News

£10m renewables package

Keltbray has been awarded a £10m renewables contract to deliver the design and construction of a windfarm connection for SSEN Transmission at Limekiln, Caithness in the Highlands of Scotland. The project will be delivered by Keltbray as Principal Contractor and the scope includes all civil and electrical design and build elements associated with the connection. On-site construction is expected to commence in July ’22, with the target energisation date for the windfarm as April ’24.

New contract

Jumbo Maritime has awarded Fugro a positioning and metocean services contract to help guide the safe transport and installation of a new floating production system (FPS) for Vito, a deepwater development in the US Gulf of Mexico. Fugro services will support both inshore and offshore towing of the 24,000-ton structure as it leaves the coast of Texas and travels 800 km to the Vito field for final positioning and hook-up. The project is expected to be executed in summer 2022.

Growth plan

Solenis, a leading global producer of specialty chemicals, has acquired Neu Kimya Anonim Sirketi (Neu Kimya). Located ¸ in Istanbul, Turkey, Neu Kimya serves the heavy/light water treatment and oil and gas markets in Turkey, Southeast Europe and the Middle East. The acquisition of Neu Kimya will offer customers in the region improved product and service offerings. “This new acquisition adds to our strategic growth plan following our recent ownership change to Platinum Equity,” said John Panichella, CEO, Solenis. “With the ongoing support from the Platinum Equity team, we continue to proactively seek other opportunities for similar acquisitions that enhance our ability to serve customers.”

US solar deal

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has chosen Exus Management Partners (Exus), a leading expert in powering sustainable investments through operational excellence, to provide its full range of asset management services for the Greasewood, Misae, and Sage solar projects across Texas and Utah, totaling 750MW.

The deal takes Exus’ partnership with CIP in North America to over 2GW across wind and solar, with CIP having previously appointed Exus as asset manager at the 477MW Fighting Jays solar farm in Texas and the 700MW Travers solar project in Alberta - Canada’s largest solar farm.

The agreement marks the beginning of Exus’ relationship with Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system. Ingka Investments is part-owner of the Misae and Sage projects.

The recently signed deal incorporates a five-year initial term allowing Exus to fully demonstrate its scope of asset and financial management, operations and maintenance, and project management services.

Both solar and wind projects require high levels of technical expertise to manage effectively. Exus’ in-house team of specialists will offer CIP advice and access to the company’s custom solar optimization and reporting tool BlueSky, giving CIP complete oversight and enabling it to analyze, maximize and set performance benchmarks across all three projects.

Dhaval Bhalodia, Partner and Head of Asset Management North America at Exus, noted that the business is excited to continue building its relationship with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and begin its journey with Ingka Investments, in the US renewables space.

Mine of information

Hexagon’s Mining division has strengthened its leadership in production material monitoring and measurement by introducing HxGN MineMeasure Detect, a 3D camera hardware, software and data solution. MineMeasure Detect enables realtime optimization for plant production with automated digital-image analysis offering continuous, accurate and rapid measurement of oversize, volume, rock fragmentation and color analysis.

MineMeasure Detect minimizes production interruptions and costly downtime with oversize detection of large particles. It enhances production efficiencies and reconciliation by calculating volume, density and tonnage. Advanced detection reveals an aggregate of previously unmeasured ancillary variables, such as material density and hardness, which is essential to throughput maximization and ore liberation. “MineMeasure Detect is built on more than 25 years’ experience partnering with international mining operations, allowing systems to be fully integrated with customer technologies,” said James Dampney, VP-MineMeasure, Hexagon’s Mining division. “Combined with our fragmentation tools, the solution’s immediate detection capabilities offer a critical early warning for operators to avoid catastrophic production stoppages.

“With its image-analysis techniques ensuring that fragmentation is managed and optimized, MineMeasure Detect fits seamlessly in the MineMeasure portfolio, which delivers scrutiny and transparency in every step of the ore extraction journey.”

Rising to the challenge

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is about to become operational off the UK coast, with all 165 of its giant 8MW turbines being protected from the ravages of the North Sea by coatings supplied by AkzoNobel. Located around 89 kilometers off the east coast of England, Hornsea 2 is due to be up and running by mid-2022. It has the capacity to produce more than 1.3 gigawatts of energy – enough to power over 1.3 million homes.

The foundations of all the turbines (which tower 204 meters above sea level) have been coated with Interzone 954 from the company’s International brand. Originally designed for the demanding protection of offshore oil and gas structures, the product has now also become the go-to solution for offshore wind farms.

“It’s fantastic to be involved in such an ambitious project with this kind of size and scale,” says Simon Parker, Director of AkzoNobel’s Marine and Protective Coatings business. “As the world moves to a greener and more sustainable future, it’s essential that vital infrastructure isn’t just fit for purpose, but is equipped for the long-term as well.”

ABB, working alongside Hyundai Engineering and Técnicas Reunidas, has been employed to install its market leading distributed control system (DCS) ABB Ability™ System 800xA at PKN Orlen’s Olefin III complex in Plock, Poland. The project is Europe’s largest petrochemical investment in 20 years. Olefin III will increase production capacity by approximately 60 per cent and represents a $3 billion investment, expanding the existing site by 100 hectares.

By integrating ABB Ability™ System 800xA control architecture across the entire mega development, PKN Orlen will be able to constantly monitor and analyze plant productivity, maximizing asset performance, managing power consumption, ensuring product quality, and optimizing process efficiency in real time.

Harnessing this continuous stream of data, the company, in line with its objective to achieve a 30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions per ton of product, will be able to make more accurate, informed decisions to drive efficient use of energy. This includes maintaining tight controls over raw material consumption, plant energy levels and waste by-products.

“As part of our sustainability strategy, ABB is committed to supporting our customers in reducing their annual CO2 emissions by more than 100 megatons by 2030. Combining our expertise in the market alongside our leading DCS technology for complex plant operations we can help PKN Orlen to maximize its return on investment,” said Brandon Spencer, President ABB Energy Industries.

Emissions reduction at Plock

Energy solution

Briggs & Stratton Energy Solutions has released its SimpliPHI Energy Storage System (ESS): an integrated, scalable solution with proprietary hardware and software designed to empower customers to store, manage and control energy from multiple generation sources to achieve critical power security and daily cost savings. Named after SimpliPhi Power, Inc. (SimpliPhi Power) - the California-based manufacturer of energy storage systems acquired by Briggs & Stratton, LLC in 2021 - the all-new integrated ESS comes as an answer to the rising demand for access to reliable, safe and affordable energy serving both residential and commercial markets.

“Both Briggs & Stratton and SimpliPhi Power have a longstanding history of providing energy solutions built with quality and dependability as the highest priority. Coming together as one company, we’ve successfully leveraged the team’s complementary expertise to deliver more choice and more control than ever before so our customers have access to power when it matters most,” said Tom Rugg, senior vice president and president, Energy Solutions at Briggs & Stratton.

“Our energy storage solutions are held to industry-leading standards. From the chemistry, form factor and manufacturing processes of the batteries to the testing and validation requirements on behalf of our customers, we seek to provide a safer and more reliable solution,” added Catherine Von Burg, president and CEO, SimpliPhi Power.