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Canceled offshore wind projects, imperiled solar factories, and fading demand for electric vehiclesA year after the passage of the largest climate change legislation in U.S. history, meant to touch off a boom in American clean energy development, economic realities are fraying President Joe Biden’s agenda.Soaring financing and materials costs, unreliable supply chains, delayed rulemaking in Washington and sluggish permitting have wrought havoc ranging from offshore wind developer Orsted’s project cancellations in the U.S.

Royal Caribbean Group is removing Israel from its 2024 itineraries due to the Israel-Hamas war, according to an email sent to travel agents on Thursday seen by Reuters, making it the second major U.S. cruise operator to alter its plans over the conflict.The Miami, Florida-based cruise operator is modifying itineraries as late as October 2024 for its Royal Caribbean International unit that stops in Israel, the email said.Travel has declined sharply across Israel and the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

India's coal industry celebrated the return of its major conference after a three-year pandemic hiatus by presenting a bullish view of demand, rising supply from new mines and strong demand for imports."King coal is coming back and coming with a big bang," Anil Kumar Jha, the chairman of Jindal Power Ltd., told the Coaltrans India conference, held this week for the first time since February 2020.The sentiment was echoed by virtually every speaker at the event, although there was a wide variety of views as to how successful India will be at ramping up coal domestic coal output…

The state of Texas is putting into service a fleet of new, highly capable patrol boats as it works to detect, disrupt and deter criminal activity along the Rio Grande."Now, more than ever, it is imperative that our law enforcement officers and Texas National Guard soldiers adopt innovative solutions," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a recent visit tour the state’s enhanced assets along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Abbott’s official website, the Governor has secured $4 billion in funding for Texas' border security efforts.

New federal money promises dramatic impacts throughout the United States’ inland waterways system in 2022 and beyond. This report focuses on America’s central rivers; the Western rivers will be covered in a future report. These central rivers reach 11,000 miles, from Pennsylvania to Florida and from Texas to South Dakota.Consider the money within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “Civil Works Program Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), 2022 Construction Spend Plan.”In Arkansas…

Carnival Corp's Cunard cruise line said on Wednesday its Queen Mary 2 ship would skip a scheduled stop at New York and instead extend its stay in Barbados until Jan. 2 to bring in more staffers.Cunard said its decision to add more crew members was a precautionary measure, but it did not detail why it needed more workers.The ship, Cunard's flagship liner named by Queen Elizabeth, is among the more than 85 vessels the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating…

As naval architects and marine engineers we are familiar with the design spiral. While design is not truly a spiral, we use the concept to remind ourselves that all pieces of a ship design interact. The design spiral is not a standard figure and can be simplistic or overcomplicated.A Google search image summary provides dozens of interpretations, all investigating different variables, with the only commonality that all spirals start with the “mission” variable.Figure 1 is an old…

Russian liquefied natural gas producer (LNG) Sakhalin Energy said on Wednesday post-shutdown commissioning was continuing at the second LNG train at its Prigorodnoye production complex.Comprehensive maintenance work, which began on July 9, had been initially due to last around 37 days, meaning the stoppages had been expected to finish by around this week. Sakhalin Energy said the first LNG train had restarted and the Amur River LNG carrier had departed with a first LNG cargo.It was not immediately clear when the second LNG train would be back online fully…

Several Chinese ports are facing congestion as vessels due to call at Ningbo are being diverted and cargo processing is slowed partly due to stricter disinfection measures under China's "zero-tolerance" coronavirus policy.On Tuesday, more than 50 container vessels were queuing at Ningbo port, China's second largest marine center, Refinitiv data showed, up from 28 on Aug. 10 when a COVID-19 case was reported at one of its terminals.Leading international shipping groups have warned their clients of delays and route adjustments.

Ports and shipping companies are diverting vessels from a container terminal in China's busiest marine transportation hub which was forced to close after a coronavirus case emerged, as the pandemic strains global supply amid rising retail orders.Meidong container terminal in eastern Ningbo suspended operations on Wednesday after a COVID-19 case was detected, while nearby Shanghai also recorded the worst congestion in at least three years.On Friday, 37 vessels were waiting to call at Ningbo and 26 vessels queuing for Shanghai…

Congestion off China's top two container ports Shanghai and Ningbo is worsening following the shutdown of a container terminal in Ningbo where a COVID-19 case was detected this week.Tighter restrictions to fight China's latest coronavirus outbreak are starting to hit more parts of the economy. The highly transmissible Delta variant has been detected in more than a dozen cities since late July.Forty container vessels were waiting at the outer Zhoushan anchorage on Thursday, up from 30 on Aug.

Wärtsilä introduced an upgraded version of its Wärtsilä 20DF dual-fuel engine that delivers increased power output, has a reduced environmental impact, and will feature a lower fuel consumption. It will also further increase the engine’s fuel flexibility by allowing a much wider gas quality span, down to methane number (MN) 65, while still delivering full output.The engine’s power per cylinder is increased from 185 to 195 kW, while the methane slip is lowered by as much as 40%, thereby reducing the CO2 emissions, according to the manufacturer.

Yara Marine Technologies acquired Lean Marine, a company, a company which provides automated fuel-saving, performance management, and reporting solutions, today installed on more than 200 vessels.In a release announcing the deal, it was touted that Lean Marine systems can help cut fuel consumption and CO2emission up to 25 percent. The FuelOpt system optimizes a vessel’s propulsion line in real-time based on the commands from the bridge, enabling automated control of vessel speed and fuel consumption, and avoiding fuel overconsumption.

The Centers for Disease Control said it had approved one cruise ship from Royal Caribbean to resume sailing in June, more than a year after U.S. cruising was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge will depart from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on June 26, the cruise company said. It will be the first U.S. departing cruise in a more than a year with paying passengers.“Cruising from the U.S. is back!” Richard D. Fain, Royal Caribbean Group chairman and chief executive officer said in a statement.The CDC said it is committed to working with the cruise industry and ports to resume cruising in…

Royal Caribbean Group said on Thursday it was aiming to restart its U.S. cruises in July after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new measures to speed up approvals, sending its shares up 2.5%.Late on Wednesday, the CDC made public a letter to the cruise industry that said it was “committed” to the resumption of passenger operations in the United States by mid-summer.It followed a lawsuit from Alaska and Florida that sought to overturn the health…

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It’s easy to skip critical maintenance tasks, especially when operational budgets are being reduced. Are you prepared for the risks to vital equipment? Right now, taking steps to assess and prep your equipment so you reduce downtime later can help pay dividends when offshore activity ramps up. It’s also far less costly than equipment replacement.Click Here to Join!In the world of industrial hydraulics, this process should start with your hydraulic fluid — a topic that, unfortunately, is easy to overlook as it relates to maintenance.

Do any of your e-learning modules force learners to spend a certain amount of time on a page before advancing to the next one? Do they force readers to answer one or more questions before advancing to the next page? Do they prevent access to the final exam until every learning page has been visited at least once? Do they enforce a prerequisite structure that prevents access to more advanced learning material until the prerequisite material has been completed?If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions then 1) you are not alone…

It was Canadian whalers, the Norwegians tell us, who first noticed that a dead whale does not bob in the waves. The carcass didn’t pitch or roll, either, and it was somehow “self-propelled” — its fins giving it forward motion and acting as stabilizers, or foils. The story still inspires Trondheim company Wavefoil, maker of scalable, retractable foils that offer ship owners and designers fuel savings and passenger comfort. In Norway, high-speed ferries, cruise ships and fishing vessels are the first customers for retrofits and newbuilds.

The oldest shipping company in Iceland Eimskip has made an agreement to sell two container vessels for USD 3.9 million (EUR 3.5 million).The Icelandic Steamship Company (Eimskipafélag Íslands hf.) said in a press note that the 1457 TEUS container vessels Godafoss and Laxfoss are 24 years old and have been operated by Eimskip for nearly 20 years.Eimskip has parallel to the sale made an agreement with the buyer to charter the vessels back, it said.The sale of these vessels is a part of Eimskip’s vessel fleet renewal, but the company is building two 2150 TEUS container vessels in China.Godafoss and Laxfoss will continue to service the Red line…

Surface Navy Association (SNA) names two new Vice Presidents to focus on Navy and Coast Guard Enlisted membersThe Surface Navy Association has established two new Vice President positions created to specifically focus on providing tailored programs, professional development and other outreach initiatives dedicated to better serve our Navy and Coast Guard Enlisted members. The Association’s board of directors has approved Retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles “Skip” Bowen and Retired Fleet Master Chief (AW/SW) JoAnn Marie Ortloff to the new positions.Bowen joined the Coast Guard in 1978 and served for 32 years. A lifelong cutterman, Bowen commanded five separate Coast Guard units ashore and afloat.

GE Renewable Energy has generated first power from its 12MW Haliade-X prototype - the world's largest and most powerful wind turbine - located at Maasvlakte, the Port of Rotterdam.According to GE, local teams will now proceed with the testing phase, during which different types of measurements will be performed to obtain a Type Certificate for the Haliade-X in 2020.John Lavelle, CEO of Offshore Wind at GE Renewable Energy, said “This first kWh is a critical achievement for our whole team, bringing to fruition our vision and all the hard work put in place. Innovation is part of GE’s DNA, and having successfully powered the world’s first 12 MW wind turbine, this illustrates it perfectly.

During the cruise season that ended on 22 October, a total of 603,500 cruise passengers arrived in Helsinki. This was 16 per cent more than the previous year.There were a total of 303 ship visits to Helsinki. This was the first time the number exceeded 300. This translates to a 6-percent growth from last year (2018:285).The largest percentages of cruise passengers came from Germany (32%), the United States (21%) and the United Kingdom (10%). The top three nationalities remained the same as the previous year, although the proportion of German visitors grew slightly. The proportions of other nationalities among visitors to Helsinki were all less than 5%.The popularity of Helsinki as a destination for international cruise ships has grown steadily…