Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions To Expand U.S. Offshore Wind Energy
The title of this post is the same as that of this fact sheet from the White House briefing room.
This is the sub-title.
Departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce, and Transportation Launch Initiatives on Floating Offshore Wind to Deploy 15 GW, Power 5 Million Homes, and Lower Costs 70% by 2035.
Some points from the fact sheet.
- The President set a bold goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes with clean energy, support 77,000 jobs, and spur private investment up and down the supply chain.
- Conventional offshore wind turbines can be secured directly to the sea floor in shallow waters near the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
- However, deep-water areas that require floating platforms are home to two-thirds of America’s offshore wind energy potential, including along the West Coast and in the Gulf of Maine.
- Globally, only 0.1 GW of floating offshore wind has been deployed to date, compared with over 50 GW of fixed-bottom offshore wind.
- The Floating Offshore Wind Shot will aim to reduce the costs of floating technologies by more than 70% by 2035, to $45 per megawatt-hour.
- The Administration will advance lease areas in deep waters in order to deploy 15 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035.
This all seems to be ambitious!
But!
- In ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations, I looked at Scotland’s latest round of offshore wind leases.
- If the lessors carry out their proposals Scotland will add 9.7 GW of fixed-foundation offshore wind farms and 14.6 GW of floating offshore wind farms, which I estimate will be built by 2035.
- In Three Shetland ScotWind Projects Announced, I looked at three floating wind farms to the East of Shetland, which are a secondary deal after ScotWind, which could generate 2.8 GW by 2035.
- In Is This The World’s Most Ambitious Green Energy Solution?, I describe an ambitious plan called Northern Horizons, proposed by Norwegian company; Aker to build a 10 GW floating wind farm, which will be 120 km to the North-East of the Shetlands.
It could be possible that little Scotland installs more floating wind farms before 2035, than the United States.
And what about England, Wales and Northern Ireland?
- England hasn’t announced any floating wind farm projects, but has around 17 GW of fixed-foundation offshore wind farms under development in the shallower waters along the East and South coasts.
- In Two Celtic Sea Floating Wind Projects Could Be Delivered By 2028, I looked at prospects for the Celtic Sea between Wales, Ireland and Devon/Cornwall. It is possible that a GW of floating wind could be developed by 2028, out of an ultimate potential of around 50 GW.
- Northern Ireland is a few years behind England and Scotland and might eventually make a substantial contribution.
But Biden’s aims of a strong supply chain could be helped by Scotland, as several of the floating wind farms in Scotland are proposing to use WindFloat technology from Principle Power, who are a US company. The Principle Power website has an explanatory video on the home page.
Voters In Trump Counties Far More Likely To Die Of Covid
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Americans in areas that voted for President Trump are almost three times more likely to die of Covid-19 than those in counties that supported Joe Biden, an analysis has found.
In the most strongly pro-Trump areas there was an almost sixfold difference in pandemic mortality with the most pro-Biden areas, according to National Public Radio (NPR).
I suppose Trummkopf will say it is fake news.
Is The TP Group Worth A Punt?
I have been following the Class 799 train for some time. It is a hydrogen train prototype being sponsored by the owner of the train; Porterbrook.
The difficult task of fitting all of the hydrogen and electrical electrical gubbins under the floor of the train has been accomplished by the combined efforts of Birmingham University and TP Group.
But TP Group according to this article on The Times, which is entitled Directors In Line Of Fire As TP Group Takeover Bid Turns Sour, seems to have turned a bit difficult for the company.
I wrote about the Class 799 train in A Class 319 Train, But Not As We Know It! and I predict that it could be one of the stars of COP26 in Glasgow later in the year.
This picture sums up why!
The prototype may have designed for publicity, but I can see pictures of Joe, Boris, Angela et all going for a ride in this zero-carbon train, that started out as a British Rail commuter train on Thameslink.
I shall be watching the TP Group share price with interest.
Covid: Biden Vows 100m Vaccinations For US In First 100 Days
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the introductory paragraphs of the article.
US President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of 100 million Covid vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.
He said his first months in office would not end the outbreak and gave few details on a rollout plan but he said he would change the course of Covid-19.
Introducing his health team for when he takes office on 20 January, he urged Americans to “mask up for 100 days”.
I can see a few rocks ahead in his plan.
Vaccine Production
According to media reports, the number of vaccinations has declined since Friday because of delivery issues with the Pfizer vaccine.
In Tracking COVID-19 Vaccination Statistics, the number of vaccinations in the last few days are as follows.
- 15th January – 324233
- 16th January – 549920
- 17th January – 205235
- 18th January – 204076
The figures have been declining because of these delivery issues.
Pfizer say they are updating the factory in Belgium to increase production.
I don’t believe that, as the United States will be needing a million does per day, that they can get enough production on a reliable basis.
A Federal Lockdown
I believe that to get the virus under control in the United States, the country must follow the route of countries like France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK and have a period of perhaps a hundred days of total lockdown.
But I doubt that would be possible in the United States.
Mask Wearing
I don’t believe that Americans will mask up for a hundred days.
The Anti-Vaxxers And The Trumpeteers
I can see them having a field day!
Especially, if Joe Biden adds some strong legislation to curb the spread of the virus. Which in my view is needed.
Conclusion
It’s going to get a lot messier and probably more dangerous in the United States in the next few months.
Good Omens For Mr. Biden
This extract is from today’s diary in The Times.
The election of Joe Biden, despite the twitterhoea tantrums of the toddler in the Oval Office, continues a correlation noted four years ago by the writer Brydon Coverdale between American presidents and the sequence of Mr Men books. Donald Trump is the 45th president and the 45th Mr Man is Mr Rude, an easy fit. No 44 was Mr Cool (Barack Obama) and No 43 Mr Cheerful (George W Bush). Going back further, the all-action Teddy Roosevelt has the same number as Mr Strong and Ronald Reagan shares his with Mr Brave. Grover Cleveland, the only president to return to office after being voted out, has Mr Bounce. Now at No 46 comes Mr Good — and the correlation may continue. Coverdale writes: “I wonder if the 47th being Mr Nobody means the next president won’t be a Mr.”
I like the correlation and also the new word; twitterhoea.
It will be interesting to return to this post for the US Presidential Election in 2024.
Trump and Biden – First Encounter
I once saw John Major operate in a ninety minute speech to the Cambridge Chief Executives Club, who were a radical bunch and probably not very attuned to the Tory Party.
He gave a masterful performance, that was both serious and entertaining, as would many top flight politicians, from all round the world.
Neither Trump nor Biden hardly made a serious point and they certainly weren’t entertaining. It was almost like a boxing match, where the referee won!
The Anonymous Widower 