SPACE WARS IN THE AGE OF THE PERMANENT WAR ECONOMY

Russian spacecraft following US spy satellite in ‘disturbing’ manner, Space Force general says

PUBLISHED MON, FEB 10 2020 Michael Sheetz@THESHEETZTWEETZ

KEY POINTS

The leader of the U.S. Space Force confirmed that a pair of Russian spacecraft have come very close to a U.S. spy satellite, saying that the foreign satellites are showing “unusual and disturbing behavior.”

General John Raymond called out Russia for developing technologies that could harm U.S. systems in space.

“The United States finds these recent activities to be concerning and do not reflect the behavior of a responsible spacefaring nation,” Raymond said.

SPACEFARING LIKE SEAFARING AS JAMES TIBERUS KIRK WOULD SAY

Sea-Fever by John Masefield - Your Daily Poem

www.yourdailypoem.com › listpoem › poem_id=654

Feb 24, 2011 - I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the ...

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying a missile detection spacecraft launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
Mikhail Japaridze

The leader of the United States Space Force on Monday confirmed reports that a pair of Russian spacecraft have come very close to a U.S. spy satellite, saying that foreign satellites are showing “unusual and disturbing behavior.”

“Last November the Russian government launched a satellite that subsequently released a second satellite. These satellites have been actively maneuvering near a U.S. government satellite ... which the Russian government characterized as ‘inspector satellites,’” U.S. General John Raymond said in a statement to CNBC.

The extraordinary situation was noted by amateur spacecraft trackers last month, who pointed out that Russian satellite Kosmos 2542 had slowly made its way into the same area in orbit as USA 245 – a satellite the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) operates. The NRO is an agency within the Department of Defense and one of the five major U.S. intelligence agencies.

Kosmos 2542 was not initially near USA 245. But, two weeks after launch, the Russian satellite split into two different objects. By the middle of January, Kosmos 2542 and Kosmos 2543 had moved in orbit and were closing in on USA 245. The Russian spacecraft were as close as 300 kilometers from USA 245, in clear view of the U.S. satellite. Additionally, the two Russian objects were able to see multiple sides of USA 245 due to the nature of their orbits – causing satellite trackers to speculate that Kosmos 2542 and Kosmos 2543 were indeed inspecting USA 245.


Gen. Raymond, recently appointed as the head of the U.S. Space Force, compared the recent activities to Russian satellite tests in 2017. Those satellites “exhibited characteristics of a weapon,” Raymond said, because one of the spacecraft fired “a high-speed projectile into space.”

He specifically called out Russia for developing technologies that could harm U.S. systems in space, saying the recent maneuvers could “create a dangerous situation in space.”

“The United States finds these recent activities to be concerning and do not reflect the behavior of a responsible spacefaring nation,” Raymond said.

WATCH NOW
VIDEO00:53
Russia and China developing ‘destructive’ space weapons

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UPS is taking on Amazon with its own fleet of electric vans

KEY POINTS

Arrival says the initial order for the vehicles is worth “hundreds of millions of euros”.
The last few years have seen a number of big companies, including Amazon, order electric vehicles.



Courtesy of Andor Ivan, Arrival


UPS has placed an order for 10,000 electric vehicles from U.K.-based start-up Arrival, with the logistics giant’s venture capital arm also investing an undisclosed amount in the firm.

In an announcement Wednesday, Arrival — which was set up in 2015 — said the initial order for the vehicles was worth “hundreds of millions of euros”. The firm’s relationship with UPS dates back to 2016, when the two companies announced a partnership.


The purpose-built vehicles will be introduced to markets in the U.K., Europe and North America between 2020 and 2024, while there is an option for another order of 10,000.

Arrival develops materials, software and components that can be used to customize the operations and vehicles of fleet owners. It says its “skateboard platforms” enable vehicles to be manufactured in different weights, shapes and sizes depending on the needs of its customers. Arrival will be manufacturing the vehicles for UPS at microfactories in the U.S. and U.K., with plans for microfactories in Europe too.

“Electric vehicles form a cornerstone to our sustainable urban delivery strategies,” Juan Perez, chief information and engineering officer at UPS, said in a statement. “Taking an active investment role in Arrival enables UPS to collaborate in the design and production of the world’s most advanced electric delivery vehicles,” Perez added.

The deal with UPS follows a 100 million euro (around $110 million) investment in Arrival from the Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation earlier this month. According to Arrival, that investment valued the company at 3 billion euros.

The last few years have seen a number of big companies add electric vehicles to their fleets. Last September, tech giant Amazon announced it was ordering 100,000 electric vehicles from Rivian, a firm it has invested $440 million in.


According to Amazon, the electric vans will begin deliveries in 2021, with the business wanting 10,000 vehicles to be “on the road as early as 2022.” The aim is for the full 100,000 to be deployed by 2030.

Last November, the Volkswagen Group officially started series production of its ID.3 electric car, with the German carmaker planning to launch “almost 70 new electric models” by 2028.

The Hyundai Motor Group has said it will launch 23 battery electric models over the next few years, while Volvo Cars wants 50% of the cars it sells to be fully electric by 2025.

Worldwide electric car sales hit 1.98 million in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency, with global stock reaching 5.12 million.

Norwegian energy major Equinor to run ship fitted with ammonia fuel cells

PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 24 2020 Anmar Frangou

KEY POINTS

The project will involve the modification of Eidesvik Offshore’s “Viking Energy” ship.

Equinor says the vessel will take supplies to installations located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.


This image shows Equinor’s Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea west of Stavanger, Norway, on January 7, 2020.
Carina Johansen | NTB Scanpix | Getty Images


The European Union has awarded 10 million euros ($11.05 million) in funding to a scheme that is aiming to install an ammonia-powered fuel cell on a ship.

The beneficiary of the money, the ShipFC project, is a consortium of 14 firms and institutions co-ordinated by NCE Maritime CleanTech.


The project will involve the modification of Eidesvik Offshore’s “Viking Energy” ship. The vessel has been used by Norwegian energy major Equinor for 17 years.

“Together with Equinor, we are now launching a full-scale research project to test a propulsion solution based on fuel cells running on pure and emission-free ammonia,” Jan Fredrik Meling, who is the CEO of Eidesvik Offshore, said Thursday.

“The goal is to install fuel cell modules with a total power of 2 MW (megawatts) on board Viking Energy in 2024,” he added. “This will make the vessel the world’s first emission-free supply vessel.”

In its own statement, Equinor explained that the vessel would take supplies to installations located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Vermund Hjelland, vice president of technology and development at Eidesvik Offshore, said part of the testing would see the Viking Energy use ammonia “in transit between harbour and offshore installations for one year.”


The firm, Hjelland explained, envisaged ammonia also being used to power the ship when alongside the quay.

“Our ambition is that 60 to 70 percent of the energy consumption will come from ammonia during the test period,” he said. “In addition, we want to demonstrate that the technology can supply up to 90 per cent of the total power demand.”

Cecilie Ronning, who is senior vice president for Equinor’s joint operations support, said the company was aiming to reduce emissions in its supply chain “and regards the use of ammonia as a promising solution.”
Renewable sea change


The announcement of this week’s funding comes against the backdrop of a significant shift in the shipping industry.

At the beginning of January, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) introduced new emissions regulations that it’s hoped will curb pollution generated by ships.

And in August 2019, an all-electric ferry capable of carrying roughly 30 vehicles and 200 passengers completed its maiden voyage.

The e-ferry Ellen crossed waters between the ports of Soby and Fynshav, which are located on the islands of Aero and Als in the south of Denmark.

The ship is powered by a battery system with a capacity of 4.3 megawatt hours, provided by Switzerland-headquartered energy storage firm Leclanche, and is able to sail as much as 22 nautical miles (approximately 25.3 miles) between charges.

Another example of more sustainable shipping is Finnish firm Viking Line’s M/S Viking Grace, a hybrid ship which has the capacity to use diesel, “traditional heavy fuel oil”, or liquefied natural gas.

To offset that, the vessel can also make use of a 24-meter-tall cylindrical rotor sail developed by Norsepower Oy, another Finnish company. The sail uses something called the “Magnus effect” for propulsion, according to Viking Line.

As the rotor spins, passing air will flow with a lower pressure on one side compared to the other, the business says. This difference in pressure creates a propulsion force that moves the ship forward.
CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Natasha Turak contributed to this report

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A tidal project in Scottish waters just generated enough electricity to power nearly 4,000 homes

PUBLISHED MON, JAN 27 2020 Anmar Frangoul 

KEY POINTS

The European Commission has described “ocean energy” as both abundant and renewable.

The MeyGen tidal stream array has now exported more than 25.5 gigawatt hours of electricity to the grid since 2017.


SIMEC Atlantis Energy


A tidal power project in waters off the north coast of Scotland sent more than 13.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to the grid last year, according to an operational update issued Monday. This figure – a record – almost doubled the previous high of 7.4 GWh in 2018.

In total, the MeyGen tidal stream array has now exported more than 25.5 GWh of electricity to the grid since the start of 2017, according to owners Simec Atlantis Energy. Phase 1A of the project is made up of four 1.5 megawatt (MW) turbines.


The 13.8 GWh of electricity exported in 2019 equates to the average yearly electricity consumption of roughly 3,800 “typical” homes in the U.K., according to the company, with revenue generation amounting to £3.9 million ($5.09 million).

Onshore maintenance is now set to be carried out on the AR1500 turbine used by the scheme, with Atlantis aiming to redeploy the technology in spring.

In addition to the production of electricity, Atlantis is also planning to develop an “ocean-powered data centre” near the MeyGen project.

The European Commission has described “ocean energy” as being both abundant and renewable. It’s estimated that ocean energy could potentially contribute roughly 10% of the European Union’s power demand by the year 2050, according to the Commission.

While tidal power has been around for decades — EDF’s 240 MW La Rance Tidal Power Plant in France was built as far back as 1966 — recent years have seen a number of new projects take shape.


In December last year, Scottish tidal energy business Nova Innovation was issued with a permit to develop a project in Nova Scotia, Canada.

In an announcement at the time, the firm said a total of 15 tidal stream turbines would be installed by the year 2023. The project, according to the firm, will produce enough electricity to power 600 homes.

Elsewhere, a business called Orbital Marine Power is developing what it describes as the “world’s most powerful tidal turbine.”

The company says the turbine will have a swept area of more than 600 square meters and be able to generate “over 2 MW from tidal stream resources.” It will use a 72-meter-long “floating superstructure” to support two 1 MW turbines.

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INVESTING
As big endowments spurn fossil fuel stocks, there’s one thing making this decision easy

PUBLISHED MON, FEB 10 Pippa Stevens@PIPPASTEVENS13KEY POINTS

Large investment funds are facing mounting pressure from activists to divest from the fossil fuel industry, and as energy stocks underperform the decision is becoming easier.

Earlier in February Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in favor of divestment, and Georgetown University said it would cease new all new fossil fuel-related investments.

“I’m done with fossil fuels ... they’re just done. We’re starting to see divestment all over the world,” Jim Cramer said Jan. 31 on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “You’re seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds ... we’re in the death knell phase.”

As big endowment funds face mounting pressure to reduce their exposure to the fossil fuel industry, there’s one thing making their decision easier: the energy sector’s underperformance.

In the last ten years, the S&P energy sector gained just 1% as low oil prices, high operational costs and shifting consumer sentiment set off a wave of selling. In the same time period, the broader market gained 212%.

Energy’s lackluster performance coincides with college students across the United States protesting university endowments’ role in owning and supporting fossil fuel companies. Now, from the perspective of fund managers, divestment could make sense on both financial as well as moral grounds.

“I’m done with fossil fuels ... they’re just done. We’re starting to see divestment all over the world,” Jim Cramer said Jan. 31 on “Squawk Box.” “You’re seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds ... we’re in the death knell phase,” he added.

Harvard and Yale students protest during the halftime of the college football game between Harvard and Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, CT on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. Demonstrators stormed the field during halftime at the Harvard-Yale football game Saturday, delaying the game for about an hour to demand that both universities divest their investments in fossil fuels and to call attention to the issue of climate change.
Nic Antaya | The Boston Globe | Getty Images


In the course of the last week, two Universities have made key announcements.

On Feb 5. the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in favor of the endowment divesting from the fossil fuel industry in a 179-20 vote, according to the Harvard Crimson. The vote does not ensure implementation. — Harvard President Lawrence Bacow will bring the results before the endowment committee — although the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division.

The vote in and of itself is important since Harvard’s endowment is the largest in the world, and is looked at as an example for ways in which other universities can build their own funds. As of June 2019, it stood at $40.9 billion.


One day later, on Feb. 6, Georgetown University announced that it would make no new investments in companies whose business is fossil fuel-dependent, and said over the coming years it would work to shed its exposure to fossil-fuel related companies in both the public and private market.

The actions from Harvard and Georgetown follow the University of California, which in September said it was going fossil fuel free. In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times the endowment’s chief investment officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher and the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee chairman Richard Sherman said the decision was “not exactly for the reasons you may think.”

“Our job is to make money for the University of California, and we’re betting we can do that without fossil fuels investments,” they wrote on Sept. 17. “We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk ... While our rationale may not be the moral imperative that many activists embrace, our investment decision-making process leads us to the same result.”

“The reason we sold some $150 million in fossil fuel assets from our endowment was the reason we sell other assets: They posed a long-term risk to generating strong returns for UC’s diversified portfolios,” they added.

Of course, university endowments are complex and composed of many different types of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, venture capital and private equity investments. So it may be easier said than done to completely divest from the space.

Some argue that since the world will continue to depend on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, the so-called best actors in the space should be rewarded.

“The focus on divestment is a bit too blunt of an instrument,” Valerie Grant, senior vice president at AllianceBernstein, said in November on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

Rather than following a negative screen process — which means completely ignoring one area of the market — she said students should engage with the endowment’s investment team to identify long-term risks posed by the climate crisis, and to push for positive changes through shareholder votes, among other things.

“There really has been an evolution in responsible investing ... Traditionally it was all about what not to buy or what not to own. And really I think what most investors are focused on now is what to own,” she added.

Work starts on world’s ‘largest offshore wind farm’ that could power 4.5 million homes

NOT IN THE USA

PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 17 20201 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Dogger Bank Wind Farms will be made up of three 1.2 gigawatt offshore sites.
The construction work is being carried out by a firm headquartered in North Wales.


GE’s Haliade-X wind turbine has a 12 megawatt generator and stands 260 meters tall.
GE Renewable Energy

Construction work for a huge offshore wind farm in the North Sea is underway.

In an announcement Friday, energy firm SSE said that onshore work for the 3.6 gigawatt (GW) Dogger Bank Wind Farms project had begun near Ulrome, a coastal village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.


Dogger Bank Wind Farms – which SSE described as “the world’s largest offshore wind farm” – will be made up of three 1.2 GW offshore sites: Creyke Beck A, Creyke Beck B and Teesside A. The project is a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Norwegian energy major Equinor.

The construction work is being carried out by Jones Bros Civil Engineering U.K., a firm headquartered in North Wales.

The scheme is set to use GE’s Haliade-X wind turbine, which has a 12 megawatt generator and stands 260 meters tall. According to SSE, the project will have the capability to produce enough renewable energy for more than 4.5 million homes per year.


The future of wind turbines could be bladeless

“Getting the first spade in the ground is a significant milestone on any project, but for what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, this is a major moment for a project that has already been over a decade in the making,” Steve Wilson, who is managing director of Dogger Bank Wind Farms, said in a statement.

The U.K. is a major player in the offshore wind sector. It is home to projects such as the 659 megawatt Walney Extension facility, in the Irish Sea, which was officially opened in 2018.


The scale of that project is considerable: it is capable of powering more than 590,000 homes, has 87 turbines and covers an area of around 20,000 soccer pitches, according to Danish energy company Orsted.

Europe as a whole is home to a significant offshore wind sector. According to industry body WindEurope, 409 wind turbines were connected to the grid in 2018. The average size of offshore turbines in 2018 was 6.8 MW, which represents a 15% rise compared to 2017.

The world’s biggest offshore wind developer wants a carbon-neutral supply chain

PUBLISHED TUE, FEB 4 2020 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Headquartered in Denmark, Orsted is involved in large scale wind energy projects around the world.

The company is one of many firms looking to reduce emissions across both its own operations and its supply chain.


Orsted


Danish energy firm Orsted has launched a plan for a carbon-neutral supply chain by the year 2040.

In an announcement Tuesday the business — which recently said it would be carbon neutral by 2025 — said its carbon footprint had two strands: emissions from its own energy production and operations; and emissions from the energy it traded alongside “the goods and services” in the company’s supply chain.


The Frederica-headquartered firm said it would engage strategic suppliers involved in “the most carbon-intensive categories” of its supply chain, namely the production of wind turbines, foundations, cables and substations.

Orsted described the materials used to make these assets as being “energy intensive to extract and manufacture.”

The company added that fossil fuels used by the ships which carry and install offshore wind components were the second biggest source of emissions in its supply chain.

“Reducing emissions in the renewable energy supply chain is a significant task,” Henrik Poulsen, the CEO of Orsted, said in a statement.

“Businesses will need to collaborate across supply chains to cut emissions at the pace and scale demanded by science,” Poulsen added. “We now reach out to our industry-leading suppliers to join forces to accelerate the global green transformation.”

Among other things, Orsted explained it would ask strategic suppliers to act by disclosing their emissions and using 100% renewable electricity to build things such as wind turbines, cables, foundations and components. In addition, they will be asked to “optimize their current vessel fleet and develop a roadmap to power vessels with renewable energy.”


Of its own business, Orsted said it would achieve carbon neutrality by undertaking actions such as phasing coal out and installing 20 gigawatts of onshore and offshore wind.

The world’s biggest offshore wind developer, Orsted is involved in large scale projects around the world. These include the 659 megawatt Walney Extension facility, in the Irish Sea, which was officially opened in 2018.

The scale of that project is considerable: It is capable of powering more than 590,000 homes, has 87 turbines and covers an area of around 20,000 soccer pitches, Orsted says.

The company is one of many firms looking to reduce emissions across both its own operations and its supply chain.

Toward the end of January another Danish firm, turbine manufacturer Vestas, said it was aiming to produce “zero-waste” wind turbines by the year 2040.

The company explained that its goal would mean operating a value chain that produced no waste materials.

This, it added in a statement, would be achieved through the introduction of a “circular economy approach” in the design, production, service and end-of-life parts of the value chain.

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Offshore wind installations in European waters hit a record level last year

PUBLISHED THU, FEB 6 2020 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

The U.K. was responsible for almost half of the new capacity in 2019, according to WindEurope. 

As technology develops, the size of both turbines and offshore facilities is increasing.


This image shows Scroby Sands offshore wind farm, in waters off the coast of Norfolk, England.
Geography Photos | Universal Images Group | Getty Images


European countries installed a record amount of offshore wind capacity in 2019, according to new figures from industry body WindEurope.

The amount — just over 3.6 gigawatts (GW) — marked a leap higher than 2018, when more than 2.6 GW was installed. It takes overall offshore capacity for European nations to more than 22 GW.


In an announcement Thursday, WindEurope said that the U.K. was responsible for almost half of the new capacity in 2019, followed by Germany, Denmark and Belgium.

Fresh investment decisions on four offshore wind farms were made in 2019. This, WindEurope said, amounted to another 1.4 GW of capacity and 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) of investment.

As technology develops, the size of turbines and offshore facilities is increasing. WindEurope noted that the average size of an offshore wind farm in 2019 was 600 megawatts (MW), which is twice the average size in 2010.



Output from newer individual turbines is bigger too. The average size in 2019 was 7.8 MW, 1 megawatt bigger than in 2018.

And turbines are set to get bigger still. In December 2019, Dutch utility Eneco started to purchase power produced by the prototype of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X 12 MW wind turbine.

The scale of that turbine is considerable: it has a capacity of 12 MW, a height of 260 meters and a blade length of 107 meters. GE Renewable Energy has described it as the “world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine.”

The European installation figures come after the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said that North, Central and South America, together with the Caribbean, installed over 13.4 GW of wind power capacity in 2019, a 12% rise compared to installations in 2018.

Looking at these figures in more detail, the GWEC said 2019 saw the U.S. install “its third largest volume of onshore wind”. The “first large-scale installations” in the offshore market are expected to take place in 2022-23, it added. It’s expected that over 10 GW of offshore capacity will be built in the US by the year 2026.

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TRANSFORMING TRASH INTO ENERGY

Shell’s new solar farm to help power a natural gas plant in Australia

WAIT WHAT? THAT'S LIKE SAYING 
PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 7 
Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Shell Australia describes the facility as its “first large-scale solar farm”.

Queensland chosen as the project’s location because of reliable sunshine.

Shell Australia is set to construct and operate a solar farm made up of around 400,000 photovoltaic panels in the state of Queensland.

In an announcement Friday, Shell Australia described the facility as its “first large-scale solar farm” and said it would have a capacity of 120 megawatts.

Work on the project is set to finish in 2021, with Shell Australia saying up to 200 new jobs will be created during the construction phase.

Queensland was chosen as the project’s location because it had “some of the most reliable sunshine in the world”, the company added. The solar farm will help to power operations at the QGC onshore natural gas project and cut carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 300,000 tonnes a year.

“We believe solar will play an increasing role in the global energy system, especially when partnered with a reliable energy source such as gas,” Tony Nunan, the chairman of Shell Australia, said in a statement.

While Shell is indeed turning to renewable sources such as solar, the overall business is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. In 2018 Royal Dutch Shell produced 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, while it sold 71 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas.

At the end of January, Reuters reported that the entrance to the company’s headquarters in the Netherlands had been blocked by protestors chanting “keep it in the ground”.

Demonstrations such as this reflect the current debate – and increasing anxiety – over what many describe as “the climate emergency” and how best to stop it.

At the start of the COP25 climate summit last December, the UN Secretary General warned that “the point of no-return is no longer over the horizon.”

Antonio Guterres emphasized that his message was “one of hope, not of despair” but sought to highlight the urgency of the problems faced by the planet.

“We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions,” he said.

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