Choppy seas for the offshore wind sector, by Reuters
Choppy seas for the offshore wind sector, by Reuters |
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. New developments in offshore wind have been hit with cost overruns, project cancellations and equipment problems. This is an offshore wind farm in Esbjerg, Denmark. REUTERS/Nikolaj Skydsgaard |
Last week was full of more bad news for the offshore wind industry, which has faced countless challenges over the past year amid rising costs and supply chain hiccups that have led to project cancellations. Some equipment is also experiencing problems. Shares of GE Vernova were off 7% on Friday following another turbine-blade failure at an offshore wind farm in the UK. That incident was the latest in a string of problems involving the power service company's equipment. In May, for example, a wind turbine made by the company for the massive Dogger Bank A project off the UK coast came apart. More recently, a turbine blade made by GE Vernova for the Vineyard Wind offshore project near the Massachusetts coast broke, sending fiberglass into the water and onto nearby beaches. The incident was the result of a manufacturing flaw, and U.S. authorities ordered a shutdown of the project, which is still under construction. Several other turbines in Germany and Sweden have also broken in recent years. GE Vernova recently split off from General Electric as part of a planned breakup into three companies. Offshore wind is seen as a key pillar in President Joe Biden's bid to fight climate change, but the United States will fall far short of his 2030 wind goal. It is expected to catch up eventually as new projects come online. Last week, an economic adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris'presidential campaign called for a program to loan allies money to buy the U.S. green energy technologies as part of plan to fight climate change. Meanwhile, investments into the industry remain in flux. Last week, Norway's Equinor halted plans to invest in Vietnam's offshore wind sector and said it would close its office in Hanoi. Although Vietnam is attracting international interest in renewable plans, delays in regulatory reforms have pushed some investors to reconsider. This cancellation comes after Danish offshore wind company Orsted last year said it would also pause plans to invest in large offshore wind farms in the country. Finally, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Ryan Evans, a Reuters safety adviser who was killed this weekend in a strike on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Two other Reuters journalists were injured. Our thoughts are with Ryan's family and loved ones, and we are wishing our injured colleagues a swift recovery. We so appreciate and value the work these journalists do and the sacrifices they make. |
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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