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Local weather change might convey again wind as the ability supply for ocean ships

Climate change may bring back wind as the power source for ocean ships

Airseas, the maritime unit of France’s Airbus, has developed a gigantic, automated kite called Seawing, which essentially tows a ship.

Airseas

The shipping industry accounts for nearly 3% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, producing as much manmade carbon dioxide as all the coal-fired power plants in the US combined. Still, it’s a relatively small output within the overall transportation sector, which is responsible for 37% of annual global greenhouse gases.

Yet as international trade continues to grow and heavily rely on oceangoing vessels to move cargo — they currently carry more than 80% of it — some scientists warn that by 2050 shipping could account for 17% of greenhouse gases.

That’s why, after years of lackluster efforts to decarbonize, the industry’s regulatory body is getting on board. In 2018, the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, a London-based United Nations agency comprising 175 member countries — many with delegates directly tied to businesses resistant to curbing emissions — adopted a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by 2050 compared to the 2008 levels.

Critics say that goal is too little and too late, insisting the IMO reset its target to 100% decarbonization by mid-century, or preferably sooner.

“The IMO has been rather late to the party, in terms of developing climate measures and coming up with a strategy,” said Lucy Gilliam, shipping policy officer at Seas at Risk and a board member of the Clean Shipping Coalition, both environmental NGOs. She cited the fact that international shipping is not included in the Paris climate accord. Plus, a recent study found that only 33 out of the 94 largest shipping companies have a clearly expressed policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and/or have committed to the IMO’s goal.

The simplest green shipping solution

Nonetheless, the private sector is undertaking some initiatives to lessen its climate impact. The simplest solution would be for ships to simply slow down, thus using less carbon-emitting fuel. Shipbuilders are also experimenting with hulls coated with air bubbles to reduce drag, as well as sleeker bows, more efficient engines, propellers and thrusters, and AI-assisted navigation systems.

Meanwhile, the industry is beginning to establish green corridors, or specific shipping routes and ports that support zero-emission solutions and policies. The financial world is joining the decarbonization movement as well, with 29 institutions signing onto the Poseidon Principles, an agreement to consider efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions when lending to shipping companies. The signatories represent more than $185 billion in loans to international shipping — nearly half of the global ship finance portfolio.

But with a global supply chain designed for speedy deliveries, the big breakthrough bets are being made on the development of low-emission or zero-emission fuels — including green methanol, hydrogen, liquid natural gas (LNG) and ammonia — to reduce or replace the molasses-thick, noxious bunker fuel that feeds most ships’ massive diesel engines.

These efforts include electric propulsion, several wind-power technologies and nuclear energy, which has driven naval vessels since the mid-1950s and is getting some attention as it generates zero emissions, though safety and security concerns are major impediments.

Here’s an overview of the biggest bets being placed on low-carbon and no-carbon breakthroughs in ocean shipping.

Green methanol

Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, which moves 17% of the world’s shipping containers, has 13 ships on order from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries that run on green methanol. The first, a small vessel with a capacity to carry 2,000 containers (the largest such ships transport 24,000 containers) will launch next year and operate in the Baltics and northern Europe, said Lee Kindberg, Maersk’s head of environment and sustainability in North America.

“Beginning in 2024, every quarter we are going to launch two 16,000 TEU vessels that will operate on transpacific routes,” she said, using the logistics acronym for twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard measurement of 20-foot-long containers. “Our current commitment is to go to net-zero carbon shipping by 2040.”

An artist’s rendering of a Maersk 16,000-TEU container ship that will run on green methanol.

AP Moller-Maersk

Most of the methanol produced today is derived from fossil fuels, but Maersk, CMA CGM and other leading shipping companies are testing two different green, carbon-neutral versions. One is made from solid and liquid biomass extracted from agricultural and forest residues and farming and poultry waste. The other is e-methanol, made by combining CO2 with hydrogen produced from water using renewable electricity. Both are liquids that can be safely stored in non-pressurized tanks at ambient temperatures. Although more expensive than bunker fuel and in limited supply, green methanol can be mixed with bunker in dual-fuel engines to effectively lower carbon emissions.

Liquid hydrogen is another fuel option, often touted because it produces almost no carbon emissions when combusted. Yet about 95% of hydrogen is produced by reforming natural gas or other fossil fuels. It can be made renewably, however, by splitting water using energy from solar, wind, nuclear and hydro power. Green hydrogen can be used in a ship’s internal combustion engine or in fuel cells that generate emission-free electricity. And it may become a cheaper and more attractive alternative due to production tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Washington, DC-based International Council on Clean Transportation conducted a study in 2020 on the potential of using renewable hydrogen fuel cells to power container ships servicing the busy corridor between China and the San Pedro Bay near Los Angeles. “Without making any other changes to the vessels, around 43% of the voyages made in 2015 could be made with that technology,” said Xiaoli Mao, a senior marine researcher at the nonprofit organization. “And with minor adjustments to ship design or adding one more refueling stop, 99% could be realized.”

LNG as an alternative fuel source

LNG tops the list of alternative fuels currently used in commercial ships, including some large container vessels, according to Clarksons Research, a shipping analytics firm based in London. Although less than 5% of the current cargo fleet of around 55,000 ships can run on lower-emission fuels, 38% of new builds will have the option, up from 28% a year ago and 12% five years ago. LNG will power nearly a third (741) of those new vessels, while 24 will run on methanol and six on hydrogen.

The knock on LNG for shipping is it’s still a fossil fuel that emits methane and requires considerable capital investment for retrofitting existing engines and fuel tanks. What’s more, it would extend the use of carbon-based fuels for at least another 20 years, which is a typical lifespan for large ships.

Green ammonia

Ammonia is garnering attention, too. It’s in abundant supply and can be used in dual-fuel engines and fuel cells. As with hydrogen, most ammonia is derived from fossil fuels and its production releases considerable CO2, although it is made environmentally friendly by combining green hydrogen with nitrogen from the air. Safety is the biggest concern, because ammonia is dangerously toxic to humans and marine life, which could dissuade ports from storing it.

Last December, LMG Marin, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine, agreed to design what it describes as the first green ammonia-fueled tanker for a unit of Norway’s Grieg Maritime Group. Planned for launch in 2024, the MS Green Ammonia will, appropriately, transport green ammonia.

On a larger scale, in June, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announced the completion of the conceptual design of a very large gas carrier (VLGC) initially powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), but adaptable for future use of ammonia as the main fuel. The Tokyo-based shipbuilder previously built more than 80 VLGCs, and the new design will allow retrofitting of those vessels to run on ammonia.

Electric robo ships

Mitsubishi’s designers are also pioneering electric-powered ships with a vessel called Roboship, which will be built by Honda Heavy Industries and launched next year. The 550-ton ship will replace a conventional diesel engine with a hybrid-electric system, including storage batteries, propellers, motors, switchboards and generators. The digital platform used to control the electric propulsion equipment was developed by e5 Lab, a Tokyo startup promoting electric propulsion and digitization of ships.

e5 is collaborating with another Japanese shipbuilder, Asahi Tanker, to build a pair of all-electric, zero-emissions tankers, powered by large-capacity lithium-ion batteries. The workload of the bunker vessels’ crews will be lightened with automated equipment and digital tools. The first model delivered marine fuel to ships in Tokyo Bay in April, with the second scheduled to begin operating next year.

As with electric cars, travel range and battery charging are issues with e-ships, so they’re being designed for short, local voyages. Electrified ferries, pilot boats and cruise ships are showing up in ports and harbors in Japan, Sweden and Denmark.

The Yara Birkeland, billed as the first fully electric and autonomous container vessel, began transporting small loads of fertilizer in Norway last spring. During its initial two years, the ship will operate with a full crew while gradually transitioning toward full autonomy, including unmanned navigation, loading, unloading and mooring. Electrifying larger TEU-capacity container ships capable of traversing longer regional routes would require lower-cost battery storage and expanding on-shore charging infrastructure.

The return of wind-powered cargo ships

The Flettner rotor system used by shipping industry wind power company Anemoia, was invented by German engineer Anton Flettner in the 1920s. It features smokestack-like cylinders mounted on a ship’s deck that rotate rapidly with the wind, generating thrust.

anemoi

Of course, the earliest cargo ships sailed the seas solely under wind power, a concept being modernized today.

“There are currently 20 large vessels under some wind-assisted technology,” said Gavin Allwright, secretary for the London-based International Windship Association. They include tankers, bulk carriers and vehicle transporters, he said, which have enough deck space to accommodate different systems.

The front runner, Allwright said, is the Flettner rotor system, a concept invented by Anton Flettner in the 1920s. It features tall, smokestack-like cylinders, mounted on a ship’s deck, that rotate rapidly with the wind and thrust the vessel forward. Among recent applications, the Australian mining company BHP is partnering with Pan Pacific Copper and Nippon Marine to test a rotor sail system aboard a bulk carrier.

Cargill, the food and agriculture behemoth that charters more than 600 dry bulk carriers, is set to test a ship outfitted with WindWings, solid sails designed by BAR Technologies. “Through this partnership we will bring bespoke wind solutions to customers who are actively seeking to reduce CO2 emissions from their supply chain,” said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business. The company reportedly plans to charter at least 20 new wind-assisted ships in the coming years.

A ship outfitted with Wind Wings, solid sails designed by BAR Technologies. Cargill reportedly has plans to charter at least 20 ships using the technology in coming years.

BAR Technologies

Airseas, the maritime unit of France’s Airbus, has developed a gigantic, automated kite called Seawing, which essentially tows a ship. The wind-assist technology, Airseas claims, can reduce fuel consumption by an average of 20%. Another French company, Michelin, is testing its inflatable, retractable, automated wing sail mobility prototype on a ferry running between the UK and Spain.

Despite its embrace of these various decarbonization projects, the maritime industry will have a tough time weaning itself off fossil fuels. Indeed, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is financing some of the IMO’s green shipping efforts. But as Amazon, Ikea, Unilever and other major movers of cargo seek ways to meet their net-zero goals, shipping is a prime target.

“If they want to reduce their emissions,” said Maersk’s Kindberg, “they need us to reduce ours.”

Categories
Health

Scott Gottlieb says vaccinated individuals cannot ‘throw warning to the wind’

U.S. may never reach 'true herd immunity,' says Dr. Scott Gottlieb

Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Friday urged fellow vaccinated Americans to be on guard about the Covid delta variant, telling CNBC its highly transmissible nature cannot be ignored even by people who have immunity protection.

“The original premise around the vaccines — that they reduce the risk of serious disease and hospitalization — is still intact,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on “Squawk Box.” “We still see in the data that the vast majority of people who are getting in trouble with Covid are people who are unvaccinated.”

However, Gottlieb, who serves on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer, said the risk to vaccinated people is not zero.

“People who are vaccinated in a setting of this epidemic surge, especially if they’re in places where there’s a high prevalence of infection, need to take appropriate precautions,” he said. “You can’t just throw caution to the wind. You can still become a vehicle for spread in your community.”

The seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is 141,060, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That’s up 14% from a week ago. Cases are increasing by more than 5% in 42 states plus Washington, D.C.

Gottlieb’s comments Friday came in response to a question about three vaccinated U.S. senators — Roger Wicker, Angus King, and John Hickenlooper — who announced a day earlier they had tested positive for Covid.

“I think there’s now a recognition that this delta is sufficiently contagious that it can pierce the protections offered by the vaccine, particularly if you were vaccinated a while ago and have declining immunity, as these senators probably did because they were vaccinated a long time ago,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019.

While some scientists disagree with U.S. health officials’ recent decision to authorize Covid booster shots beginning next month, Gottlieb said he believes the delta variant’s transmissibility supports the idea of delivering third doses to Americans. Noting his role on Pfizer’s board, Gottlieb said he’s studied the data that shows declining immunity protection over time.

“It happens to be the case that we vaccinated some of our most vulnerable older individuals in our society last December and January, particularly nursing homes,” Gottlieb said. “I think the prudent thing to do would be to get additional immunity in that population, especially considering the fact we’re dealing with a much more contagious variant.”

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus, health-care tech company Aetion Inc. and biotech company Illumina. He also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ and Royal Caribbean’s “Healthy Sail Panel.”

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Politics

As Wars Wind Down, Congress Revisits Presidential Powers

As Wars Wind Down, Congress Revisits Presidential Powers

In turn, they believe, presidents will be more politically sensitive to using their powers to carry out military actions absent specific approval from Congress. Mr. Kaine, for instance, said Mr. Biden’s recent airstrikes in Syria, which he ordered without congressional authorization, “show that the executive branch, regardless of party, will continue to stretch its war powers.”

President Barack Obama more or less dared Congress in 2015 to debate the use of military force abroad, but both parties refused for opposite reasons. Republicans were loath to grant Mr. Obama authority because they disapproved of his foreign policies, and Democrats were still stinging from the vote in 2002 to authorize the war in Iraq.

But time and the resident of the White House have shifted the ground, and a broad group supports a repeal of the 2002 authorization including the conservative Heritage Foundation and Concerned Veterans for America, as well as VoteVets, a liberal nonprofit group that supports Democrats, and the American Legion, the veterans’ advocacy group.

Mr. Obama sent mixed messages about his view of presidential war powers, and President Donald J. Trump would have vetoed efforts to eliminate the 2002 authorization. But Mr. Biden, who was once the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has always been more sympathetic toward the constitutional role that Congress has on matters of war.

“The president is committed to working with the Congress to ensure that outdated authorizations for the use of military force are replaced with a narrow and specific framework appropriate to ensure that we can continue to protect Americans from terrorist threats,” the White House said in a statement.

The remaining uncertainty may be one or two Senate Democrats and several Senate Republicans who remain skeptical of the repeal. This week, Senators Joni Ernst of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans said in interviews that they were open to repeal of the 2002 measure.

“It’s something we’re all I think going to be looking at,” Mr. Thune said.

Mr. Young, a retired Marine captain, may be persuasive in helping round up Republican support for the Senate bill being pushed by Mr. Kaine, who has worked on this issue for decades.

Categories
Politics

Offshore Wind Farms Present What Biden’s Local weather Plan Is Up Towards

Offshore Wind Farms Show What Biden’s Climate Plan Is Up Against

A constellation of 5,400 offshore wind turbines covers a growing part of Europe’s energy needs. The United States has exactly seven.

With more than 14,000 miles of coastline, the country offers plenty of places to tear down turbines. But legal, environmental, and economic obstacles and even vanity stood in the way.

President Biden wants to catch up quickly – in fact, his goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions depend on it. Still, there are many problems, including a shortage of boats big enough to take the huge equipment out to sea, fishermen worried for livelihoods, and wealthy people feared that the turbines would take the unspoiled view of theirs Clouding villas by the water. There is even a centuries-old, politically explosive federal law known as the Jones Act that prevents wind farm developers from using American ports to launch foreign construction ships.

Offshore turbines are useful because the winds at sea are stronger and more steady than on land. The turbines can be placed so far that they are not visible from land, but still close enough to cities and suburbs that they do not require hundreds of kilometers of expensive transmission lines.

The Biden administration wants up to 2,000 turbines in the water in the next eight and a half years. Officials recently approved a project near Martha’s Vineyard that languished during the Trump administration and announced support for large wind farms off the California coast in May. The $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan proposed by Mr Biden in March would also increase incentives for renewables.

The cost of offshore wind turbines has fallen by around 80 percent over the past two decades to as low as $ 50 per megawatt hour. Although they are more expensive per unit of energy than onshore solar and wind parks, offshore turbines are often economically viable due to their lower transmission costs.

“Solar in the east is a little trickier than in the desert west,” said Robert M. Blue, chairman and CEO of Dominion Energy, a major utility working on a wind farm with nearly 200 turbines off the coast of Virginia. “We have set ourselves a net zero target for our company by 2050. This project is essential to achieve these goals. “

The slow pace of offshore wind development underscores the trade-offs between urgently tackling climate change and Mr Biden’s other goals of creating well-paying jobs and protecting local habitats. The United States could push through more projects if it were willing, for example, to remove the Jones Act’s protection for domestic shipbuilding, but that would undermine the president’s promises of employment.

These difficult questions cannot be solved simply by federal spending. As a result, it could be difficult or impossible for Mr Biden to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by 2035 and achieve net zero emissions across the economy by 2050 as he would like.

“I think the clear fact that other places have jumped on us is important,” said Amanda Lefton, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that rents federal waters to wind developers. “We won’t be able to build offshore wind power if we don’t have the right investments.”

Europe’s lead means it has built a thriving complex of turbine construction, shipbuilding and skilled labor. Therefore, the USA could be dependent on European components, suppliers and ships for years.

Installing huge offshore wind turbines – General Electric’s largest one is eight feet – is a difficult job. Ships with cranes that can lift more than a thousand tons transport large components out to sea. At their destination, legs are lowered into the water to raise the ships and make them stationary while they work. Few ships can handle the largest components, and that’s a big problem for the United States.

Lloyd Eley, a project manager, helped build nuclear submarines early in his career and has been with Dominion Energy for the past eight years. None of this prepared him properly to oversee the construction of two wind turbines off the Virginia coast.

Mr. Eley’s biggest problem was the Jones Act, which requires that ships sailing from a US port to any location within the country, including its waters, be manufactured and registered in the United States and owned by Americans and need to be occupied.

The largest ships built in the U.S. designed for offshore construction are roughly 185 feet long and can lift around 500 tons, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in December. This is far too small for the huge components that Mr. Eley’s team worked with.

So Dominion rented three European ships and operated them in the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. One of them, the Vole au Vent from Luxembourg, is 140 meters long and can lift 1,654 tons.

Mr. Eley’s crew waited for weeks for the European ships to travel more than 800 miles each direction to the port. The installations took a year. In Europe it would be ready in a few weeks. “That was definitely a challenge,” he said.

The US shipping industry has not invested in the ships needed to transport large wind turbines because there have been so few projects here. The first five offshore turbines were installed near Block Island in 2016, with RI Dominion’s two turbines installed last year.

Had it not been for the Jones Act – it was passed after World War I to ensure the country had ships and crews that could be mobilized during war and emergencies – Dominion could have run European ships out of Virginia’s ports. The law is sacrosanct in Congress, and unions and other supporters argue that repealing it would cut thousands of jobs in shipyards and boats, and make the United States dependent on foreign companies.

Demand for large ships could increase significantly over the next decade as the US, Europe and China pursue ambitious offshore wind targets. According to Dominion, only eight ships worldwide can transport the largest turbine parts.

Dominion is spending $ 500 million on a ship built in Brownsville, Texas that can haul large wind turbines. Named after a sea monster from Greek mythology, Charybdis, the ship will be 144 meters long and lift 2,200 tons. It will be ready by the end of 2023. The company said the ship, which it will also rent to other developers, will have around 200 more turbines installed at low cost by 2026. Dominion spent $ 300 million on the first two but is hoping the others will cost $ 40 million apiece.

For the past 24 years, Tanger Island resident Tommy Eskridge has made a living catching clams and crabs off the coast of Virginia.

Among other things, he works where Dominion wants to place its turbines. Federal regulators have adjusted the distance between turbines to one nautical mile to create wider lanes for fishermen and other boats, but Mr Eskridge, 54, fears the turbines could harm his catch.

The area has produced up to 7,000 pounds of mussels a day, although Mr Eskridge said a typical day produced about half that amount. A pound can make 2 to 3 dollars, he said.

Mr Eskridge said the company and regulators had not done enough to show that installing turbines would not harm his catch. “We just don’t know what it’s going to do.”

Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which includes hundreds of fishing groups and companies, fears the government will not study the proposals and plan appropriately.

“What they do is say, ‘Take what we’ve really never done here, let’s move all in, the opponents are damned,'” said Ms. Hawkins. “From a fisheries point of view, we know that there will be massive displacement. You can’t just go fishing elsewhere. “

Fishing groups refer to recent problems in Europe to justify their concerns. For example, Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, has filed for an injunction to keep fishermen and their equipment out of an area of ​​the North Sea designed for new turbines while it is exploring the area.

Orsted said it tried to “work with fishermen” but asked for the contract because its job was made difficult by equipment that a fisherman had left in the area that he could not identify. “In order to conduct the survey work safely and only as a last resort, we had no choice but to secure the right to remove this device,” the company said in a statement.

When developers first applied for approval for Cape Wind, a project between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, in 2001, opposition was fierce. Opponents included Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who died in 2009, and William I. Koch, an industrialist.

Nobody wanted the turbines to block the view of the coast from their resorts. They also argued that the project would block 16 historical sites, disrupt fishermen, and clog waterways used by humpback whales, pilot whales, and other whales.

After years of legal and political disputes, the developer of Cape Wind gave up in 2017. But long before that happened, Cape Wind’s problems terrified energy managers considering offshore wind.

Projects along the east coast are in similar struggles. Residents of the Hamptons, the affluent enclave, opposed two wind development areas and the federal government put the project on hold. On the New Jersey coast, some homeowners and businesses are opposed to offshore wind because they fear it could increase their electricity prices, disrupt whales and affect the area’s leech fisheries.

Energy managers want the Biden government to mediate such conflicts and expedite permit approval.

“It was artificial, incrementally slow because of some inefficiencies on the federal approval side,” said David Hardy, CEO of Orsted North America.

Renewable energy advocates said they were hopeful because the country added many wind turbines onshore – 66,000 in 41 states. They provided more than 8 percent of the country’s electricity last year.

Ms. Lefton, the federal water lease regulator, said future offshore projects would move faster as more people realized the dangers of climate change.

“We have a climate crisis ahead of us,” she said. “We have to switch to clean energy. I think that will be a great motivation. “

Categories
Business

Wind Challenge Exhibits Democratic Tensions Over Power

Wind Project Shows Democratic Tensions Over Energy

In January, New York State legislature Patricia Fahy celebrated a new development project for the Port of Albany: the country’s first assembly plant for the construction of offshore wind towers. “I rode my bike,” said Ms. Fahy, who represents the area.

It wasn’t long, however, before she got into a political bond.

A powerful union told her that most of the equipment for New York’s large offshore windmill investment was not built by American workers but was overseas. However, when Ms. Fahy proposed legislation to encourage developers to use locally made parts, she encountered opposition from environmentalists and representatives of the wind industry. “They said,” Oh God, don’t cause us any problems, “she recalled.

Since the election of President Biden, Democratic leaders have touted the win-win appeal of the fossil fuel transition, saying it could help avert an impending climate crisis while putting millions into work. “We haven’t used the most important word for coping with the climate crisis for too long: jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Biden in an address to Congress last month.

But there is a tension between the goals of industrial workers and those of environmentalists – groups that Democrats see as politically critical. The more the focus is on domestic production, the more expensive renewable energy will be, at least initially, and the longer it may take to meet the renewable energy targets.

This tension could be felt as the White House finalizes its climate change agenda.

“It’s a classic compromise,” said Anne Reynolds, who heads the New York Clean Energy Alliance, a coalition of environmental and industrial groups. “It would be better if we produced more solar modules in the USA. However, other countries have invested public money for a decade. So it’s cheaper to build them there. “

There is some data to support the claim that climate targets can create jobs. Consulting firm Wood Mackenzie expects tens of thousands of new jobs a year later this decade, just in offshore wind, an industry that hardly exists in the United States today.

And unions – even those whose members are most at risk of switching to green energy, such as miners – are increasingly accepting this logic. In recent years, many unions have teamed up with renewable energy advocates to form groups with names like the BlueGreen Alliance that are pushing for ambitious jobs and climate laws, similar to the $ 2.3 trillion proposal that Mr Biden proposed to the American Employment plan calls.

However, much of the supply chain for renewable energy and other clean technologies is overseas. Nearly 70 percent of the value of a typical solar module assembled in the United States comes from companies in China or Chinese companies across Southeast Asia. This emerges from a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the energy research group BloombergNEF.

Electric vehicle batteries, their most valuable component, follow a similar pattern, the report said. And there is virtually no domestic supply chain dedicated to offshore wind turbines, an industry that Mr Biden hopes will grow from around half a dozen turbines in the water to thousands in the next decade. Most of this supply chain is located in Europe.

Many proponents of a greener economy say that importing equipment is not a problem but an asset – and that insisting on domestic production could raise the price of renewable energy and slow the transition from fossil fuels.

“It’s valuable to have flexible global supply chains that allow us to move forward quickly,” said Craig Cornelius, who once led the energy division’s solar program and is now the executive director of Clearway Energy Group, which develops solar and wind projects.

Those who value speed and procurement argue that as manufacturing becomes increasingly automated, most of the tasks in the renewable energy space will be building solar and wind power plants, rather than making equipment.

However, working groups fear that construction and installation work is poorly paid and temporary. They say that only manufacturing traditionally offers higher wages and benefits and can maintain the workforce for years.

Manufacturing partisans also point out that this often leads to jobs in new industries. Researchers have shown that the migration of consumer electronics to Asia in the 1960s and 1970s helped these countries become hubs for future technologies like advanced batteries.

As a result, union leaders are urging the administration to impose strict conditions on the subsidies for environmentally friendly equipment. “We will require that the domestic content of this material be really high,” said Thomas M. Conway, president of the United Steelworkers Union and close ally of Biden.

The experience in New York shows how delicate these debates can be when certain jobs and projects are at stake.

Late last year, the Communications Workers of America began considering ways to revive employment at a General Electric factory that represents the union in Schenectady, NY, near Albany. The factory has laid off thousands of employees over the past few decades.

Around the same time, the state was about to approve bids for two large offshore wind projects. The eventual winner, a Norwegian developer, Equinor, promised to bring a wind tower assembly plant to New York and modernize a port in Brooklyn.

“All of a sudden, I’m focusing on the fact that it’s wind making,” said Bob Master, the communications officer who turned to Ms. Fahy, the state legislature. “GE makes turbines – there could be a New York supply chain. Let us try it.”

In early February, the union tabled a bill urging developers like Equinor to buy their wind equipment “as much as possible” from manufacturers in New York State – not just towers but other components like blades and nacelles house the mechanical entrails of one Turbine. Ms. Fahy, a member of the congregation, and Senator Neil Breslin, a Democratic compatriot from the Albany area, were signed on as sponsors.

Environmentalists and industry officials were quick to voice concerns that the move could deter developers from coming into the state.

“So far, Equinor has exceeded anything other companies have done,” said Lisa Dix, who until recently led the Sierra Club’s renewable energy campaign in New York. “Given what we have, why do we need stricter requirements for companies?”

Ms. Dix and other clean energy advocates had worked with unions to persuade the state that offshore wind construction jobs should offer union wages and representation. New York’s clean energy bid evaluation system was already awarding points to developers who promised local economic benefits.

Ms. Reynolds, the leader of the New York Environmental and Industrial Coalition, feared that exceeding the existing regulation could make renewable energy costs unsustainable.

“If it got bigger and more noticeable on utility bills, the general expectation is that political support for New York’s clean energy programs would wane,” she said.

The communications staff tried to provide reassurance, which was not entirely successful. “I said to them, ‘We are trade unionists: we ask for anything, the boss doesn’t offer us anything, and then we make a deal,'” said Mr. Master. “‘But I think there is no reason why turbines should come from France, unlike Schenectady.'”

The final language, a compromise negotiated with the state’s Building Crafts Council and passed by lawmakers in April, allows the state to award additional points in the tender process to developers who commit to creating manufacturing jobs in the state, a slight refinement of the stream approach. (It also effectively requires that workers who build, operate, or maintain wind and solar systems either receive union wages or can benefit from union representation.)

While the law included a “Buy American” requirement for iron and steel, the state energy research and development agency known as NYSERDA may waive the requirement.

Agency executive director Doreen Harris said she was generally pleased that the existing approach had remained intact and predicted that the state will have blade and nacelle factories within a few years.

Some analysts agreed, arguing that most offshore wind devices are so bulky – often several hundred feet long – that it becomes impractical to ship across the Atlantic.

“There is a point where importing all goods and services does not make economic sense,” said Jeff Tingley, offshore wind supply chain expert at consultancy Xodus.

However, this does not always reflect the experience of the UK, which earlier this year had installed more offshore wind turbines than any other country but produced only a small portion of the equipment.

“Even if the UK is the largest market, the logistical cost has not been high enough to warrant new factories,” said Alun Roberts, offshore wind expert at UK-based consultancy BVG Associates.

According to a 2017 report, the country produced significantly less than 30 percent of its offshore wind turbines, and Mr Roberts said the percentage has likely increased slightly since then. The country currently makes blades, but not gondolas.

All of this leaves the Biden administration with a difficult choice: If they really want to move production to the US, it might require an aggressive nudge. A senior White House official said the government is looking into ways some of the wind and solar panels in the US should be made when it comes to federal funds.

However, some current and former democratic business leaders are skeptical of the idea, as are clean energy advocates.

“I am currently concerned about the federal government’s local offshore wind content requirements,” said Kathleen Theoharides, the Massachusetts secretary for energy and the environment. “I don’t think adding something to the tariff payer that could potentially increase the cost of clean energy is necessarily the right strategy.”

Master said the recent New York legislation was a victory given the difficulty of getting stronger policies in place at the state level on domestic content, but acknowledged that it fell short of his union’s goals. Both he and Ms. Fahy vowed to keep pushing to bring more offshore wind manufacturing jobs to New York.

“I could be the queen of lost causes, but we want to get some energy for it,” said Ms. Fahy. “We need that here. I’m not just saying New York. This is a national conversation. “

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Offshore wind agency to work with researchers and sort out blade waste

Offshore wind firm to work with researchers and tackle blade waste

This file photo taken on July 31, 2018 shows workers checking the quality of newly manufactured wind turbine blades at a factory in China.

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A collaboration between science and industry is expected to focus on recycling fiberglass products, which could ultimately help reduce waste from wind turbine blades.

In an announcement on Thursday, the University of Strathclyde, based in Glasgow, Scotland, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Aker Offshore Wind and Aker Horizons.

Among other things, the trio will work together to scale and commercialize a laboratory-developed process that involves recycling fiberglass-reinforced polymer composites used in wind turbine blades.

According to the university, the system focuses on the “heat recovery and post-treatment of glass fibers” from glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite scrap with the end result “glass fibers of almost virgin quality”. The idea is that with this system the composite waste can be reused.

“This is a challenge not just for the wind power industry, but for all industries that rely on GRP materials to manufacture and manufacture them,” said Liu Yang, head of the Advanced Composites Group at the University of Strathclyde, in a statement.

“Maintaining and redistributing the energy contained in the fibers is critical to moving towards a circular economy,” he added.

What to do with wind turbine blades when they are no longer needed is an industry headache. This is because the composite blades can prove difficult to recycle, which means many end up in landfill at the end of their lifespan.

As the number of wind turbines on the planet increases, the problem becomes even greater. According to Strathclyde, blade waste could reach 400,000 tons per year by 2030.

In recent years, a number of companies in the industry have tried to find solutions to the problem.

For example, last December, GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America signed a “multi-year contract” to recycle blades removed from onshore wind turbines in the US.

In an announcement at the time, GE Renewable Energy said the blades would be crushed at a Veolia North America facility in Missouri before being “used as a substitute for coal, sand and clay in cement factories in the United States.”

In January 2020, the Danish wind energy giant Vestas announced that it wanted to produce zero-waste wind turbines by 2040.

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Danish vitality large Orsted pivots to onshore wind in $684 million deal

Danish energy giant Orsted pivots to onshore wind in $684 million deal

Close up of a wind turbine nacelle on a blue sky.

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Orsted announced on Friday that it had entered into an agreement with Brookfield Renewable to acquire a 100% interest in the Irish and UK onshore wind business Brookfield Renewable Ireland.

Orsted said the deal would allow entry into the European onshore market. In 2014 the company, then known as DONG Energy, sold its last onshore wind activities to focus on the offshore sector.

According to Orsted, the agreement has a company valuation of 571 million euros ($ 684 million), although that number is subject to adjustments. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

Brookfield Renewable Ireland (BRI) is headquartered in the Irish city of Cork and specializes in the development and operation of onshore wind farms.

Orsted described BRI as “an attractive portfolio” that includes 389 megawatts (MW) in operation and under construction and a development pipeline of over 1 gigawatt (GW).

“In the US we have built a strong onshore business with 4 GW in operation and under construction,” Orsted CEO Mads Nipper said in a statement.

“The European onshore wind energy market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years,” added Nipper.

He went on to say that his company’s acquisition of BRI would “provide a strong platform to expand our onshore renewable presence to Europe”.

There is a well-developed wind energy industry in Europe. According to WindEurope, 14.7 GW of wind energy capacity was installed there in 2020.

According to the industry association, 80% of these systems were onshore, with the total onshore capacity being 194 GW.

In the US, onshore capacity is more than 122 GW, according to the American Clean Power Association. China, a dominant force in wind energy, has over 278 GW of onshore capacity, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

Capacity refers to the maximum amount installations can produce, not the amount they necessarily produce.

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A Monster Wind Turbine Is Upending an Business

A Monster Wind Turbine Is Upending an Industry

A wind turbine swirls over a strip of land at the mouth of the port of Rotterdam, which is so large that it is difficult to photograph. The turning diameter of its rotor is longer than two American football fields. Later models will be taller than any building in mainland Western Europe.

The giant whirling machine in the Netherlands is a test model for a new series of giant offshore wind turbines designed by General Electric. It contains sensors for wind speeds, power output and loads on their components. Mounted in arrays, the wind machines have the potential to supply cities with electricity and replace the emission-generating coal or natural gas systems that form the backbone of many electrical systems today.

GE has not yet installed any of these machines in seawater. As a relative newcomer to the offshore wind business, the company is faced with questions about how quickly and efficiently it can scale production to build and install hundreds of turbines.

But the giant turbines have already caused a sensation in the industry. A top manager at the world’s leading wind farm developer called it a “little leap over the latest technology”. And one analyst said the machine’s size and pre-sale “rocked the industry.”

The prototype is the first of a generation of new machines that are about a third more powerful than the largest already in commercial operation. As such, it changes the business calculations of wind turbine manufacturers, developers and investors.

The GE machines will have generating capacity that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. A single one will be able to deliver 13 megawatts of power, enough to light up a city with around 12,000 houses.

The turbine can generate as much thrust as the four engines of a Boeing 747 jet. According to GE, it is used at sea, where developers have learned they can plant larger and more numerous turbines than on land to catch stronger breezes and be more reliable.

The race to build larger turbines has developed faster than many industry figures had predicted. GE’s Haliade-X generates almost 30 times more electricity than the first offshore machines installed offshore Denmark in 1991.

In the years to come, customers are likely to demand even larger machines, say industry leaders. On the other hand, they predict that just like airliners peaked with the Airbus A380, they predict that turbines will reach a point where larger sizes no longer make economic sense.

“We will also reach a plateau. We just don’t know where it is yet, ”said Morten Pilgaard Rasmussen, Chief Technology Officer for offshore wind turbines at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, the leading manufacturer of offshore turbines.

Although offshore turbines only make up about 5 percent of the generation capacity of the entire wind industry, this part of the business has taken on its own identity and is expected to grow faster than land wind in the coming years.

Offshore technology has made its way into northern Europe for the past three decades and is now spreading to the east coast of the US as well as Asia, including Taiwan, China and South Korea. The large projects, which cost billions of dollars and are possible at sea, attract large investors, including oil companies like BP and Royal Dutch Shell, who want to quickly upgrade their green energy supply. Capital investments in offshore wind turbines have more than tripled to $ 26 billion in the past decade, according to the Paris-based forecasting group International Energy Agency.

GE began its entry into wind power in 2002 when it bought Enron’s land-based turbine business at a bankruptcy auction – a successful unit in a company embroiled in a spectacular accounting scandal. It was a marginal force in the offshore industry when its executives decided to crack it about four years ago. They saw a growing market with only a few serious Western competitors.

However, GE executives felt they had to be brave to become leaders in the challenging marine environment. They have more than doubled the size of their existing offshore machine, which GE received by acquiring Alstom’s electricity business in France in 2015. The aim was to gain an edge over important competitors such as Siemens Gamesa and Vestas Wind Systems, a Danish turbine manufacturer.

A larger turbine produces more electricity and therefore more sales than a smaller machine. The size also helps reduce the cost of building and maintaining a wind farm, as fewer turbines are required to generate a given amount of electricity.

These characteristics create a strong incentive for developers to choose the largest machine available to aid in their efforts to win the auctions for offshore power agreements that many countries have accepted. These auctions vary in format, but developers compete to provide power at the lowest price for several years.

“What they are looking for is a turbine that will win these auctions,” said Vincent Schellings, who led the design and production of the GE turbine. “The turbine size plays a very important role here.”

Early customers include Orsted, a Danish company that is the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms. A tentative agreement was reached to purchase approximately 90 of the Haliade-X machines for a project called Ocean Wind off Atlantic City, NJ

“I think they surprised everyone when they came out with this machine,” said David Hardy, director of Orsted’s North American offshore business.

As a major buyer of turbines, Orsted wants to help “build this new platform and create some volume for GE” to encourage competition and innovation, Hardy said.

According to analysts, the GE turbine is selling better than its competitors expected.

On December 1st, GE signed another preliminary agreement to supply turbines for Vineyard Wind, a large wind farm off Massachusetts, and delivered 276 turbines for what is probably the largest wind farm in the world at Dogger Bank in the UK.

These deals with accompanying maintenance contracts could add up to $ 13 billion, estimates Shashi Barla, lead wind analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a market research firm.

The waves of the GE machine prompted Siemens Gamesa to announce a number of competing turbines. Vestas, which until recently had the largest machine in the industry in its stall, is expected to introduce a new entry soon.

“We weren’t the first to move and of course we have to address that today,” said Henrik Andersen, Vestas Managing Director.

GE had to “pretty much start over,” Schellings said. The GE Renewable Energy business unit spends approximately $ 400 million on design, engineering, and conversion factories in St. Nazaire and Cherbourg, France.

To make a blade of such extraordinary length that it would not buckle under its own weight, GE challenged designers at LM Wind Power, a blade manufacturer in Denmark that the company bought in 2016 for $ 1.7 billion. Their innovations include a material made of carbon fiber and glass fiber that is light, yet strong and flexible.

GE has yet to figure out how to efficiently manufacture large numbers of the machines, first at its plants in France and possibly later in the UK and USA. With a tight offshore track record, GE must also demonstrate that it can reliably install and maintain the large machines at sea with special ships and in inclement weather.

“GE has a lot to prove to asset owners in order to source GE turbines,” said Barla.

For Siemens Gamesa, GE’s main competitor, it was easier and cheaper to bring out bigger machines. In its offshore complex in Brande on the Danish peninsula Jutland, GE is already building a prototype for a new and more powerful machine. The secret: The company’s ever-larger new models have not strayed far from a ten-year-old original.

“The fundamentals of the machine and how it works remain unchanged,” said Rasmussen, unit chief technology officer, resulting in a “slightly better starting point” than GE’s.

There seems to be a lot of room for competition. John Lavelle, executive director of GE’s offshore business, said the prospect for the market was “getting bigger every year.”