POWER December 2015 - 16

5. Organic cycle. Italian firm Turboden, a
subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is
preparing to put online a biomass-fed 8-MW
organic rankine cycle unit in Maine for Maine
Woods Pellet Co. Courtesy: Turboden
Nuclear Lifetime Extensions. Switzerland's
parliament is gearing up to debate
the first package of a proposed new energy
policy that includes a phase-out of nuclear
power. The country has already decided
to retire its five nuclear reactors-even
though they generate about 40% of its
power-by 2035. That decision was made
in the aftermath of Fukushima, despite a
referendum just a month before the disaster
occurred in March 2011. The country's
new energy policy, " Energy Strategy
2050, " is now set to be debated by the
lower house. Lawmakers will decide on a
draft decree that could allow nuclear plant
operators to submit a plan to extend reactor
lifetimes by 10 years.
Belgium's Doel Reactors Get Lifepreheat
and vaporize a suitable organic
working fluid in the evaporator. The fluid
vapor powers the turbine, which is directly
coupled to the electric generator through
an elastic coupling. The exhaust vapor
flows through the regenerator, where it
heats the organic liquid. The vapor is then
condensed in the condenser. The organic
fluid liquid is finally pumped to the regenerator
and then to the evaporator, thus
completing the sequence of operations in
the closed-loop circuit.
About 245.8 MW of Turboden's installed
base uses wood biomass. The bulk of Turboden's
CHP ORC plants were installed between
2005 and 2010 in Europe, mostly in
Germany, followed by Italy, Austria, Latvia,
and Spain. However, the company is also
exploring the North American market, which
it says has huge biomass potential and long
experience with thermal oil systems.
In January 2015, two 2 x 13-MW biomass
plants began operating commercially at
wood products company West Fraser's Fraser
Lake and Chetwynd sawmills in British Columbia
(Figure 5). Those projects convey the
heat of flue gas from biomass combustion in
a closed-loop system to the ORC unit, which
converts thermal energy into power. Waste
heat is then released into the environment
using evaporative cooling towers.
-Sonal Patel, associate editor
POWER Digest
GE Completes Alstom Acquisition. GE
announced on Nov. 2 that a $10.6 billion
deal to acquire Alstom's power and grid
business is complete. Alstom will now entirely
refocus its activities on rail transport.
For more, see http://goo.gl/rSbTVl .
Switzerland to Debate Energy Policy,
16
time Extension OK. In Belgium the
Federal Agency for Nuclear Control approved
Electrabel's plans to operate the
Doel-1 and Doel-2 nuclear reactors (433
MW each) for 10 more years, until 2025.
Electrabel, a subsidiary of French energy
group ENGIE, had reached an agreement
with the Belgian government on the conditions
for a 10-year extension in July
2015. Doel-1 is now expected to close
on February 15, 2025, and Doel-2 on December
1, 2025. This means that three
of Belgium's seven reactors have secured
10-year lifetime extensions. Two other
units, Doel-3 and Tihange-2, have been
offline since 2014 due to manufacturing
flaws in their pressure vessels.
Nordex Moves to Acquire Acciona
Windpower. German company Nordex
will acquire Spanish firm Acciona's wind
power business to " form a new major
player in the wind industry, " the company
said on Oct. 4. The $404 million transaction,
which still needs clearance by competition
authorities, will combine Nordex's
mid-sized turbine base with Acciona
Windpower's 3.0- and 1.5-MW turbines
for all wind classes. The companies said
their products and technologies are complementary
and make an " excellent market
fit " : Nordex products are well-suited
for " complex projects subject to technical
restrictions, while Acciona Windpower's
products are primarily aimed at large-scale
wind farms that require efficient and sturdy
machines for unconstrained terrains, "
they said in a joint release.
Amec Foster Wheeler to Study Decommissioning
at Fukushima. Amec
Foster Wheeler on Oct. 12 said it had
been appointed by Japan's nuclear decommissioning
organization to carry out a major
study into managing radioactive waste
at the Fukushima Daiichi power station.
The study is expected to help the Nuclear
www.powermag.com
Correction
The November issue cover caption and
Figure 1 in the Palo Verde Top Plants
story incorrectly suggested that the
photos were of the plant's water treatment
facility. They are actually of the
spray ponds.
Damage Compensation and Decommissioning
Facilitation Corp. in developing a
long-term waste management strategy for
the site. The team will identify practical
planning tools to support the future development
of a waste management strategy
at Fukushima, the company said.
Swansea Bay Tidal Power Lagoon
Delayed on Subsidy Talks. The UK's
plans to build a £1 billion ($1.54 billion)
tidal energy lagoon in Swansea Bay, South
Wales, have been delayed for a year, pending
ongoing talks over how much government
funding the project will receive. The
320-MW project, which could be the first
of its type in the world when operational,
would require building a breakwater to
cordon off 4.4 square miles in Swansea
Bay. The five-mile sea wall would be up to
20 meters high, though only half would be
visible from land at low tide. Ultimately, it
would funnel enough water to fill 100,000
Olympic swimming pools through dual-direction
turbines at both high and low tide,
generating an estimated 420 GWh annually.
Developer Tidal Lagoon Swansea
Bay garnered the Department of Climate
Change's planning consent to build the
project this June and had hoped to begin
building the lagoon next spring. However,
that schedule was pegged on achieving financial
close by the end of 2015, but the
critical contract of difference-an agreed
level of subsidy-has yet to be decided.
The company has now earmarked 2017 as
the start date for construction. First electricity
from the lagoon's 16 turbines could
be generated in 2021.
Two Chinese Reactors Move Closer
to Commissioning. China's Changjiang 1
and Yangjiang 3 reactors achieved criticality
this October and are expected to begin commercial
operation later this year. Changjiang
1 in Hainan Province, a 650-MW CNP-600
pressurized water reactor, is being built as
a joint venture between China National
Nuclear Corp. and China Huaneng Group.
It achieved criticality on Oct. 12. The Yangjiang
unit in Guangdong Province, being built
by China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction
Co. Ltd., achieved criticality on Oct. 11.
Construction Begins at 1.2-GW Vietnamese
Coal Plant. Vietnam National
POWER | December 2015
http://www.goo.gl/rSbTVl http://www.powermag.com
POWER December 2015

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