It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Norway: New firm wants to produce 400kg of green hydrogen daily
A new company has hit the Norwegian hydrogen market – and it wants to produce up to 400kg of the clean fuel daily.
Stord Hydrogen is the name behind such plans, and hopes its hydrogen production will start as soon as spring 2022.
Greenstat, Alltec Services and Hydrogen Solutions (HYDS) and Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre today (August 27) announced the formation of the company to spearhead Norway’s hydrogen market.
Already making headway on its plans, Stord Hydrogen has broken ground on a new facility at Energy House’s test centre, at which its hydrogen production operations will take place.
For such production, HYDS will deliver the flexible, module-based production facility which will produce compressed hydrogen through electrolysis at Stord.
The electrolysis technology will be delivered by the danish company Green Hydrogen Systems, through their Norwegian partner, Liquiline.
Commenting on the company’s formation, Willie Wågen, CEO in Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre, said, “This is a highlight for green industry development.
“Not only will green hydrogen be available for the market, but it will also be used by our clients in the world’s first full-scale test centre for new, green energy carriers, Energy House.”
Vegard Frihammer, founder and CEO of Greenstat, added,
“The hydrogen market, in Norway and international,
will grow fast the next couple of years.
“The fact that we are now starting hydrogen production on the Western Coast of Norway and make hydrogen available is incredibly important to speed up the green shift.
“Hydrogen can be used as a material input in industries, and as a zero-emission fuel for cars, buses, trucks, trains or boats.”
Climate change linked to risk of viruses jumping species in the Arctic environment
Climate change may increase the risk of viruses becoming capable of infecting new hosts in the Arctic, suggests a study of genetic material from a Canadian lake.
Canadian scientists found that an increase in glacier melt at Lake Hazen, the Arctic’s largest lake by volume and a location in George Clooney’s film The Midnight Sky, was linked to a greater risk of viral spillover, where a virus infects a new host for the first time. Melting glaciers were considered a proxy of climate change, which is causing their retreat globally.
The team from the University of Ottawa, led by Audrée Lemieux, gathered soil and sediment from the lake and sequenced the RNA and DNA in the samples. The researchers found signatures of viruses and their potential hosts including animals, plants and fungi. They then ran an algorithm recently developed by a different research team, which assesses the chance of coevolution or symbiosis among unrelated groups of organisms. The algorithm allowed the team to gauge the risk of spillover, and suggested this was higher in lake samples nearer to the point where larger tributaries – carrying more meltwater from nearby glaciers – flow into the lake.
“Our main finding is we show that for this specific lake, the spillover risk increases with the melting of glaciers. It’s not the same thing as predicting pandemics – we’re not crying wolf,” says Lemieux.
She says the risk of infectious diseases emerging from the Arctic is low today due to the region’s paucity of “bridge vectors”, such as mosquitoes, that can spread viruses to other species. However, the researchers note that climate change not only melts glaciers, but is also expected to cause more species to move towards the poles, which they warn “could have dramatic effect in the High Arctic”.
Exactly how glacier melt might increase spillover risk isn’t entirely clear from simply running the algorithm. Co-author Stéphane Aris-Brosou says one idea is that extra run-off simply increases the mixing of species because their local environment is disturbed, physically bringing together viruses and potential new hosts that wouldn’t otherwise encounter each other.
Most of the viruses found were plant and fungal ones. Other researchers question how many would be sufficiently intact, or in high enough concentrations, to remain infectious. “Much of the fragmented DNA or RNA they find will represent degraded viral genomes that no longer present a risk,” saysAlex Greenwoodat the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany.
Lemieux and Aris-Brosou say another caveat is that this is the first time the spillover algorithm has been used in this way, so more studies will be needed to calibrate the true risk.
The threat of diseases emerging from the Arctic due to a warming world came to the fore in 2016 with a deadly anthrax outbreak in people in Siberia linked to the thawing of frozen ground uncovering a long-dead infected reindeer. “Are there potentially new viruses that the melting of the permafrost is going to wake up? As scientists, we ought to know, but we are really into the unknown unknowns,” says Aris-Brosou. Lemieux is now studying the team’s data to see if she can identify new viruses.
Lake Ontario’s Marysburgh Vortex home to shipwrecks, strange reported sightings
By Darryn Davis Global News Posted August 27, 2021
Author Janet Kellough grew up in Prince Edward County and has a keen interest in the stories, tales, history and folklore of the County.
One part of that local folklore that Kellough is well acquainted with is the Marysburgh Vortex, located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario.
The Marysburgh Vortex runs From Marysburgh Township in Prince Edward County to Kingston and Oswego, N.Y.
At least 270 have made their watery grave in the Marysburgh Vortex like the Schooner the Bravaria.
Kellough says the ship was being towed in 1889 when something went wrong.
“The tow line parted and it eventually fetched up out towards Main Duck Island, which is out towards the middle of the lake,” said Kellough.
While the Bavaria was found, the same can’t be said of its crew.
“The table was set for dinner, the captain’s papers and his money were all there. There was even a pet canary that somebody had that was … happily singing in the cage, but there was not a single trace of the crew,” said Kellough.
Another schooner, the Picton, disappeared in 1900 in sight of two other ships travelling along with her.
“The top sails came down and then the rest of the sails came down and they couldn’t figure out what was going on, because there was no reason to lower the sails, and then just boom, gone,” said Kellough referring to the schooner.
The Picton was never found. Only a bottle with a note was discovered, which washed up on the shores of Sackets Harbour from ship Captain Jack Sidley.
“It said, ‘Have lashed Vessey to me with heaving line so that we might be found together,'” said Kellough.
Vessey was Captain Sidley’s young son.
Marc Seguin, an Ontario historian and lighthouse preservation advocate, says the eastern end of Lake Ontario has been hazardous to sailing for centuries.
Seguin says Lake Ontario narrows as it gets closer the the St. Lawrence river and the lake gets dramatically more shallow.
“One of these factors is this line of shoals, reefs and rocky islands that reach right across Lake Ontario from Prince Edward County’s south eastern point to the shores of New York State,” Seguin said.
That underwater formation is called the Duck Galloo Ridge.
“It magnifies the effects of storms which resulted in such a large number of ships sinking and shipwrecks in the 19th century,” said Seguin.
The Marysburgh Vortex is also known for a number of strange sightings and optical illusions.
Kellough says she experienced one herself at Prince Edward County’s Little Blough Conservation Area.
Kellough says she and a friend could hear a returning jet ski and as they looked out over the lake the jet ski appeared in the sky.
“We could see it but it was upside down and that image kind of hung there for several minutes,” Kellough told Global Kingston.
Kellough says she’s learned the apparition was caused by a natural phenomenon called thermal inversion.
“It kind of bends the light,” said Kellough.
Sidney Wells says he also has seen something unusual in the night sky near Little Bluff Conservation Area.
Wells says he was at a friend’s house on Sept. 15, 1986, with several other couples.
Wells says he was going to set up his telescope to look at stars on his friend’s deck when he saw something unexpected in the night sky.
“It was a diamond as in a ring, like that kind of thing with facets, but it wasn’t rays coming out of it. It was covered in a shroud like a cloud.”
Wells said he ran and got the other couples.
“We all stood and we stared and it just sat there hovering and then it started to revolve very slowly spinning.” said Wells
Wells says the object in the night sky then disappeared suddenly, as if someone flicked a switch.
Until that night, Wells said he was a skeptic when it came to UFOs, but no longer.
“It wasn’t terrestrial. There’s no question in my mind and there was no question in my friend’s minds.”
Skeptic or believer, Kellough says there is something magical about the area.
“It’s so beautiful and so kind of remote,” said Kellough,”and you just feel yourself getting in touch with the earth when you’re down in this end.”
WATCH: Eastern end of Lake Ontario is known to have a number of navigational hazards and is often referred to as the graveyard of Lake Ontario.
MULTI MEDIA SPECIAL
‘Strange things out there’: Inside Lake Ontario’s ‘Bermuda Triangle’
Together with the Bilbao Maritime Captaincy and the rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo, a good samaritan vessel rescued the crew of the fishing vessel Siempre al Alba after a fire broke out on board off the coast of Armintza in Spain's Basque Country.
At about 0100 hours on Monday, a fire broke out on board the Siempre al Alba, a 90-foot commercial fishing vessel, at a position about six miles offshore. The 11 crewmembers were rescued by a good samaritan fishing vessel, the Nuevo Terreño, and were delivered safely to shore at Santoña.
The Maritime Captaincy directed an operation to put out the fire and salvage the fishing vessel, and Salvamento Marítimo (Sasemar) led the effort. It dispatched the rescue boat Salvamar Alcyone to assess the situation and the tugboat María de Maeztu to conduct firefighting. The rescue vessel Salvamar Monte Gorbea also joined the operation, along with the Bilbao port tug Ibaizabal Seis.
According to Sasemar, the fishing vessel's design and the material of its hull (fiberglass-epoxy composite) made the work of putting out the blaze and rigging a tow a difficult task. Images from the scene taken Monday showed the hull on fire and burning vigorously, including a section near the waterline on the port quarter.
The response team worked through the night and into the following morning in an attempt to extinguish the fire. On Tuesday, despite their efforts, the hulk went down at a position about 10 miles off Cabo Villano in 500 meters of water.
"The Maritime Captaincy and Sasemar have worked intensively, prioritizing at all times that the operation avoid any risk to people or navigation in the area," said the Deputy Delegate of the Government in Bizkaia, Vicente Reyes, in a message of thanks.
Image courtesy Salvamento Maritimo
Closing the Sanctions Due Diligence Gap for the Shipping Industry
The U.S. Treasury has begun to enforce sanctions on Iran, Venezuela and North Korea by penalizing shipowners and operators (file image courtesy National Iranian Tanker Company)
In May 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Coast Guard came out with a revolutionary advisory on sanctions compliance. In short, they set the regulatory bar very high, requiring all stakeholders in the shipping and trading industry to meet enhanced due diligence standards. These new, tougher standards underscored the need to go beyond list matching and towards a more dynamic, behavioral approach for evaluating maritime risk.
The U.K.’s OFSI followed suit very quickly with a similar advisory. Suddenly terms like “dark activity” (i.e., intentional disabling of AIS transmissions) and ship-to-ship transfers became common terms for compliance analysts worldwide. From a geopolitical perspective, there was a loophole in shipping and trading, which strained the efficient enforcement of sanctions.
One size doesn’t fit all
In response to this new regulatory environment, market leaders, including major energy companies and financial institutions, have started to implement AI as a tool to meet new global compliance requirements.
However, regulators didn’t level the playing field for every stakeholder. In fact, the unique structure of the shipping market went unaccounted for. The impact? Shipowners are subject to the same compliance measures while operating in a complex environment that looks nothing like their counterparts’. To put this into perspective, it’s important to first understand what shipping compliance processes look like today. Once a trader on a trading floor identifies a cargo to buy and sell, they approach the charterers on the team and ask for a vessel to move the cargo. The charterers on this team usually reach out to brokers and receive proposals for vessels with appropriate location and availability for the laycan, as well as pricing proposals. Before moving forward, the proposed vessels must pass rigorous compliance checks.
Here’s where it gets complicated: The largest tanker pools have some 250 vessels out of the 100,000 vessels in the global fleet. At this capacity, owners would most likely have the means to implement strong technologies to streamline vessel clearance. However, many of the smaller shipowners aren’t yet part of this market. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that compliance standards are any less. No matter your vessel fleet size, there is a good possibility that third parties are screening each of your vessels using AI. This applies every time a vessel is screened for charters, spot charters, ship-to-ship transfers, vessel sales or financing, or renewals at P&I clubs.
Within reason, the potential fallout can be costly. Unfortunately, many shipowners are working in the dark because they don’t receive enough information about their exposure to compliance risk. This can result in losing out on major chartering deals. Good actors, who represent the vast majority of the industry, shouldn’t have to miss out on business on account of regulations meant to deter bad actors. Plus, most shipowners don’t have the data, budgets, or resources of oil majors or global financial institutions. To what extent can they lean on risk management providers rather than build data system capabilities themselves? How can we as an industry do more to ensure that all stakeholders are benefiting from an efficient due diligence process?
Easing the compliance burden
When it comes to compliance, the stakes are high. For example, when U.S. sanctions hit Greek shipowners last summer, Chevron’s oil cargo got tangled in U.S. sanctions. In another case, PB Tankers faced bankruptcy when it landed on OFAC’s blacklist for trading with Venezuela. The bottom line? Regulations that go unmet can cost a shipowner hundreds of thousands of dollars in chartering deals.
This is especially relevant in light of the recent charter party clauses introduced by BIMCO, referring specifically to vessels turning off transmissions. Shipowners are essential players in the maritime ecosystem and shouldn’t have to take on regulations without a strong partner. To ease the burden of compliance, shipowners need a solution to gather insights in one report with compliance scores, allowing them to easily spot risks and opportunities and take immediate action.
The idea for instant compliance scores is not that far off from credit ratings in the U.S. Credit scores rate your credit risk. And because credit ratings directly impact your interest rate and financial standing, they are made readily available by reporting companies. It’s time for the shipping industry to make a similar move - emphasizing data democratization and transparency for sanctions compliance.
Sanctions compliance came into effect to prevent dealing with select sanctioned entities. It was never meant to disrupt the estimated 70,000 companies that are crucial to the global economy and maritime trade market. Now more than ever, shipowners need to find a partner for the long-term who gets their business and can help them take on whatever challenges the future holds.
Ami Daniel is the co-founder and CEO of the maritime risk management and intelligence company Windward.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Tanker Captain Faces Criminal Charges Over Cambodian Cargo Dispute
Indonesian Navy personnel aboard the Strovolos (TNI-AL)
The Indonesian Navy has detained the crew of a tanker that was allegedly involved in the theft of hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude from a Cambodian energy project - a charge which her operator vehemently denies.
According to Indonesian authorities, the Singaporean-owned and -managed tanker Strovolos was detained on July 27 at a position off Sumatra. She had anchored without prior authorization (a potentially illegal act in Indonesian waters) and she had turned off her AIS system, the Indonesian Navy alleged.
The vessel's 19 crewmembers were detained and brought to an Indonesian Navy base in Batam for questioning. The commander of the Indonesian Navy's First Fleet, Adm. Arsyad Abdullah, said in a statement that the legal process for the tanker's case has been handed over to prosecutors in Batam.
"The Indonesian Navy will not hesitate to take action against any type of crimes committed within Indonesia's jurisdictional territory," said Adm. Abdullah.
The master of the Strovolos, a Bangladeshi national, is suspected of anchoring without prior permission in violation of Indonesian law. If convicted, he could face up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $14,000.
According to officials in Cambodia, the tanker had been chartered as part of an abortive attempt to produce oil from a field in the Gulf of Thailand. The private E&P partner for the JV project, Singaporean firm KrisEnergy, began production at the new field in December 2020 with a "phase 1A" small-scale pilot, hoping to achieve 7,500 barrels per day. The actual output fell far short of that mark, and in June, just six months after starting up, KrisEnergy folded and filed for liquidation.
With the tanker's charterer in bankruptcy, a Cambodian government official told AFP, the vessel's day rate went unpaid. The official accused Strovolos and her operator ofdeparting Cambodian waters with the project's oil on board, allegedly for purposes of theft. Indonesian authorities reported that Strovolos was in laden condition when arrested in late July, and was carrying 298,000 barrels of crude.
The Cambodian government had an equity stake in KrisEnergy's project, as well as a deep political commitment to Cambodia's first-ever domestic oil output, and it filed a Red Notice with Interpol calling for the tanker's arrest. On July 24, Cambodian officials sent a diplomatic note to the Indonesian government, asking for its help in arresting the tanker; an Indonesian patrol vessel carried out the intercept and arrest shortly after.
In a statement Wednesday, vessel operator World Tankers Management insisted that Strovolos had transited to Indonesia purely for the purpose of conducting a crew change. The firm said the tanker had loaded the cargo in good faith, but when the charterer failed to pay and allowed the charter to lapse, the tanker departed to refuel and headed to Thailand. As crew change is not allowed in Thailand, the Strovolos then headed for Indonesia instead. The firm protested "wrongful allegations made by the Cambodian government that the vessel and its crew had committed criminal offenses in relation to the vessel’s departure from the Apsara field to refuel."
World Tankers Management added that the crew should not be held criminally responsible for political and commercial circumstances outside of their control.
Strovolos' itinerary could not be independently confirmed due a lack of AIS transmission data. No AIS signals for Strovolos were received by a commercial satellite tracking service over the eight-month period between November 2020 and the time of her detention in late July, according to data provided by Pole Star.
Talos Secures Lease for Carbon Storage Site in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico
Offshore oil and gas operator Talos Energy announced Wednesday that it has secured a lease off the coast of Texas for a carbon storage site.
In partnership with carbon capture and storage firm Carbonvert, Talos applied for a Texas General Land Office lease solicitation for a site off Jefferson County, in state waters. After review, the Texas School Land Board determined that Talos and Carbonvert had the only viable bid out of a field of a dozen submissions, and the board voted unanimously to assign them the lease.
Together, Talos and Carbonvert will negotiate the final terms of a lease agreement with the Texas General Land Office, subject to approval from the board. Talos will be the operator of this project.
The site covers about 40,000 acres, and Talos already owns seismic data for all of it. The location is near to a large cluster of carbon emitters (like refineries and petchem plants) along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines. Based on Talos's initial study of the geology of the site, the firm expects it can store about 225-275 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from industrial sources in the area.
"This is the first of several steps in our strategy to build multiple carbon capture and storage sites along the United States Gulf Coast where we can use Talos's core competencies to operate these important projects," said Talos CEO Tim Duncan in a statement. "We want to redefine the role of traditional oil and gas companies, as we recognize the need to responsibly develop and produce hydrocarbons as well as lowering overall emissions in the communities where we work and live."
Talos, formed in 2012 with backing from two private equity firms, has historically specialized in acquiring and expanding on the production assets of larger oil companies. In recent years it has branched out into its own independent E&P operations, including a hotly-disputed find in Mexican waters of the Gulf.
Earlier this month, Talos announced a new exclusive JV partnership with a different CCS firm - Storegga Geotechnologies - to focus on U.S. carbon capture opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico, including state and federal waters off Texas. Storegga is the lead developer of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage and Acorn Hydrogen Projects in the United Kingdom. According to Talos, the bid it submitted with Carbonvert predates its agreement with Storrega.
Crown Estate Launches Study of Wind Farms' Impact on Marine Ecosystems
Dogger Bank Wind Farm off Yorkshire, above, will be the largest facility of its kind in the world (Equinor)
The UK royal family's property management firm, the Crown Estate, is set to carry out a research study on how massive offshore wind investments could impact marine ecosystems. The decision responds to concerns that wind farms could have adverse impacts on marine life.
The firm, which manages the U.K. sovereign’s public lands and the seabeds of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has launched a program that is designed to address the critical gap in understanding how marine ecosystems will respond to the continued growth of offshore wind. The UK's thriving offshore wind sector is ramping up to deliver 40 GW of capacity by 2030.
The Crown Estate's new $9.5 million "ECOWind" program is a joint initiative led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Defra.
“The U.K. has set a legal requirement to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will reduce our contribution to climate change. Expanding sustainable energy generation is at the heart of the government’s strategy but it’s important we understand the response from wildlife and marine ecosystems to help manage this sustainably,” said Susan Waldron, NERC’s Director of Research and Skills.
She added that the program will analyze the ecological consequence of large-scale expansion of offshore wind farms to inform future policy decisions throughout U.K. waters.
The four-year program will fund research into how offshore wind farms affect the marine environment alongside other growing pressures on U.K. ecosystems, including climate change and human activities like fishing. In particular, it will focus on how populations and inter-species interactions are responding to offshore wind deployment and how marine observations can be enhanced through innovative technologies.
The planned research comes as the U.K. is pumping massive investments in offshore wind projects, with a world-leading 11 GW of installed capacity and intentions to expand to 40 GW by 2030.
Globally, offshore wind installed capacity is projected to exceed 250 GW by 2030, up from 33 GW in 2002. The combined capital and operational expenditure for 2020-2030 stands at $810 billion, according to a Rystad Energy report.
Denmark to Commission Scandinavia's Largest Offshore Wind Farm
Next month, Danish households will start receiving electricity from Scandinavia's largest offshore wind farm, a development that marks another milestone in the country’s clean energy ambitions.
This follows the announcement by Swedish utility company Vattenfall AB that the inauguration of the 604 MW Kriegers Flak wind farm is set for September 6. The project, which is Scandinavia’s and Denmark’s largest offshore wind project so far, was constructed in the Baltic Sea at a cost of $1.4 billion.
It forms part of the country’s ambitious commitment to invest in clean energy: Denmark as a target of achieving a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and aims to become a CO2-neutral nation by 2050.
The inauguration of the park follows the installation of the last turbine in June and finalization of testing and certification processes.
“We are very proud of the contribution that Kriegers Flak brings to the wind energy production in Denmark and to the green transition. After a successful construction process, Kriegers Flak is now ready to provide green power to Danish homes and industry,” said Anna Borg, Vattenfall CEO.
In June, Vattenfall completed the installation of the last of a total 72 offshore wind turbines in the wind farm located some 8-20 nautical miles off the east coast of Denmark. With an annual production capacity of 604 MW, the park will provide annual electricity consumption for approximately 600,000 Danish households, effectively increasing the Danish wind production by approximately 16 percent.
The offshore wind farm, which covers an area of 38 square nautical miles, features 72 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, each with a capacity of 8.4MW. Each turbine has a total height of 615 feet and weighs up to 800 tons. About 90 nm of underwater cables have been laid to connect the project to the grid.
Denmark had 1.7 GW installed offshore wind capacity by the end of 2019. It has recently approved a plan to build an artificial island in the North Sea that will be a hub to hundreds of offshore turbines with a capacity to generate 10 GW, enough energy for 10 million households. The first stage will support up to 3 GW, and it is expected to cost $34 billion. Its operations should begin by 2033.
Crowley Launches Offshore Wind Training Program With Mass Maritime
Crowley Maritime and Massachusetts Maritime Academy have announced a training partnership to help create the offshore wind workforce that the U.S. will need for its growing renewable energy industry.
The first-of-its-kind training and workforce development program will be dedicated to the needs of the New England region's offshore wind energy industry. Though offshore wind is just getting started on the U.S. East Coast, it is expected to expand rapidly over the course of the next decade, boosted by support from federal policymakers, state governments, oil majors and investors.
The program will include sea safety and survival instruction and will be certified by the Global Wind Organisation (GWO), a non-profit that sets international standards for safety training. The academy will coordinate with Relyon Nutec, the world's largest provider of specialized instruction for energy and industrial sectors, to deliver the courses.
"Crowley and MMA are leaders in the maritime industry, and the joint program will help us build the next generation employee serving in the offshore wind industry," said Jeff Andreini, vice president, Crowley New Energy. "This partnership will provide workers the skills and knowledge they need, and together we help create cleaner energy sources in the U.S."
Crowley – a longtime supporter of the nation's maritime academies – will continue to provide scholarships, internships and hands-on learning for MMA cadets, including opportunities at sea and at the recently created Maritime Center for Responsible Energy (MCRE) on the MMA campus.
"Partnering with industry leaders is critical to our program at MMA. We're especially proud to team up with Crowley to help prepare the workforce for opportunities in the offshore wind industry," said Rear Admiral Francis X. McDonald, USMS, president of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "Training and internships will help our cadets gain expertise and experience, which will be critical as they pursue careers in this growing field."
Going beyond training, the Crowley/MMA offshore wind industry partnership will also create outreach programs and workforce development for underrepresented population groups, specifically in Massachusetts' Gateway Cities - the former manufacturing centers outside of Greater Boston that are in need of economic revival.
Milestone for Offshore Wind with Order for First US-Built Substation
In another milestone for the development of large-scale offshore wind farms in the United States, the first contract has been placed for an American-built offshore wind substation. The contract for the building of the critical component went to the largest offshore fabricator in the U.S. as part of an effort to leverage experience in the oil and gas sector to support the creation of the new offshore wind industry.
Orsted and Eversource, which are jointly developing the South Fork Wind project to be located off New York’s Long Island selected Kiewit Offshore Services to design and build the substation. The 1,500- ton, 60-foot-tall substation will be built at Kiewit’s facility in Ingleside, Texas, near Corpus Christi, creating more than 350 jobs.
“We’re helping to build a new U.S. manufacturing industry that will create thousands of good-paying jobs not just in the Northeast but in communities across the United States,” said David Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of Orsted Offshore North America. This initiative is part of our commitment to deliver for our long-term partners, combining international experience with local expertise in communities across the country.”
Offshore wind substations are critical components of utility-scale offshore wind farms. Substations collect the power produced by wind turbines and connect the energy to the grid. The offshore substation will consist of a topside resting on a monopile foundation.
Kiewit expects to begin construction on the substation in November and complete the work by spring 2023. The completed structure will transit the Gulf of Mexico and sail along the East Coast for installation at the South Fork Wind site in the summer of 2023.
"Achieving our nation's clean energy goals will be largely dependent on U.S.-based companies like Kiewit, and we are excited to partner with them to deliver the first U.S.-made offshore wind substation," Joe Nolan, Chief Executive Officer and President of Eversource Energy. "Our partnership with Kiewit marks another significant milestone for the U.S. offshore wind industry and signals the growth of the next great maritime industry throughout the country."
South Fork Wind continues to advance through the federal permitting process, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issuing the project’s final Environmental Impact Statement on August 16. The partners expect South Fork Wind to be fully permitted in early 2022, with construction activities ramping up soon after the final permits are issued. They expect the project to begin producing energy by the end of 2023.
