Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. (DSIC) has delivered the wind-assisted Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) New Aden to China Merchant Energy Shipping Co., Ltd (CMES). The vessel has an overall length of about 333 meters, a moulded width of 60 meters and a moulded depth of 30 meters. The designed draft... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz plans to build a wind farm at its test track in Papenburg, northern Germany, with an output of more than 100 MW to cover up to more than 15% of the annual electricity demand of Mercedes-Benz Group AG in Germany. As part of its effort to erect a double-digit... Read more →

Motivated by the need to eliminate expensive rare-earth magnets in utility-scale direct-drive wind turbines, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed a fundamentally new type of rotary electrical contact. Sandia is now ready to partner with the renewable energy industry to develop the next generation of direct-drive wind turbines. Sandia’s Twistact... Read more →

Norsepower Oy, a global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, announced a contract with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. Ltd. for delivery of single Rotor Sails onboard two newbuild liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered, wind-assisted CO₂ carriers commissioned by the Northern Lights JV. Northern Lights JV is developing the transportation and storage... Read more →

The California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted a report establishing offshore wind goals and moving the state one step closer to development of the clean energy resource off California’s coast. Preliminary findings in the report set planning goals of 2,000-5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW (25... Read more →

Global investment in renewable energy totaled $226 billion in the first half of 2022, setting a new record for the first six months of a year, according to Renewable Energy Investment Tracker 2H 2022, a new report published by research firm BloombergNEF (BNEF). Investment in new large- and small-scale solar... Read more →

Sundsvall Energi will partner with Liquid Wind to be the host and provide carbon dioxide for the second commercial-scale—100,000 t—electrofuel facility in Sweden. Biogenic carbon dioxide from the Sundsvall energy facility will be captured and combined with renewable hydrogen to generate green electrofuel, eMethanol. The fuel is intended for the... Read more →

Among the projects being funded by the German Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) is an effort by Horst Bendix to develop a high-altitude, on-shore wind turbine. The higher a wind turbine is installed, the more efficiently it will work, because the wind is much steadier and blows with greater force... Read more →

Energy company RWE and steel producer ArcelorMittal have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop, build and operate offshore wind farms and hydrogen facilities that will supply the renewable energy and green hydrogen required to produce low-emissions steel in Germany. The partnership centers on driving forward the... Read more →

bp will acquire a 40.5% equity stake in and to become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), which has the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world. Based on the development of world-scale renewable power generation, AREH, in the Pilbara... Read more →

Texas-based Nacero, a company seeking to produce low- and zero-lifecycle carbon footprint gasoline blendstock (earlier post) has awarded a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC a 20-year power purchase agreement to supply wind power to Nacero’s planned flagship manufacturing facility in Penwell, Texas. This agreement is a key component in... Read more →

bp and EnBW have been awarded a lease option off the east coast of Scotland to develop a major offshore wind project to be known as Morven. The award was made in the highly competitive ScotWind leasing round, the results of which were announced by Crown Estate Scotland. The approximately... Read more →

CNH Industrial has entered into an exclusive, multi-year licensing agreement for electrification technologies with Monarch Tractor, a US-based AgTech company specializing in fully electric autonomous tractors. This agreement is the latest development between the two parties, building upon the minority investment stake made by CNH Industrial in March 2021. The... Read more →

EDP, a Portuguese integrated energy utility; TechnipFMC, a technology provider to the traditional and new energy industries; and other research partners are joining forces to develop a conceptual engineering and economic feasibility study for a new offshore system for green hydrogen production from offshore wind power, called the BEHYOND (Bolstering... Read more →

Cummins Inc. joined government leaders and partner Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest energy companies, to announce its plans for one of the world’s largest electrolyzer plants for the production of green hydrogen to be located in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. This investment in Spain comes on the heels of Iberdrola... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, announced the installation of five tilting Rotor Sails (earlier post) on board a new-build Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) chartered by Vale, the Brazilian mining company. The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution is a modernized version of the Flettner... Read more →

Enviva, a global renewable energy company specializing in sustainable wood bioenergy, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), a leading global marine transport group, signed a memorandum of understanding agreement to develop and to deploy an environmentally friendly bulk carrier. The goal of the agreement is to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG)... Read more →

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) announced that DNV has awarded an Approval in Principle (AIP) for the new DSME Rotor Sail System, designed for ultra-large crude oil carriers and LNG carriers. At the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering R&D Center, a certification ceremony for the Rotor Sail System was... Read more →

Ørsted, the world’s leading offshore wind developer, together with the major industrial companies in the North Sea Port cluster, have launched the SeaH2Land vision for a gigawatt scale project to reduce carbon emissions in the Dutch-Flemish industrial cluster with renewable hydrogen. The electrolyzer is proposed to link to 2 GW... Read more →

The Biden Administration announced a series of measures to support rapid offshore wind deployment, including designation of a new wind energy area and targeting the deployment of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030. New Wind Energy Area. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is announcing a... Read more →

EPC firm Black & Veatch will undertake feasibility studies central to the development of the world’s largest green hydrogen plant. When operational, Enegix Energy’s planned Base One facility in Ceará, Brazil will produce more than 600 million kilograms of green hydrogen annually. Base One is anticipated to take three to... Read more →

The Michelin Group recently signed a transport commitment with the French shipping line NEOLINE. NEOLINE’s decarbonized shipping service relies on wind energy as the main propulsion for its 136m cargo ships with 4200 m2 of sails. The transport commitment signed by Michelin concerns the transport of tires loaded in containers... Read more →

Representing a significant milestone in the largest job in its history, Jumbo has completed the transportation element of its Transport & Installation contract for the Yunlin offshore wind farm in Taiwan. Yunlin is a 640 MW project sited approximately 8km off the coast of Taiwan. The plant will feature 80... Read more →

Ørsted has taken final investment decision on the Danish demonstration project H2RES, which will use offshore wind energy to produce renewable hydrogen. (Earlier post.) The project is expected to produce its first hydrogen in late 2021 and will be Ørsted’s first renewable hydrogen project in operation. Avedøre Power Station where... Read more →

Siemens Gamesa and Siemens Energy are joining forces to develop an innovative solution that fully integrates an electrolyzer into an offshore wind turbine as a single synchronized system to produce green hydrogen directly. The companies intend to provide a full-scale offshore demonstration of the solution by 2025/2026. Together with Siemens... Read more →

Shearwater Energy Ltd., a United Kingdom-based hybrid clean energy company, is developing a wind-SMR (Small Modular Reactor) and hydrogen production hybrid energy project in North Wales. The project would provide 3 GWe of zero-carbon energy and is also expected to produce more than 3 million kilograms of green hydrogen per... Read more →

The OYSTER project consortium—ITM Power, Ørsted, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, and Element Energy—has been awarded €5 million in funding from The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH2-JU) under the European Commission to demonstrate and to investigate the feasibility and potential of combining an offshore wind turbine directly with an... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, announced its first newbuild order—the installation of a record five tilting Rotor Sails (earlier post) on board a large bulk carrier. The agreement marks the first installation of Norsepower’s innovative Rotor Sails on a bulk carrier, demonstrating the... Read more →

Porsche, Siemens Energy and partners are developing and implementing a pilot project—the “Haru Oni” project—in Chile that is expected to yield the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels (eFuels). Electrolyzers will use wind power to produce green hydrogen. In a second step, plans call for... Read more →

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has joined a wide-ranging corporate-academic partnership in a zero-emission initiative called the “Wind Hunter Project,” seeking new applications for hydrogen fuel and wind power. In addition to MOL, the participants include Ouchi Ocean Consultant, Inc.; the National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) of National Institute of... Read more →

bp and Ørsted signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to work together to develop a ‎project for industrial-scale production of green hydrogen via the electrolysis of water using ‎renewable power, producing zero emissions. In their proposed Lingen Green Hydrogen project, the two firms intend to build an initial 50 ‎megawatt... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) tied to a License and Cooperation agreement with UK-based Anemoi Marine Technologies for the future sales and servicing of Rotor Sail solutions to the shipping industry. Rotor Sails, also referred to as Flettner Rotors, are vertical cylinders which, when... Read more →

The National Science Foundation has awarded $39 million to a team of engineers and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) to build a first-of-its-kind testbed—DERConnect—to improve the understanding of how to integrate distributed energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, smart buildings and electric vehicle... Read more →

Cargill and BAR Technologies have embarked on a strategic project with naval architect Deltamarin to bring cutting edge wind propulsion technology to commercial shipping. The project will see BAR Technology’s WindWings—large, solid wing sails that measure up to 45 meters in height—fitted to the deck of bulk cargo ships to... Read more →

Hybrid systems of floating solar panels and hydropower plants may hold the technical potential to produce a significant portion of the electricity generated annually across the globe, according to an analysis by researchers at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A paper on the work is... Read more →

VoltH2 is preparing to build a green hydrogen plant in North Sea Port and has signed a cooperation agreement for its construction in Vlissingen. North Sea Port is the 60-kilometer-long cross-border port area that stretches from Vlissingen on the North Sea coast in the Netherlands, some 32 kilometers inland to... Read more →

The consortium behind the WESTKÜSTE100 project received the go-ahead and funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy that will make it Germany’s first hydrogen project included in the “real-world laboratories fostering the energy transition” program. The project is backed by an investment volume totalling €89 million... Read more →

Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, has agreed to a deal to help further decarbonize the UK’s power sector and deliver a new approach to managing the stability of the grid. Statkraft UK will install GE’s Rotating Stabilizer technology—i.e., giant flywheels—at its stability project at Keith in the northeast... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, and SEA-CARGO, leading logistics provider in the North Sea market, announced an agreement to install two of Norsepower’s largest Rotor Sails (earlier post) on board the SC Connector, a sidedoor Ro-Ro. The agreement also marks the installation of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced nearly $20 million in small business awards for Phase I Release 2 projects under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. More than 100 projects across 26 states will... Read more →

The UK has awarded £7.5 million for the next phase of Gigastack, a new renewable hydrogen project, as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Hydrogen Supply Competition. (Earlier post.) The Gigastack project, led by ITM Power, Ørsted, Phillips 66 Limited and Element Energy, will show... Read more →

Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy), Everfuel Europe A/S, NEL Hydrogen A/S, GreenHydrogen AS, DSV Panalpina A/S, Hydrogen Denmark and Energinet Elsystemansvar A/S have been awarded funding of DKK 34.6 million (US$5 million) for the H2RES project from EUDP’s second 2019 call for applications. The partners will build a 2MW electrolysis plant... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., together with project partners Maersk Tankers, Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Ltd., announced successful trial results of two Norsepower Rotor Sails onboard the Maersk Tankers product tanker, Maersk Pelican. The Rotor Sails are large, cylindrical mechanical sails that spin to create... Read more →

Seeking to slash CO2 emissions from its North American manufacturing operations, Honda has entered into long-term virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) for renewable wind and solar power that will cover more than 60% of the electricity that Honda uses in North America. These VPPAs will enable Honda to fully offset... Read more →

ITM Power announced funding from the UK Government for the Gigastack feasibility study with Ørsted and Element Energy. The project funding is for the feasibility phase leading, if successful, to the opportunity to bid for further funding for the implementation. Gigastack, funded by the BEIS Hydrogen Supply Competition, will demonstrate... Read more →

Ferry operator Scandlines signed an agreement with Norsepower Oy Ltd, leading clean technology and engineering company pioneering modern wind propulsion technology, to install Norsepower’s Rotor Sail Solution on board the M/V Copenhagen, a hybrid passenger ferry. Illustration of Scandlines hybrid ferry M/V Copenhagen with Rotor Sail. Operating between Rostock in... Read more →

The US. Department of Energy (DOE) selected four projects totaling up to $8 million to develop next-generation wind turbine drivetrain technologies that will facilitate the continued growth of wind turbines for both land-based tall wind and offshore applications. These projects will develop more efficient, smaller, and lighter-weight generators that will... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Cars has entered into a power purchase agreement with Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy, enabling Mercedes-Benz Cars to source electricity directly from wind farms in Germany, whose subsidies from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) expire after 2020. Because the agreement with Mercedes-Benz Cars will contribute to the... Read more →

During the Les Assises économie de la Mer maritime conference, Groupe Renault announced the signing of a three-year partnership with Nantes start-up NEOLINE to develop a more sustainable maritime transport service powered by wind, and to contribute to the environmental management of its logistics chain. Nearly 60% of the Group’s... Read more →

All large-scale energy systems have environmental impacts, and the ability to compare the impacts of renewable energy sources is an important step in planning a future without coal or gas power. Extracting energy from the wind causes climatic impacts that are small compared to current projections of 21st century warming,... Read more →