News & Articles on Offshore Wind
I’ve written very little about offshore wind. It’s a subject I don’t follow closely. Nevertheless, I do come across an article or topic on offshore wind from time to time that I want to highlight and that’s the reason for this page. Offshore wind is an important branch of wind energy, but it is only a branch. It will be important in certain locations, such as the heavily populated eastern seaboard of the United States, where it makes sense. However, most wind energy is and will be generated on land.
Offshore wind and big company lobbying
By
Jérôme Guillet
Don’t do tenders based on price if you don’t know when the project can get built (ie if projects are still subject to permitting processes or legal recourse or other uncontrollable delays). That’s a sure way to get unrealistic bids that will then be subject to lobbying and renegotiation.
Some positive thoughts about the UK CFD 5 auction
By
Jérôme Guillet
There were no successful bids from offshore wind projects in the latest CfD auction in the UK, and that is already described variously as a setback for net zero plans in the UK, and yet another nail in the coffin of the industry, already struggling from headwinds in the US and UK, where various projects are being cancelled or postponed, and PPAs abandoned or renegotiated. But I actually take it as a good thing, in that (i) it reflects cost discipline, and (ii) it proves that the tariff design is smart in that it avoids crazy bids like we have seen in other markets.
Ørsted shares fall 25% after it reveals troubles in US business
By
External Source
Shares in the world’s largest offshore wind company have tumbled by nearly a quarter after it said it may have to write down the value of its US portfolio by nearly £2bn. Ørsted said it had been hit by a flurry of setbacks in its American business, triggering a rapid sell-off in its shares, listed in Copenhagen.
Great Lakes gets its first wind farm – but some fear environmental fallout
By
External Source
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (Leedco) is planning to build Icebreaker, a demonstration wind farm generating 20 megawatts of electricity several miles off the shore of Cleveland. The project would initially be small, starting with six turbines, with construction expected to begin as soon as 2025 and electricity coming online two years later.
A Feast of Fools: What happens when politics gets lost?
By
Alan Simpson
Sunak’s next distraction will be ‘pylon wars’. Thousands of miles on high voltage cabling are needed to ship electricity from off-shore wind farms to towns and cities. This requires hundreds of thousands of new pylons. Everything that was off-shore and out-of-sight suddenly becomes an environmental battleground. Communities are already mobilising to challenge the process.
