During the celebrations for the IRO’s 50th anniversary on 23 June 2022, Mark Heine was presented as the new Chair of the IRO.

Keliber has completed the first three phases of a four-phase pilot-scale test programme. A high conversion rate of 96.3% was achieved in a continuous high-temperature conversion pilot trial performed in cooperation with FLSmidth.

Hatch recently hosted the 53rd annual H.G. Acres Symposium at the office in Mississauga, Ontario. The event brought together twelve presenters from the power industry, along with clients, partners, and Hatch colleagues, to delve into the theme of “Powering Positive Change” and discuss hydropower and its key role in the clean energy transition.

The Netherlands’ Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy commissioned Fugro to assess whether areas of the North Sea could simultaneously be used for offshore wind farm (OWF) developments as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS) solutions.

Keeyask hydroelectric station can generate up to 695 MW of clean electricity

• Global survey commissioned by ABB highlights current and future plans of companies to invest in energy efficiency to achieve Net Zero
• 90 percent will increase spending over the next five years while 52 percent plan to achieve Net Zero within the same period
• Growing impact of energy costs on profitability means that energy efficiency is receiving a higher priority, yet cost and downtime are major barriers to investment

bp and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG have awarded Fugro a geotechnical site investigation contract for their new offshore wind farms, Morgan and Mona, located in the Irish Sea.

Orica and H2U Group announced a strategic partnership agreement to initiate the first phase of the proposed H2-Hub™ Gladstone project in Queensland. 

Martijn van Keulen has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board. He assumes this new role as of April 1st, 2022.

TC Energy has selected Hatch to facilitate Independent Reservoir Safety Advisory Board for new pumped storage project

Australia’s resources and energy export earnings are forecast to surge to a record high $425 billion for 2021-22. 

Fugro has won a contract to deliver a high-value multi-year seabed Geo-data acquisition and geo-consultancy services to QatarEnergy as part of the redevelopment of the Bul Hanine and Maydan Mahzam fields in offshore Qatar.

CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd (CLP) has awarded Fugro a 3-year non-destructive testing (NDT) and environmental monitoring contract for three power plants undergoing transition to cleaner gas-fired generation units in Hong Kong.

Costain has been awarded funding by the Welsh Government’s Smart Living HyBRID SBRI initiative to undertake a project which looks at the feasibility of small scale hydrogen production in South Wales. HyBRID (Hydrogen Business Research & Innovation for Decarbonisation) is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funded by Welsh Government Smart Living.

Fugro’s Blue Essence uncrewed surface vessel (USV) has been awarded the Energy Industry Game Changer Award at the 2021 Energy Club WA Award, an initiative of the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE). The award is presented to an individual or team who have made an outstanding contribution to the energy industry resulting in significant advancement of the industry’s knowledge and capability.

The Fugro and Woodside teams were presented with the award following the successful completion of the first entirely remote inspection project on 125 km of Woodside's gas trunklines, utilising the new Blue Essence 12 m USV, Fugro Maali in 2021.

Fugro’s USV offers a unique solution for subsea inspection that requires no offshore crew and demonstrates the many benefits of remote operations such as a reduction in CO2 emissions by up to 97% when compared to a traditional vessel solution, and the ability to remove personnel from high-risk environments. The USV and e-ROV conducted successful over-the-horizon operations during the project, further demonstrating the capabilities of this technology.

Paul Mullins, Director of Remote Operations for APAC said: “Fugro’s USVs and remote operations are changing the way the industry carries out subsea inspection operations and over the coming year the team will be pushing the boundaries on additional USV capabilities.”

Source: Fugro

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali started up the first turbine of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the large dam in roller compacted concrete (RCC) being built by Webuild on the Blue Nile in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz in Ethiopia.

Fugro’s Seawatch Wind Lidar Buoy has achieved the highest commercial maturity rating, Stage 3, in accordance with the Carbon Trust Roadmap for the Commercial Acceptance of floating LiDAR technology. Fugro’s floating lidar system is the first in the world to gain this Stage 3 rating, which certifies the Seawatch Wind Lidar Buoy as a primary source of wind resource data to support financial investment decisions for offshore wind farms.

The Resilience as a Service (RaaS) project, led by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution, Costain and E.ON, welcomes the positive decision to progress the development of a pilot scheme to improve energy resilience in remote and rural areas through the use of battery storage technology together with local energy resources.

Outokumpu has signed a 10-year power supply agreement for renewable wind power with Swiss electricity producer Alpiq. The amount of contracted wind power energy corresponds to over 60% of Outokumpu’s electricity consumption at its production sites in Germany. According to the agreement, deliveries will begin in January 2023.

Increasing the share of low-carbon electricity is one of the most important methods for Outokumpu to achieve its ambitious climate targets. In total, the share of low-carbon electricity in Outokumpu's European operations is already over 80 percent.

“With another new wind power agreement, we can strengthen the role of renewable energy in the sustainable development of our operations even further. With our direction towards low-carbon energy sources, Outokumpu is supporting in the transition to more sustainable energy sources such as wind power,” says Mika Orpana, Head of Energy and Utilities, General Procurement at Outokumpu.

Earlier, Outokumpu has announced two other 10-year wind power agreements. Together these agreements support Outokumpu’s ambitious science-based climate targets which are aligned with keeping global warming below 1.5°C. The updated targets were announced in December 2021 and support Outokumpu’s aim of being the industry leader in sustainability.

Source: Outokumpu

Cimic Group’s UGL has been named as the Principal Contractor by Snowy Hydro Limited for the construction of a 660MW power generation plant at the Hunter Power Project in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales. The contract will generate revenue to UGL of $185 million over two years.