Why does Bangladesh need Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector urgently?




October 24, 2022
By Samina Akhter


With the aim of increasing bilateral trade and mutual economic cooperation, special attention must be paid to the ‘Middle East’. Bangladesh seeks cooperation in at least 12 sectors from the top ten countries of the Arab world or the Middle East to overcome the ongoing power and energy crisis, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and the financial loss of the epidemic corona. One of these is the power and energy sector.

Maximum emphasis has been placed on easy terms of investment and energy imports from the Middle East in this sector. In addition to this, the government is interested in new manpower exports and product exports to collect remittances, one of the sources of foreign exchange. A meeting of Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission (JC) has been called in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by the end of this month.

Looking ahead to that meeting, Saudi Arabia wanted to know what kind of cooperation Bangladesh wants to increase bilateral trade. The Economic Relations Department (ERD) will present an outline of economic cooperation and investment at the JC meeting itself.

It is known that assistance will be sought from the Middle East to resolve the ongoing power and energy crisis. Frequent load-shedding and rising prices of all types of fuel have increased the cost of production in the country. Its biggest impact is noticeable in inflation. In addition to this, the majority of remittances come from Middle Eastern countries. Due to this reason, the stakeholders have urged to increase mutual economic cooperation and bilateral trade with the Middle East. More than 80 percent of the fuel oil used in Bangladesh is imported from some countries in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia.

Similarly, most remittances are being extracted by exporting unskilled manpower to Middle Eastern countries. Most of the fertilizers used in agricultural production are imported from the Middle East. But the economy of Bangladesh is under pressure due to the ongoing global crisis and the increase in dollar prices. Inflation is increasing.

In this situation, the dollar crisis and the increase in the price of all types of fuel are making it more difficult to maintain the continuity of production. As a result, there is increasing load shedding and disruption of production. Initiatives have been taken to increase mutual cooperation with Middle East countries to overcome the current situation. Bangladesh is dreaming of developing economic relations with the Middle East.

The government is preparing to attend the 14th JC meeting to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 30-31. Bangladesh will be represented in that meeting by high-level representatives of the Economic Relations Department of the Ministry of Finance. Before attending the meeting, ERD held several inter-ministerial meetings on the initiative of the Ministry of Finance.

In these meetings, economic relations with other countries of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, have been urged to be strengthened and bilateral trade increased. Besides, cooperation in 12 sectors will be sought from the Middle East. These include development of bilateral economic and trade relations, manpower, employment and consular, private aviation, tourism and cultural, investment, Abu Dhabi Development Fund, electricity, energy and mineral resources, information and communication technology sector, education, science and technology sector, marine environment. Cooperation in development, agriculture, healthcare and health education sectors and humanitarian and charitable assistance is one of them.

Saudi Arabia has already expressed its positive attitude towards increasing cooperation with Bangladesh. Not only that, Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia has signed several agreements and memoranda of understanding to increase bilateral trade and investment. In addition, bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia will be increased with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

An official letter has been given to these countries by the Commercial Counselor of Bangladesh Embassy abroad to increase bilateral trade and manpower export. Besides, the government has taken a special initiative from the Middle East Branch-1 of the Economic Relations Department (ERD). An outline in this regard will also be presented in the JC meeting to be held with Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) has a separate program around the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has already been informed about ensuring one-stop service from the bidder’s side. ERD believes that if mutual economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the top country of the Arab world, increases, bilateral trade with other countries in the Middle East will also increase.

And for this reason, preparations are being made vigorously in front of the 14th JC meeting. A high-level delegation from Bangladesh is expected to participate in the meeting. In this regard, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that currently there is an excellent environment for investment in Bangladesh. There is considerable potential for investment on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis, particularly in major infrastructure, information technology, communication, agriculture, power and energy, medical sectors.

Middle East entrepreneurs including Saudi Arabia can take investment opportunities in those sectors if they wish. Professional, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower is still in great demand in the Arab world. Middle East countries can take huge manpower from Bangladesh if they want. He said that the country’s electricity and energy sector needs investment and cooperation from the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. To deal with the ongoing crisis, the government will take the cooperation of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the power and energy sector.

According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation or BPC data, the country imports 6.5 million tons of fuel oil annually. Of that, 4 million tons of diesel is imported annually. More than 90 percent of vehicles in the transport sector in the country are dependent on fuel oil. Again, 34 percent of the power generation capacity depends on fuel oil.

For these fuels, we have to depend on Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. Bangladesh imports refined and crude fuel oil. The foreign companies supplying oil are Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Limited (ADNOC) of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) of Kuwait, Petco Trading Labuan Company Limited (PTCL) of Malaysia, Emirates National Oil of the United Arab Emirates. Company (Inc), China’s PetroChina (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Unipec (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Indonesia’s PT Bumi Siak Pusaku (BSP), Thailand’s PTT International Trading Pte Ltd, India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL).

Apart from this, BPC also buys fuel oil through open tender. In other words, more than 80 percent of fuel oil is imported from Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. Earlier in 2019, two agreements and four memorandums of understanding were signed with Saudi Arabia for the development of various sectors of Bangladesh, including the power and industrial sectors. These agreements and agreements were made in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a ceremony organized at her office.

If these agreements are implemented, the country’s bilateral trade and investment with Bangladesh will increase. It is believed that both countries will benefit economically. Especially the ongoing crisis in the power and energy sector of the country will be removed. Besides, bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia also has great opportunities and possibilities.

In addition, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco has already shown interest in building, operating and maintaining an oil refinery. It will cost 1.5 to 2 billion dollars. Saudi firm Engineering Dimension LLC is very enthusiastic about investing in Bangladesh.

The company is interested in investing in 7 projects and has pledged to invest around 1.685 billion dollars during the International Investment Conference held in Dhaka in November last year. Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector is urgently needed at the moment. This issue should be given maximum emphasis in any forum discussion with the country.

Engineering Dimension is one of the companies that have shown interest in the construction of Dhaka East-West Elevated Expressway. Some Saudi investments are already in the pipeline. These include the development of Patenga Container Terminal with Red Sea Gateway Terminal in Public Private Partnership. Further Saudi investment will largely depend on how successfully the projects in the pipeline can be managed.

ACWA Power, an internationally renowned energy company, has expressed interest in investing around $600 million to build a 730 MW combined cycle power plant in Chittagong. Al-Fanar plans to invest $100 million to build a 100 MW IPP solar project in a joint venture. Al-Bawani is interested in investing about $10 million in the employment of skilled human resources for construction and engineering projects.

Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia joint commission meeting preparation.

Preparations for the 14th meeting of the Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission have started in full swing. The Economic Relations Department (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance prepared the working paper on behalf of Bangladesh. In the meeting to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 30-31, the cooperation of Saudi Arabia will be sought in the export of electricity, manpower, increasing the export of manufactured goods, export of halal products, especially fish and meat, export of agricultural processed products and fertilizer production.

Besides, Bangladesh has the opportunity to export clothes to other Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. The entrepreneurs of the country’s garment sector have expressed their interest in this regard. Saudi Arabia will be requested to speedily implement the agreements made with Saudi Arabia at various times. In this context, Bangladesh has prepared for the Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia joint commission meeting.

Bangladesh has several bilateral trade investment agreements with Saudi Arabia. These agreements must be implemented now. It is reported that talks are going on between Petrobangla and Aramco regarding a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal. This will solve the country’s LNG crisis. Besides, Eastern Refinery Unit-2 has sought Saudi Arabia’s cooperation in processing 3 million tons of crude palm oil per day.

If it is implemented, 68 thousand barrels of refined petroleum will be available. MoU will be signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board and world renowned ACWO Power. It is expected to make great progress in the renewable energy sector in the country. It has an agreement with Saudi Arabia to build a 100 MW Solar Independent Power Plant (IPP) and manufacture transformers and electrical components.

These agreements need to be implemented quickly. Meanwhile, 20 more Saudi Arabian companies have shown interest in investing in Bangladesh, said Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen recently. After a recent meeting with a delegation of Saudi Arabia, he added, “We will give them all the facilities they need.” Both countries have much more to do in terms of trade and investment cooperation.

Besides, the country is also interested in investment on the basis of public-private partnership or PPP. Saudi Arabia will mainly invest in Bangladesh’s infrastructure, medical, tourism and other sectors. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Saudi Arabia. Salman F Rahman, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Private Industry and Investment on behalf of Bangladesh, signed one such MoU a few months ago. However, countries of the Middle east especially Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector is urgently needed at the moment.

TYPICAL YANKEE CHAUVINISM

Why Don’t Rich Muslim States Give More Aid To Afghanistan? – Analysis

 October 29, 2022

By Akmal Dawi

More than 10 months after the United Nations launched its largest ever single-country appeal to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, less than half of the appeal has been funded, with Muslim governments conspicuously missing on the list of major donors.

“Afghanistan is facing a harsh winter,” Tomas Niklasson, European Union special envoy for Afghanistan, warned in a Twitter thread after his visit to Afghanistan in early October. “I urge China, Russia and the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] to follow the example of the U.K., the U.S., the EU and others by significantly stepping up humanitarian assistance.”

While it has been one of the poorest countries in the world for decades, Afghanistan has fallen deeper into poverty since the country’s U.S.-backed government collapsed last year and the de facto Taliban regime was met with crippling international economic sanctions.

Nearly all Afghans now live below the poverty line, according to the U.N.

“There has certainly been a lot of competition over humanitarian resources in the last year, with the war in Ukraine taking a lot of attention and finances from the West. There is some concern that Afghanistan will become a neglected crisis in the future,” Neil Turner, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan, told VOA.

Last week, Saudi Arabia announced it was giving $400 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The announcement, while welcomed by aid agencies, stands in contrast with the $11 million the oil-rich Muslim kingdom has pledged in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan this year.

Other relatively wealthy Muslim countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey are also either absent or lagging in the list of donors to the Afghanistan humanitarian appeal.

So far this year, the UAE has given more than $309 million in response to U.N. humanitarian appeals in 23 countries, of which $171 is to Ethiopia and only $1.9 million to Afghanistan.

Qatar, which has one of the highest GDP per capita rates in the world, has given less than $1 million to the U.N. global humanitarian appeals system in 2022, of which about $500,000 was for Cameroon.

In December 2021, foreign ministers attending an OIC conference in Islamabad agreed to set up a special humanitarian trust fund at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

In August, the IsDB announced giving $525,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to spend on immediate humanitarian activities in Afghanistan.

Spokespersons at both the OIC and the IsDB did not respond to queries about what additional funding the trust fund has delivered since August.

Several calls and emails from VOA to the embassies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE received no reply.

Donors’ geopolitical interests

“Most humanitarian response plans and appeals are underfunded,” Maryam Z. Deloffre, an associate professor of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, told VOA.

The $4.29 billion humanitarian appeal for Ukraine, second only to that for Afghanistan by about $200 million, has received 68% of the required funding.

The Afghanistan appeal has a 55% funding gap in which a lack of major contributions from Muslim donors is noticeable.

“Geopolitically, Saudi Arabia, since 9/11, has cut off ties with the Taliban, has accused them of defaming Islam and harboring terrorists … so there’s some concerns of running afoul of U.N. sanctions, U.S. sanctions, U.S. laws,” Deloffre said.

While imposing sanctions on Taliban leaders and institutions, the United States has offered waivers for humanitarian funding for the Afghan people. The U.S. and some other countries have also frozen about $9 billion of Afghanistan central bank assets on the premise that de facto Taliban rulers might use the money to sponsor terrorism.

There is also some criticism of the U.N.-led humanitarian response system for not categorizing the most urgent needs where more funding should be channeled.

“We have a system which is a bit like having the beggars lining up outside the door of the mosque and the worshipper goes in and can choose which beggar he or she will give a coin to, thinking one beggar is more worthy than others,” Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, told VOA.

The U.N. system, de Waal said, has traditionally been funded mostly by Western donors while Muslim donors have acted selectively.

“It’s entirely a transaction that depends upon the whim of the donor,” he said.

Skepticism of the U.N.-led aid system is not limited to majority-Muslim countries that have no permanent seat at the Security Council. Powerful countries China and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council, have also criticized the U.N. system as ineffective and manipulated.

“Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are generally wary of the U.N.-led system. There is a perception that the U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations are more interested in organizational survival than helping. There’s also a perception that most of the funds go to staff costs and consultants who are from Western countries rather than to local economies,” Deloffre said.

Bleak prospects

For almost two decades, development and humanitarian activities in Afghanistan have been bankrolled mostly by the U.S. and European countries.

“As the war in Ukraine continues and other humanitarian crises evolve across the globe, we may find donors less and less willing to commit funding to Afghanistan, particularly in the backdrop of domestic economic crises amongst many long-standing donors,” said the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Turner.

For the estimated 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, Afghanistan is not the only humanitarian emergency in need of assistance. From Yemen to Syria to Somalia, many majority Muslim countries face natural and/or human-caused disasters requiring urgent humanitarian responses.

The U.N. and other international aid organizations are more effective in asking for funds in the Western countries than in countries where the civil society is restricted or controlled by the state, according to Jens Rudbeck, a professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.

“It’s easier for Western countries to provide funds because they already have organizational infrastructure in place, so they can direct the money into that,” Rudbeck told VOA, adding that despite the existence of some international Islamic relief organizations, their funding and infrastructural resources are limited.

The shortage of funding in response to the needs in Afghanistan is likely to compound human suffering there. Out of desperation, some Afghans have reportedly sold their organs and even their children.

VOA

The VOA is the Voice of America

 

Ukrainian firefighters battle a blaze following a Russia air strike on an energy facility in Rivne on October 22. Photo Credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, RFE/RL

‘Wide-Scale’ Russian Attacks Target Ukraine’s Energy Grid, Leaving Millions Without Electricity

 October 24, 2022  RFE RL  0 Comments

By RFE RL

(RFE/RL) — Russia has launched new, “wide scale” missile strikes on Ukraine’s civilian energy sites, causing power outages nationwide, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his regular video address late on October 22.

Moscow says its forces continued to launch attacks against Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure over the last 24 hours.

Ukrainian authorities say nearly 1.5 million households across the country have been left without electricity.

But Zelenskiy said most of the Russian missiles and drones were being shot down, reiterating an earlier statement by the Ukrainian military that it had downed 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from the air and sea on October 22.

“Of course we don’t yet have the technical ability to knock down 100 percent of the Russian missiles and strike drones. I am sure that, gradually, we will achieve that, with help from our partners,” Zelenskiy said.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s power stations, water supply systems, and other key infrastructure over the past two weeks.

The areas targeted by the latest strikes include Khmelnytskiy and Lutsk in the country’s west and the central city of Uman.

Khmelnytskiy, which was home to some 275,000 people before the war, was left with no electricity, shortly after local media reported several loud explosions on October 22, regional officials said.

Uman, which had some 100,000 residents before the war, was also plunged into darkness after a rocket hit a nearby power station.

In Lutsk, a city of 215,000, electricity had been partially knocked out after Russian missiles slammed into local energy facilities, according to local officials.

Authorities in Khmelnytskiy and Lutsk urged residents to store water, “in case it’s also gone.”

Air strikes and power disruptions were also reported from Odesa in the south, the central city of Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhya in the country’s southeast.

The national energy company, Ukrenerho, continued to urge all Ukrainians to conserve energy.

In his address later on October 22, Zelenskiy said authorities had managed to restore power in multiple regions where electricity had been cut off as a result of the attack.

“The main target of the terrorists is energy,” he said.

In the capital, Kyiv, and surrounding regions rolling blackouts came into effect on October 22 in response to the reduced power supplies.

Ukrainian officials said about 40 percent of the country’s electric power system has been severely damaged since Russia increased attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Zelenskiy had earlier said 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian strikes since October 10.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal warned that the intensifying missile and drone strikes will create a new wave of refugees from Ukraine.

“If there is no more electricity, no more heating, no more water in Ukraine, this can trigger a new migration tsunami,” he told the October 23 edition of Germany’s broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on October 23 that it destroyed a large ammunition depot in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region that according to the ministry was storing over 100,000 tons of aviation fuel for the Ukrainian Air Force.

The ministry also said in a daily briefing that Russian forces had repelled Ukrainian counteroffensives along the frontlines in southern and eastern Ukraine. 

The claims cannot be independently verified. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had concerns Ukraine could use a “dirty bomb” in the conflict, without providing evidence to support his suggestion.

Shoigu made the comment during a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu, on October 23, according to Russian news agencies. 

Shoigu was quoted as saying that the situation in Ukraine was rapidly deteriorating and trending toward “uncontrolled escalation.”

Hate Speech and Offensive Posts Haunt Syrian Women in Europe

Monday October 24th, 2022 by ORIENT NEWS (Opposition website)

Syrian women suffer from all kinds of targeting, even after they left Syria, by men, according to Orient News.

(ORIENT NEWS)

The false news that recently spread on social media, and whose publishers claimed that “a divorced Syrian woman with AIDS caused the injury of dozens of young single men in the German city of Essen ,” recalled that Syrian women suffer from all kinds of targeting, even after they left Syria, by men and young men who still consider women private property to do whatever they want.
Given that Germany is the host of the largest number of Syrians in Europe, dozens of pages, accounts, and groups that operate as news or service sources, far from that, are rife with offensive posts and hate speech toward women, along with a lot of offensive comments and discussions.

What Medicine is Most in Demand in Assad’s Areas and Why?

Publications abound, such as that Syrian women “rebelled” after arriving in Europe, that they began to crowd out men and refuse to be guardianized. Many of them exploit laws that stand in their favour, having been locked in the man’s influence or forcibly associated with him, whether because of minor laws or unjust social norms, according to the publication.
Some people who follow tens of thousands of people on social media even make direct threats and broadcast inflammatory clips on women who demand their rights, as well as warning men not to marry them or give in to their demands. They attach their threats and warnings to fabricated stories about women who occupied young Syrians to reach Europe or women who betrayed their husbands.
They make serious sums of money through what they post and broadcast on social media, with millions supporting their speech.
In light of the difficulty of confronting and silencing their speech through the platforms in which they are active, which contribute to the dissemination and promotion of what they publish instead of fighting it as it claims, the attempts to confront them are limited to individual initiatives of filing lawsuits against the authors of this speech on charges of inciting hatred and causing harm, as well as spreading false news and information that causes panic in society.

Why are Syrian women asking for a divorce?
In a study published by the British media network The Conversation under the title “Why do so many Syrian women ask for a divorce when they move to Western countries?” the author said that years ago, she saw a discussion on Facebook about the impact of migration on Arab families, and most male commentators believe that leaving Syria (asylum/migration…) has led to the deviation of Syrian women from the right path. She considered that the number of divorced women is increasing.
Contrary to the disregard of this phenomenon by Syrians, it has been celebrated by Western commentators and is considered part of the Western mission to save Arab/Muslim women from the persecution of their men. The author disagreed: “It is clear that this is nothing but a Western shorthand and orientalism for this issue.”
Many Syrian refugee women have benefited from their new lives in secular Western countries and have sought a divorce, often from mischievous men who had to marry them when they were young.
This is not so much a condemnation of refugee women as it is an indictment of Syrian society and Syrian laws that force women to accept abuse for fear of “ruining the family” and losing custody of children.
More than 90 % of violent crimes committed by Syrians were committed by men. This means that for every 100 violent crimes against partners committed by Syrians, 91 were committed by men and only nine by women.

 

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

INSPIRED BY PALM TREES, SCIENTISTS DEVELOP HURRICANE-RESILIENT WIND TURBINES

Author Kelsey Simpkins
Source University of Colorado Boulder

15 June 2022

Lost Mountain Studio/Shutterstock

Wind technology is growing—literally. Today’s offshore wind turbines can tower more than 490 feet above ground, their spinning blades churning out up to 8 megawatts (MW) each—about enough to power 4000 homes in the U.S.

But with their increasing size comes challenges. Off the east coast, where offshore turbines are located in the U.S., increasingly powerful Atlantic hurricanes pose risks to the structures themselves and to the future of wind energy. To make those turbines more hurricane-resilient, a team of CU Boulder researchers are taking a cue from nature and turning the turbine around.

“We are very much bio-inspired by palm trees, which can survive these hurricane conditions,” said Lucy Pao, Palmer Endowed Chair in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

Traditional upwind turbines face the incoming wind, and to avoid being blown into the tower, their blades must be sufficiently stiff. It requires a lot of material to build these relatively thick and massive blades, which drives up their cost. Turbine blades on downwind rotors, however, face away from the wind, so there’s less risk of them hitting the tower when the winds pick up. This means they can be lighter and more flexible, which requires less material and therefore less money to make. These downwind blades can also then bend instead of break in the face of strong winds—much like palm trees.

Over the past six years, in conjunction with collaborators at the University of Virginia, the University of Texas at Dallas, the Colorado School of Mines, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pao’s team has collaborated to develop the SUMR (Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor) turbine, a two-bladed, downwind rotor to test the performance of this lightweight concept in action. On June 10 at the American Control Conference, the CU researchers presented results from a new study of four years of real-world data from testing their 53.38 kilowatt demonstrator (SUMR-D) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Flatirons Campus, just south of Boulder, Colorado.

They found that their turbine performed consistently and efficiently during periods of peak wind gusts—a satisfactory result.

“The blades are manufactured to be lightweight and very flexible, so they can align with the wind loads. That way, we can reduce the cost of the blades and bring down the cost of energy,” said Mandar Phadnis, lead author on the new study in Proceedings of the 2022 American Control Conference, and a graduate student in electrical, computer and energy engineering.

This innovative work couldn’t come at a better time. Climate change not only demands that we quickly scale up more cost-effective and reliable renewable energy, but rising global temperatures are also likely causing hurricanes to intensify.

Hurricane activity this year in the Atlantic is predicted to be above average, with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center estimating up to six major hurricanes with winds of 111 mph or higher from June 1 to November 30.

 
The hidden brain of a turbine

One of the trickiest elements of wind energy generation is dealing with not enough or too much wind at one time. When wind speeds are too low, a turbine can’t produce a useful amount of energy. When gusts are too fast, they can push the limits of a turbine's capacity, causing it to shut down to avoid a system overload.

The inconsistency of wind speed has plagued wind energy since its inception; the lost time spent shutting down the system leads to less energy generated and less efficient production.

Key to Pao’s innovative contributions are improvements to the controller—the part of the turbine that determines when to be more or less aggressive in power production.

“We like to think of the controller as essentially the brain of the system,” said Pao, senior author on the study and fellow at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).

This hidden brain aims to produce efficient wind energy at low cost and with low wear and tear. The feedback controller does this by using measurements of how the system is performing, and then adjusting to better improve the performance, said Pao.

The yaw controller makes sure the turbine is facing the correct direction, the blade pitch controller determines the direction of the blades (dependent on the wind speeds), and the generator torque controller decides how much power to pull off the turbine and onto the grid. While it controls physical components of the turbine, these controllers are essentially a software algorithm that tells the motors what to do.

Pao’s group is not only turning the turbine around to reduce damage from strong winds, but working behind the scenes on its software to maximize the system’s ability to keep running during peak wind events.

“Our work attempts to predict the likelihood or the probability of peak wind gusts occurring, and then tries to mitigate the speed peaks by acting before they happen,” said Phadnis.

NREL’s Flatirons Campus’ was the perfect place to test this in action, as it’s strategically placed to receive the strong winds which shoot out across Highway 93 and onto the mesa, after being funneled through Eldorado Canyon directly to the west.

There, the researchers found that, even through extensive experimental testing, peak generator speeds were below the threshold for their operational controller to keep the turbine running.

In a separate collaboration, Pao and her research group have been working with the University of Oldenburg in Germany to assess the utility of sensors that scan ahead of the turbine to measure the wind coming in and of advanced controllers that command the turbine to respond proactively.
Scaling up world wind energy

While downwind or two-bladed turbines like the SUMR-D may not come to dominate the wind energy industry, by performing these multi-year, real-world tests, the researchers are able to better understand what might be possible, said Pao.

The control algorithms that they’ve developed could also be equally applicable to traditional three-bladed, upwind turbines, which still dominate both land and offshore markets.

“The advantage of the downwind configuration, however, really comes about when you get to extreme scale turbines, and those are primarily for offshore,” said Pao.

Pao’s group is already addressing these great heights: With their collaborators, they have designed and modeled (but not experimentally tested) large-scale, offshore 25 MW and 50 MW SUMR (downwind) turbines.

Ultimately, she believes a combination of improved controllers, lighter and resilient materials, and strategic turbine configurations could allow for giant offshore turbines to outpace the competition. They’re not only more cost-effective and energy efficient, allowing for one big turbine instead of many smaller ones (which would reduce installation and maintenance costs), and able to capture faster wind speeds higher off the ground, but they could also withstand the more severe weather sure to come.

“Wind turbine blades are typically designed to last at least 20 years, and we want our novel concept blades to achieve similarly long lifetimes,” said Pao.

This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) and conducted in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

WAR IS RAPE

'Monsters': Ukrainian women recount agony in Russian prisons

Wed, October 26, 2022


When Ukrainian medic Tetyana Vasylchenko was released from Russian captivity and, on the bus back to freedom, handed a Ukrainian flag, she finally broke down.

"I had never cried, even when I lost comrades," Vasylchenko told journalists. "But when I was given a Ukrainian flag on the bus, I burst out crying."

Vasylchenko and 107 other women were freed from Russian detention last week as part of a long-negotiated prisoner exchange with Moscow.

Four of the women spoke to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday to recount what they have lived through: packed prison cells, hunger, physical abuse and humiliation.


"The conditions in detention were horrendous," said Viktoria Obidina, a military nurse, who was captured at the Azovstal steel plant that became the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.


Inmates were "packed like sardines" in jail, food was repulsive and they were rarely allowed to go outside for walks, she said.

Speaking to AFP earlier this week, Obidina said she had been held in the notorious prison in the Russian-occupied town of Olenivka.

Her captors told her that her daughter, who left the steel plant with Ukrainian civilians, had been sent to an orphanage.
- 'These people are monsters' -

Women prisoners were subjected to "intense psychological pressure" and constantly humiliated, said Vasylchenko.

"Their favourite thing was to say 'Ukraine doesn't want you. No one is swapping you because everyone forgot about you. Who needs you, women?'" Vasylchenko recalled.

The detainees were held "in an information vacuum, they were telling us how everything in our country was going badly."


Authorities in Kyiv estimate that a few thousand Ukrainians are still being held by Russia as prisoners of war.

Guseynova, a volunteer from the eastern Donetsk region, spent three years in captivity. She was detained in 2019 by pro-Russian separatists, accused of making pro-Kyiv statements to orphaned children she was taking care of.

Guseynova was too traumatized to speak about what she had lived through.

"Too little time has passed since I was liberated, it's difficult," she said.

The trauma was also painfully fresh for Inga Chikinda, an army marine.

"I am not ready to speak about physical abuse just yet," Chikinda, who lost eight kilos and started stuttering after being detained, said.

"These people are monsters."

UKR WOMEN POW'S RETURNED TO UKRAINE LAST WEEK

'Inciter of genocide' : Kyiv urges ban of Russia's RT after anchor calls for drowning of Ukrainian children

Kyiv has called for ban of Russian state-controlled RT media outlet after anchor called for drowning of Ukrainian children.

India Today Web Desk

Kyiv,UPDATED: Oct 24, 2022

RT News (Russia Today) app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken February 27, 2022 (Photo: Reuters)

By India Today Web Desk: Terming the Russian state-controlled RT media outlet as an inciter of genocide, Ukraine on Sunday called for its ban after one of its commentators called for Ukrainian children to be drowned for viewing Russians as occupiers under the Soviet Union. RT has faced intense scrutiny over its coverage of the ongoing crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

RT presenter Anton Krasovsky in a show broadcast last week said children who criticised Russia should have been 'thrown' straight into a river with a strong current'. He was interacting with Russian science fiction writer, Sergei Lukyanenko.

"They should have been drowned in the Tysyna (river)," Krasovsky interjected. "Just down those children, drown them."

Calling for a global ban on Russia's RT, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, "Governments which have still not banned RT must watch this excerpt."

"This is what you wide with if you allow RT to operate in your countries. Aggressive genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide!"

Krasovsky is a pro-war commentator on Russian TV who has been sanctioned by the European Union. Another segment of the interview showed that Krasovsky also laughed at reports that Russian soldiers had raped elderly Ukrainian women during the invasion.

RT America permanently shut down operations in March after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine.

Russian state television, heavily controlled by the Kremlin, has been a vocal cheerleader of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Presenters have routinely dismissed reports of Russian war crimes and many have used airtime to call on Putin to adopt an even more aggressive approach to the invasion.

(With inputs from Reuters)

U$A

Why Inflation is Not the Main Issue in the Elections

BY DEAN BAKER   OCTOBER 24, 2022Facebook

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Photograph Source: Photo by Phil Scroggs

The media have been obsessed with inflation for the last year and a half, reporting as though this is the only economic issue that matters to people. In the real world, people have other things to worry about, like jobs.

Jobs are a really big deal for most people since it is hard to get by if you do not have one. Fortunately for the American people, the economy has created almost 10 million jobs since President Biden took office, a record pace of job creation. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.5 percent, reaching the lowest point in a half-century.

Having a job is only part of the story, people want to be able to have jobs with decent pay, where their bosses treat them with respect. We have a very long way to go to get to that situation, but are we making progress?

A good measure of our progress toward job quality is the ability of people to quit jobs they do not like and find better ones. We have seen record rates of voluntary quits — 51.5 million just in the last year — under Biden. In the last year, there were voluntary quits. Some people quit more than one job, so they would be counted twice or three times in this number, but it is clear that tens of millions of people could quit bad jobs and find better ones because of the strong labor market.

The ability to leave a bad job also means that workers are able to demand higher pay. This has been especially true for workers at the bottom end of the wage ladder. The average hourly pay for production and nonsupervisory workers in the hotel and restaurant sector has outpaced inflation by 3.8 percent since the start of the pandemic.

The story is not quite as good higher up the wage ladder. If we look at all production and nonsupervisory workers, pay has trailed prices by 0.1 percent since the start of the pandemic. That’s the wrong direction, but we have seen far worse at other times. For example, from 1980 to 1989, the period often called the “Reagan boom,” workers’ wages trailed prices by 3.9 percent.

Other factors also affect people’s living standards. For example, the low mortgage rates we had seen until recently allowed tens of millions of people to refinance their homes. A person with a $250,000 mortgage, who was able to refinance at a 1.0 percentage point lower rate, would be saving $2,500 a year on interest payments. This would be a big deal to a middle-class family with an income of $70,000 or $80,000.

We have also seen an explosion in remote work since the start of the pandemic, with 19 million more people working remotely now than in 2019. These workers are saving thousands of dollars a year in commuting costs. They are coming out way ahead, even if they have to pay somewhat more for milk and bread at the supermarket.

It is important to remember where the recent rise in inflation came from. Our economy has been disrupted by a worldwide pandemic, as well as Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine. These shocks have led to soaring prices everywhere, not just in the United States.

As a result of the pandemic shutdowns, there was a massive shift to buying goods. People who could no longer go to gyms or restaurants instead spent their money on clothes, TVs, and cars. This huge surge in demand occurred at the same time that many factories and ports worldwide were shut down due to the pandemic.

A jump in demand, at the same time supply was contracting, led to increased prices over the last year and a half. It makes no more sense to blame Biden and the Democrats for this inflation than it does to blame Governor DeSantis for the thousands of people who were made homeless by Hurricane Ian.

Fortunately, we seem to be through the worst of the pandemic supply chain problems. Stores have rebuilt their inventories, and prices are coming down in many areas. Most visibly, gas prices are down more than a dollar a gallon from their peak this spring.

Inflation is still a problem in many areas, but almost all the data indicate that we are through the worst. No one likes to see rising prices, but it would be unfortunate if people overlooked so much that is good in the economy to focus on a problem that was largely outside the control of our elected leaders.

This column first appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Dean Baker is the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.