Expensive Technology News

The European power market will see its carbon intensity plummet as the region pursues ambitious climate-energy policies, but flexibility is key to enable this change, according to Peter Osbaldstone, Research Director, Europe Power & Renewables at Wood Mackenzie.Speaking at the Enlit Europe event in Paris, Osbaldstone told delegates that emissions-free supply will climb from 65% today to 85% by 2030, with 67% of power from renewables, according to latest Wood Mackenzie analysis.“The…

With autonomous navigation and remote electronics management, Furuno is on a digital transformation journey to help revolutionize the maritime industry. Matt Wood, National Sales Manager, Furuno USA takes a deeper dive.In 1938, Kiyotaka Furuno founded Furuno Electric Shokai Ltd., the predecessor of Furuno Electric Company. Today Furuno is best known as a radar and navigation company with nearly 90 percent of its business in the maritime sector. “We are still principally a family-owned…

TT Club’s Phillip Emmanuel has put into perspective some of the “sensationalism” surrounding the recent growth trend in containerships. Speaking during a plenary session of the TOC Asia Conference in Singapore on Tuesday, he advised ports and terminals to take a measured approach to the risk management of their operations, looking carefully at the ramifications to their own facilities of potential larger ship calls. TT Club is positioned as an insurer of risks for container lines and cargo handling facilities to advise on the type and extent of exposure.

Norway wants to let oil and gas companies drill in Arctic seas that were frozen as recently as the 1980s even though some climate experts say it is too early to trust global warming to keep the ice away. Russia is also showing new interest in the Arctic despite high costs in a region where governments are struggling to set safety rules after BP's 2010 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst offshore spill in U.S. history. Many companies, including ConocoPhillips and Idemitsu…

DNV now offers shipowners the support they need to make newbuilds and existing vessels LNG ready with class approved designs, ready for later, simple retrofit of LNG technology. The service enables shipowners to make smart choices and minimal investments now in readiness for when LNG bunkering becomes widely available. Shipowners are supported through all stages of the decision-making process as they prepare to meet the IMO air emission regulations entering into force from 2015.

Novatug, the Rotterdam-based specialist behind the design of the revolutionary Carousel towing system for tugboats, has established an international tugboat equipment sourcing consultancy for vessel owners and shipyards. The innovative Carousel towing system, which is being incorporated into two combi-tugs being built in Malaysia for Dutch salvage and towage company Multraship, could revolutionise tug design, without the need for expensive technology, according to Rolf Kievits. The Carousel design incorporates an integrated winch platform, together with appropriate finite element calculations to ensure that the entire structure is able to take its prescribed design load, fully independent of the ship, on the freely rotating Carousel and winch platform.

The two innovative Carousel combi-tugs being built in Malaysia for Dutch salvage and towage company Multraship could revolutionize tug design, without the need for expensive technology, according to the Carousel system designer, Novatug. The tugs ordered in July this year from Malaysian shipbuilder Nautica Nova Shipbuilding & Engineering (NNSE) incorporate the unique Carousel towing system and will address directly the needs of big ships requiring escort facilities into harbours and rivers. Rolf Kievits, general manager of Rotterdam-based Novatug, says, “The beauty of the Carousel construction is that the solution it offers is so logical, and relatively simple. Of course it requires engineering, design work and stress calculations to ensure that everything is fail-safe.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco late on May 5 vetoed a proposed offshore natural gas port over concerns that fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico could be harmed. Blanco had until May 7 to file any objections to a proposed federal license for the Main Pass Energy Hub, a liquefied natural gas terminal being sought by Freeport McMoRan Energy LLC, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based McMoRan Exploration Co. "Until studies demonstrate that the operation of the open rack vaporizer will not have an unacceptable impact on the surrounding ecosystem, I will only support LNG terminals using a closed loop system having negligible impacts to marine life," Blanco said in a letter sent on May 5 to Julie A. Nelson, acting deputy maritime administrator and chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Fireworks exploded over the Bay Bridge and thousands of people crowding the waterfront near the new ballpark gasped in admiration. Some of the best seats for the spectacle are along the north side of Pier 50, home of Westar Marine Services where owner's and employees share a barbecue in honor of the annual display sponsored by a local radio station. But the folks at Westar are more than passive observers, the tugs that are managing the fireworks barges are contracted from Westar. This annual fireworks event sums up Westar Marine Services' role on San Francisco Bay. They are the company that takes on all of the niche jobs that others with their large investments in big horsepower and Z-drives can't afford to be doing.