Blow News

A project to transform the Port Talbot into a major hub for floating offshore wind (FLOW) and green energy development has come one step closer to securing a share of up to $200 million (£160 million) of UK Government funding.The UK Government has agreed to take forward the Future Port Talbot project and the Port of Cromarty Firth to undergo due diligence as part of the next stage of its Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS).The due diligence process…

“The winds of change are blowing wild and free.” – Bob DylanIn the U.S. offshore wind industry, developments over recent months have placed an exclamation point on the word “wild”. Yes, the wind still blows “free”, but mounting challenges have proven that harnessing its power offshore is anything but. In fact, far from it, as rising materials costs, high interest rates, labor shortages and supply chain delays, among other issues, have delivered heavy blows to the commercial viability of several projects.

Because there are so many different kinds of passenger vessels, the critical topic of passenger safety can sometimes appear as a set of niche topics, each one just distantly connected to another. After all, passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean face safety issues that are much different than a commuter going from Jersey City to Manhattan or a tourist crossing from the Mukilteo, Wash. ferry terminal to Whidbey Island or a family on a fishing vessel in Miami.Importantly, though, for passenger vessel operators, a commitment to safety is not siloed.

Matt Hart, Manager & Platform Leader, Marine & Stationary Power Systems, Wabtec, offers insights on how the megatrends of decarbonization, energy transition and autonomy all inspire and impact the marine power solutions from Wabtec.Matt, to start us off, can you provide insight on the journey to your present position?I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with an undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering and started with General Electric in the Edison Engineering Development rotational program at the Erie…

Several offshore wind developers will likely bid in New York's fourth offshore wind solicitation by the Thursday deadline, including units of European energy firms Orsted, Equinor and BP.The development of the U.S. offshore wind industry took a major blow last year when companies working in several states said they could no longer complete projects profitably because of rocketing construction costs, higher interest rates and supply chain snags. The problems also hit the wind industry in other countries.The development of the industry is key to meeting both U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S.

Russia on Friday failed to win enough votes for re-election to the United Nation's shipping agency's governing council after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had urged countries not to allow Moscow to be part of the UN body's executive arm.The outcome is another blow for Russia after it failed in its bid to return to the UN's top human rights body in October, in an election seen as a key test of Western efforts to keep Moscow isolated.Last year Moscow also failed to win…

Danish energy firm Orsted's shock decision to cancel two offshore wind farms off New Jersey this week was based in large part on big delays securing the ship it needed to build the project, company officials said.The world's biggest offshore wind farm company on Tuesday said it would cease all development on the Ocean Wind projects even as it moves forward with developments off neighboring New York, triggering an angry response from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.The decision…

Developers in the U.S. offshore wind industry will likely cancel some power sales contracts in New York after the state last week denied passing on more of the costs to consumers, but major projects off Massachusetts and Rhode Island are set to start up later this year.Several states and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration consider offshore wind to be a key part of their plans to transition away from fossil fuels for energy, create jobs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.Last week…

On March 29, 2021, President Biden announced his ambitious plan to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power – enough energy to power 10 million U.S. homes – by 2030. The plan would leverage authorities under the Department of Interior, Energy, and Commerce to guide “more than $12 billion per year in capital investment in projects on both U.S. coasts, create tens of thousands of good-paying, union jobs, with more than 44,000 workers employed in offshore wind by 2030 and nearly 33,000 additional jobs in communities supported by offshore wind activity.” The U.S.

The Swedish investigation into the sabotage last year of the Nord Stream pipelines is at a sensitive stage and the prosecutor hopes to decide whether to bring any charges before the end of this year, he told Reuters on Wednesday.In September 2022, several unexplained underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and newly-built Nord Stream 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, and both countries say the explosions were deliberate…

The low interest in the first-ever auction of offshore wind farm development rights in the Gulf of Mexico marks a potentially serious setback for U.S. President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda, and the U.S. offshore wind sector in general.U.S. officials had touted the auction as a key milestone in Biden’s agenda to make offshore wind a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to fight fossil-fuel-driven climate change.But with only a single bid of $5.6 million emerging for the rights to 102…

Spanish police have made a record cocaine seizure, finding 9.5 tonnes of the drug hidden among boxes of bananas in a shipping container from Ecuador in the southern port of Algeciras.The stash was the largest ever found in a single container in Spain, the police said in a statement."This operation was an unprecedented blow to one of the world's most important criminal organizations in cocaine distribution, targeting major criminal networks in Europe," it said.The boxes were marked…

Russia's lack of ships and Western grain traders' shrinking appetite for business with Moscow are adding to rising costs of moving Russian wheat, at a time when the war in Ukraine has spilled perilously close to vital Black Sea supply routes.President Vladimir Putin promised to replace Ukrainian grain with Russian shipments to Africa after Moscow in July ended an arrangement that gave Ukraine's food cargo safe passage in the Black Sea, imposing a de-facto blockade on its neighbour and attacking storage facilities…

Romania expects around 30 ships from Ukraine to clear customs on the Danube River over the next two days as it bids to clear a logjam in the aftermath of Wednesday's Russian attack on Ukraine's main river port at Izmail.The river and its mouth, now Ukraine's last waterborne grain export route, are backed up with vessels travelling to and from Ukrainian ports, commercial ship tracking data shows.Romanian authorities managing the waterway still expect a "peak" in traffic in August…

NATO said on Wednesday it was stepping up surveillance of the Black Sea region as it condemned Russia's exit from a deal assuring the safe passage of ships carrying Ukrainian grain.The announcement came after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, a body established earlier this month to coordinate cooperation between the Western military alliance and Kyiv."Allies and Ukraine strongly condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal and its deliberate attempts to stop Ukraine’s agricultural exports on which hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend…

Russia destroyed Ukrainian grain warehouses on the Danube River in a drone attack on Monday, targeting a vital export route for Kyiv in an expanding air campaign that Moscow began last week after quitting the Black Sea grain deal.Last week's attacks mostly struck the sea ports of Odesa but Monday's pre-dawn strikes hit infrastructure along the Danube, an export route whose importance has grown since the demise of the deal allowing Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea."The Russian terrorists have again attacked the Odesa region overnight.

Italian authorities have seized a record 5.3 tonne cocaine haul being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily, police said on Friday.The consignment had an estimated value of 850 million euros  ($946 million) and five people have been arrested, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement. Police had been tracking a ship that sailed from South America and swooped in the early hours of Wednesday, when a surveillance aircraft spotted packages being thrown from its…

Germany found traces of subsea explosives in samples taken from a yacht that it suspects "may have been used to transport the explosives" to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, it told the U.N. Security Council in a letter with Sweden and Denmark.A series of unexplained explosions hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea last September in the exclusive economic zones of Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. The trio are each conducting…

While people in all generations measured themselves against eternal factors—fellow employees, family, their industry, etc.—Generation Z is fixated on measuring themselves against the world as seen through social media. Coaching them will help them begin to turn inward and measure success against their own goals. One of the keys to retaining your Gen Z workers will be in positively coaching them.Coaching should provide positive feedback about employee contributions. At the same time…

Scientists warn that climate change is the greatest peril that humankind has ever faced. Yet oil and gas exploration is set to clock the highest growth for more than a decade this year and next. Protesters cause disruption but, for the moment, hydrocarbon energy underpins life as we know it“Offshore oil and gas production probably matters now more than ever,” said Audun Martinsen. The Rystad Energy Partner and Head of Energy Research told Maritime Reporter & Engineering News.“It…

As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the U.S. Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea.The live-fire drill is not a response to increased tensions with China over Taiwan, both the U.S. and the Philippines have stressed. But, either way, Beijing isn’t happy – responding by holding its own staged military event involving actual warships and fighter jets deployed around Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.The tit-for-tat war games underscore a reality that U.S.

A state actor's involvement in the blast of the Nord Stream pipelines last year is the "absolute main scenario", though confirming identity will prove difficult, the Swedish prosecutor investigating the attack said on Thursday.In September 2022, several unexplained underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and newly-built Nord Stream 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea. The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark and both countries say the explosions were deliberate, but have yet to determine who was responsible.

It will likely be difficult to determine who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany in the Baltic Sea last year, Sweden's prosecution authority, which is investigating the incident, said on Thursday. The Sept. 26 explosions at the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. The blast in the Swedish zone happened at a depth of 80 meters and the prosecutor said investigating it was complicated. "Our hope is to be able to confirm who has committed this crime…