Ørsted’s Earnings from Operational Offshore Wind Farms Up 20 Pct
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Ørsted has reported 2024 earnings from its operational offshore wind farms of DKK 23.8 billion (approximately EUR 3.2 billion), up by 20 per cent compared to 2023.
And this is the introductory paragraph.
The global offshore wind developer said on 6 February the increase was mainly due to the ramp-up of generation at Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind project in Taiwan, South Fork in the US, and Gode Wind 3 in Germany, as well as higher wind speeds, higher pricing of the inflation-indexed CfDs and green certificates. The increase in 2024 was dampened by lower availability, according to the company.
I don’t think Trummkopf would get those sort of returns, if he invested any of his own money in his plan for the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Although my American friend ; Jack and his family enjoyed themselves in the Lebanon in the 1960s, when he lectured at the American University of Beirut.
On the other hand this article in The Times is entitled Trump’s Gaza Plan Watered Down Amid Backlash From Allies.
The Lady On The Train
One of the most amazing people, I’ve ever met was a New York State Supreme Court Judge. It is wrong to guess a lady’s edge, but she was about my age; late seventies, black, well-dressed and sat down next to me in Second Class with the biggest smile on her face on the train between Cambridge and London.
She was at a legal conference of senior judges from all over the world at Cambridge University and was going exploring in London.
The reason for the smile was extraordinary. When she went to the ticket counter, she was surprised that the Pakistani-as-she-described him ticket guy asked for her age. He then asked, if she would be doing any other travelling in the UK and when she said yes, he sold her a Senior Railcard as well. She had found it such a surreal experience, that would never have happened in the States that she was still laughing, when the sat down.
She could of course have been not just a New York State Supreme Court Judge, but a full United States Supreme Court Judge and I’d misheard, although I doubt she would have been one of Trump’s picks last time around.
I do hope that when Trump finds himself in the United States Supreme Court as he inevitably will, that she is there to give her verdict.
Thoughts On The Washington National Air Tragedy
I flew light aircraft for over twenty years as a hobby and to get about on business. I flew mainly in the UK, but flew for perhaps fifty to a hundred hours in Australia, France, Ireland, Italy and the United States. I flew planes on to islands like the Scillies in the UK, the Lido in Venice and the Barrier Reef in Australia. It was great fun and I enjoyed it immensely.
I had a friend, who had been an RAF Air Traffic Controller, who would be horrified at Trump’s remarks on diversity, as although he was white, he had been born in Tobago and had many ATC colleagues who were not white.
Flying around the world, most ATC personnel, try to smooth you on your way, even in France and Italy. But American ATC seems to work under unnecessary pressure because they allow planes to where British, French and Australian ATC wouldn’t.
I was told in the 1970s, that aviation experts, wanted to close National Airport, but the politicians wouldn’t allow it.
If I was Trump, I would bring in outside experts from somewhere like Australia, where in my opinion, they do ATC so much better than the Americans.
US President Trump Issues Executive Order Suspending Offshore Wind Leasing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the guts of the article.
US President Donald Trump has issued an Executive Order pausing offshore wind leasing on the US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and mandating a review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects. The Order also stops all relevant agencies from issuing approvals, either new or renewed, for both onshore and offshore wind projects until the review is completed.
The following was the response from someone with intelligence, sense and authority.
After the White House issued the Executive Order, Liz Burdock, founder and CEO of the US offshore renewable energy industry organisation, Oceantic Network, said.
Today’s executive order pausing offshore wind leasing and permitting is a blow to the American offshore wind industry and hurts the hundreds of U.S. supply chain companies and thousands of workers already building more American energy. While under a National Energy Emergency created by an unprecedented rise in energy demand, we should be working to quickly bring generation online instead of curtailing a power source capable of providing base load generation and creating new jobs across 40 states.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those companies and their equipment ending up in the UK and Scotland in particular.
Offshore Wind Innovation Hub in New York Opens Third Call For Applications
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub in New York, led by Equinor in collaboration with Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium (NOWRDC), opened the 2025 application process on 15 January, issuing the third call for its accelerator programme since the Hub was officially launched in January 2023.
These two paragraphs describe the work of the innovation hub.
“We look forward to building on the strong foundation of the Innovation Hub and supporting the next round of entrepreneurs and emerging technologies”, said Molly Morris, President, Equinor Renewables Americas. “The solutions identified by the innovators will play a critical role in advancing the offshore energy industry, developing supply chains, and strengthening energy security for future generations of New Yorkers.”
Last year, six companies were selected to join the Hub’s accelerator programme and receive support to develop further their solutions that could help advance offshore wind in New York and the US: Boxkite Software, Claviate, Indeximate, Pliant Energy Systems, Sensatek, and Triton Anchor. Through the first call for applications in 2023, the Innovation Hub selected Benchmark Labs, Flucto, Heerema Engineering Solutions, RCAM Technologies, OSC, and VinciVR.
Note.
- Many countries have innovation hubs like these based on research institutions and universities.
- Molly Morris, with her Norwegian support, seems the sort of woman, who can keep Trumkopf under control.
- The Offshore Wind Innovation Innovation Hub certainly seems to spread their support around.
- I don’t think the Innovation Hub’s philosophy fits with Trump’s ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’
I can see Molly Morris, Equinor and The Innovation Hub really annoying Trump.
Let the battle commence!
Trump Preparing Executive Order To Stop Offshore Wind Buildout On US East Coast, US Congressman Claims
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
US Congressman Jefferson Van Drew said on Monday that he was working closely with US President-elect Donald Trump on drafting an executive order to stop offshore wind activities along the US East Coast. The directive is expected to be finalised within the first few months of Donald Trump’s administration, the US Congressman stated in a press release on 13 January.
But it does look that Trump himself, is blowing in the wind.
To remind, seven East Coast offshore wind projects (in operation, under construction, or yet to enter the construction phase), were granted construction permits by the Trump administration during his first presidential term.
These include the large-scale offshore wind projects that were awarded federal leases from 2017 to 2020: Kitty Hawk North (2017), Empire Wind (2017), Skipjack (2018), Beacon Wind (2019), SouthCoast Wind (2019), Vineyard Northeast (2019), and South Fork Wind (2020). The Biden administration has approved eleven further offshore wind lease permits.
How did such a technological imbecile get voted in as President of the United States?
US DOE Offers US$1.76 billion Loan To Hydrostor For A-CAES California Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
These three paragraphs give more detail.
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has made a conditional commitment for a loan to long-duration energy storage (LDES) developer and operator Hydrostor of up to US$1.76 billion.
If finalised, the loan would be used to help fund the Willow Rock Energy Storage Centre, a 500MW/4,000MWh, 8-hour advanced compressed air energy storage system (A-CAES) in Eastern Kern County, California, led by Hydrostor subsidiary GEM A-CAES.
Compressed air energy storage (CAES) charges by pressurising air and funnelling it into a storage medium, often a salt cavern, and discharges it by releasing the compressed air through a heating system, which expands air before it is sent through a turbine generator.
Note.
- Both the Canadian Hydrostor and the British Highview Power use air in their batteries, with the Canadians using compressed air, often in salt caverns and the British using liquid air in tanks.
- Highview Power’s first large scale battery will be 200MW/2.5GWh, which is about half the size of Hydrostor’s, which will be 500MW/4.0GWh.
- Having mathematically-modeled large tanks full of chemicals in the 1970s for ICI, I wouldn’t be surprised, if the Highview Power battery is more easily scalable.
This could be an interesting technological shootout.
Complicating matters could be Trump’s policies to big batteries.
This article on Utility Dive, which is entitled Potential Trump Policies Pose Risks For US Storage Sector, With Musk Impact Uncertain.
Analysts Say Gives A Reasoned.
Higher battery material tariffs and phased-down IRA tax credits threaten a 15% drop in U.S. storage deployment through 2035 in a “worst-case” scenario,
BNEF analysts said.
German Far-Right Vows To Tear Down Wind Turbines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on oilprice.com.
These two paragraphs add detail to the story.
Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has vowed to dismantle wind parks and wind turbines should it win power in the upcoming presidential elections in February, aligning itself with similar sentiments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. AfD asserts in its election platform that it “rejects the further expansion of wind energy” and has called for cuts to renewable subsidies.
German offshore-wind group BWO has hit back at AfD’s anti-wind policy, saying Putin would be the biggest beneficiary of such a move. AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel has also tried to walk back that position, saying her earlier anti-wind comments referred to a local matter in the state of Hesse.
This could be good for the UK.
This is the first two paragraphs of the Wikipedia entry for Wind Power in Germany.
Wind power in Germany is a growing industry. The installed capacity was 55.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2017, with 5.2 GW from offshore installations. In 2020, 23.3% of the country’s total electricity was generated through wind power, up from 6.2% in 2010 and 1.6% in 2000.
More than 26,772 wind turbines were located in the German federal area by year end 2015, and the country has plans for further expansion. As of the end of 2015, Germany was the third largest producer of wind power in the world by installations, behind China and the United States. Germany also has a number of turbine manufacturers, like Enercon, Nordex and Senvion.
By the end of June 2022, Germany had a total of 30,000 installed wind turbines, with a capacity in excess of over 64 GW.
Large numbers of second-hand wind turbines to plant all over Starmer, Reeves and Miliband’s vision of the UK would go down just fine in the cash-strapped Treasury, but would the British public like them?
So as Starmer and Reeves will talk to anybody to save their skins, are they talking to the AfD?
Will Trump Venture To Impose ‘No New (Offshore) Wind Turbines’ Policy And Bring US Industry Supporting 120,000 Jobs To Halt?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
During his presidential campaign in 2024, Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order to stop offshore wind farms from being built in the US “on day one”. On 7 January, the US president-elect reiterated the plan which now seems to apply to wind energy on land too, saying he would look into implementing “a policy where no windmills are being built”.
He really does look to be following his “Drill, Baby, Drill” philosophy.
But the first paragraph of the article does indicate that Trump might not be having it all his own way.
The backlash is coming not only from the wind energy industry but also from government officials, as wind energy now accounts for 10 per cent of the US electricity generation, employs more than 120,000 people, and attracts tens of billions of US dollars in investments per year.
How easy is it to get rid of the President of the United States, without doing them any physical harm?
The whole article is well-worth reading, but the last paragraph is priceless.
So, will the incoming US president fulfil the promise and embark on implementing a policy that bans building new wind farms, both offshore and onshore, jeopardising jobs and billions in investments and federal lease fees?
It would certainly be a policy, that would have a profound negative effect on much of the US economy.
Brazilian President Enacts Offshore Wind Law, Vetoes Fossil Energy-Related Additions
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed into law the bill recently passed by the Brazilian Senate that establishes regulations on allocating and permitting offshore wind development areas. The Brazilian president has vetoed provisions related to fossil fuels in the final version of the legislation which were added while the bill was in the Chamber of Deputies.
It looks like President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has just struck himself off Trumkopf’s Christmas card list.
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The Anonymous Widower 