Securing an intergovernmental agreement between the UK and Ireland to facilitate the export of Irish wind energy is crucial to the future of the multi-billion euro midlands wind project.
"We need that intergovernmental agreement. We need that this year; any delay to that, is a delay to the project. Each delay to the project curtails it," said Mainstream Power's founder and CEO Eddie O'Connor.
"The earlier we get an intergovernmental agreement, the sooner we can start spending this money. Before we can spend seriously big money we need to see that both governments are committed."
Mr O'Connor was speaking at a conference in Tullamore where some of the world's leading manufacturers of wind farm components and transmission technology met to discuss the potential of setting up a supply chain in the midlands worth at least 7bn.
Between 2016 and 2020, Mainstream's 5,000 megawatt Energy Bridge alone will require 1,700 turbine towers, 5,000 blades, 1,700 nacelles, 16,000km of inter-array cabling, 1,700 convertors, 30 electrical substations and 400km of HVDC underground cables. Rather than importing these materials, which are worth well in excess of 7bn, the plan is to attract these manufacturers to set up base in Ireland employing tens of thousands of people locally.
Mr O'Connor said if you could show the companies the development was going ahead they would locate manufacturing plants here.
Larry de Vaal, business development manager with wind turbine manufacturer XEMC Darwind said: "XEMC Darwind has already looked at manufacturing opportunities in Ireland and with a project of this scale there is a very real opportunity to locate component manufacturing, assembly, installation and long-term maintenance here in the midlands."
However, Mr O'Connor said that there is a narrow window of opportunity during which Ireland needs to move or else the whole project will fail.
"We have taken an awful lot of risk upfront in anticipation that they (Government) will do what they said that they will do.
"There is a need in Britain for renewable power as they are committed in law to have 15% of their power generated by renewables by 2020. We have a window of opportunity we either take it now, use it of lose it."
With this insight and reports of global growth forecasts in renewable energy from both financial and market analysts in mind, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics today announced its strategic initiatives for composite bearings applications in renewable energy markets.
The Bearings and Tolerance Rings Group at Saint-Gobain designs composite bearings solutions that withstand harsh vibration, improve efficiency, extend performance and reduce operational downtime in both solar energy and wind turbine applications. As part of its strategic focus in renewable energy markets, Saint-Gobain has added the design engineering expertise of industrial global market manager, Edward Rumble, to its team. With his extensive design and engineering experience, Rumble will lead the increasing efforts to develop the next generation of composite bearings for solar and wind applications.
"Renewable energy, fuelled by innovative solar and wind turbine technologies, will prove to be the future of sustainable power generation", says Rumble. "To help today's and tomorrow's leaders in renewable energy production, we are committed to partnering with OEMs to deliver innovative solutions that enhance efficiency in solar and wind applications."
For the solar market, Saint-Gobain manufactures an innovative, maintenance-free composite bearing. Proprietary fluoropolymer compounds in Solglide composite bearings increase the long-term operational efficiency of solar equipment, reduce energy usage and decrease long-term costs.
沒有留言:
張貼留言