Electricity Needs News

Sierra Leone's capital Freetown has been hit by power cuts after Turkey's Karpowership switched off the electricity supply due to an unpaid debt of around $40 million, the energy minister said on Friday.Minister Kanja Sesay told Reuters that the outstanding amount "was accrued over time because the government subsidizes more than half the cost the ship charges per kilowatt hour".He said the government had to spend more on the subsidy because it charges consumers in the weak local Leone currency…

More renewable and low-carbon fuels will reduce the carbon footprint of the maritime sector in the EU following the adoption of the FuelEU Maritime initiative by the EU Council.The main objective of the FuelEU maritime initiative, as a key part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package, is to increase the demand for and consistent use of renewable and low-carbon fuels and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector, while ensuring the smooth operation of maritime traffic…

The Danish government has postponed the launch of a tender to establish a North Sea energy island project due to high costs, the country's ministry of energy said on Wednesday.The project included the construction of an artificial island in the North Sea that would serve as a hub to gather and distribute power generated by surrounding offshore wind turbines.

South Africa has granted Turkey's Karpowership access to the three ports of Ngqura, Durban and Saldanha Bay for a period of 20 years, the transport ministry said on Thursday, as it tries to find solutions to the country's power crisis.Karpowership aims to generate power on its floating gas ships and distribute it through South Africa's electricity grid. The plan received a boost from President Cyril Ramaphosa last week after he told lawmakers the ships would help ease the prolonged…

India has set a deadline of 2035 to establish green hydrogen bunkering and refuelling facilities at major ports in the drive to cut its carbon footprint, the shipping ministry said in guidelines issued on Wednesday.One of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, India aims to cut emissions to net zero by 2070, and the shipping minister said three of its ports would initially have bunker facilities for green hydrogen and ammonia."Our target is to cover all 12 major parts with a green hydrogen bunkering facility by 2035," Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told Reuters.The initial por

Spanish renewables giant Iberdrola has informed that it has started construction work for the Vineyard Wind 1, the United States' first large-scale offshore wind farm.The offshore wind farm will be located off the coast of Massachusetts. It is 25 times larger than an existing offshore wind farm in Rhode Island, which has 30 MW installed capacity and supplies electricity to 17,000 homes.With 800 MW capacity, Vineyard Wind 1 will meet the electricity needs of more than 400,000 households and…

Danish shipowner Esvagt said Thursday its newbuilt offshore wind service vessel Esvagt Alba was set to start its contract in the UK with wind turbine maker Vestas.The Esvagt Alba service operations vessel, delivered last week by Havyard, will be the base for the operation and maintenance of the Moray East offshore wind farm off the coast of Scotland. The newbuilt SOV, ’Esvagt Alba’, arrived Thursday in Fraserburgh, Scotland, for final Marine Surveys before starting work in the offshore windfarm Moray East.The offshore wind farm is being developed by Moray Offshore Windfarm East Ltd (MOWEL)…

South Africa's government has selected eight preferred bidders, including Turkey's Karpowership, to provide emergency electricity and help prop up the country's ailing power supply, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.The tender for 2,000 megawatts (MW), launched two years ago when South Africa suffered some of the worst power cuts in a decade, aimed to find the cheapest and quickest options to ease a shortage that has cost the continent's most industrialized economy billions of dollars."The evaluation process has resulted in the selection of eight preferred bids totaling 1…

Offshore services company Jan De Nul has signed a final contract to transport and install offshore wind turbines for what will be the world's largest offshore wind farm complex - the 3.6GW Dogger Bank in the UK.Jan De Nul will use its Voltaire jack-up vessel, the largest of its kind in the world, to install the 12MW GE Haliade-X wind turbines, also the largest in the world, at a wind farm that will as mentioned earlier, be the largest in the world.The contract, announced Thursday is for the installation of wind turbines at Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B…

Offshore installation contractor Subsea 7 has won a "substantial" contract for work on the first subsidy-free offshore wind farm in the Netherlands.The company has been tasked by Vatenfall to transport and install wind turbine monopile foundations and inner array grid cables for the Hollandse Kust Zuid 1-4 offshore wind farm project.Subsea 7 said the contract award was substantial, meaning its value is between $150 million and $300 million.Under the contract, Subsea 7 will transport…

The Crown Estate has launched its Round 4 offshore wind leasing competition for the rights to develop at least 7GW of new capacity off England and Wales.The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) has hailed today’s launch as a major step forward.The Crown Estate, which acts as manager of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is making four broad areas of seabed available to the market, within which potential developers will have the opportunity to bid for project sites.Today’s launch follows over 18 months of engagement with the market and stakeholders through which The Crown Estate has developed and refined its proposals.Huub den Rooijen…

World's largest solar project proposed in Australia, connected to South East Asia via subsea cable.Singapore-based Sun Cable has proposed a 10 GW solar farm near Tenant Creek in Australia, with facilities to export electricity via a subsea High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable straight to Singapore.Rystad Energy said that the proposed renewable energy project will provide one fifth of Singapore’s electricity needs.In terms of size, the only solar project of a similar scale in Australia is the Asian Renewable Energy Hub which plans to supply a regional load to the Pilbara region, as well as green hydrogen for both international and…

Hong Kong's largest power company, CLP Holdings Ltd., is considering a plan to establish the city's first offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the waters east of the Soko Islands, off southern Lantau, that will enable it to tap more gas from international markets. This will come nearly a decade after it shelved a land-based version of the project in the southern Sokos despite government approval. A 25-year gas deal with the mainland was signed instead. An offshore LNG terminal, a large floating vessel, would mean greater energy security because it would allow the city to receive gas from anywhere in the world. The terminal would have the capability to store and turn a liquid form of natural gas back into its original state…

While the recent swoon in world oil and gas prices has predictably cooled a number of offshore renewable projects, there is a palpable change regarding the way in which the world views renewable energy. Renewable energy projects, at one time merely serving as window dressing, are slowly weaving their way into the mainstream energy mix, with European countries, namely the U.K., leading the way. In November world leaders will arrive in Paris to negotiate a new global agreement on climate change…

BOURBON is participating in a tidal turbine connection project off the island of Ushant (Brittany, France), a first in France. A pioneer in the towing and installation of the first floating wind turbine off the coast of Portugal, BOURBON is committed in the field of renewable energies and is now supporting SABELLA1. Our mission: to lay the electrical cable for connecting the first tidal turbine to the national grid. The challenges: a narrow corridor, strong currents, 30 tons of cable. A team of over 30 experienced professionals, including engineers, seafarers, divers and ROV pilots. After 2 weeks of preparation, in close collaboration with all project stakeholders (client…

ABB has won orders worth around $30 million from Casa dos Ventos, a leading renewables company in Brazil, to provide substations and related power infrastructure enabling the efficient integration of power from two new wind complexes (comprising 13 wind farms) into the country’s transmission grid. The orders were booked in the first quarter of 2015. The projects in northeastern Brazil are scheduled for completion in 2016. Once finished, they will be capable of generating enough renewable energy to meet the consumption needs of about 300,000 local households, avoiding the annual emission of approximately 325.000 tons of carbon dioxide. The two 216 and 130 megawatt (MW) wind complexes São Clemente and Tianguá will be located in the states of Pernambuco and Ceará.

New capacity edges down 5 pct from record 2013; industry body forecasts stable growth over 2015/6. Europe's offshore wind capacity kept up a steady rate of growth in 2014 and should expand at a similar pace on average over the coming two years, an industry report said on Friday. New capacity connected to the grid totalled 1,483 megawatts (MW), edging down from 1,567 MW in 2013 when a record number of turbines and wind farms were installed, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) said. Total installed wind capacity now stands at around 8,045 MW, enough to cover 1 percent of Europe's electricity needs, it said. "It is not surprising that we see a levelling off of installations in 2014 following a record year in 2013," EWEA Deputy Chief Executive Justin Wilkes said in a statement.

ABB is celebrating today its 125th anniversary in Finland. Founded in 1889 in Helsinki by entrepreneur and inventor Gottfrid Strömberg, ABB Finland is today an innovative automation and power technology company with more than 5,000 employees in 30 locations, with sales of 2.3 billion euros in 2013. “ABB Finland has been driving innovation in power and automation technologies for 125 years. Today, ABB Finland is one of our most dynamic and successful country organisations and we continue to invest substantially in innovation and production facilities” said ABB Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer. “I would like to thank our colleagues in ABB Finland for their long standing excellent results and confirm our strong commitment to grow together in the future,” Spiesshofer added.

Joint venture partners in the East Anglia Offshore Wind Zone, Vattenfall & ScottishPower Renewables, support local sub-contractors. Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables, joint venture partners behind the East Anglia Offshore Wind Zone, have awarded over £15m in contracts to businesses operating in East Anglia. Since 2010, 28 firms located in the region have benefited and it is estimated that this has helped support well over 100 jobs. Contract awards have varied from modest accommodation and catering contracts to multi-million pound marine services, research and consulting contracts. These awards by Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables span businesses covering the whole of East Anglia, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

A LEEDCo official has informed 'The News-Herald' that more than 3,000 people in Northeast Ohio so far have signed up to pledge to buy a portion of their future electricity needs from offshore wind power. LEEDCo has begun work on a five to nine turbine wind energy demonstration project in Lake Erie named "Icebreaker," which is slated to be completed in 2017. It would be the first freshwater offshore wind project in the nation. The Icebreaker project involves the installation of six 3-megawatt American-made Siemens wind turbines approximately 7 miles off the coast of downtown Cleveland in Lake Erie. Officials also have a 1,000 megawatt target in mind by 2020.

The world’s biggest tidal array is to be built in North Scotland bringing jobs and energy security to the Pentland Firth region, informs a UK Government news release. The Government has provided £10 million worth of grant funding to the Meygen project, which will provide enough electricity to power 175,000 homes and provide up to 100 jobs when fully completed. Other funders include the Scottish Government, and The Crown Estate. The £51m scheme could inspire further projects in the Pentland Firth - helping to provide clean, sustainable and secure energy and jobs for the local community for decades to come. “The project also shows what can be done when the UK and Scottish Governments work together to provide a lasting benefit for the people of Scotland.

IEA forecast sees renewable power as a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, but facing growing risks to deployment over the medium term. The expansion of renewable energy will slow over the next five years unless policy uncertainty is diminished, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today in its third annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report. According to the report, power generation from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydro grew strongly in 2013…

Norway-based shipping company Fjord Line’s Stavangerfjord represents a new-generation of advanced and environmentally friendly Cruise Passenger Ferry with outstanding passenger facilities in order to operate both as a day and night ferry. The vessel is built to provide passengers with pleasant experiences, even under the harsh weather conditions of the North Sea. A modern and flexible interior design provides a capacity for 1,500 passengers (1,200 passenger during winter), and a total of 306 cabins on two decks provide first class accommodation and a variety of restaurants…