Chase Energy Canada Limited

Seaforth Energy Inc. of Dartmouth — a wind turbine manufacturer with a specialty in integrating renewable energy projects — will be able to use the $2 million it’s raised recently to scale up operations in order to deliver on backlogged orders for its 50 kilowatt turbine – an all Canadian product built in Nova Scotia. The company’s turbines are a fraction of the size of the three-megawatt turbines being installed on Dalhousie Mountain, Pictou County. The turbine would go on a 30- to 36-metre tower and it would have a rotor diameter of 15 metres. A large turbine would have a rotor diameter nowadays, probably, of 60 to 80 metres…The mighty St. Lawrence River will soon be home to an underwater power-generating project that could one day churn in rivers across Canada. a pair of 3.2-metre-high river turbines — which resemble giant jet engines — will be plunked into the waves near Montreal as part of a pilot project. The operation will start off small, producing a total of 500 kilowatts of energy. The federal and provincial governments are also on board, funding one-third of the $18-million project. But the underwater powerhouses have also been known to cripple — and kill — underwater wildlife – the bigger fish in the St. Lawrence, such as the sturgeon, are at the most risk…Ballard Power Systems announced the successful completion, during second quarter, of factory testing of a utility-scale distributed generation system using the company’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Installation and commissioning of the system for a multi- year demonstration at FirstEnergy Generation Corp’s Eastlake Plant in Ohio is planned for third quarter of this year. Ballard designed the generator to provide clean energy peaking capacity, which is particularly useful during heavy energy demand periods in the summer months, and tested the generator to a power level of one megawatt.

The British Columbia government continues to give serious consideration to a major hydroelectric expansion project on the Columbia River system. Bill Bennett told The Vancouver Sun editorial board on Monday that plans for a 335-megawatt expansion of the Waneta generating station on the Pend d’Oreille River south of Trail are being seriously scoped out right now. Plans for the expansion were approved by government regulators in 2008, but Columbia Power Corp. announced nine months ago the process had stalled due to the absence of a deal with BC Hydro to buy the extra power that would be generated. A contract awarded last year to SNC-Lavalin to build a two-unit powerhouse expires in mid-August, adding some urgency to negotiations among Columbia Power, BC Hydro and Fortis to buy the power that would be produced. Bennett said he continues to impress upon his cabinet colleagues the urgency of preparing for a review of the Columbia River Treaty between Canada and the United States which expires in 2014. The treaty annually earns B.C. around $200 million, for water management services that facilitate flood control, irrigation and hydroelectricity production south of the border… International Power Canada Inc is taking a majority stake in what is expected to be Vancouver Island’s first operating wind power project from Sea Breeze Power Corp. – when construction of phase one of the $300 million project is complete, Knob Hill is expected to generate 99MW. As Knob Hill is located on the traditional territories of three First Nations – the Quatsino, Tlatlasikwals, and Kwakiutl — development is still subject to the signing of impact/benefit agreements with the aboriginals.

The Ontario Energy Board announced it is resuming work on province-wide programs related to low-income energy customers. The Board’s work on Conservation and Demand Management includes coordinating with the Ontario Power Authority as it develops a program for low-income residential consumers to ensure there is a coordinated approach to deliver CDM and Demand Side Management programs by electricity and natural gas distributors.

The Board also issued a draft CDM Code for electricity distributors on June 22, 2010 setting out the obligations and requirements that licensed electricity distributors must comply with in relation to their CDM targets. The targets aim to reduce electricity consumption by 6,000 gigawatt hours and to reduce peak provincial electricity demand by 1,330 megawatts over a four-year period…APS and NextEra Energy Resources of Florida announced plans for a 99-megawatt wind energy facility on public and private lands 13 miles north of Williams, Az.

The Perrin Ranch Wind Energy Center will contain 62 turbines spread across 20,000 acres west of Highway 64 with construction expected to begin in mid-2011.

Sundance#3 was offline from 10:18 until 02:01 this morning pushing 7X24 Price up to $136.34…Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has won a record order for a single site for 190 turbines with a total capacity of 570 megawatts for a California project. Vestas did not disclose financial details of the order, from Alta Wind Holdings, a subsidiary of Terra-Gen Power LLC – it sealed a $1.2-billion financing deal for four wind power projects at its Alta Wind Energy Center in Kern County, Calif…A weekend steam leak at a southern Indiana power plant prompted its operator to temporarily take the coal-fired facility offline so that workers can check all of its units for similar problems. Ohio Valley Electrical Corp. shut down all six of the 1,230-megawatt Clifty Creek plant’s units as a precaution Saturday after a boiler tube failed in one unit and steam began leaking. Those boiler tubes carry superheated high-pressure steam to the plant’s power-generating turbines – each of the plant’s six boilers have 112 boiler tubes and workers are inspecting all of those for problems. The Ohio River plant’s absence hasn’t left the power grid short of electricity because the recession has reduced demand and there is enough power. Environmentalists have called the plant one of the Indiana’s dirtiest in terms of its air emissions. It began producing electricity in 1955.

Natural gas futures fell for the ninth time in 11 days in New York amid signs that supplies of the power-plant and factory fuel will exceed demand…Improvements to interprovincial power transmission infrastructure in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would be a boon to planned and proposed renewable projects. Nova Scotia Power CEO Chris Huskilson will join New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and NB Power representatives in Fredericton today for an announcement on regional energy co-operation. Another $200-million, 345-kilovolt power transmission line between the provinces, which Nova Scotia Power revealed recently it is considering, would allow more clean power to flow on the grid. Hydro-Quebec also has another 6,000 megawatts of power planned for the coming years that could be pushed into Atlantic Canada…Schneider Electric’s Renewable Energies Business has been awarded another 30MW inverter contract with EDF EN Canada Inc. This contract is for EDF EN Canada’s new solar photovoltaic projects: St. Isidore and Elmsley, outside Ottawa…Progress Energy Florida estimates its Crystal River nuclear power plant will be back on line by the end of September now that the utility company is working to replace a cracked section of the facility’s containment wall…Delaware regulators announced a pact that will leave only one big coal-fired boiler operating at the Indian River power plant near Millsboro MD by 2013, part of a deal that also will expand training programs for clean energy jobs. NRG will permanently shut down its 155-megawatt Unit 3 boiler in December 2013.

Sundance#5 came online at 00:49 Saturday; Sundance#6 went offline at 06:44 Sunday and back online at 23:15 Sunday…TransCanada has joined the chorus of those calling for the rejection of the amended Power Purchase Agreement reached by National Grid and Deepwater Wind for electricity from a wind farm off Block Island. In filing with the Public Utilities Commission this week, TransCanada makes the same constitutional argument it successfully utilized to force Massachusetts to modify its renewable energy laws in June – the new PPA “violates the Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution as an unlawful restriction by the state of Rhode Island on interstate commerce.” TransCanada, which owns the Kibby Wind farm in Stratton, Maine, says the amended legislation — especially the Long-Term Contracting Statute — which enabled the modified Block Island wind farm to be considered again, violates the Commerce Clause by discriminating against out-of-state renewable energy producers…Canadian developers planning an underground transmission line from Quebec to New York City have abandoned plans to include Connecticut in the project. Transmission Developers Inc. of Toronto has proposed the $1.9 billion project to bring hydro and wind energy from Quebec, where electricity can be sold at a premium because of high demand. The project is expected to employ 200 workers and be completed by 2015 as long as all necessary regulatory approvals are obtained. The company has already received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Authority to sell transmission rights to the line. And the company is also participating in a series of meetings scheduled by the U.S. Department of Energy to assess the environmental impacts.

A 2006 British Columbia government initiative to boost the province’s supply of electricity has turned out to be an ill-fated venture for the majority of entrepreneurs who participated in it. Documents recently filed with the B.C. Utilities Commission show that BC Hydro expects the attrition rate among independent power producers who four years ago were awarded electricity supply contracts to reach 63 per cent. Hydro says some projects that are technically still active will be abandoned as rising construction costs over the past four years make them too expensive to pursue, while others have already been cancelled. At least one of the projects on the original list of 38, Dokie Wind, required a secret government-ordered bailout to proceed. Most of the failed and stalled projects are run-of-river hydro. The “industry standard” attrition rate is assumed to be 30 per cent, so Hydro and other utilities assume some projects won’t proceed and plan for that…A Bozeman company that has proposed two small hydroelectric projects on the East and West Rosebud rivers has the go-ahead to conduct feasibility studies. The approval gives the Bozeman-based Hydrodynamics Inc. three years to determine if the hydro projects would be feasible. Last winter, when the public first got wind of the proposals, several area residents sent comments to FERC. They cited concerns about potential effects on fish and the aesthetics of the area. The public will have another opportunity to voice its concerns or support during a meeting scheduled later this month by the Stillwater Protective Association.

Battle River#5 came back online at 16:26…A company that employs 2,400 people in the Lynchburg area announced an alliance Wednesday with a global contractor to develop and deploy the world’s first commercially viable small modular nuclear power plant – Lynchburg-based Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy and Bechtel Power Corp. Babcock & Wilcox has been developing its mPower reactor, capable of generating 125MW of electricity from a reactor about 12 feet wide by 75 feet long. The alliance between the corporations will be known as Generation mPower and, pending regulatory approval and other factors, could deploy its first plant by 2020…Rio Tinto Alcan is expected to take a $100 million (U.S.) hit to its operating income in the second half of 2010 because of low snow and rain levels in Quebec. Low water levels and other factors have constrained Rio Tinto’s ability to produce power for its Quebec smelters, forcing it to buy more electricity than normal or curtail output. Rio’s aluminum smelters are located mainly in the Saguenay region of northeastern Quebec, which has faced the warmest winter in 50 years…According to a report released today by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, refurbishing nuclear facilities at Bruce and Darlington will create 25,000 jobs in the next decade and inject $5 billion into the Ontario economy annually. The current Integrated Power System Plan calls for the refurbishment of all nuclear units at both the Bruce and Darlington sites. Collectively they produce 10,000MW or over 50 percent of Ontario’s electricity.

Battle River#5 offline at 11:30 yesterday…Vestas Wind Systems said Tuesday it will hire more than 1,000 people at three Colorado plants that manufacture wind turbine components after receiving a surge of orders for the electricity generators in the U.S. and Canada. Vestas said 850 of the jobs will be at two plants that make blades. One is already operating in Windsor and another is nearing completion in Brighton. Vestas has a second plant in Brighton that makes nacelles, housings that contain the turbine’s generator, transformer and gearbox…Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. announced that its German affiliate Asola, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a joint venture manufacturing plant in Ontario, Canada, to enable production and distribution of high quality solar modules in Canada. The Canadian partner, Evergreen Power Ltd., is a developer of renewable energy projects, with well-established relationships in the building industry. The planned initial production capacity is 30 MW per year of solar modules incorporating mono- and poly-crystalline silicon solar cells, with a potential to generate revenues in excess of $60 Million annually.  The joint venture company will market solar photovoltaic modules under the “Asola” brand. Quantum owns a 24.9% interest in Asola…Electricity producer Atlantic Power Corporation is investing in its first wind project, with the purchase of a 27% stake in 11 wind farms being built in Idaho. The development company is a partnership between GE Energy Financial Services, Reunion Power and the original developer of the project, Exergy Development Group. The wind developers have 20-year power purchase agreements in place to sell power to the Idaho Power Company at fixed prices.