Author: Anela Dokso

Equinor is launching its ambitions for reducing emissions from ships and contribute to decarbonizing shipping, on the UN’s World Oceans Day. Equinor’s maritime climate ambitions are embedded in the company’s climate roadmap launched in February 2020. The climate roadmap aims to ensure a competitive and resilient business model fit for long-term value creation and in line with the Paris agreement. The maritime sector represents 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Norway and 2–3% of global emissions. Being both a producer and a supplier of fuel to the maritime sector, Equinor has extensive maritime activity around the world, including around…

POM West Flanders has chosen European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) to aid the development of the ‘Blue Accelerator’ test platform into an international hub for blue growth. Established in 2019, Blue Accelerator is a maritime innovation and development platform, located approximately 500 meters from the eastern breakwater of Ostend, Belgium. Operated by POM West Flanders, the platform is open to companies, knowledge institutions and research centres to demonstrate new products and technologies for the blue economy. The Blue Accelerator platform provides a means for technologies to be tested below, above or at sea level. German wave energy developer, NEMOS, is…

A €3.6 million European project to study the psychological and physiological wellbeing of crew being transferred to offshore wind farms in rough waters, has produced a sail/no sail decision-support tool for marine coordinators, as well as a new understanding of seasickness and how it develops. Unscheduled operations and maintenance operations on offshore wind installations account for almost a quarter of the lifetime cost of an offshore farm, but a large portion of that is time wasted in failed crew transfers or workers unable to carry out their duties as a direct result of adverse weather conditions. The two-year DemoWind2-funded ‘Improving the…

90+ Hydrogen Europe members have signed a letter in support of the EU Commission’s Clean Hydrogen Alliance. The Alliance will promote hydrogen as an enabler of the post-COVID economy and a zero-emission society, aiming to scale-up production and deployment of hydrogen by 2030. 93 CEOs of Hydrogen Europe’s members have sent a letter to executive first vice-president Timmermans, commissioner Simson and commissioner Breton to demonstrate their support to the Clean Hydrogen Alliance and commitment to delivering on the climate agenda. “It’s impressive to see the commitment of so many companies of different sizes and different parts of the value chain of the…

Vattenfall has taken final investment decision for the construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm proceedings 1-4. With its installed capacity of 1,500 MW, the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm will be the largest of its kind worldwide, when fully operational in 2023. It will have a renewable electricity output equivalent to the annual consumption of over two million Dutch households. Vattenfall was awarded permits for the construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid after winning two subsidy-free tender rounds in 2018 and 2019. The two projects have been combined into one wind farm to optimize the process. “The Hollandse…

American shipbuilding company Vigor Fab has selected ABB as the hybrid-electric propulsion and energy storage system provider for the newest additions to the Washington State Ferry fleet, setting the U.S. ferry system on course for zero-emission operations. The new ‘Olympic Class’ ferries, which will have the capacity to carry 144 cars and 1,500 passengers each. Upon delivery in 2024, the initial vessel of the series will be the first newbuild in Washington State Ferry’s fleet to feature hybrid-electric propulsion and a high capacity energy storage system. The new vessels will be able to fully operate on battery power and will…

Fugro has deployed two vessels off the coast of New York to perform a large-scale site characterization programme for Sunrise Wind, the offshore wind project developed by Ørsted and Eversource. The four-month operation will involve acquisition and analysis of integrated geotechnical and geophysical data to support multiple phases of the Sunrise Wind project, including cable corridor selection and turbine foundation design and installation. Fugro is managing the programme from its US Centre of Expertise for Renewable Projects, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Fugro is utilizing several proprietary technologies, including Back2Base, which enables the remote transfer of large datasets from offshore vessels…

Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has signed on as the newest program partner for the Greentown Labs’ Offshore Wind Challenge, developed in partnership with Vineyard Wind. MassCEC will serve as an enabling partner throughout the Challenge and provide grant funding and in-kind support for startup pilot projects in Vineyard Wind’s lease areas in Massachusetts’ waters. Together, Vineyard Wind, MassCEC, and Greentown Labs are working to foster the offshore wind innovation ecosystem in the Commonwealth. The Offshore Wind Challenge is a six-month accelerator program supporting innovations in responsible development of offshore wind energy. The program is focused on fast-tracking entrepreneurs with…

Scout Clean Energy has completed construction and closed tax equity funding for the 180 MW Heart of Texas wind farm (HTX) located in McCulloch County, Texas. Scout started construction on Heart of Texas in September of last year. “Heart of Texas was completed on time and under budget which is quite an achievement given the wide-spread disruption that COVID-19 has caused across the entire US economy. It is a real credit to Scout’s construction management team, our suppliers, contractors and financiers who have worked tirelessly to get to the finish line. Reaching commercial operations at Heart of Texas brings Scout’s operational portfolio of wind energy generation to…

Subsea 7 has secured a contract worth over $750 million by SSE Renewables for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of the foundations and inter array cables for the Seagreen offshore wind farm project in Scotland. The Seagreen development will be a 1,075MW offshore wind farm, comprising 114 wind turbines located off the east coast of Scotland. Seaway 7, the Renewables business unit of Subsea 7, will manage the EPCI of the 114 wind turbine generator foundations and approximately 300 kilometres of associated inter array cables. The agreement will immediately secure 30 jobs within Seaway 7’s Aberdeen office where the…