Hurtigruten, one of the leading sustainable brands in travel, has released its updated plans for its Sea Zero project, the zero-emission ship scheduled to debut in 2030, as it is in its research and development phase. With the help of large batteries, sails, and other innovative solutions, the ship will... Read more →

As part of their ongoing commitment to lower the carbon intensity of their operations, Chevron Shipping Company (Chevron), a subsidiary of Chevron USA and Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) announced an agreement to install Wind Challenger, a hard sail wind-assisted ship propulsion system developed by MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding together, to... Read more →

Deltamarin and BAR Technologies introduced a new co-developed wind-optimized hull design. The partnership highlights Deltamarin and BAR Technologies’ ongoing dedication to decarbonization and forward-thinking innovation. The Aframax/LRII design, named Aquilo, represents a significant leap in overall performance by integrating state-of-the-art hull design with WindWings technology. Recognizing uncovered potential in both... Read more →

BAR Technologies (BAR), a simulation-driven marine engineering consultancy, has entered into a partnership agreement with Nervion Naval Offshore (Nervion), a pioneer in floating offshore wind platforms, to manage and oversee the production of BAR Technologies’ WindWings wing sails (earlier post) in Europe. WindWings combines wind propulsion with route optimization. This... Read more →

The French shipowner, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs SAS (LDA) and the Finnish mechanical sail company, Norsepower Oy Ltd, announced that the Norsepower Rotor Sail technology will be installed on the new low-emission RoRo fleet to be chartered to Airbus. The Norsepower Rotor Sail is a modernized version of the old Flettner... Read more →

Oldendorff and Norsepower announced an agreement to use Norsepower Rotor Sails to reduce CO2 emissions on a modern bulk carrier. The vessel Dietrich Oldendorff (IMO 9860350) is to be outfitted with three 24m x 4m Norsepower Rotor Sails by mid-2024. It is contracted to be employed on a North Pacific... Read more →

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have found that in some parts of the country, compound energy droughts—i.e., when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, both at the sametime—can last nearly a week. The team published the findings in an open-access paper in the journal Renewable... Read more →

Airbus will renew the entire fleet of chartered vessels that transport aircraft subassemblies between production facilities in Europe and the United States with three modern, low-emission roll-on/roll-off vessels, supported by wind-assisted propulsion. Airbus has commissioned shipowner Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) to build, own and operate these new, highly efficient vessels... Read more →

Mitsubishi Corporation’s Pyxis Ocean, chartered by Cargill, is the first vessel to be retrofitted with two BAR Technologies’ WindWings—large wing sails measuring up to 37.5 meters in height that can be fitted to the deck of cargo ships to harness the power of wind. Produced by industrialization partner Yara Marine... Read more →

In partnership with bound4blue, a developer of wind-assisted propulsion technology, Odfjell. a leader in the global market for seaborne transportation and storage of chemicals and other specialty bulk liquids, will install the innovative eSAIL system on a chemical tanker, making it the first tanker vessel to harness this technology. Hudong... Read more →

bp has been awarded the rights to develop two offshore wind projects in the German tender round, marking its entry into offshore wind in continental Europe. The two North Sea sites, located 130km and 150km offshore in water depths of about 40m, have a total potential generating capacity of 4GW.... Read more →

IINO Kaiun Kaisha and Electric Power Development (J-POWER) have agreed to install the rotor sail (wind propulsion auxiliary device) manufactured by Norsepower on the dedicated coal carrier YODOHIME (completed in February 2016). This is the world’s first case of the Norsepower Rotor Sail (earlier post) on a dedicated coal carrier,... Read more →

China-based Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) reported successful testing of non-desalinated seawater electrolysis technology for hydrogen production powered by offshore wind. The floating hydrogen production platform Dongfu One is sited in an offshore wind farm in East China’s Fujian province. This project was a joint effort by DEC and a research... Read more →

Singapore—based Berge Bulk, one of the world’s leading independent dry bulk shipping companies, and ABS signed a joint project agreement to conduct a detailed feasibility study for the conversion of methanol-fueled propulsion system and aim to kickstart in Q1 2024. The two companies will collaborate on a broad range of... Read more →

Neste has signed an agreement to charter two new lower-emission product tankers from Terntank. The tankers will transport a wide variety of liquid cargoes including renewable raw materials such as waste and residue oils and fats to Neste’s refineries. At the refineries, products such as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation... Read more →

MAN Energy Solutions has won a fourth order to supply engines to Chinese shipbuilder, COSCO Heavy Industries, in Qidong for the construction of a second F-Class installation vessel used for the installation of offshore wind turbines and foundations. The previous three orders were for engines for two X-class and another... Read more →

The Department of the Interior announced results from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM’s) wind energy auction for five leases offshore California. (Earlier post.) The lease sale represents the third major offshore wind lease sale this year and the first ever for the Pacific region. The sale drew competitive... Read more →

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 →