Feds want to build massive wind farm larger than the City of Houston off the coast of Galveston
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Swedish-based renewable energy developer OX2 has taken another step toward construction of its Aurora offshore wind farm, a 5.5-GW project sited between the islands of Gotland and Oland in the Baltic Sea.
OX2 on June 27 announced it had submitted a permit application to build the wind farm under the auspices of Sweden’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Aurora, still in an early development stage, is part of OX2’s 11.7-GW project portfolio for Sweden. Aurora at present is considered the largest single offshore wind farm under development worldwide; Ørsted’s Hornsea project off the UK coast in the North Sea has 7.5 GW of total capacity, but that installation includes four separate wind farms.
“This is the next step to realize the Aurora wind farm,” said Hillevi Priscar, country manager for OX2 in Sweden. “Together with our other planned offshore wind farms it constitutes a significant part of the electricity production Sweden needs, to reach the climate targets and to secure the production and energy independence of Sweden.”…
Wind is intermittent. Therefore, wind generation is intermittent. Wind is unreliably available around the clock. Wind conditions vary geographically and seasonally. Therefore, wind generation potential varies geographically and seasonally. Wind generation has been implemented initially in the best locations for wind generation potential. However, expansion of wind generation would require..
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The California Energy Commission (CEC) is mulling a preliminary planning goal for 3 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and potentially expanding it to 10 GW to 15 GW by 2045. If finalized, California’s offshore wind goals would be the most ambitious in the U.S., surpassing even New York’s, which call for 9 GW by 2035.
In a draft report sent to the state’s governor on May 9, the CEC suggested California has an offshore technical potential in federal waters off the California coast of 21.8 GW, based on wind speed, ocean depth, bottom score, and distance to connecting infrastructure. Preliminary planning goals, however, focus mainly on floating offshore wind deployments, given that the deep waters of the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf off California’s coast have “steep drop-offs and will require offshore wind turbines installed on floating platforms to be anchored to the seabed.”
The CEC’s draft responds to Assembly Bill 525 (AB 525), a law that took effect this January and requires the CEC to develop a “strategic plan” for offshore wind energy developments off the California coast in federal waters.…
The first three major construction contracts have been awarded for the 1,100-MW Ocean Wind 1 offshore project that will provide electricity to New Jersey.
Ocean Wind 1 is a joint venture between Ørsted and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), which provides electricity for much of New Jersey. Those groups on April 25 announced Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. and JINGOLI Power have been contracted to install two high-voltage substations, along with almost nine miles of underground cable, that will connect the offshore wind farm to the onshore electric grid at two landfall points near Atlantic City.
Engineering for the project began earlier this year, and construction is expected to start in September of next year. The Ocean Wind 1 site is about 15 miles off the coast of southern New Jersey. It is part of the state’s plan to install at least 7,500 MW of offshore wind generation capacity by 2035.
Ocean Wind 1 will utilize more than 90 of GE’s Haliade X 12-MW wind turbines.…
Vestas occupies the top spot when it comes to market share among global wind turbine manufacturers, according to a new analysis, but the Danish business is not immune to the challenges facing several of the leading companies in the wind power sector.
Supply chain issues are buffeting wind energy, as they have other industries. Though Vestas Wind Systems A/S continues as the leading manufacturer of wind turbines, according to a GlobalData report released March 22, the company also this month announced it plans to cut at least 275 jobs, including 75 in Denmark, in what it termed a “highly volatile environment” for the sector. A Vestas spokesperson in a statement said the group wants to balance “2022 priorities and long-term growth” for the company, with the job cuts part of “adjusting our activities and organizational setup.”
It’s the latest round of job cuts for the wind energy giant. A POWER analysis of Vestas’ announcements found the company has jettisoned nearly 2,000 jobs from its manufacturing facilities in Denmark, the UK, Germany, and Colorado since September 2019.…