A large rooftop solar project has been completed at a healthcare distribution facility in Massachusetts. The 6.7 MW DC system is located on the roof of Medline's 820,000-square-foot facility in Uxbridge. The company has invested $34 million in renewable energy since 2016. Rooftop solar systems are now installed at five of the company's U.S. plants.
More than 400 clean energy companies are urging congressional leaders to take legislative action. The Solar Energy Industries Association is calling for a settlement that includes a long-term extension of the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and a stand-alone energy storage credit. The group is also calling for ratification of the Solar Manufacturing in America Act (SEMA). SEMA will provide a tax credit of 11 cents/watt for integrated modules, 4 cents/watt for batteries, and $12/m2 for batteries. Meter. wafers, and $3/kg of polysilicon. The bill's provisions were contained in the now-defunct Build Back Better Act. Experts suggest it may take 2-3 years to build a domestic solar supply chain to meet U.S. demand.
A hydrodynamic generator placed in the water supply channel serving the Denver, Colorado water system has been commissioned. The four vertical axis rotor arrays are connected to a nearby control panel that includes an inverter, the same as those used to connect the solar modules to the larger utility grid. The United States has thousands of miles of canals, especially in the Southwest, that could accommodate similar distributed energy sources.
Tekmar Group has been awarded a contract to provide integrated engineering solutions, including cable protection systems and cable suspension clamps, for an offshore wind farm project in Japan. The company did not disclose who the customers were. The contract is expected to be delivered in 2023. Tekmar has initiated a formal sales process and will communicate further with shareholders regarding this process in due course.
The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for solutions that can detect unmanned underwater vehicles in near-shore environments. A limited user evaluation of the Argus system was held at Pier 2 at Naval Station Newport from April 25 to May 4. Argus uses off-the-shelf commercial active sonar to detect, track, classify, deter and defeat undersea targets. It combines it with radar and forward looking infrared cameras to track ground and air targets. Argus provides the Coast Guard with the decision support information needed to manage threats. The combined team was able to perform a full user assessment in a short period of time. "It's great to see the team and the system working together," Jon Larcom said.
The demonstration was designed to assist the Coast Guard's detection efforts, particularly counter-UUV missions. The U.S. Coast Guard wanted to determine what resources staff would need to operate Argus. Setup times vary from four to eight hours, depending on weather conditions, network, and staffing. Mike Coleman: The team came together under stress and bad weather conditions. They literally kicked it out of the park. The Argus system has been evaluated by the Rhode Island National University Water Weapons Center (NNUWC) and the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center. NUWC director David Coleman said he was looking for partnerships with other warfighting centers to further develop their capabilities. Argus is the current iteration of a program that started after 9/11 and includes air interface, UUV detection and passive sensing.
Mocean Energy has started tank testing of a model of its 250kW Blue Horizon wave energy machine as part of the EU-funded EuropeWave programme. The Edinburgh-based wave power company has been awarded the contract by seven technology developers for the first phase of a €20 million research and development programme. Three prototype technologies will eventually be tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney and the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) in Spain. FloWave is using custom 25th and 50th scale models from Blue Horizon created by FloWave using an advanced 3D printer. EuropeWave is a wave energy technology research and development programme using a pre-commercial procurement model similar to that pioneered by Wave Energy Scotland. The final phase of EuropeWave will see three different technologies tested in real sea conditions off the coast of the Basque Country and Scotland in 2025.