Displaying items by tag: Wind

India: Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement said that it will spend US$200m in capital expenditure (CAPEX) during the 2021 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2021. The plans consist of a capacity expansion to 118Mt/yr from 115Mt/yr, including the completion of the 4.0Mt/yr Bara grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh and 1.2Mt/yr-worth of brownfield projects in Bihar and West Bengal. Solar and wind power capacity will increase to 350MW from 95MW, while waste heat recovery (WHR) capacity will increase to 185MW from 118MW.

Chair Kumar Birla said, “While 2021 will be a challenging year, Birla remains confident that the economy will revert to the 6 - 8% growth trajectory in 2022.”

Honduras: Cementos Argos subsidiary Argos Honduras has announced the launch of ECO Multipurpose, a 40% reduced-CO₂ general use cement produced with energy from the company’s 8.5MW solar power plant at its 1.0Mt/yr integrated Piedras Azules cement plant in Comayagua, Comayagua Department. The product is “the first environmentally-friendly cement in Honduras,” according to the cement producer.

General director Gustavo Uribe said, “With this project we are leading the industry in the country and sowing the seeds of the future for construction in Honduras, which will gradually evolve towards the adoption of the global trend of sustainable construction. At Argos, we continually work on creating products and developing projects with a positive impact on the environment and society. As a company, we assume a commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, prioritising climate change especially, and this product brings us closer to fulfilling that commitment.”

Germany: The Westküste100 green hydrogen project has received funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs. The plan is backed by an investment of Euro89m, with Euro30m of this total approved for the project’s launch in August 2020. The initiative intends to produce green hydrogen, transport it in the gas network, use it in industrial processes and to interlink different material cycles within the existing infrastructure. The consortium brings together ten partners: EDF Deutschland, Holcim Deutschland, OGE, Ørsted Deutschland, Raffinerie Heide, Heide’s municipal utility, Thüga and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, along with the Region Heide development agency and the Westküste University of Applied Sciences.

“An electrolysis plant with a capacity of 700MW - this is our vision and the next milestone in implementing the development targets laid down in the national hydrogen strategy by 2030,” said Jürgen Wollschläger, managing director of Raffinerie Heide and coordinator of the Westküste100 project.

The funding approval enables work to begin on the first phase of the project, which is set to run for five years. A newly formed joint venture, H2 Westküste, comprising EDF Deutschland, Ørsted and Raffinerie Heide, is to build a 30MW electrolyser which will produce green hydrogen from offshore wind energy and provide information on the operation, maintenance, control and grid compatibility of the equipment.

In a later stage of the project hydrogen from both electrolysis and CO₂ from a cement plant in Schleswig-Holstein will be used in the process. During the initial phase of the Westküste100 project preparations will be made for converting the Lägerdorf cement plant to an oxyfuel combustion process.

Thorsten Hahn, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Holcim (Deutschland) said, “For us, as a manufacturer of building materials, the funding approval is a key milestone on the way to decarbonising cement production. Now all of us involved in Westküste100 must move forward quickly, decisively and dynamically in order to achieve our ultimate goal of cross-sectoral coupling on a large industrial scale in the coming years.”

US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) Rapid City plant in South Dakota is working with Black Hills Energy to use wind power for around 50% of its electricity requirements. GCC has joined Black Hills Energy’s Renewable Ready Program, which will supply energy for 15 years.

Black Hills Energy will build a wind-power generating facility in 2020 to supply the plant located near Cheyenne in Wyoming. The Corriedale Wind Energy Project is anticipated to produce energy by the first quarter of 2021 that will be shared with subscribers in South Dakota and Wyoming. The program was designed for large commercial and industrial customers and governmental agencies in the company’s electric service territories in South Dakota and Wyoming.

“By choosing low-cost renewable energy resources to power our business, we’re able to advance our business goals and sustainability objectives while also supporting the expansion of affordable, renewable energy development in the region,” said Ron Henley, US division president of GCC.

Taiwan: Asia Cement Corporation has announced its collaboration with Germany-based energy company Innogy on construction of a 448MW wind power plant off Taiwan’s north-west coast near Hsinchu City. Renewables Now has reported that Asia Cement Corporation will supply cement for the project, which will see power sold to the national grid.

Innology, which has participated in the construction of offshore wind plants with a total capacity of 2500MW in Europe, opened its first Taiwan office in 2018.

Kenya: Mombasa Cement has completed construction of a 36MW wind farm consisting of 12 3MW turbines in Vipingo. Bahrain News Agency has reported that the plant will power Mombasa Cement’s 1.6Mt/yr integrated Vipingo cement plant, with surplus to be sold to the state-owned power provider Kenya Power. The power plant will supply electricity for the completion of Mombasa Cement’s planned US$73m upgrade to its grey cement clinker production process at the Vipingo plant.

Kenya: Mombasa Cement has started building a 36MW wind farm at its integrated Vipingo plant. The project is intended to support a new grinding unit being constructed at the site, according to the Business Daily newspaper. It is intended to reduce the cost of electricity and minimise disruptions caused by power cuts. The wind farm will consist of 12 turbines with a capacity of 3MW each. The cement plant is also installing a high-power voltage line from the Kaloleni substation to improve its connection to the local electricity grid.

Argentina: Holcim Argentina has signed a deal with YPF Luz for the supply of wind power to its cement plants. The supply agreement is planned for the start of 2020. It is intended to provide 35% of the company’s emergy requriements by the end of the first half. YPF Luz will provide eletectricity from its Los Teros Wind Farm at Azul in Buenos Aires province. The contracted supply is for 142GWh from a 30MW installed base.

Belgium: WindEurope, the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and the European Composites Industry Association (EUCIA) have created a cross-sector platform to look into using glass fibres and fillers from old wind turbine blades as a raw material for cement production. Other methods, such as a mechanical recycling, solvolysis and pyrolysis, are being developed and considered.

In 2018 wind energy supplied 14% of the electricity in the European Union (EU), from 130,000 wind turbines. Wind turbines blades are made up of a composite material, which boosts the performance of wind energy by allowing lighter and longer blades. At present 2.5Mt of composite material are in use in the wind energy sector. In the next five years 12,000 wind turbines are expected to be decommissioned.

“Wind energy is an increasingly important part of Europe’s energy mix. The first generation of wind turbines are now starting to come to the end of their operational life and be replaced by modern turbines. Recycling the old blades is a top priority for us, and teaming up with the chemical and compositors industries will enable us to do it the most effective way,” said Giles Dickson, the chief executive officer (CEO) of WindEurope.

Spain: Cemex has signed a Euro117m deal with the local government to convert the land used by the Gádor cement plant in Almeria for use by new projects. These will include projects in solar and wind power generation, waste fuel production from plastics and biomass and a new concrete batching plant, according to Teleprensa. The initiative is intended to create around 400 jobs.

The cement producer has also signed a similar agreement for its Lloseta in Baleares. The company announced in mid-October 2018 that it was planning to close the two plants due to reduced demand for cement and mounting European CO₂ emissions regulations.