Renewables News

Fishing has been a lifeline for Alejandro Alcones for the past four decades, but he now fears his small boat may be replaced by a floating solar farm on the Philippines' largest lake.Alcones is part of a group of fishermen opposed to the government's plan to place solar panels atop Laguna de Bay, one of the country's biggest sources of freshwater fish, as it looks for renewable energy sources to meet growing demand for power."Laguna Lake gives life and income to fishermen like us who didn't finish school.

Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova on Tuesday said U.S. safety officials have allowed them to resume limited construction on an offshore wind farm off the Massachusetts coast where a turbine blade shattered last month.Vineyard Wind, owned by Avangrid AGR.N and Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, was ordered to stop power production and construction after a blade broke apart on July 13 and sent pieces of fiberglass into the water that washed up on nearby beaches.In a joint statement…

Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova on Friday released a plan outlining the steps to be followed after a turbine blade failure last month at the Vineyard Wind offshore project off the coast of Massachusetts, which left potentially dangerous debris on beaches on the island of Nantucket.Vineyard Wind, the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, was shut down by federal authorities after the turbine blade failure.The plan outlines the steps to be followed to recover the remainder of the blade on the turbine. It has been developed in consultation the U.S.

U.S. activists opposed to offshore wind development are forming a national coalition aimed at fighting projects from California to New England, according to the effort's founder and two other organizations.The National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance, or NOOA, aims to bring a national profile to what is currently a fractured movement of dozens of local groups, according to its president, Mandy Davis.Offshore wind is a nascent industry in the United States and a key pillar of U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to combat climate change.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday announced the availability of its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed wind project offshore Maryland.US Wind is seeking approval for its proposed Maryland offshore wind project, which includes three planned phases. Two of those phases, MarWin and Momentum Wind, have received offshore renewable energy certificates from the State of Maryland. If approved, this project could generate between 1,100 and 2,200 megawatts of energy for the Delmarva Peninsula, and power up to 770,000 homes.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said on Friday it is seeking competitive bids for offshore wind leases off the coast of Texas after renewable energy developer Hecate Energy Gulf Wind LLC made an unsolicited bid.The administration of President Joe Biden sees offshore wind power as a vital part of a broader strategy to decarbonize the U.S. power sector to fight climate change, but the nascent industry faces strong local opposition in some areas over concerns about ocean…

Power services firm GE Vernova on Wednesday said a manufacturing flaw led to a turbine blade failure at the Vineyard Wind offshore project off the coast of Massachusetts earlier this month.The turbine blade broke on July 13 and left potentially dangerous debris on beaches on the island of Nantucket. Later, U.S. authorities ordered a shutdown of the project, which is still under construction.GE Vernova said a preliminary analysis had determined that insufficient bonding led to…

Classification society ABS announced it has awarded approval in principle (AIP) to Houston-based CLS Wind for its innovative wind turbine assembly system.The patented elevator style assembly system promises easier, safer and faster wind turbine and nacelle installation and maintenance, without the use of large cranes and heavy-lift barges or vessels.ABS said it completed design reviews based on class and statutory requirements.“This is an exciting milestone for CLS Wind and domestic renewable energy production. ABS is committed to supporting the U.S.

The Vineyard Wind offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts is shut down until further notice while authorities investigate a turbine blade failure that caused debris to wash up on beaches, a federal agency said on Tuesday.The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said it was working closely with Vineyard Wind to determine the cause of the incident, which left potentially dangerous debris on beaches on the island of Nantucket."There were no injuries reported…

The United States will fall far short of the Biden administration's 2030 offshore wind goal but will catch up quickly in the following years, according to an analysis by an industry group published on Tuesday.The American Clean Power Association (ACP) projected there will be about 14 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity along U.S. coastlines by 2030. That compares with a goal of 30 GW that President Joe Biden's administration laid out in 2021 as it sought to jumpstart the…

U.S. offshore wind aspirations, both federal and state, have resulted in excitement about the potential opportunity of a large U.S. offshore wind market. But uncertainty, initially financially driven and increasingly a result of political uncertainty, is leading us into a challenging period, which will undoubtedly impact short-term activity, according to the latest market report from Intelatus Global Partners. A darkening cloud for the U.S. wind industry is the forthcoming presidential elections…

A fleet of Jones Act compliant crew transfer vessels is growing in stride with the United States’ burgeoning offshore wind industry.When the United Sates’ first purpose-built crew transfer vessel (CTV), Atlantic Pioneer, was delivered in 2016, the country’s offshore wind industry was just getting off the ground. In the years that followed, the industry has been building up—perhaps slower than expected at times—but today is moving forward in earnest.Coinciding with this build-up is the growth of a fleet of Jones Act qualified vessels…

U.S.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Friday announced its approval of Ørsted’s construction and operations plan (COP) for the Sunrise Wind project, marking the final approval needed from the federal agency to move the project toward the start of offshore construction.New York’s largest offshore wind project, the 924 MW Sunrise Wind project will to be located south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and east of Block Island, R.I.The COP approval outlines the project’s one nautical mile wind turbine spacing…

The United States' Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said it has conducted an inspection at the South Fork Wind project, marking the agency’s first inspection of an operational offshore wind turbine in U.S. waters. Located offshore New York and Rhode Island, 130 megawatt South Fork Wind is the nation’s first commercial wind farm on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).“This first wind turbine inspection is critical for industry, BSEE, and the nation as domestic offshore wind transitions from installation and commissioning activities to daily clean power production…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued on Thursday its final environmental analysis that found "no significant impacts" from leasing Central Atlantic coastal areas for potential offshore wind development off the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia coasts.“BOEM is proud to continue to support the clean energy transition in a responsible manner in the Central Atlantic region,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.“We will continue to work closely with Tribes, our other government partners…

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) said on Tuesday it had finalized contracts for Equinor's Empire Wind 1 and Orsted's and Eversource's Sunrise Wind offshore wind projects.NYSERDA in February awarded conditional contracts to buy electricity from two proposed offshore wind projects under a program meant to support the embattled industry and keep the state's ambitious clean energy goals on track.The state at the time selected the Empire Wind 1 project from Norway's Equinor and the Sunrise Wind facility being developed by Denmark's Orsted and U.S.

New Jersey officials said the state will receive $125 million from a legal settlement with Denmark's Orsted ORSTED.CO over the company's cancellation last year of two offshore wind farm projects.The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said in a statement that the funds will be used for investments in wind component manufacturing facilities and wind farms.The settlement comes nearly seven months after Orsted said it would stop developing the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects off the coast of New Jersey as it struggled with soaring costs and supply chain delays.The cancellations triggered an angry re

It certainly has been an active few months in the U.S. offshore wind space.Despite some ongoing issues, the fundamentals are looking surprisingly positive in the context of what has taken place over the last 12 months. In fact, the key concern for developers and the supply chain will be any negative impacts to offshore wind development arising from the forthcoming Presidential elections.So why are we so positive?The foundation of optimism is found in the federal plans to offer leases this year containing a minimum 22 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in 16 sites located in the Central Atlantic…

Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a bill aimed at reevaluating and potentially revising existing offshore wind project plans, setting the stage for the state's goal of achieving 8,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2031.The bill signed on May 9 will empower the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to open proceedings to evaluate offshore wind projects, including offshore wind renewable energy credit (OREC) pricing.The bill, which facilitates the increase of the maximum amount of ORECs sold under certain conditions…

Foundation installation work has commenced for the second phase of what will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, in the U.K. North Sea.Seaway7’s vessels Seaway Strashnov and Seaway Alfa Lift have commenced installation of monopile foundations and transition pieces for the Dogger Bank B phase of the offshore wind farm project. The team recently completed installation of all 95 transition pieces on Dogger Bank A, thus concluding the installation of the foundations for the first phase of the project.Olly Cass…

Danish offshore wind installation company Cadeler reports it has secured vessel reservation agreements with both MFW Bałtyk II Sp. z.o.o. and MFW Bałtyk III Sp. z.o.o., each a joint venture project owned 50% by Equinor and 50% by Polenergia.The Bałtyk 2 and Bałtyk 3 projects are wind farms situated in the Baltic Sea, approximately 27 and 40 kilometers from the port of Łeba, respectively. The projects entail the installation of 100 offshore wind turbine generators in the Polish Baltic Sea.

The first-ever American-built, owned, and crewed offshore wind service operations vessel (SOV) was christened during a ceremony on Saturday in the Port of New Orleans.Edison Chouest Offshore's (ECO) recently completed ECO Edison will play an integral part of the operation and maintenance of Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects as the U.S. offshore wind industry continues to ramp up in the U.S. Northeast.Built at ECO in-house shipyards in Louisiana…