In Brief

What’s the weather like?
BMT ARGOSS has been appointed by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Sakhalin Energy) to deliver weather forecasting services to support their onshore and offshore operations in the Sakhalin region, off the east coast of Russia. As part of a long-term contract, BMT’s 18 strong team will provide weather, wave and current forecasts, as well as tidal information to help support offshore drilling operations.

First for filling
In March CNG Fuels, in partnership with National Grid, unveiled a new state-of-the-art filling station in Leyland, Lancashire, allowing vehicles to fill up on compressed natural gas (CNG). The event saw the first major customer, Waitrose, part of the John Lewis Partnership, fill up at the new facility, as a fleet of branded HGVs rolled onto the forecourt.

Here comes the sun
First Solar, Inc.’s Operations and Maintenance (O&M) now has 5 gigawatts (GW) of assets in its portfolio of solar power plants, firmly establishing it as the largest O&M provider in the world. First Solar Energy Services, which has held the top position on GTM Research’s ‘Global O&M and Asset Management’ report for the past two years, surpasses the next nearest O&M provider by approximately 1.8GW.

Smart grid partnership
Power grids, in their current form, will soon be unable to cope with the increased use of distributed and renewable energy sources. In response to this situation, 18 European research institutions from across 11 different countries, and under the leadership of AIT, have joined forces in the transnational ERIGrid project (European Research Infrastructure supporting Smart Grid Systems, Technology, Development, Validation and Roll Out).