Shannon Estuary Could Support Build-Out of 30 GW Of Floating Wind, House 2 GW of Electrolysis Capacity
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article from offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the opening paragraph.
The Shannon Estuary in Ireland can support the build-out of up to 1.8 GW of floating wind per year and up to 30 GW by 2050. In addition, it could accommodate a 2 GW electrolyser for hydrogen and downstream e-fuels production, according to the US-headquartered company Bechtel, which reviewed the Shannon Foynes Port Company’s Vision 2041 masterplan.
The island of Ireland will truly be going green.
The Turbine Production Figures
The headline talks about rolling out 1800 MW of floating wind turbines per year and in the body of the article it says this.
At peak, up to 120 floating turbines could be installed offshore per year.
This would imply 15 MW turbines, which is entirely feasible.
As all these figures were produced and/or fully checked by Bechtel, I would suspect that they are very sound.
So does this imply that 120 floating wind turbines is a typical production limit of this type of turbine assembled in a custom-built facility in a port?
Ossian Floating Wind Farm Could Have Capacity Of 3.6 GW
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz,
This is the first paragraph.
SSE Renewables, Marubeni Corporation, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have identified an increase in the potential overall project capacity for their Ossian floating wind project in Scotland from 2.6 GW to up to 3.6 GW.
It appears that surveys have shown that the wind farm can be bigger.
About The Name Ossian
This press release from SSE is entitled New Offshore Wind Farm To Take Name From Scottish Literature.
These three paragraphs explain the name and the partners behind the project.
A new wind farm project in Scotland is to take its name from an historic series of books which depict the epic quests of a third-century Scottish leader, following his adventures across rolling seas.
Ossian (pronounced ‘os-si-un’) from The Poems of Ossian is to be the name for the proposed new offshore wind farm across 858 km2 of seabed in waters off the east coast of Scotland.
The project will be delivered by the partnership of leading Scottish renewable energy developer, SSE Renewables, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni) and Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
I don’t think the three partners will have any difficulty raising the extra finance to expand the wind farm.
Where Is The Ossian Wind Farm?
This Crown Estate Scotland map shows the position of each of the Scotwind wind farms.
Note, that the numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
The Ossian wind farm is numbered two.
At present, the South Eastern group of wind farms are as follows.
- 1 – BP – Fixed – 2.9 GW
- 2 – SSE – Floating – 2.6 GW
- 3 – Falck – Floating – 1.2 GW
- 4 – Shell – Floating – 2.0 GW
- 5 – Vattenfall – Floating – 0.8 GW
- 6 – DEME – Fixed – 1.0 GW
This totals to 10.5 GW, which would be 11.5 GW, if the capacity of Ossian is increased.
Will Ossian And Nearby Wind Farms Be Developed As A Co-Operation?
The six companies involved in this group of wind farms, are all experienced developers of wind farms or oil and gas fields.
They also come from all around the world, so I can see the best technology being employed on this group of wind farms.
Will Other Wind Farms In The Group Be Expanded?
The surveys at Ossian appear to have shown that the area is ideal for floating wind and this is enabling the expansion of the farm.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the other wind farms be expanded.
I also feel that floating wind farms like Ossian, where it is likely that all the turbines on their floats are connected to a central substation, that could also be floating, may be a lot easier to expand.
Does Ossian Wind Farm Have A Web Site?
Not that Google can find, although ossianwindfarm.com appears to be under construction.
An Affordable Trip To Doncaster
If you want to get a train, the way to not get a cheap ticket was to turn up at the last minute and buy a single ticket to your destination.
But not any more.
On Wednesday, I needed to go to Doncaster.
- I knew that the latest train, that I could catch to get me to my meeting on time, was the 13:03, so I arrived at Kings Cross about 12:30.
- I tried to buy on the ticket machine, but I unable to complete the transaction.
- In the end, I got an Advance Single ticket with my Senior Railcard for £22.60 from the Booking Office.
- I had two backward-facing seats to myself, as the train, which was going to Leeds wasn’t very full.
- Coming South later in the day, I repeated the exercise in the Booking Office at Doncaster for £23.85.
- The train was full, but I did have a seat with a table.
I consider just under fifty pounds to be good value for the return journey.
I’m fairly sure, that this is a method being used by LNER to fill seats. as after all, forty tickets at an average of £25 a time is a grand.
I think we should applaud, what they are doing.
It should be remembered that LNER are facing increasing competition on the route, including against planes to Newcastle and Edinburgh.
I went to King’s Cross this morning and had a play with the ticket machine. I could have bought tickets as follows.
- Edinburgh – £52.10
Hull – £27.05
Leeds – £32.90
Newcastle – £51.50
All trains included a seat reservation and left within half an hour.
Note that the Hull ticket was a direct one on Hull Trains, that I could have bought on an LNER machine.
My First Christmas Snack Supper Of 2022
I saw the first of Marks & Spencer’s gluten-free Turkey Feast Christmas sandwiches in their Finsbury Pavement store today.
Note.
- The only allergens in the sandwich are egg and mustard.
- The cranberry sauce is real, but there appear ti be not enough cranberries to affect my Warfarin-controlled INR.
- Although the Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5 % is labelled as containing gluten, it seems to have no adverse effect on my body.
- I have discussed this with the brewer and they have told me, that there is so little barley in each bottle, that some might find the beer appears to be gluten-free.
I do think it the best humble sandwich, I’ve ever tasted.
Biggleswade Wind Farm
The Biggleswade Wind Farm is a small wind farm on the East side of the East Coast Main Line, to the South of Biggleswade.
I took the pictures as I went North to Doncaster yesterday.
- The wind farm generates 20 MW.
- There are ten turbines.
I was sitting backwards in one of LNER’s Azuma trains.
It was in some ways an experiment to get a general wind farm picture.
Orders For The Eviation Alice Pass US$ 2 Billion
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Eviation.
This is the first paragraph.
Eviation Aircraft, a manufacturer of all-electric aircraft, today announced that the order book for its world-leading nine-seater all-electric Alice airplane has passed a total value of US$ 2 billion.
$2 billion is a tidy sum and I suspect it ensures that they can now concentrate on its certification program on the way to completing Entry into Service (EIS).
It looks like the day, I will fly in an electric aircraft has come closer.
Homerton Hospital Is Bottom Of The List
In The Times today, there is an article, which is entitled Ambulance List Shows NHS Trust With The Worst Delays.
My local hospital is Homerton and it gets a very honourable mention.
At the other end of the scale, four trusts accepting patients by ambulance reported no delays of more than an hour, led by Homerton University Hospital in east London.
It is interesting that Homerton is down as one of the best.
My GP reckons it has improved greatly in the last few years. He also says, that they seem to have more spare capacity, than the other hospitals in the area.
The hospital removed my gallstones using endoscopy and I walked out to a waiting car. I could have taken the bus, if required.
I also had a knee X-rayed, where the GP gave me a chit and told me to just turn up unannounced in one of two specific three-hour periods. I was in and out in just over ten minutes.
Homerton seem to be thinking hard about their organisation and methods.
Could this be why they are the best on the list?
So what is our South London Mayor doing to improve transport to this much improved hospital?
He’s cutting out, one of the major bus routes to the hospital.
Centrica Partners With Hull-Based HiiRoc For Hydrogen Fuel Switch Trial At Humber Power Plant
The title of this post, is the same as that on this article on Business Live.
This is a paragraph.
It comes as the owner of British Gas has also increased its shareholding in the three-year-old business to five per cent. Last November it was one of several investors to pump £28 million into HiiRoc alongside Melrose Industries, HydrogenOne, Cemex, Hyundai and Kia, who joined existing strategic investors Wintershall Dea and VNG.
This could be sensational.
The reason I said that was that I used to share an office at ICI Mond Division, with Peter, who was putting instruments on a plant called the Badische. It was a new process to create acetylene. If I remember correctly, the process was as follows.
Ethylene was burned and then quenched in naptha.
The trouble was that the process produced a lot of carbon, which clogged the burners, and masses of black smoke, which upset everybody in Runcorn, especially on washing day!
Someone was worried that the plant might go into explosive limits, so Peter had devised a clever infra-red instrument to read the composition of the off-gas from the burner. It was found to be in explosive limits and ICI shut it down. BASF said ICI were wrong and there was no way to measure the composition of the off-gas anyway. A few months later BASF’s plant exploded and buried itself in a hillside in Southern Germany. Upon hearing this news, ICI shut the Badische for ever. ICI were annoyed in that they had to spend £200,000 on a flameless cutter to dismantle the plant.
I do wonder, if HiiROC have tamed BASF’s beast to do something useful, like produce hydrogen and carbon black!
Government Boosts Hydrogen Buses With £26m
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Live ~News.
These are the first two paragraphs.
A Northern Irish bus company is receiving £26 million in funding to build electric and hydrogen buses.
Wrightbus built the world’s first hydrogen double-decker bus in 2020 and is now looking to export its zero-emission buses worldwide to Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
Other points from the article include.
- Wrightbus are aiming to build 3,000 zero-emission buses.
- Jobs could increase by 300.
- They would like to increase exports by 40 %.
It looks like there’s a future in zero-emission buses.
The Anonymous Widower 