable energy consultancy Natural Power has opened a new office in Inverness, Scotland, offering ecology and construction services locally to projects in the Highlands. The site is situated in the Dochfour Estate to the west of Inverness. In addition to the ecology team it will provide a base for Natural Power’s construction personnel working on the Camster, Rosehall and Lochluichart wind farms.
Natural Power is currently conducting ecology work on over forty UK wind farm sites, both onshore and offshore, and the Inverness office will allow their increasing portfolio of client projects in the north of Scotland to be dealt with from a local base.
Richard Walls, Ecology Team Leader at Natural Power commented: ‘This new office will allow us work more effectively for our clients in the area and continue to manage all ecology related aspects of wind farm projects, throughout preconstruction, construction and operational phases. We hope that the establishment of our new office will attract experts in the field to join us in meeting the increasing demand for ecology and construction services in the north of Scotland.’
Natural Power is a globally based company and also has offices in France, the US, Chile and Canada. Inverness represents the company’s eighth office in the UK and twelfth office internationally. The Natural Power group now also includes offshore experts SeaRoc, and Turkish / Eastern European experts re-consult.
Natural Power Commissions UK’s First Lidar & Sodar Test Site
août 2010
Leading renewable energy consultancy Natural Power has commissioned the UK’s first dedicated Lidar & Sodar test site. A 90 meter met mast situated in Worcestershire enables correlation reports to be made against ground based devices to provide traceability back to traditional anemometry. The site promotes ongoing testing and validation of innovations in Lidar and Sodar technology and is open to all remote sensing manufacturers, developers, consultancies, research organisations and turbine manufacturers alike. Using Lidars & Sodars with an agreed traceable validation methodology is not only advantageous to the development of the technologies, but the ‘good practice’ proves beneficial to wind farm developers.
Natural Power’s Test Site comprises a meteorological mast equipped with state of the art instrumentation mounted across a total of seven heights, including calibrated Risø cups and Vector 100L cups based at 20m, 45m, 70m and 90m; a pressure sensor logger at 6m and a temperature sensor mounted at 80m. The instruments provide a wealth of traditional wind and environmental measurements including wind speed, direction, shear and turbulence which can be used to compare the data captured by any Lidar or Sodar.
Ian Locker, MD of the ZephIR business within Natural Power noted: “The future for remote sensing devices, such as our own ZephIR Lidar, is bright. The new test site, which is the first of its kind in the UK, will allow project developers and banks’ engineers to carry out independent validations of Lidar and Sodar performance against traditional cup anemometry. The equipment installed builds confidence in the device measurements at higher heights and, with long term data sets usually measured at lower levels, we can now offer low level correlation. Most importantly, traceability of performance is achieved and this is essential as Lidar becomes ever more widely adopted across our industry. Natural Power offer validation services not only to our ZephIR client base but also to other Lidar and Sodar manufacturers and users.”
The site has been approved for use by technical and engineering services provider GL Garrad Hassan who are also available to provide independent calibration studies on Natural Power's site. Andrew Tindal, Director at GL Garrad Hassan commented: “It is very positive to see the UK gain a quality remote sensing test site with a 90m mast. We have supported Natural Power through the site’s design and in defining operational validation methodologies. GL Garrad Hassan are very well positioned to provide validation reports at this site for other clients investing in Lidar & Sodar devices and look forward to offering this service in the UK as well as at the GL Garrad Hassan test site at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog in Germany.”
To book your device correlation
or for more information sayhello@naturalpower.com
Natural Power’s Asset Management Team score hat trick of new site management contracts
juillet 2010
Leading renewable energy consultancy, Natural Power, has completed contractual agreements for a hat trick of new wind farm sites on their home ground. The globally operating company, headquartered in Scotland, will provide a full range of services and market leading products to the Craigengelt, Tullo and Hill of Fiddes wind farms.
Craigengelt wind farm near Falkirk, Scotland, will be managed on behalf of GDF SUEZ Energy UK. The 20MW site comprising of 8 Nordex turbines is now operational, with Natural Power providing a full range of management services including 24 hour monitoring and control through the market leading operations control centre, WindCentre, a local site manager for provision of health and safety management and high voltage management to SAP level and site performance analysis through Melogale, the independent operational data analysis service.
The same support will also be provided to Eneco Wind UK Ltd at the Tullo wind farm near Laurencekirk, Scotland. The site has 7 Nordex turbines and a 17.5MW capacity. Natural Power’s construction team will provide site management services in the project delivery phase which is due to be completed by October 2010.
The 6.9 MW Hill of Fiddes wind farm in Aberdeenshire will be managed on behalf of Broadview Energy Ltd. The site, which has 3 Enercon turbines, is in the final stages of commissioning and will be managed under a similar scope of works to Craigengelt and Tullo, with the exclusion of HV services.
Speaking about the new contracts Scott MacKenzie, Associate Director of Asset Management at Natural Power said: “Natural Power are delighted to have grown our managed portfolio through these three new contracts to approximately 600MW. We are particularly pleased that three new clients have recognised the significant health, safety and operational benefits of WindCentre and Melogale when used in parallel with specialist wind farm managers.”
E.ON stream live data from ZephIR for forecasting / operational support on Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm
juin 2010
E.ON's Climate & Renewables Operations Team have deployed Natural Power’s ZephIR lidar as part of a meteorological forecasting system to undergo a six month trial feeding live wind data for use by specialist meteorological organisations to optimise power forecasting tools, correlate weather patterns and to ensure the safe organisation of maintenance teams working across the wind farm.
The project sees a ZephIR lidar system capable of taking 50 data points of wind speed every second, across 5 user defined heights, being deployed 12km out to sea on one of the Robin Rigg 132kV Offshore Substation Structures. A new communications interface developed by Natural Power for ZephIR has been jointly tested by Natural Power and E.ON enabling live data from the ZephIR to be collected by an E.ON Data Server.
Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm is located in the Solway Firth off the coast of North Cumbria, UK with a total site capacity of 180MW (60 x 3MW Vestas V90 turbines).
Colin Hodgkins, C&I Engineer at E.ON, commented on the success of the project so far: “Natural Power have provided us with a flexible wind resource tool – E.ON and Natural Power worked closely together to test the data streaming interface onshore before shipping the ZephIR to the offshore substation. I am very pleased to say that the interface tested successfully first time and we are now keen to take this live data into our data systems in order to make big steps forward in both meteorological forecasting to enhance power production and operational planning for the site.”
This deployment is just one example of a number of special projects currently being developed by Natural Power’s ZephIR team who are pioneering the use of lidar in the wind industry across a range of applications such as ground based, offshore and turbine mounted.
Ian locker, ZephIR Director commented: “Working with E.ON on this project has been very encouraging. Our ZephIR system is very flexible in terms of user configuration with it’s ease of deployment and siting showing significant benefits over more traditional anemometry. The successful installation of the ZephIR represents the latest phase of Natural Power’s 10 year involvement in the Robin Rigg project, Scotland’s first large scale offshore wind farm. Natural Power have been involved throughout the project’s life, providing consultancy and management services ranging from project design, wind analysis, EIA and consents management, HV switching / Safety Rules support and ongoing environmental management services.”
For more information get some sayhello@naturalpower.com
or visit www.naturalpower.com/zephir
Turkish wind consultancy re-consult joins the Natural Power group
juin 2010
re-consult, leading wind consultants based in Turkey, are joining the Natural Power group, capable of providing end-to-end services for the renewable energy industry both onshore and offshore. The announcement follows almost four years of successful operation under a framework agreement. This original agreement has already led to more than 4GW of technical and due diligence projects between the two companies. Natural Power has now acquired a majority stake in re-consult to enable the partnership to move further forward.
Natural Power and re-consult form a group of over 220 highly-skilled resource engineers, development specialists, construction engineers, marine managers, GIS experts, and asset managers based across 12 offices worldwide. This follows an earlier announcement this year that SeaRoc, offshore renewable experts, also joined the Natural Power group.
The Natural Power group stands as a world-class wind, wave and tidal service provider in the areas of due diligence, engineering, development, construction, operations and health & safety both onshore and offshore. The group create a single source for complete lifecycle services for the industry spanning Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, North America and South America.
Stuart Hall, MD of Natural Power commented: “We are delighted to welcome re-consult to the family having already provided joint services to many GW of wind projects in Turkey for a wide range of clients over the past 4 years following our initial partnership. This arrangement is the natural next step to provide Turkey and other areas in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia with the experience of over 220 renewable energy experts through a local office with key technical staff.”
Christian Johannes, General Manager of re-consult noted: “We are proud to be the leading wind consultancy in Turkey providing high quality, high value services in the area. The Natural Power group enables us to deliver more to our customers including bespoke products and tools in addition to new lifecycle services which are required in our market. We will now be able to offer active consultancy covering the entire life-cycle of a wind farm project from start to finish.”
Natural Power's new venture in Nantes, France
juin 2010
Leading international renewable energy consultancy, Natural Power, has extended its presence and customer support base in France with the establishment of a new office in Nantes. The company will now operate from 12 offices worldwide with this office being the second venture in France having established the first in Strasbourg in 2004. The office, led by Thierry Ripoche, will provide development and construction services in addition to the vital due diligence role Natural Power already play across Europe, South America and North America.
Natural Power has provided Construction Project Management (CPM) services on more than 450 MW to date spanning twenty projects, and this will be a gateway for offering their expertise to wind farm developers in France and across Europe. In France, Ripoche has progressed 90MW of wind plant to date and is involved as Banks Engineer for the construction of over 100 MW. Natural Power has provided expert Due Diligence services on over 1GW of projects in France in 2010 alone.
Ripoche commented: “The wind industry in France is growing rapidly and from our new office we will be closer to this market. We have over 200 experts providing a broad base of knowledge, analytical capacity and hands-on expertise to assist developers and banks construct their renewable projects on time and to budget. We look forward to further developing our construction business and also our presence in the country with this second office.”
Natural Power has been present in Strasbourg since 2004 with activities primarily focused on advanced wind resource assessment, complex site modelling, operational site analysis work and due diligence for developers, financial institutes and turbine suppliers. Other Natural Power offices around the world include Chile, US, Canada, and the UK.
Thierry goes on to add: “The construction phase provides the greatest risk for unexpected difficulties to occur; being able to draw on an international base of expertise at this time is of great benefit to developers. It is also vital that experienced personnel monitor the quality and progress of works to ensure contractual obligations are met and relationships between the vast network of contractors are managed. Here at Natural Power we have the engineers, Health & Safety coordinators and Project Managers to do that.”
SeaRoc sail from strength to strength
juin 2010
Seasoned renewable industry experts Eric Briar and Toby Mead, both ex-Metoc plc, are set to join SeaRoc, the marine and offshore engineering experts within the Natural Power group of companies. Briar will take the newly formed Chief Operating Officer role building on the successes of former CEO Peter Hodgetts, whilst Mead joins as Head of Offshore Development, focussing on building SeaRoc’s profile across the wind, wave and tidal sector in the UK. Both are Master Mariners with extensive experience in Marine Planning and Operations, bringing almost 50 years of combined project knowledge with them.
On the announcement of the new positions, Stuart Hall, MD of Natural Power noted: “We are very pleased to welcome Eric and Toby back to SeaRoc where they will take up key strategic positions at a point of growth and acceleration of the company’s services. We will continue to develop SeaRoc and Natural Power products in line with our established customers’ needs and to assist new players in the onshore and offshore market achieve their development objectives.”
Following the appointment of Briar and Mead, the company target is to continue to provide quality services and to develop innovative project solutions for existing clients, such as Vattenfall, E.ON, London Array Ltd and Dong, as well as new developers in the market. In addition to core practical consulting services, SeaRoc will continue to develop high value resources and services with the market leading SeaPlanner project management suite of tools continuing to play an integral part in the company’s growth.
Commenting, Briar said: “This is an exciting time for the UK Renewables Industry and with our offshore engineering, construction and project management experience we are able to take client projects from concept to construction and beyond. Natural Power’s operational expertise plays a vital role in offering clients full life cycle services. Together we are a team positioned to deliver quality projects offshore based on our extensive real world experience.”
Mead added: “In combination with our skilled personnel and direct consultancy services, the SeaPlanner suite of tools have been hugely successful on a number of UK offshore wind projects already. The aim is to establish the use of these vessel and personnel management tools across offshore projects worldwide which when coupled with our hands-on experience is a very powerful and real solution.”
Meet our Due Diligence experts in London
mai 2010
Natural Power's Due Diligence experts will be on hand to answer all your investment questions on the 9th June at the NewNet Wind Energy Investor Forum (http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/green-energy-events/wind-energy-investor-forum-9-june-2010-london.html).
With real in-house experience of the complete wind farm project lifcycle both onshore and offshore, we are uniquely placed to offer high-value independent advice on projects, portfolios, devices and acquisitions.
If you are unable to attend this event why not email duediligence@naturalpower.com for more information on our services.
Natural Power's complex terrain experience features on NewNet News
mai 2010
Neil Douglas, Technical Director at Natural Power, speaks to New Energy World Network about the challenges facing wind project developers in complex terrain. For more information visit:
First for Latin American wind market - Mainstream deploys ZephIR
mai 2010
One of the leading developers of renewable energy, Mainstream Renewable Power, has completed the first extensive wind assessment campaign in Latin America using Natural Power’s ZephIR lidar which, based at ground level, provides remote wind measurements from 10 metres to 200 metres to aid in the development of new wind farm sites.
The deployment was in the challenging terrain of the Atacama Desert - II Region - a virtually rainless plateau covering a 600 mile strip of land on the Pacific Coast of South America. Temperatures can rise to an extreme of over 40 °C during the day and drop to -10 °C after sunset. It is these thermal effects that are of interest to Mainstream due to the effect on wind shear in the area, provoked through Katabatic winds at night time, whilst the hot desert ground during the day leads to convectional forced vertical wind components and turbulence.
Traditional anemometry such as tall masts and cup anemometers, providing wind data up to 80m above ground, were not appropriate as the sole measurements in this case due to their limited height. Mainstream looked at a range of remote sensing technologies before selecting Natural Power’s ZephIR lidar as Shane Martin, Senior Wind Analyst at Mainstream´s main office in Santiago in Chile comments:
“We were very interested in exploring the impact of these thermal effects on wind shear but were unable to use tall met masts to see the effects above hub height. Natural Power’s team in Valparaiso were able to assist us in providing a ZephIR lidar for the campaign and the system was on site within a matter of days, measuring wind characteristics from ground level through to turbine tip height, and above. The campaign was completed successfully and the ZephIR lidar allowed Mainstream to gather all quantitative data necessary for the evaluation of the project’.
Natural Power established it’s Chile office based in Valparaíso during 2009, serving the South American market. Projects to date have ranged from advanced resource analysis to construction services for a range of international clients, including this latest lidar campaign for Mainstream. Commenting on the success of the project Alexander von Pescatore, Head of Development in Chile, noted:
“It was a very positive experience to work closely with the Mainstream team on this project. Our ZephIR lidar system operated with 100% system availability and 100% data availability in some challenging terrain and environmental conditions. There are many more sites in South America which will benefit from the use of ZephIR over more traditional anemometry due to site conditions and thermal effects.”