The team of European engineering firms which last month won a $200-million design contract for a nuclear-power research complex to be built in southern France, with a cadre of global sponsors, already is starting work, officials say. The engineering award for the $13- billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the project’s largest contract awarded to date and one of the largest design awards of any kind in Europe. Photo: ITER A-TeamCardache complex in France will be built by a Franco-British-Spanish team. Photo: ITER Power ParkThe 42-hectare site has been prepared for foundation work to begin next spring. Photo: ITER

India’s goal to achieve 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022 is proving to be a challenge as the industry awaits tweaks to a draft policy that will determine the tariff and allow the country to import photovoltaic cells—a technology that is not established in the country. But the road bumps haven’t stopped the development of some solar facilities in the country. The grid is underpowered, but PV sector is gaining turf. While the country currently has almost no grid-connected solar power, a recent McKinsey& Co. survey ranks India as the most attractive destination in the world for solar PV

After nearly a decade of review, the Dept. of Interior gave the go-ahead for the nation’s first offshore wind farm the $1 billion Cape Wind project off the coast of Nantucket on April 28. The facility could be operational by as soon as 2012. But the Interior Dept. says it will require the developer of the controversial project, Cape Wind Associates, LLC to modify its proposal to minimize potential adverse environmental and aesthetic impacts of construction and operation of the facility. Cape Wind Associates is a joint business venture between Boston-based firms Energy Management Inc. and Wind Management LLP. The

In May 2007, when South African utility Eskom broke ground on Medupi, the country’s first new powerplant since the 1980s, in some cases it was business as usual. The generating station would be coal-fired, sited next to the supplying mine and—with a 4,800-MW rated capacity—immense. Medupi, by far the largest powerplant under construction in Africa, will be one of the largest in the world upon completion. It will account for about 11% of South Africa’s electricity generating capacity. Kusile, another new plant with a commissioning schedule about 18 months behind Medupi’s, has an identical “six-pack configuration,” with six identical 800-MW

GDF Suez, the French-based utility, has awarded Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Power Group a contract to design, supply and erect a 190-MW biomass powerplant. The circulating fluidized-bed boiler island will be located at the Polaniec Power Station, about 60 miles northeast of Krakow. Foster Wheeler will design and supply the steam generator and auxiliary equipment as well as provide the civil works, erection and commissioning of the boiler island. The firm says it will be the world’s largest biomass boiler burning wood residues and up to 20% agricultural biomass but neither coal nor natural gas. The contract’s value was not

French energy company GDF Suez has won two long-term energy-supply contracts worth $600 million for Peruvian powerplants. The company, through its subsidiary Enersur SA, will construct the 112-MW Quitarasca I hydroelectric plant in the northern highlands and upgrade the existing ChilcaUno thermal powerplant from 270 MW to 800 MW. The contracts, signed on April 14, run from 2013 until 2025.

Solar developer Albiasa Corp., the San Francisco unit of a Spanish firm, has teamed with Hawaii-based developer Pacific Light and Power to build a small but more reliable utility-scale project on Kauai. The 10-MW project also will be the state’s largest solar project, company officials say. Photo: Pacific Light & Power Project will use proprietary solar- capture technology to boost efficiency and cut costs. The $70-million project will use Albiasa’s “concentrated” solar technology but will add other processes developed by joint-venture partner Ram Power Inc., Reno, Nev., to extend power production to the early and later parts of the day

It may not be the biggest job nor the most important, but workers at Clackamas, Ore.-based Oregon Iron Works are clamoring to work on one of the company’s most unusual projects: Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy 150, a device designed to capture 150 kW of wave energy off Oregon’s coast. Photo: Ocean Power Technologies Oregon Iron Works crew, working on a wave-power prototype, hopes to build bigger generators. “The guys in the shop are pretty excited about this,” says Chandra Brown, vice president of Oregon Iron Works. “It’s pretty fun.” For the company, which typically builds bridges and boats, the job

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York Public Service Commission awarded $204 million in contracts on April 9 that will support the development of 318 MW of renewable electricity at eight sites. The eight projects are in various stages of project development and have not yet been built. NYSERDA has issued no new solicitations since January 2010, when the authority announced a round of power orders for five projects slated to generate 142 MW. In December 2009, New York’s PSC established a goal of supplying 30% of its power from renewable sources by

The Ontario government on April 8 approved renewable energy projects—worth nearly $9 billion to U.S. and Canadian firms—to produce 2,500 MW. The 184 projects fall under the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, which gives solar power developers a premium fixed price of up to 80 cents per kWh for 20 years. Seventy-six of the projects are for ground-mounted solar photovoltaic technology, 47 involve onshore wind and 46 are smaller hydroelectric projects. The remaining projects involve biogas, biomass, landfill-gas, rooftop-solar and offshore wind applications. U.S. contract winners include Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, Recurrent Energy, San Francisco, and Nextera Energy, Juno Beach, Fla.