Orascom Construction Industries has formally signed the $363m contract to build a 1014 MW power station in Baija, Iraq.

It’s boom time for power generation project development in Latin America, with more than $116bn in project construction starts scheduled for 2012.

MPX Energia has announced that national development bank BNDES accepted its request for $890 million to finance the construction of three gas-powered plants at Parnaíba Thermoelectric Complex.

French utility EDF and GE have announced plans to jointly develop and showcase the first FlexEfficiency 50 natural gas fired combined-cycle power plant to be connected to a national grid.

APR Energy has been awarded two temporary power contracts; one from the Peruvian national electric utility company, Electroperú SA, and the second from Argentine utility Energía Argentina SA.

Abengoa is set to build a 640 MW combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) in Mexico after the country's Federal Commission of Electricity chose the Spanish company to carry out the project.

GE has signed contracts worth almost $300m with the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to supply 13 gas turbines and associated services for the expansion of six power plants at locations across the Kingdom.

Brazilian energy company MPX Energia has received a license to increase the installed capacity of the Parnaíba thermal complex by 1859 MW, raising it to 3722 MW.

Russia’s Nizhnevartovsk power plant is undergoing an expansion to accommodate a combined-cycle system which will add 400 MW to its output.

Swedish construction group Skanska has won an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a 550 MW natural gas fuelled power plant that will supply the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

A loan of $1.184m has been agreed for the construction of a 1,600 MW gas combined cycle thermal power plant in Thailand.

State-controlled Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed a deal to build a 4.6bn riyals ($1.23bn) combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in Shoaiba, 120 km south of the port city of Jeddah

Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has received an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services contract from Sasol New Energy Holdings for the outside battery limit portion of a new on-site gas fired power plant at Sasolburg, South Africa.

An Australian energy company wants to build two gas fired power stations in Queensland which it claims would boost the state’s electricity generation by 20 per cent.

Australian energy company HRL is taking its fight to build a new power station to a tribunal this week as it faces increasing opposition from environmental groups.

Gas turbines at Essent’s Moerdijk 2 and Claus C combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units in the Netherlands have been put into operation for the first time.

Enel OGK-5, the Italian utility’s Russian unit, has brought online a 410 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) unit at Nevinnomysskaya GRES in the North Caucasus.

A consortium led by the Japanese firm Marubeni has scooped the contract for the construction of the $1.5bn Sur independent power project (IPP), which is described as Oman’s biggest green-field power project.

Siemens has announced it has begun work on the turnkey erection of the Knapsack II gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) power plant at Hürth near Cologne, Germany.