Energy Developers News

How the Maximum Contingency of 2,200 MW Was Recast to a 1,200 MW CeilingAs policy makers and energy developers look to develop and interconnect large offshore wind projects in the most economically efficient and least environmentally impactful way, an issue has developed. A relatively recent limit, set in place by the grid operator in New England in a planning process document, states that no single system loss of energy, or “contingency”, can be larger than 1,200 megawatts (MW). This 2016 addition to ISO New England’s (ISO-NE) Planning Procedure No.

The U.S Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council on Thursday approved the construction of a $1.5 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.The project, Revolution Wind, is run by Danish company Orsted and U.S.-based Eversource, and would bring a total of 704 megawatts (MW) clean energy to Connecticut and Rhode Island.Another offshore project by the two wind energy developers, the South Fork wind farm off the coast of New York, delivered its first power to the state's power grid on Wednesday.Offshore wind development has been a priority for the Biden administration.

The U.S. Gulf Coast region, the nation's primary offshore source of oil and gas, has cheap electricity and lacks state mandates for renewable energy procurement, making it an unlikely place to expand one of the most expensive forms of clean energy.That is why players in the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry are looking beyond the grid when the Biden administration holds the first-ever offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, eyeing the sale instead as a way to…

Climate change, rising sea levels, land reclamation and offshore energy are all factors underpinning business models at Europe’s dredge and marine engineering majors. They are adopting strong sustainability credentials as their operations come under closer environmental, social, governance (ESG) scrutiny and new opportunities open up in the US offshore wind sectorThe relatively small number of global marine engineering and dredge firms face more observation of their business models than ever before.

America may have only entered the offshore wind sector recently, but it is wasting no time in playing catch-up. The White House has set targets of 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050. The focus so far has centred on bottom-fixed installations, but the prospect of higher energy yields in deeper waters where the wind blows stronger and longer now beckon. The White House has also set a floating wind deployment target of 15 GW by 2035.From a standing start, there are immense challenges in America’s offshore wind development.

Offshore services provider Aqueos Corporation is moving into its new office facility in Boston to support the growing offshore wind industry in the U.S. Northeast.Broussard, La.-based Aqueos has primarily provided marine construction, commercial diving, ROV and vessel contracting services for offshore oil and gas, but in 2020 the company identified the demand to expand its operating lines to include the offshore renewable energy sector.Walter Aguilar, Aqueos' vice president of civil…

Engineering firm, a major supplier to the oil industry, has decided to pay a regular dividend and buy back stock as it swung to a full-year profit in 2021 and its outlook improved, the company said on Thursday.Subsea 7 said it "firmly" believed that the market recovery was underway based on increased interest from its customers and it now expects its 2022 earnings to be "in line or better" than last year.Its Oslo-listed shares rose 6.5% by 1019 GMT, on track for their biggest daily gains in some 18 months, following the release of its October-December and full-year earnings.Analysts said the s

U.S. offshore wind farm developer Mayflower Wind announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement with Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding/Duclos Corporation of Somerset, Mass. for the specification, design and manufacture of a Jones Act-compliant, hybrid battery diesel electric crew transfer vessel (CTV).The design utilizes technologies that will provide significant fuel savings and emissions reductions, including the use of lithium-Ion battery energy storage to create a hybrid vessel that will be a bridge to full electrification.

What will COVID-19 mean for the offshore wind industry? An industry not yet spinning on its own.Epitomized by the roller coaster ride that defined the stock market over the last few weeks, unpredictability has emerged as one of the few certainties of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Every industry has seen the effects of the pandemic, from hospitality, to travel, and even to the renewable energy sector. Indeed, even though the US offshore wind industry is not yet fully established…

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) issued a statement in support of two bills introduced in the U.S. Senate this week, which would both extend the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for offshore wind energy.The legislation comes at a critical time for offshore wind in America, as energy developers prepare to start construction on the first wave of large-scale projects.The Offshore Wind Incentives for New Development Act introduced by Senators Markey (D-MA), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Congressman Jim Langevin (RI-02), as well as the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act introduced by Senators Carper (D-DE) and Collins (R-ME) would…

The World Bank Group announced a new program to advance the adoption of offshore wind energy in developing countries and emerging markets.The World Bank and  International Finance Corporation (IFC) will help these markets evaluate their offshore wind potential and provide technical assistance to develop a growing pipeline of projects that are ready for investment by renewable energy developers, said a release from the  international financial institution.The offshore wind industry has grown nearly five-fold since 2011, with 23 gigawatts installed at the end of 2018 and a large volume of planned projects in Europe, China and the United States.

Global developer of offshore wind farms Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind has entered into a partnership agreement with Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) to improve communications between the seafood industry and offshore wind energy developers.“This first-of-its-kind partnership will create an unprecedented opportunity for commercial fishermen to provide direct input to the wind energy industry on matters of significant interest to their businesses,” according to the statement issued in Boston by the RODA, originally organized by scallop fishermen and others to protect their interests as the federal government leases large offshore tracts to build wind turbines.Under this partnership, both industries will remain autonomous but provide a platform to move towards workable solutions.

CorPower and Sustainable Marine Energy join forces for a wave and tidal developer collaboration to develop and demonstrate generic foundation mooring solution to reduce cost and improve O&M methods.The 35-month UMACK (Universal Mooring, Anchor & Connectivity Kit Demonstration) project will address ocean energy affordability, survivability, reliability and installation through the demonstration of a generic anchor-foundation-mooring-connectivity system which aims to reduce capital and installation costs by up to 50%.UMACK is being funded by Scottish Enterprise and the Swedish Energy Agency with co-funding from the OCEANERA-NET COFUND (via the European Commission under Horizon 2020).UMACK brings together leading wave and tidal energy developers…

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has provided a series of metocean data sets to be used in a new Scottish open innovation competition aiming to stimulate creative thinking and data science to design new data products for the benefit of the marine environment, communities and economy.Organized by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Data Lab, Scotland’s Blue Growth Data Challenge will make available data sets from 2015 in-situ observations and numerical modelling from EMEC’s wave and tidal energy test facilities in Orkney.The data sets include wave conditions at EMEC’s Billia Croo wave test site; meteorological observations in two locations adjacent to EMEC’s wave and tidal test sites…

Marine services provider Marine and Towage Services Group Ltd. (MTS) said it has purchased MTS Terramare, a multipurpose landing craft. The vessel enables the delivery of cargo, construction equipment and other materials directly onto land, without the need for dedicated dockside facilities, while also being able to operate as a diving platform for offshore salvage and development work. The ability of MTS Terramare to be used as a floating platform for diving survey, or UXO works on cable routes…

Ricardo has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to administer a ocean Wave Energy Converter (WEC) prize challenge, aimed at helping to bring this potential source of clean energy to commercial scale. Wave energy conversion is technology that uses the motion of ocean waves to create electricity. The WEC Prize aims to attract innovative and next generation ideas from new and existing wave energy developers by offering a monetary prize and providing an opportunity for tank testing and evaluation of scaled WEC prototypes.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and HR Wallingford launched a tidal energy modeling tool for use by tidal energy developers to identify the most efficient sites for tidal energy converters, tidal arrays or tidal barrage schemes around the U.K. and French coastlines. The computer program, SMARTtide (Simulated Marine Array Resource Testing), incorporates a 2D hydrodynamic model of the U.K.’s continental shelf and the north-west European coastline. The software will be available to the public from May 21 as a fee-for-service via a portal on HR Wallingford’s website.

The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) has partnered with Matchtech to offer an online recruitment service. Developed to offer a key benefit to the institutes 15,000 global membership, Matchtech will run an online job board on the IMarEST website. David Loosley, IMarEST CEO, welcomes Matchtech as IMarEST’s new recruitment partner stating; “We’re delighted to announce that the IMarEST is partnering with Matchtech to offer our international members an online recruitment service. ”
Matchtech’s recruitment partnership with IMarEST will bring 29 years of experience recruiting within the marine industry to the global marine community.

The European Commission launches a call for renewabke energy project funding under NER300. The wind categories have remained the same as for the first call, and include offshore wind farms with very large turbines, floating offshore turbines and onshore wind turbines for complex terrains and cold climates. NER300 is the EU's funding programme for innovative demonstration projects for renewable energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS). However while no CCS projects qualified for funding as part of the first call in 2011, renewables projects got EUR 1.2 billion - with six wind energy projects granted EUR 273 million total. "In the first call the wind industry proved how innovative it was…

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) today announced that it is reducing the area under consideration for future commercial wind energy leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore Massachusetts. This reduction is in response to multiple comments received in response to a Request for Interest (RFI) issued on December 29, 2010. The RFI invited the public to provide information useful to BOEMRE in evaluating the suitability of the identified area for potential future leasing.

Vigor today announced its plan to acquire Alaska Ship and Drydock Inc. (ASD), further consolidating the business of ship repair on the U.S. West Coast. ASD intends to transition its business and assets to Vigor pending approval of the transfer of ownership by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the owner of the Ketchikan Shipyard where ASD is based. The private companies hope to finalize their agreement on or before March 1st. ASD would operate the Ketchikan Shipyard (KSY) as the Alaska Ship & Drydock LLC subsidiary…

Naval Air Station, Kingsville, Texas - The Navy released today a memorandum of agreement (MOA), signed by officials from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of the Navy and Texas Wind Group (TWG), which outlines a mutual approach to enable a renewable energy developer to build and operate wind turbines at planned locations in Kleberg County, Texas, while reducing the potential for those turbines to affect flight operations at NAS Kingsville. "Sustaining military readiness is the number one priority of everyone in the Navy chain of command," said Capt. Mark McLaughlin, commanding officer of NAS Kingsville. Signing for DoD was David Belote, director of the DoD Energy Siting Clearinghouse.

Oregon Wave Energy Trust seeks submissions for Its 2012 Ocean Energy Fast Pitch competition. In conjunction with the seventh annual Ocean Renewable Energy Conference in Portland, Oregon, Oregon Wave Energy Trust (OWET), a non-profit organization working to promote the responsible development of ocean energy in Oregon, today announced it has begun seeking submissions for the 2012 Ocean Energy Fast Pitch Competition. For the first time, early stage technology developers will have the ability to “pitch” their technologies to a panel of judges in hopes of winning up to $10,000 worth of cash and in-kind support and services from OWET and ocean energy industry partners. One of the largest barriers to innovation in this field is financing.