By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 9 -- BP PLC and ChevronTexaco Corp. reported the commercial start-up of their new, $23 million, 22.5 Mw wind farm project constructed at the companies' jointly owned, 400,000 b/d Nerefco refinery near Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The wind project consists of nine Nordex turbines, each 120 m tall, and with a generating capacity of 2.5 Mw.
The companies will sell the electricity generated by the farm into the Dutch national power grid.
The companies said that the project represents Europe's first full-scale wind farm on a brownfield refinery site. The farm will displace 20,000 tonnes/year of greenhouse gas emissions, the companies said.
"The Nerefco wind farm is an excellent example of companies working in partnership to deliver a clean energy project that has been successfully developed to the highest safety and environmental standards," said Frank Maggio, regional vice-president, ChevronTexaco Worldwide Power & Gasification.
"Placing the project within our refinery optimizes the use of our assets, minimizes any visual or noise impact on the surrounding area, and helps the Netherlands achieve its environmental targets," said Xavier Bontemps, Nerefco refinery manager.
The Dutch government has set a target to increase the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources to 5% by 2005, the companies said. Currently, wind power accounts for roughly 1 Tw-hr of the total Netherlands power market. This figure by 2010 is expected to approach 4 Tw-hr, which equals about 35-45% of the total renewable power generation in the Netherlands, the companies said.
The wind farm is held by BP 69% and ChevronTexaco 31%, the same as the companies' ownership percentages in the Nerefco refinery.
