Wind power news and discussions

[Time_Traveller]

New report sets out a route to transform environmental consenting in UK offshore wind

36 minutes ago

A report published this week by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult lays out a new approach to environmental monitoring and consenting within the UK offshore wind sector.

With the UK Government looking to radically increasing offshore wind deployment, there is a clear need for changes to the environmental consenting process. It can currently take several years for appropriate environmental assessments of potential offshore wind farms to be carried out. This, in turn, leads to delays in consenting which present a potential barrier to the scale and pace of development needed for the UK to meet ambitious offshore wind targets and Net Zero ambitions.

Today's report calls for the adoption of a Regional Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (REMP) which would assess the environmental impacts of offshore wind projects at a regional level, rather than the current project by project approach.

The report sets out a number of key recommendations, including:

• Shifting from project-level to regional scale assessments

• Appointing an independent body to oversee and facilitate this process

• Removing the 'scoping phase' from the pre-application stage of the environmental consenting process

• Adopting an ecosystem-based approach to monitoring

• Embracing innovative monitoring technology, such as robotics and artificial intelligence to enable multiscale, concurrent, analysis

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-route-env ... shore.html

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

NYC is set to get its own personal $3 billion offshore wind farm
By Joe Salas
January 07, 2025

https://newatlas.com/energy/nyc-3-billi ... wind-farm/
New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. But what's the catch?

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is the metric that looks at the cost of electricity generated over the lifetime of the unit generating the power. LCEO takes into consideration everything from operational costs to construction, fuel (if applicable), maintenance, output, to the amount invested in the project.

Using LCOE, you can make an apples-to-apples comparison to the cost of all methods of electricity generation. For example, you could see that utility-scale solar and land-based wind power is $20-50/MWh while Natural gas is $45-80/MWh, et cetera.

As of 2023, the global LCOE of offshore wind farms is right around $75 per megawatt-hour. China spends around $65.7/MWh while the UK spends a bit less at roughly $50/MWh. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands all have an LCOE of about $84/MWh.

[wjfox]

Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban Is Coming, Congressman Says

January 14, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is drafting an executive order to “halt offshore wind turbine activities” along the East Coast, working with the office of Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the congressman said in a press release from his office Monday afternoon.

“This executive order is just the beginning,” Van Drew said in a statement. “We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home.”

https://heatmap.news/sparks/offshore-wind-ban-order

[weatheriscool]

Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban Is Coming, Congressman Says

January 14, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is drafting an executive order to “halt offshore wind turbine activities” along the East Coast, working with the office of Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the congressman said in a press release from his office Monday afternoon.

“This executive order is just the beginning,” Van Drew said in a statement. “We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home.”

https://heatmap.news/sparks/offshore-wind-ban-order

So fucking stupid not to use the resources of the wind over the ocean. This alone is enough to merit my vote for harris but it wasn't enough sadly.

[caltrek]

“The Biggest Challenge is Lacking Public Acceptance of Wind Turbines”
January 13, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) In brief

• In their overview study, the team of researchers led by Russell McKenna identified 14 key impact categories of wind energy.

• They provide possible solutions for the identified impacts and suggest research priorities. More than 400 studies were included in the analysis.

• The review paper, recently published in the journal Joule, provides guidance for future studies and policy decisions.

What is the study about, and what is its core message?
Russell McKenna: The study looks at the impacts of wind energy on the systems in which it is embedded; whether environmental and climate systems, socio-economic, techno-economic, or political-legal systems. We looked at the current state of research and tried to distinguish where the picture is relatively clear and where challenges (still) need to be overcome. We defined a total of 14 impacts to show where research priorities should lie to overcome some of these challenges.

What specific impacts are there? Can you give us some examples?
In the area of environment and climate, for example, the effects of wind farms on the local climate or the end-of-life scenario of rotor blades that cannot be recycled are considered. In the socio-economic systems, we have identified, among other factors, the local costs and benefits related to wind turbines. In the political-legal system, one example of a question is what happens if the supply chain is interrupted for geopolitical reasons.

Conclusion:

I want to emphasise that I am not in any way advocating for wind energy over any other technology. But I am a scientist conducting interdisciplinary research on energy technologies and systems. This research shows that these technologies all have advantages and disadvantages across a wide range of impact categories. Unfortunately, the discussion around the energy transition tends to focus on specific pros or cons and blend out the others. This and other studies have uncovered some of the “myths” around wind energy, by distinguishing them from real impacts and research challenges. It is crucial that all stakeholders, including the public, have the “full picture” in mind when trading off between diverse energy technologies.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1069820

[caltrek]

Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban Is Coming, Congressman Says

January 14, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is drafting an executive order to “halt offshore wind turbine activities” along the East Coast, working with the office of Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the congressman said in a press release from his office Monday afternoon.

“This executive order is just the beginning,” Van Drew said in a statement. “We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home.”

https://heatmap.news/sparks/offshore-wind-ban-order

Here is the actual signed Executive Order: https://public-inspection.federalregist ... 01966.pdf

[Vakanai]

Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban Is Coming, Congressman Says

January 14, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is drafting an executive order to “halt offshore wind turbine activities” along the East Coast, working with the office of Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the congressman said in a press release from his office Monday afternoon.

“This executive order is just the beginning,” Van Drew said in a statement. “We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home.”

https://heatmap.news/sparks/offshore-wind-ban-order

So fucking stupid not to use the resources of the wind over the ocean. This alone is enough to merit my vote for harris but it wasn't enough sadly.

It doesn't seem stupid if you're in the pockets of the oil lobbyists/industry like our "president" is...

[weatheriscool]

Europe plays catch-up to China with gargantuan wind turbine
https://newatlas.com/energy/siemens-gam ... bine-21mw/
When it comes to clean energy, offshore wind turbine farms are where we see some of the largest machines on the planet. There's an enormous new prototype coming up in Denmark, but as it turns out, it's not nearly big enough to hold a candle to what China's got cooking.

A new offshore turbine prototype from Siemens Gamesa, which was slated to be installed at the Østerild test site in Denmark, has now been confirmed by the Danish Energy Agency as a 21.5-MW affair.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Another turbine world record set – but not by China this time
By Joe Salas
April 07, 2025

https://newatlas.com/energy/siemens-gam ... 6-turbine/
In the ever-shifting winds of "who-did-it-bigger?" China has just taken a back seat to European wind company Siemens Gamesa. The firm recently planted a colossal, world-record-setting turbine in the Østerild test field in Denmark.

Though it wasn't by much, it still counts ... the Siemens SG DD-276 turbine stretches a ridiculous 905 ft (276 meters) from blade tip to blade tip. It's rated at a monstrous 21.5 MW capacity – which could generate enough electricity to power 70,000 Danish homes per year. Over its lifetime, it's expected to erase about 55,454 tons of CO2 emissions from power that would be otherwise created by fossil fuels.

This record-breaking machine came with a significant cost. The European Union backed Siemens Gamesa's Highly Innovative Prototype of the most Powerful Offshore Wind (HIPPOW, you read that right) initiative by throwing €30 million (about US$33 million) at Siemens Gamesa from its political union innovation fund to partially fund the giant turbine. There's no word yet as to the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for this beast, however, Denmark's offshore wind figures back in 2018 were around €46 per megawatt-hour (MWh).

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

State AGs sue to block Trump's halt of wind projects

Source: msn/Seeking Alpha

11h

A group of 17 Democrat state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday in an attempt to block President Trump's suspension of leasing and permitting new wind projects.

The lawsuit, led by New York state, accused Trump of exceeding his authority and said his administration violated federal administrative law by not offering any detailed justification for the suspension.

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring the indefinite pause unlawful and barring the agencies including the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing Trump's directive.

Trump announced the pause on January 20, the first day of his term, when he ordered a halt of offshore wind lease sales as well as the issuance of permits, leases and loans for onshore and offshore wind projects.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA1EdDKl

[wjfox]

Disappointing.

But hopefully, reversing the onshore ban (plus other renewable initiatives by Labour) could make up for this lost capacity.

-----

Blow to clean energy drive as major windfarm ditched

2 hours ago

In a significant blow to the government's clean energy ambitions the Danish energy company Orsted has cancelled plans for a huge windfarm off the coast of East Yorkshire.

The Hornsea 4 project would have become one of the biggest offshore wind farms in the world with a potential capacity of 2.4GW – enough to power more than a million homes.

Orsted said the project no longer made economic sense, despite signing a 15-year contract with the UK government guaranteeing to sell power at an agreed price.

The UK's offshore wind sector has faced soaring costs in recent years, as the government has acknowledged.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said it recognised "the effect that globally high inflation and supply chain constraints are having on industry across Europe."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce848g8l8vro



EPA/Orsted

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

Bill Gates-backed Airloom begins building its first power plant

June 25, 2025

[...]

Most wind turbines look like space-age pinwheels, their blades sweeping a large circle. Airloom takes that classic turbine concept and deconstructs it. The startup swaps three long blades for an arbitrary number of much shorter ones, attaching them to a cable that runs along an oval track that can be as long or short as desired. The total height of the system is about 60 feet, far shorter than a typical wind turbine.

To prove that it can generate as much power as those tall boys, Airloom broke ground on its pilot site northwest of Laramie, Wyoming, on Wednesday, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.

[...]

The pilot system will generate around 150 kilowatts of electricity, though its parts will be the same as those in a megawatt-scale installation. The only difference, he said, is that the track will be shorter in the pilot — about the size of a high school running track with 100-meter straights. A future 3-megawatt system will have 500-meter straights.

The space between the tracks can be used for solar panels or traditional farming — the blades are designed to allow farm equipment to easily pass beneath them.

Rickner said that Airloom is looking to deploy its first commercial-scale system in 2027 or 2028, a year or two later than he originally predicted in 2023. The first site could be a data center or a military base, he said.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/bill- ... wer-plant/



Credit: Airloom

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]