Energy News

Basically, biomass energy is the energy that results from rotting organic materials. It's as simple as that. This energy ultimately from the sun, is stored in the various materials, whether it be organic waste from municipal garbage collection, or some form of plant waste from forestry or agriculture, all of these "waste" products can be used to produce a variety of things including power. The 2007 statistics showed that 53% of the USA's energy came from this source.

Just as wood has been used to heat and cook for thousands of years, and the animal waste from herbivores has been used for that same purpose, as well as for building materials, we are finding more and more ways to use this herbaceous material to produce fuel and power.

A variety of perennial plants are being used as dedicated energy crops. They can be harvested yearly, take very few years to come into full fruition and are comprised of a large variety of fast growing grasses including elephant grass, bamboo and a huge variety of others.

Bamboo image  

Agricultural crops mainly from corn, soybeans, wheat and other vegetables yield fuel, plastics and chemicals while the stalks, leaves and husks from these crops are used commercially. In the case of corn alone, there are approximately 80 million acres planted annually in the US.

Corn image  

In addition to the biomass from agriculture, modern biomass users have all of the extraneous vegetation from logging sites in forestry, large of amounts of aquatic plants like kelp and seaweed, residues from lumbering like sawdust and municipal waste like paper, cardboard and yard clippings. Even animal waste can be used as our processing becomes better and more finely tuned.

Kelp image  

The ultimate recycling program will see every bit of our societal waste re-entering the stream as an alternate power source.

Biopower

Biopower, including direct combustion, co-firing, and anaerobic digestion, is the production of electricity or heat from biomass resources.

Most electricity generated from biomass is produced by combustion by burning these resources, producing steam which drives a turbine that activates a generator that produces electricity.

Co-firing, on the other hand, involves replacing a portion of the petroleum-based fuel in high-efficiency coal-fired boilers with biomass. The main advantage is that it reduces the sulfur dioxide emissions of coal-fired power plants.

Finally, anaerobic digestion, or methane recovery is the kind of organic breakdown that goes on in our backyard composters and produces heat and with other technologies added, electricity.

Offshore wind power: AREVA technology chosen to develop the Saint-Brieuc wind farm, alongside Iberdrola and EOLE-RES

April 06, 2012

As part of the call for tenders for offshore wind power in France, the French government has just awarded a contract to the consortium led by Iberdrola and EOLE-RES for the development of the Saint-Brieuc (Cotes-d'Armor) wind farm, which was the most competitive field with three different technologies proposed. AREVA will build 100 turbines of 5 MW each for this wind farm, which is scheduled to enter into operation between 2017 and 2019, and will generate enough electricity to power a town of around 650,000 inhabitants.

The selection of the AREVA M5000 wind turbine by Iberdrola and RES, two leading energy operators, of which Iberdrola is the leader in renewables, demonstrates their recognition of the experience AREVA has acquired over the past years. In the North Sea, AREVA started up the Alpha Ventus pilot wind farm in 2009 and, by the end of 2013, will have installed more than 120 wind turbines, thereby maintaining its leading position in the high-power turbines market. 

AREVA will create two plants at Le Havre, one to manufacture turbines and the other for blades. This industrial base is ideally placed to supply the largest offshore wind power market in the world, the Channel and the North Sea. In total, AREVA's wind power activities will enable the creation of some 2,000 jobs, through an extensive network of partners and suppliers throughout France, mainly concentrated in Brittany. Furthermore, AREVA's partners have signed agreements with other French industrial players, including STX in Saint-Nazaire, to build the wind turbine foundations.

Luc Oursel, AREVA CEO, declared: "We are delighted that the quality of our response to the call for tenders has been recognized by the French government and we are very proud to be part of the most coveted field. Renewables are at the heart of AREVA's strategy, and our experience will allow us to be actively involved in the development of an industry which will create jobs in France and export heavily."