Denmark’s Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard sought to reassure the offshore wind industry as he said on Monday that the government will start auctions for 9 GW of offshore wind this year.

Negotiations on the framework for these tenders are planned to begin next month, with the goal of having the capacity in operation by 2030. The turbines would supply green electricity to Denmark and Europe and could also power Danish power-to-X (PtX) projects.

In addition, the minister said the government is studying how to allow developers to build more wind turbines at the sites designated for tenders, which could increase the planned 9 GW of capacity.

“In addition to negotiating the 9 GW of offshore wind, we also need to decide in the spring how the energy island in the North Sea is to be offered to tender,” added Aagaard.

In parallel, the government is seeking a quick clarification on whether offshore wind projects under the open door scheme are in breach of EU regulations. The scheme was suspended earlier in February sparking anger from the industry. The minister admitted this creates uncertainty and said that there is a dialogue with the EU Commission at all levels.

Industry group Green Power Denmark welcomed the announcement that government tenders are getting underway but emphasised that a solution to the open-door scheme is urgently needed.

Green Power Denmark chief executive Kristian Jensen said that if the offshore wind turbines are to be spinning before 2030 and providing power for the country’s climate goals, the entire planned capacity should be offered at once and not one offshore wind farm at a time.

The planned 9 GW stems from the Climate Agreement on Green Electricity and Heat from June 2022.

Source: renewablesnow

New research published by RenewableUK’s (RUK) EnergyPulse data analysts shows that the UK’s pipeline of offshore wind projects at all stages of development now stands at almost 100GW.

In total it found 99.8GW across 130 projects – an increase of 14GW over the past 12 months.

This includes 13.7GW of fully operational capacity and a further 13.6GW under construction or with support secured for a route to market.
The global pipeline now stands at 1174GW across 1417 projects in 38 countries – an increase of 508GW over the past 12 months.

The UK’s pipeline is 8.5% of the global total – the first time that it has fallen below 10%, as new markets have emerged in Australasia and South America.

In terms of global operational capacity, which is now 60GW, China is in the lead with 47% (28.3GW), while the UK retains its position as the 2nd largest with 23% (13.7GW), RUK found.

90% of the new offshore wind capacity which went operational in 2022 was in two markets: China (3.8GW) and the UK (3.2GW).

China and the UK are expected to retain first and second place until at least 2030, according to the analysis.

RenewableUK’s chief executive Dan McGrail said: “It’s great to see the UK retaining a powerful position in offshore wind, second only to China.

“However, as our latest report shows, new markets are emerging fast in places like Australia and Brazil, so we can’t take our current status as a world leader for granted.

“The US and EU are offering massive financial incentives for developers to build renewable energy projects – while in the UK we’re being taxed more heavily than oil and gas companies.

“Unless we take bold action to attract billions in private investment, we risk being left behind in the years ahead – the money will simply go elsewhere and we’ll lose out on tens of thousands of jobs.”

Source: renews

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) today announced it has awarded 3 GW of offshore wind capacity across seven projects ranging in size from 165 MW to 600 MW.

The particular tender represents the first round of the island’s Zonal Development Phase 3 programme. The capacity allocated through it will be deployed off the coasts of Miaoli, Taichung, and Changhua in the period 2026-2027. The ministry said in a statement that the auction attracted participants from Denmark, the UK, Germany, the US and Canada, in addition to local developers. Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) announced its success in the tender earlier this month, noting that it was expecting the government to unveil the final size of its award at a later date.

Taiya Renewable Energy (TRE) said separately on Friday that it secured 440 MW of capacity. In August it was unveiled that TRE’s Huan-Yang offshore wind project of the exact same size was joined by the renewables business of France’s EDF ahead of their joint participation in the tender.TRE is also getting ready to take part in next year’s planned competition for floating wind capacity. The company is currently conducting environmental impact assessments for offshore wind farms in Penghu and Miaoli. Its total project pipeline reaches 4 GW.

• Russia’s war in Ukraine has upended oil and gas markets, but also boosted the prospects for renewable energy, including green hydrogen.

• Scottish offshore wind got a huge boost in 2022, and supplying green power to offshore oil and gas platforms offers a further one in 2023. But making these projects happen within a decade faces several obstacles.

• Government’s expectation of lower costs for offshore wind are causing alarm in the industry, as its borrowing costs rise, and it tries to make good on big commitments to sourcing from a supply chain in Scotland.

As the year turns, and the economy turns downwards, the revolution in energy picks up pace.

This time last year, oil and gas prices were rising on the back of economic recovery and rising tensions on Russia’s border with Ukraine.

The subsequent invasion, in February, turned energy markets upside down. The surge in fossil fuel prices, with subsequent declines but far greater volatility, changed the financial calculations on alternative sources of energy.

One of the biggest accelerations we’ve seen has been towards hydrogen energy. What seemed some way over the horizon just a year ago is now getting much closer.

Whether blue hydrogen, derived from gas, or the green variety, from using renewable power to split hydrogen from oxygen in water, it could be a big part of the energy mix in the north-east of Scotland. Where wind generation is far from conventional markets, on the Hebridean and northern islands for instance, hydrogen can be shipped out, to markets around the world.

The market for receiving hydrogen and using it in heavy transport and in industry is being fast prepared on continental Europe. The Scottish government talks up the prospects of exporting to Germany, which fits with the political agenda of integrating into European energy markets.

Floating turbines

Meantime, on the Moray Firth horizon, I’m watching shipping busy with supply of equipment to the massive windfarms being constructed off the east coast. Far bigger ones were included in plans that won competitive bidding for ScotWind – the next and much bigger wave of offshore wind.

Paying Crown Estate Scotland, and therefore its shareholder the Scottish government, £755m upfront for the right to develop designated sea areas was only the start. That kind of money shows developers are serious.

With a requirement that they install within a decade, they are busy planning. Next comes assessment of impact and securing of finance.

Following criticism that much of the current build-out of projects has been done by distant manufacturers, with too little benefit to Scottish industry, the ScotWind auction secured enormous commitments to local content.

That now requires Scottish industry to step up to the challenge and opportunity, requiring investment at scale. The challenge is with sequencing that investment with a flow of orders, and then managing a flow of orders to avoid boom and bust.

The order books could be even larger when you consider a parallel track of offshore wind developments to provide green energy to offshore oil and gas installations. They are very heavy users of fossil fuels in the process of extracting oil and gas, and decarbonising that process is a high priority for an industry keen to show willing in the great energy transition.

INTOG – Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas – is a big part of the answer. It is the innovation and bidding process for leasing rights through which offshore wind developers can power those platforms.

Earlier this month, Crown Estates Scotland announced a healthy level of interest: 19 bidders at the first stage, 10 of those for the smaller innovation part of the process. Expect to hear more in April, as this bidding round is being run at quite a pace.

This is likely to be even more about floating wind turbines than ScotWind. That is a technology at which Scotland – with Norwegian investment – has a lead. The first floating offshore wind farm, near Peterhead, has just passed its fifth anniversary. With 54% of capacity achieved, the five Hywind Scotland turbines have achieved the most efficient windfarm rating anywhere.

Strike price

Using that lead to generate jobs in manufacturing, even with a new technology, is continuing to prove difficult. To compete at scale with established fabrication yards requires big investment and, again, that is hard to justify until it’s clear that the orders will follow.

Putting further pressure on developers and the supply chain is the expectation of cost. Securing an area of seabed to develop is only the start. The finances stack up only when companies also secure Contracts for Difference from the UK government.

These are a form of subsidy, at which UK energy customers, represented by the UK government, guarantee to pay a minimum price per unit of energy. That reassures investors. And if operators make profits above that price, they give it back to the customer.

An important stage was reached earlier this month, when the UK government set out its “administrative strike prices”. These are the maximum levels of payment per unit that the industry can expect to receive for each technology – much more for tidal, biogas, energy from waste and hydro than for offshore wind. They are designed to drive down prices, when they are followed by industry bidding to offer energy at the lowest price. So far, they’ve been very successful at doing that. The price of offshore wind has plummeted.

Obstacles in the way

Now, the government expects it to fall further – so much further that they think offshore windfarms can produce energy at lower prices than onshore windfarms. That may reflect the cost of trying to develop an onshore windfarm when the UK government has put so many obstacles in the way of placing them in the English countryside.

The industry is alarmed that prices are being driven down so hard. The response to these administrative strike prices from Scottish Renewables was a warning that driving down costs is increasingly hard to achieve while also delivering on local content.

And if there is so little headroom, added to rising interest rates on corporate debt, some of the hoped-for projects may not stack up financially. There is, says chief executive Claire Mack, a “very real risk of stalling developments”.

Investments are already being stalled by the long delay in announcing where Scotland’s green free ports will be. After an impasse, the Scottish and UK governments agreed to work together on this last February. Bids had to be submitted by June.

A decision was taken in early September on which two bidders will get these low-tax, tariff-free carve-outs. There’s a high expectation that the Cromarty Firth and several sites in the Firth of Forth bid have won.

But mainly because of turmoil in Downing Street, there has been no point at which a ministerial statement could be co-ordinated. There have also been talks about the consolation prizes for those that didn’t win: Aberdeen, the Clyde and Orkney. Four months on, due to political delays, developers are ready to invest, but having to wait.

Source: bbc

A new Danish-based initiative called the Global Offshore Wind Alliance is seeking to drive a seven fold increase in installed global offshore wind capacity to 380GW – from 57GW – by 2030.

The new alliance between the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), and the government of Denmark aims to reach forecasts published by IRENA and the International Energy Agency (IEA) that predict 2,000GW of offshore wind capacity will be needed by the middle of the century.

“A massive increase in energy from offshore wind is key to fight climate change, phase out fossil fuels and strengthen energy security,” said Dan Jørgensen, the Danish minister for climate, energy, and utilities.

“We cannot do it alone but must work together across the public and private sectors as well as across countries and regions.”

Denmark was the home to the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991, and while the sector has grown by 300 per cent over the past five years, it is still well short of the growth track necessary.

The Alliance aims to spur annual development of 35GW on average across the remainder of the decade and on to a minimum of 70GW annually from 2030, culminating at the forecast 2,000GW by 2050.

“There couldn’t be a more crucial time for this Alliance,” said Ben Backwell, CEO of the Global Wind Energy Council. “Dependence on volatile fossil fuels has created energy security and cost of living crises while driving runaway global heating.

“With offshore wind, the world has an effective solution for adding large amounts of zero carbon power at affordable costs, while creating jobs and new investments in industry and infrastructure all around the world.”

Source: reneweconomy

Offshore wind is a small industry by comparison to onshore wind. Offshore farm developers are using larger offshore turbines to cut construction, infrastructure, and maintenance costs and lower the cost of offshore wind power.

While global players with large units increasingly struggle in a competitive landscape, Chinese players are thriving from domestic policy, raw materials supply, and supply chain strength.

As a new competitor with world class designs and ample capital at its disposal, Mingyang would help drive turbine sizes higher and offshore wind power prices lower.

The offshore wind turbine industry has traditionally split between China and the rest of the world, with different players in each. However, China’s Mingyang Smart Energy (Mingyang) appears poised to disrupt international, non-Chinese markets at a vulnerable time for established competitors. Mingyang’s entry into non-Chinese markets is welcome. As a new competitor with world class designs and ample capital at its disposal, Mingyang would help drive turbine sizes higher and offshore wind power prices lower. Mingyang’s entry into international markets would benefit a global offshore wind turbine industry dominated by three players.

Mingyang has established itself for its in-house research and development pushing the boundaries on larger capacity offshore wind turbines and blades. If Mingyang succeeds in its UK production facility investment, the global offshore wind industry could change significantly by the end of this decade.

Offshore wind is a small industry by comparison to onshore wind. The market profiles of the two are distinct, with onshore wind fragmented and offshore wind a near duopoly. Offshore wind enjoys substantial interest from countries, states, and municipalities as a clean power source, close to coastal population centers, able to keep the associated jobs and economics within their jurisdictions.

Offshore projects generally cost more than onshore farms due to construction and maintenance challenges that raise the cost of capital for a project. The solution has been to build larger turbine sizes which cut back the number of turbines. Floating wind would offer opportunities for even larger turbine sizes, but commercial deployment is unlikely until 2025. To build taller towers with longer blades, there have been advances in turbine technology designed to minimize the weight of the generator at the hub of the blades and the main shaft.

China became the world’s largest offshore wind industry in 2021. While China’s solar industry grew originally from European demand, the country’s wind industry grew out of domestic demand, raw materials advantages, and an import substitution effort by the government.Chinese offshore wind industry is expected to grow to nearly 120GW by 2030. Shanghai Electric (SEWind) is the country’s largest supplier of offshore turbines, but much of that is off of technology licenses from Siemens Gamesa.

Mingyang is China’s most formidable offshore turbine supplier. Since 2020, one of out every five turbines installed offshore was a Mingyang model. The company has focused on developing technologies necessary to make larger offshore turbines, and was the largest supplier of turbines larger than 5MW in the world in 2021.

The company runs a conservative balance sheet and has raised capital wisely. It has consistently maintained ample cash to fund R&D and business development. It earns most from its larger turbine sales as well, with an estimated USD1m margin on every 6MW+ model. Mingyang is now preparing to venture out and has recently raised equity in London that can be used to fund a turbine assembly and blade manufacturing facility in the UK.

This couldn’t come at a worse time for incumbents like Vestas, GE, and Siemens Gamesa. All three have seen a drastic fall of operating margins in the wake of higher commodity and transport prices. Siemens Gamesa and GE are also both on the cusp of potentially significantly disruptive reorganization efforts that would see Siemens Gamesa acquired while GE spins out its power unit as GE Vernova.

As Mingyang ventures abroad, it faces markets which are expected to add more capacity between 2025-30 than near term. Rather than defending its nearby East Asian neighbor markets, Mingyang has a chance to go big on offense in the UK and potentially other continental European markets. If Mingyang is successful in this UK expansion effort, it could be a game-changer for the company and the global offshore wind industry.

Source: ieefa

The shareholders of Mainstream Renewable Power (“Mainstream”) and Aker Offshore Wind have entered an agreement to combine the two companies to create a stronger renewable company with a 27 GW portfolio across solar, onshore wind and bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind projects.

Aker Horizons entered into an agreement with Aker Mainstream Renewables, a holding company co-owned by Aker Horizons, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Irish minority shareholders, to integrate Aker Offshore Wind into the Mainstream group. Aker Offshore Wind is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aker Horizons. On completion of the transaction, Aker Horizons’ ownership in Mainstream will be approximately 58.6 percent.

“The strong industrial logic for combining Aker Offshore Wind and Mainstream includes complementary footprint and capabilities, increased scale, and improved access to financing,” said Mary Quaney, Chief Executive Officer of Mainstream. “Combining Aker Offshore Wind’s strong technical and engineering capabilities, and early mover position in floating offshore wind, with Mainstream’s proven project development methodology, execution track record and global presence unlocks new opportunities worldwide.”

“The consolidation of Aker Horizons’ interests in renewable energy will accelerate Mainstream’s transformation into a global renewable energy major with leading floating and fixed offshore wind capabilities,” said Kristian Røkke, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Horizons and Chairman of Mainstream. “Accelerating the deployment of renewable energy including deep-water offshore wind is essential to reaching Net Zero in 2050. According to IEA estimates, annual additions of solar PV and wind power in excess of 1,000 gigawatts are required by 2030. Mainstream is Aker Horizons’ platform to drive the transition toward a clean energy sector, with ongoing projects on five continents.”

Tove Røskaft has been appointed Head of Offshore Wind at Mainstream, reporting to Quaney. During her 25-year career at the Aker group, Røskaft has held a range of executive leadership positions across offshore products and operations as well as corporate management, most recently as Chief Operating Officer of Aker Offshore Wind. She brings a deep knowledge of the offshore industry and extensive international leadership experience to the role.

The floating wind market is projected to grow rapidly in coming years, as several countries have launched ambitious targets to develop gigawatts of wind energy, with about 70-80 percent of offshore wind resources located at water depths only suitable for floating foundations.

Mainstream’s offshore business will continue to develop existing project opportunities for fixed and floating wind in markets such as Norway, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Ireland, the UK and the US, while exploring opportunities in new markets.

An Extraordinary General Meeting will be held in Aker Mainstream Renewables on 15 July, 2022 to approve the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in August 2022.

Source: mainstreamrp

OSLO : A new set of factors beyond bidding price is gaining traction in global tenders to award licences for offshore wind farms and will determine the winners and losers in a highly competitive industry, a new report by energy research firm Wood Mackenzie shows.

“The focus is now shifting to multiple criteria to determine tender and lease auction outcomes, and the criteria in individual markets will differ,” Chris Seiple, vice chairman for Energy Transition at Wood Mackenzie said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cost competitiveness will always remain a central element of winning in offshore wind, but this has reached its limits as project returns are dropping amid the entry of new market players, rising lease payments and lower subsidy payments.

Instead, competitors will also have to consider local content, or the value a project can bring to a local, regional or national economy, as well as systems integration, ecological mitigation and sustainability in future bids, necessitating a strategic shift and greater cooperation, according to Wood Mackenzie’s head of offshore wind research Soren Lassen.

“I think that it’s the companies that are able to set up the right partnerships when bidding that will benefit the most, but I don’t think it’s one company that is going to be better than everyone else across all tenders and lease auctions,” Lassen told Reuters.

There should be plenty of opportunities, with offshore wind poised to become one of the key technologies powering the decarbonisation of the global economy, Wood Mackenzie said.

By 2030, 24 countries will have large-scale offshore wind farms, up from nine at present, total installed capacity will rise to 330 gigawatt (GW) compared with 34 GW in 2020, and cumulative global capex spend in the offshore wind sector will hit $1 trillion by 2031, Wood Mackenzie forecast.

Source: Reuters

Vietnamese and Southeast Asian news outlets have reported that on February 26, the Government Office of Vietnam issued a communiqué from Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh stating that the country’s Eighth Power Plan (a.k.a. Power Development Master Plan VIII for 2021-2030) will undergo further adjustments.

Specifically, the government now wants to reduce excess PV generation so that there is room for offshore wind generation in the country’s energy mix.

Earlier this January, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that no new generation capacity based on solar PV and wind power is to be incorporated into the country’s grid system during this year due to the existing infrastructure bottleneck. The latest communiqué from Deputy Prime Minister reflects this present dilemma. He said that the development of the PV generation capacity under the Eighth Power Plan and the 2045 installation target are “too high”.

According to a proposal put forth by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in late February, the planned domestic generation capacity between now and 2030 is set at 146,000MW, which is a reduction of 9,000MW from the original plan released last November. Looking ahead to 2045, the Ministry forecasts that the planned domestic generation capacity will total 352,000MW. Furthermore, the Ministry expects solar PV to comprise around 25% of the domestic generation capacity in the 2031-2045 period.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the share of solar PV in the country’s energy mix should be lowered while the share of offshore wind energy should be raised. Hence, curbing PV generation appears to be necessary in order to free up the grid capacity for electricity from offshore wind turbines. The Eighth Power Plan currently aims to install 4GW of offshore wind generation capacity by 2030.

According to government-owned power company Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Vietnam was one of the top 10 countries by PV generation capacity in 2021. Its PV generation capacity came to 16,504MW that year, making up 2.3% of the global total.

Regarding the formulation of the Eighth Power Plan, four rounds of revisions have been made since the submission of its first draft in March last year. Also, the implementation of the plan has been postponed to the second quarter of this year.

Source : energytrend

Following successful auctions in UK, EnBW exits U.S. market and hands over activities to TotalEnergies

Karlsruhe. Following successful auctions in the UK and the announcement of bold offshore wind build-out targets in Germany, EnBW will focus their future offshore wind activities on the European market. EnBW North America and their assets will be acquired by partner TotalEnergies. In the upcoming months EnBW will continue to support TotalEnergies’ U.S. activities.

EnBW currently is developing their 900MW North Sea wind farm ‘He Dreiht’. In 2021 and 2022 EnBW was successful in auctions in England/Wales and Scotland where EnBW will develop three offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of approximately six gigawatts. Furthermore, the newly elected German government just recently announced ambitious build-out targets – an additional 10GW shall be installed in EnBW’s home market Germany by 2030.

After establishing their U.S. market presence, EnBW started to develop offshore wind opportunities in both the East and West coasts of the country. After bidding in the 2018 Massachusetts offshore wind land lease auction, EnBW’s North America team prepared for the New York Bight land lease auction together with partner Total Energies. With this win in the auction, EnBW will sell their U.S. offshore wind activities to partner TotalEnergies and push forward their European asset.

“We are pleased to have been able to contribute our offshore expertise and experience to this joint success,” said Michael Class, Senior Vice President Power Generation / Portfolio Development. “At the same time, now is also the right time for us to realign our offshore activities with focus on the European market. We would like to thank our partner TotalEnergies for the excellent cooperation and congratulate them on this auction success. We will continue to support our partner with our expertise and look forward to further future collaborations.”

About EnBW

EnBW is one of the largest energy supply companies in Germany and Europe, with a workforce of some 24,000 employees. It supplies electricity, gas, water together with infrastructure and energy-related products and services to around 5.5 million customers. Installed renewable energy capacity will account for 50 percent of EnBW’s generating portfolio by the end of 2025. This is already having a noticeable impact in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, which EnBW plans to halve by 2030. EnBW aims to attain climate neutrality by 2035.

Further expanding renewables in Germany and selected foreign markets is a central element of EnBW’s growth strategy. Since the beginning of its corporate transformation in 2013, EnBW has invested economically successful nearly €5 billion in its Renewable Energies segment. Around another €4 billion is to be invested by 2025, primarily in further expanding wind and solar energy, meaning that a good 50% of EnBW’s generation portfolio will consist of renewables.

EnBW was among the pioneers in offshore wind power with its Baltic 1 offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea. In January 2020, the company took into operation Germany’s largest offshore wind power project, EnBW Hohe See and Albatros, with a combined capacity of 609 megawatts. The He Dreiht offshore wind farm with a capacity of 900 megawatts will be connected to the grid in 2025. He Dreiht will operate without any state subsidies. In January 2022, bp and EnBW secured a lease option off the east coast of Scotland to develop a 2.9 GW offshore wind farm. The auction win in Scotland is already the second joint success for EnBW and bp. In 2021 – likewise in January – the partners were awarded lease areas for 3 GW in the Irish Sea. The Morgan and Mona projects being developed there will have a total capacity of up to 3 GW.

Energy giant Shell has signed a supply contract with thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers for the Hydrogen Holland I large-scale project in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Under the contract, thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers will engineer, procure and fabricate a 200 MW electrolysis plant based on their large-scale 20 MW alkaline water electrolysis module.

The first construction work for the electrolysers will likely begin in Spring 2022. Shell’s final investment decision to build the Holland Hydrogen I is expected in 2022, after which the intended start of production will be in 2024.

”We are looking forward to support building a major hydrogen hub in central Europe and to contribute to Europe’s transition to green energy,” said Dr. Christoph Noeres, Head of Green Hydrogen at thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers.

”With our large-scale standard module size, we will further strengthen Shell’s hydrogen strategy. Our partnership perfectly combines our engineering excellence with Shell’s competence of a large global energy player.”

Powered by Hollandse Kust Noord

The center of the Hydrogen Holland I hydrogen project facility will be a hall, covering two hectares, the size of three football fields.

Green hydrogen will be produced for industry and the transport sector, with electricity coming from the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm by means of guarantees of origin.

The hydrogen can be transported through a pipeline with a length of about 40 kilometres that will run from the plant to Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam.

The 759 MW Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm will feature 69 Siemens Gamesa 11 MW turbines scheduled to be fully operational in 2023.

The subsidy-free wind farm is being developed by the CrossWind consortium of Shell and Eneco. The wind farm is located 18.5 kilometres off the west coast of the Netherlands near the town of Egmond aan Zee.

Source: offshorewind

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Jan. 5 called for New York to double its energy storage target to at least 6 GW by 2030 to help integrate significant new volumes of variable renewable energy resources.

The ambitious storage commitment was among a host of clean energy initiatives that Hochul announced in a State of the State address. Other proposals include a $1 billion investment to support electric vehicle adoption and charging; $500 million to develop offshore wind supply chains and port infrastructure aimed at stimulating 2,000 new jobs; and creating a green hydrogen hub to compete for nearly $10 billion in federal funding.

“As we build out our wind-energy capacity, and continue our transition to clean energy, our reliance on fossil fuels must be phased out,” Hochul said.

The initiatives are aligned with a state law that seeks to reach 70% renewable electricity by 2030, 100% zero-emissions electricity by 2040 and a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across New York’s economy by 2050.

Hochul also intends to establish a world-class battery research and manufacturing center at Binghamton University led by M. Stanley Whittingham, a Nobel laureate.

First steps

William Acker, executive director of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium, applauded the proposals and said the industry-led group would work with Hochul, Legislature, state agencies and energy storage companies to achieve the governor’s outlined goals.

As a first step toward the energy storage deployment target of at least 6 GW, Hochul said she will direct the Department of Public Service and the New York State Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, to update the state’s energy storage road map.

The updated road map will identify research and development needs to accelerate technology innovation, particularly for long-duration energy storage, according to a 237-page document detailing the governor’s proposals. “It will also outline ways to incentivize the private market to produce sufficient storage capacity to meet New York’s ambitious clean energy targets,” the document said.

Despite New York’s strong energy storage targets, less than 2,000 MW of new battery resources currently are planned in the state, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Hochul said she will direct NYSERDA, the New York Power Authority and Empire State Development to make New York state a green hydrogen hub. The state will develop a set of proposals to secure one of four federally funded regional hydrogen projects authorized in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“[The overall proposal] will demonstrate a minimum of $1 billion in private and public non-federal funding,” the state-of-the-state document said.

Source: spglobal

New York state will spend $500 million building up ports and manufacturing infrastructure for offshore wind farms in a bid to become home base for the nascent industry…Read More…

Source : bloombergquint

The Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of Denmark on 06.02.2008 for cooperation in New and Renewable Energy (NRE) between Danish and Indian entities with the aim of developing NRE technologies.

Under the framework of above MoU, a strategic sector cooperation agreement in the field of renewable energy with a focus on offshore wind energy was signed on 06.03.2019 between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and The Ministry for Energy, Utilities and Climate, The Kingdom of Denmark. The main objectives of the cooperation agreement are as follows;

• Technical capacity building for management of off-shore wind projects.
• Measures to develop and sustain a highly efficient wind industry, onshore as well as offshore.
• Measures to ensure high quality of wind turbines, components, and certification requirements.
• Forecasting and scheduling of offshore wind.
• Any other area as may be mutually agreed upon.

This information was given by Shri R K Singh , Union Minister of New & Renewable Energy and Power, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

The Australian Government has taken the first step towards the development of a new offshore renewable energy industry through the introduction of the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021.

This Bill provides a regulatory framework to support the construction, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of electricity transmission and renewable energy infrastructure in the Commonwealth offshore area.

This framework introduces a range of reforms, including powers for the Commonwealth Government to declare Commonwealth offshore areas to be used for offshore energy infrastructure, a new licencing system for infrastructure proponents, the establishment of a Registrar and the creation of a statutory Regulator to oversee the operations of the framework and an offshore electricity infrastructure levy.

Proponents will be able to apply for a range of licences include feasibility licences, commercial licences, research and demonstration licences and transmission and infrastructure licences. This system will allow proponents to apply for specific licences for their activities in a staged approach, from feasibility testing to site development and operation of renewable energy and transmission facilities, or for other purposes altogether, such as conducting research into technology, systems, processes, exploitation and exploration of energy technology.

Offshore electricity infrastructure has already been embraced across the world in forms such as wave energy, and offshore wind, solar, battery and transmission technology. If enacted, this legislation will afford opportunities for innovative projects and research in the renewables and transmission space, large-scale electricity generation and a new array of site locations for energy projects.

In July 2021, Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) (administered by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources) confirmed that the industry is rapidly scaling up across the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific as costs have fallen and the size of turbines and projects has increased dramatically.

In Australia, there are currently more than 10 offshore wind projects proposed with a combined capacity of over 25 GW. The CRC report indicated that Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia all have offshore wind resources in shallow waters (<60m) that are near to the coast (<50km) suited to fixed foundation turbines. However, all states also have large resources in deeper waters (>60m depth), suited to floating technologies, and for New South Wales the offshore wind resource is almost entirely in deeper waters.

Similar to the onshore renewable energy zones that have been established in recent years, significant planning will be required to establish viable locations for the development of offshore electricity infrastructure to ensure effective transmission, storage and grid connection whilst also minimising potential conflicts in the use of the marine domain (i.e. shipping corridors).

While the proposed legislative framework will introduce a new approval pathway, projects will still be required to complete a thorough environmental approval process including Commonwealth environmental assessment and approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) for actions likely to have a significant impact on Commonwealth marine areas, listed threatened species and communities and listed migratory species.

In addition, State-level planning approval and relevant environmental approvals will be required for those aspects of the project in State coastal waters or on State land. McCullough Robertson Lawyers has extensive experience in the complex and specialised approval processes across the energy sector as well as offshore development activities. The Bill has now been referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee with a report due on 14 October 2021.

Source: mondaq

Eagerly awaited strategy also looks to twin-track approach for green and blue H2.

The UK government finally launched its long-awaited hydrogen strategy on Tuesday, setting out proposals to build the fledgling energy sector using a contracts for difference (CfD) support mechanism similar to the one used to kick-start the nation’s successful offshore wind sector.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration wants to build 5GW of hydrogen capacity by 2030 to be used in industry, transport and heating, helping the UK to become a carbon neutral economy by 2050.

The new strategy — published slightly later than expected — outlines a “twin-track” approach to support both zero-carbon green hydrogen produced by splitting water molecules using renewable energy, and blue hydrogen production from natural gas with carbon capture and storage in a process that is not totally carbon free.

As part of the strategy launch, the government has also kicked off a public consultation on the business model that will underpin the sector for the clean-burning gas.

The government is proposing using a replica of the CfD scheme that has helped build-out capacity of offshore wind in the UK to more than 10GW while also lowering its cost over the past decade by offering guaranteed ‘strike prices’ for power produced.

The government said the publication of the document, three months ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, sent out a “strong signal globally” that the UK is to committed to building a thriving hydrogen economy that could deliver hundreds of thousands of green jobs.

Business & energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “This home-grown clean energy source has the potential to transform the way we power our lives and will be essential to tackling climate change and reaching net zero.

“With the potential to provide a third of the UK’s energy in the future, our strategy positions the UK as first in the global race to ramp up hydrogen technology and seize the thousands of jobs and private investment that come with it.”

In the document, the government also committed to collaborating with industry to develop standards to give certainty to producers and users that the hydrogen the UK produces is consistent with net zero.

It will also undertake a review to support the development transport and storage infrastructure and will assess the safety, technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of mixing hydrogen into the existing gas supply.

A hydrogen sector development action plan will be launched in early 2022 setting out how the government will support companies to secure supply chain opportunities and jobs in hydrogen.

The government is also consulting on the design of the £240m ($332m) Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, which aims to support the commercial deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production plants across the UK.

Director of policy at the Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology (REA) Frank Gordon said: “This strategy provides welcome clarity. The REA urged the government to provide certainty for investors, deliver a technology neutral approach and highlight the range of low carbon pathways.

“The Hydrogen Strategy starts to answer those calls and offers a positive vision for the role of hydrogen in meeting the UK’s net zero ambitions.

“Backed up by the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, a revenue support scheme for hydrogen production and a standard methodology to define when hydrogen is low-carbon, we believe this Strategy can provide a stimulus for British-based hydrogen production over the coming years.”

Some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell, Eni and Equinor, are formulating plans for blue hydrogen schemes in the UK.

Backers of that technology coupled with carbon capture and storage technology say it is a cost-effective stepping-stone towards cuttings emissions from hard-to-decarbonise clusters of heavy industry.

However, critics say it will extend dependency on coal and natural gas, while a study last week slated its environmental credentials as in some cases worse than natural gas or even coal.

Source: rechargenews

Japan is considering laying undersea cables to link offshore wind power generation with demand centers as it seeks to expand renewable energy.

An expert panel from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is scheduled to hold its first meeting on the plan Monday, according to a document on its website. The project could cost as much as 1 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) but is cheaper than running cables over land, Nikkei reported over the weekend.

Shares of equipment-related companies and electricity utilities rose with heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. and Electric Power Development Co. advancing 2.7% and 2%, respectively. The benchmark Topix index increased 0.9%.

Japan is seeking to more than quadruple offshore wind capacity to as much as 45 gigawatts in 2040 from 10 gigawatts in 2030. Reaching that goal will require a vast expansion of a sector that has a current capacity of about 20 megawatts and Japan will need to attract both domestic and overseas investment.

About 80% of that offshore capacity is expected to be built in Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kyushu regions, which will require a way to transport the power to the major demand centers in the Tokyo and Kansai areas.

Offshore wind, along with hydrogen and ammonia, are seen as key sources of energy Japan will use to achieve its 2050 decarbonization target, as the densely populated nation has limited onshore space for solar and wind development.

Source: Bloomberg LP

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) released this year’s feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme for renewables on January 7. The new scheme shows that both the rates for solar PV and offshore wind have been lowered, with the latter dropping by as much as 8.6%.

Although the MOEA has reduced the rate for solar PV, it has provided markups (incentives) in order to encourage diversification in the development of the domestic solar industry. At the same time, some adjustments have been made to accommodate solar project developers with respect to their schedules and the actual conditions that they are facing when filing FIT applications. Hence, the MOEA has created different project or markup categories in the solar PV section of the FIT scheme. Examples include Green Roofs (rooftop solar projects), regional projects, projects on outlying islands, and projects in aboriginal communities. “Fishery-plus-solar” and “farming-plus-solar” are the new categories that have been added this year. Markups have also been provided for projects that are located in parking lots of service centers along highways.

As in the previous year, the rate for solar PV will step down slightly at the midpoint of this year (i.e., the two-phase implementation of the annual FIT scheme). The rate, of course, varies according to project category and capacity size. In the first half of 2021, the rate will reside in the range of NT$3.79-5.67 (per kWh). In the second half, the rate will fall to NT$3.72-5.62. It should be pointed out that the rate for solar PV was higher in the earlier draft of the 2021 FIT scheme.

Regarding rate calculation, the MOEA has stated that Green Roofs, regional projects, and projects on outlying islands have their own markups and calculation formulas. Besides these, the MOEA has also modified the scheme this year so that other markups are treated as an addition to the fixed rate.

As for offshore wind, the 20-year fixed rate has been lowered to NT$4.65 from NT$5.09 last year. The decline therefore has reached as much as 8.6%. The tiered rate, which last year was NT$5.80 for the first decade and NT$3.82 for the second decade, has also been lowered to NT$5.30 and NT$3.52 respectively. The offshore wind section of this year’s FIT scheme is the same in both the draft version and the official (released) version. No changes were made during the drafting process.

Looking at other renewables, the hydropower section has been divided into two categories this year. The division is based on capacity size. The rate for hydropower generation units that are under 2MW is NT$3.1683, whereas the rate for counterparts that are 2MW or larger is the same as last year at NT$2.8599. Likewise, the rate for geothermal power is the same as last year at NT$5.1956. To promote the development of the domestic biomass industry, the MOEA has raised the rate to NT$2.6884 for biomass generation that involves a non-anaerobic digestion process. The rate stays constant at NT$5.1176 for biomass generation that involves an anaerobic digestion process.

According to the supplementary notes that come with this year’s FIT scheme, the effective period has been prolonged by two months for the 2019 and 2020 rates applied to solar projects that were originally scheduled for completion in either one of those two years. This extension is attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the installation of PV systems. However, the solar projects that are under 10MW and were supposed to be completed in 2019 will not receive this benefit. Additionally, certain large-scale solar projects have a six-month extension in their eligibility for the 2019 and 2020 rates because developers of these projects need time to adapt to some recent regulatory changes (such as the new rules on runoffs and outflow control, the latest amendments to the Coastal Zone Management Act, etc.).

Source : energytrend

From a solar resurgence to hydrogen breakthroughs, Europe’s energy transition had a landmark year, just not the one it might have expected.

With 2030 climate targets up for renewal, a new set of European commissioners in place, and the post-Brexit relationship to negotiate, this year was always going to be a big one for Europe’s energy transition. Here’s an outline of the most important trends of 2020, starting with the emergence of a green hope from the disaster of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Green Deal turned into a green recovery

The prospect of a European Green Deal emerged in the manifesto of sorts presented by the then European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen. The former German defense minister, a longstanding presence in Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet, was nominated without ever campaigning. With no agreement among European leaders on the candidates that did step forward, von der Leyen’s vision for Europe came a year after the campaigning was over. The Green Deal had top billing.

Many of its ideas have endured. On December 12, von der Leyen presented the Green Deal to a meeting of the European Council leaders. It included the Just Transition Mechanism, a fund designed to drive change for economies and communities more reliant on carbon-intensive sectors. More ambitious climate targets for 2030 were also included, with a 55 percent emissions reduction target for 2030, up from 40 percent, as well as a 2050 net-zero target.

Then 2020 did what 2020 has been wont to do and messed things up. Major economies pivoted into pandemic management. Economic parachute cords were pulled for the near term, and huge stimulus packages were wrangled over for the longer term.

The €1.8 trillion ($2.2 trillion) budget for 2021-2027 includes a €750 billion ($919 billion) coronavirus recovery fund. In total, €550 billion ($674 billion) will be used for “green” projects, with the rest of the budget committed to a “do no harm” climate principle.

Back in March, the Czech Republic’s prime minister suggested that the impacts of COVID-19 should lead the EU to abandon the Green Deal altogether. Now climate action and the energy transition are considered symbiotic partners for the coronavirus recovery. Expect near-term job creators like battery manufacturing and offshore wind to continue receiving heavy attention in 2021.

The oil majors joined the energy transition

By the end of 2020, all of Europe’s oil majors had made long-term climate commitments. There are a few different metrics you can track here.

In terms of investments, BP is aiming for $5 billion a year of low-carbon investment by 2030. Equinor expects to invest $11.6 billion just in renewables by 2030. Shell has been loath to put a figure on its plans, but in addition to venturing efforts, the company will co-develop the ~€1.4 billion ($1.71 billion) Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm and has started early work on a series of major hydrogen projects. These are big numbers, but they don’t by any means eclipse the investments being made by major multinational utilities like Iberdrola. The Spanish utility has committed to increasing its annual renewable investment to $11.8 billion.

In terms of how active the majors might be in the renewables sector, BP has the most ambitious target. Its 50 GW target for 2030 is the same as French utility giant EDF.

#BP provides a blueprint for a net-zero carbon IEC. BP’s target of 50 GW by 2030 is impressive. Spend in clean energies will increase from $0.5 to $5 billion pa. Its ambitious net-zero carbon targets needed a strategy that can deliver. BP leaves its Euro Major peers way behind. pic.twitter.com/SSwfgTZh5x

— Valentina Kretzschmar (@WMVKretzschmar) August 4, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic crushed oil demand immediately after the price per barrel had already slumped, the industry looked to slash costs. Those cost-cutting processes largely left low-carbon endeavors untouched. Indeed, towards the end of 2020, investments were only accelerating, with Equinor buying solar developer Scatec and partnering with BP on U.S. offshore wind and Eni buying a 480-megawatt share of the 3.6-gigawatt Dogger Bank offshore wind project in the U.K.

The oil majors are not about to out-muscle the utilities and make a clean sweep in the offshore wind sector. It may prove, however, that by merely rowing in the same direction as the rest of the energy sector, from EVs to hydrogen to flexible grids, they will provide a greater contribution.

Green hydrogen went from possibility to inevitability

It’s too expensive. There’s no electrolyzer scale. There’s not enough demand. It’s difficult to store because it not energy-dense. The renewable capacity required would overwhelm the grid.

These are just some of the objections to green hydrogen that have been partly resolved during 2020.

Green hydrogen is in its early days; think solar power circa 2007. With only a little imagination, the early-stage businesses, pilot projects and policy maneuverings underway at present could surely deliver comparable growth for green hydrogen.

Let’s blast through those objections.

Major industrial and chemical firms like Siemens, Ineos and thyssenkrupp have backed green hydrogen this year. Electrolyzer specialists ITM power and Nel are progressing with gigafactory development, with the latter appearing to have the favor of Iberdrola. Shell, Amazon and Breakthrough Energy Partners backed a hydrogen aviation drivechain specialist that could support 100-seater aircraft by 2027. Heavy truck manufacturers committed to hydrogen and advanced the date for their self-imposed diesel phaseout by a decade. A Scottish town is developing the H100 project, a closed-loop green hydrogen heating network that will warm 300 homes by the end of 2022.

Projects in the U.K. and Germany are eyeing salt caverns and other natural storage options for hydrogen. Meanwhile, both countries are also assessing the possibility of islanded green hydrogen manufacturing to keep the power off the grids by co-locating offshore wind turbines and electrolyzers then pumping the hydrogen back to shore.

There are no doubt many other problems yet to solve, such as finding an odorant that makes hydrogen smell bad without trashing infrastructure along the way. SGN, the firm behind H100, found the best solution for the gas grid is also the worst for degrading fuel cells.

Offshore wind is only getting started

Offshore wind’s importance in Europe has been solidified through 2020. Some major 2030 deployment targets at the EU level (60 gigawatts), as well as in the U.K. (40 gigawatts) and Germany (20 GW), were stretched. The EU and U.K. are now aiming for 100 GW by 2030.

It’s a goal that analysts think is achievable as long as issues around permitting and grid planning can be resolved. Martin Gerhardt, head of offshore product portfolios at Siemens Gamesa, the leading offshore turbine manufacturer, told GTM the company’s manufacturing footprint was sufficient to make its contribution to those 2030 targets.

With the EU eyeing 300 GW by 2050, Gerhardt said changes to that production makeup could be considered in 2030. Toward the end of 2021, the company’s new 20-hectare facility in the French port city of Le Havre will open. It will produce all the main components of an offshore wind turbine in the same location.

Floating offshore wind promises more going forward. The world’s largest such project, the 88 MW Hywind Tampen, got the nod of approval from Norway’s government.

Any nervousness about the separation of the EU from the U.K., the world’s largest offshore wind market, would appear to be at least partially settled. The trade deal between the bloc includes proposals for deep collaboration between the pair, including potential joint projects.

Solar power became world’s cheapest electricity…ever

This is not so much a story isolated to 2020, but certainly, this was the year solar’s coronation as the world’s cheapest power source took place.

The International Energy Agency, which has been highly conservative on solar power for years, declared it as the world’s lowest-cost source of electricity ever, which means lower than coal ever reached. That claim is of course geography-dependent, but still an important marker for technology.

In Europe, Spain’s solar renaissance continued. New tenders announced at the end of 2020 could provide yet more certainty to the market.

There are several other markets offering further room for growth for solar in Europe. Poland joined Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and France in the top five end markets for 2020.

Trade body SolarPower Europe estimates that 18.2 GW were installed across the EU in 2020. Its low and high estimates for 2021 are 14.9 GW and 28.8 GW. The medium scenario projects growth in excess of 20 percent for the next two years.

Source: greentechmedia

Solar and onshore wind get 1 gigawatt each while floating offshore wind seeks foothold.

Spain has launched a tender for up to 3.18 gigawatts of renewable generation in its first auction under a pay-as-bid model introduced earlier this year.

The model, similar to the contracts-for-difference program used in the U.K., aims to correct problems with auctions in 2016 and 2017. Those earlier auctions encouraged prices so low that developers essentially had to turn to merchant markets or bilateral power-purchase agreements to make a profit, said Madrid-based Brian Gaylord, principal analyst for Latin America and Southern Europe at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

The 2016 and 2017 auctions followed years of minimal capacity additions caused by an unfavorable regulatory environment, and they came with the threat of price revisions every three years. That led some bidders to use the auctions as a way of securing capacity in order to sell energy on the open market.

“You can’t have these auctions where there’s nothing being given of value,” Gaylord said in an interview. The auction review process “needed to be done.”

Although entrants to the 2020 auction, which is due to close on Jan. 26, can, in theory, submit zero-subsidy bids, there is little incentive to do so because they will be bound to sell all their energy at their bidding price, with small adjustments related to wholesale market pricing.

The new rules have garnered a mixed reaction from renewable energy actors. Perhaps wary of the hostility that the sector has seen from past Spanish administrations, renewable energy associations have been broadly supportive of the auction scheme, said Gaylord.

The best part of the new regulatory framework is that it provides 12-year offtake agreements for solar and wind and underpins plans to procure 5 GW of renewable power a year over the next decade. “The industry has been asking for stability and visibility,” he said.

Concerns over the details of the auction framework

However, some observers have voiced concern over the details of the new rules. One worry raised by Javier Colón Cortegoso, manager of corporate power reseller Neuro Energía, is that auction winners will get paid for energy sold rather than energy produced.

This could lead to power producers trying to distort the market by not selling until prices are high or claiming that energy from cheap forms of production comes from more expensive plants.

Under the current scheme, “prices will come down initially,” Colón Cortegoso said in an email, “but with a better auction model, they could come down more by avoiding actions that could tend to manipulate the market and reduce uncertainty for retailers that serve final consumers.”

It is unclear whether these worries about the auction design are widespread or well founded. “We need auctions because offtakers are losing their appetite for Spanish [power-purchase agreements],” said one energy insider who asked not to be named. “Another [question] is whether the design is optimal.”

On the other hand, Jose María González Moya, managing director of the Spanish renewable energy association APPA, said in an interview that while the auction system had been criticized, “We don’t think it’s bad. It’s what we’ve been asking for all along.”

Solarpack, a PV developer with 295 megawatts of capacity in Spain, also welcomes the new auction framework.

“We think the publication of this regulation is very positive,” a company representative said in a statement to GTM. “Our view is that this mechanism assures the most competitive cost of renewable generation and at the same time provides the long-term visibility of revenue that [these kinds] of projects need. It allows renewables to develop with an adequate risk profile.”

A possible opening for floating offshore wind

This month’s tender includes a 1 GW allowance each for PV and onshore wind, with the remainder going to other technologies including concentrated solar power, hydro and biomass.

The availability of this extra gigawatt of capacity has led Spain’s wind sector to push for the establishment of a floating offshore industry.

A study by European innovation body EIT InnoEnergy and consulting firm Enzen claims that the Iberian Peninsula, whose waters are too deep to accommodate fixed-bottom offshore wind, could install up to 22 GW of capacity on floating platforms by 2050, creating between 43,669 and 77,825 jobs.

“We have to create a mechanism, based on best practice, to develop investment in offshore wind in Spain in an orderly way,” said Juan Virgilio Márquez López, CEO of the wind business association AEE, in a webinar. “And for that we need auctions. Other countries have a clear view of this.”

Source: greentechmedia

New York utility Con Edison has signed its biggest energy storage contract to date, a 100-megawatt/400-megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery project that will help balance a grid facing rising levels of offshore wind and other renewable power in the years to come.

Under the contract announced Wednesday, developer 174 Power Global will build the battery system, and Con Edison will bid its power into New York wholesale energy markets for seven years after it starts operations in 2022. After that, 174 Power will take over the battery system’s operations and wholesale market value.

The project being built at a former power plant site in Astoria, Queens is the first bulk energy storage system to be contracted under Con Edison’s request for proposals process launched last year. It’s the biggest utility-contracted battery in the state thus far, though independent power producer LS Power is planning to build at least 300 MW/1,200 MWh of batteries at its Ravenswood power plant in Queens.

New York will need a lot more energy storage to meet its goal of reaching 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and a carbon-free electricity system by 2040. The state has set targets of 1,500 MW of storage by 2025 and 3,000 MW by 2030, and it has created a set of policies including incentives for storage developers and procurement requirements for its biggest utilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although a Con Edison spokesperson said that the project was likely to come in at an industry-standard project cost of $1 million per megawatt plus an additional 25 percent premium for land and development costs in New York City. The state-owned utility New York Power Authority owns the land, which is the site of the former Poletti power plant.

The size of the battery and the economics to justify it represent a big departure compared to the batteries built in the state so far. The biggest to date is the 20 MW/16.5 MWh system developed near Albany by Key Capture Energy.

In New York City, the biggest battery is the 4.8 MW/16.4 MWh Gateway Center project built by developer Enel X to serve Con Edison’s need to reduce grid congestion and defer grid upgrades as part of its Brooklyn-Queens Neighborhood Program. Grid reliability is also the core use case for Con Edison’s 2 MW battery at Ozone Park in Queens and for a 1 MW demonstration project with Shell/GI Energy in Staten Island.

A battery business case geared toward a renewables-rich future

The new battery with 174 Global Power, by contrast, will be serving the wholesale energy, capacity and operating reserves markets of state grid operator NYISO. At present, it’s not clear that these markets will offer the revenue to justify this business case, Daniel Finn-Foley, energy storage director at Wood Mackenzie, said in a Wednesday email.

But downstate New York is facing significant supply-demand imbalances that will require large-scale energy storage to manage, he noted. New York City and environs make up most of the state’s electricity demand but have less than one-third of the state’s current renewable energy capacity, and there’s not enough transmission capacity to carry all of New York’s ample upstate wind and hydropower to its downstate load centers.

New York’s plan to close the Indian Point nuclear power plant by next year and retire its most polluting power plants by 2025 will only exacerbate this imbalance. Work is underway to build out the transmission system between upstate and downstate, but those projects are still years from completion.

At the same time, New York has also set a target of 9 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035. It has already awarded 1.7 GW of offshore wind contracts set to be online by mid-decade and opened a solicitation for up to 2.5 GW more this summer.

All that offshore wind will need to be connected to transmission systems in Long Island and New York City, and be balanced with a grid that will be rapidly electrifying its building heating and transportation needs now served by fossil fuels.

“Wholesale market revenue today may not be enough for a storage system like this to pencil out, but, like planting an orchard, it’s an investment in the future,” Finn-Foley said. “With massive amounts of offshore wind planned over the coming decade, this project will allow Con Ed to move toward its 300 MW interim storage target while 174 Power Global plans for a rich harvest down the line.”

Con Edison has not awarded any other projects from its 2019 solicitation that would help meet its 2023 target for 300 MW of storage with at least four hours of storage capacity. But its pending petition with the New York Public Service Commission is expected to lead to additional procurements of utility-scale storage when approved next year, a Con Edison spokesperson told Greentech Media.

Source: greentechmedia

The EU and U.K. have ambitious goals. Now the wind sector can turn its attention to delivery.

Even for an offshore wind industry that is accustomed to all things being supersized, last week was a big week.

On Wednesday the U.K. released its 10-point plan to achieve its target of net-zero carbon by 2050. At the top of the list was the already announced 40-gigawatt offshore wind target. It was joined by a 5 GW clean hydrogen goal, a doubling of support for carbon-capture projects and a 10-year advance on the ban of new fossil-fueled cars, the date for which is now 2030.

All in all, the U.K. is officially headed on a path of deep electrification, with a hydrogen economy in development to mop up those hard-to-reach emissions beyond 2030. In both cases, the long-term anchor source of energy will be offshore wind power.

On Tuesday this week, the government in London confirmed a doubling of the capacity available in the next contracts-for-difference auction, from just under 6 GW back in 2019 to as much as 12 GW. Offshore wind will compete in its own carve-out of the auction to ensure some diversity in the winning technologies.

One day after the U.K.’s 10-point plan was launched, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, presented its offshore wind strategy. The plan includes greater cooperation on planning and cross-border project development, but the headline figures were the targets — 60 GW by 2030 (up from 12 GW today) and 300 GW (not a typo) by 2050.

Søren Lassen, head of global offshore wind research at Wood Mackenzie, told GTM that the focus, for now, should be on the 2030 target.

“I certainly believe that [the EU] is going to at least hit that mark, but probably also exceed the 60 GW,” he said. In fact, the current pipeline of projects in the EU is close to double the European Commission’s target of 60 GW by 2030. “It’s a very strong testament to how far the offshore wind industry has come and also how far it can go in the future.”

Lassen is quick to point out that this does not mean the task will be an easy one, but, he says, the cards are stacking up in offshore wind’s favor.

Hybrid offshore wind projects are anything but business as usual

Lassen’s assessment is based on the industry’s ongoing development, which he described as more of a revolution than an evolution. That revolution includes the EU’s provisions for hybrid projects as part of its offshore wind strategy.

We’ve already seen one super-hybrid project combining renewable energy with energy storage or green hydrogen production from Shell and the utility Eneco in the Netherlands. The use of power-to-X — green hydrogen in this case — plus more conventional energy storage systems will change the generation profile compared to a plain vanilla offshore wind farm.

Expect more multitechnology projects in the future.

“It’s not going to be more of the same; there have to be some changes,” said Lassen, referring not just to the technology used but also to the policy that underpins them.

The term “hybrid” offshore wind projects in Europe is also used to describe projects that double as interconnectors between two countries. Instead of only building a cable, the path of the interconnector passes through an offshore wind farm, potentially allowing power to be sold to two markets rather than one, thereby avoiding doubling up on transmission investments.

A demo hybrid project of this kind, Krieger’s Flak, between Denmark and Germany, is testing that concept, while Estonia and Latvia have agreed to collaborate on something similar.

Denmark’s proposed energy islands take that concept to the extreme with multiple connections linking to as much as 10 GW of power generation.

Bottlenecks to offshore wind growth

The targets are not without challenges, of course. Acreage may not be one of them. Beyond 2030, the expected maturity of floating offshore wind will open up new opportunities in the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas as well as new areas of the North Sea.

Supply-chain bottlenecks are another common area where skepticism abounds.

“It’s important not to compare the supply chain of today with the demand of tomorrow,” said Lassen. Right now there is a gap in the supply chain and the ambitions of authorities in London and Brussels.

“If you look at how the supply chain has evolved — the ambitions of the different suppliers, the capital coming into this market — and you look at the history of offshore wind, the supply has been able to keep up with demand. Perhaps there have been more cases of oversupply,” said Lassen.

Installation vessels offer a telling example. Last year, developers including Vattenfall flagged the risk posed by a shortage of installation vessels. Today, there are more than 20 vessels lining up to enter this space, Lassen said.

“So although…you’re starting to see some bottlenecks, it does not mean that those bottlenecks will materialize. You hear about the demand before you hear about the supply,” he said.

Things look even better as one delves deeper into the nuances, he added. As turbines get bigger and the rate at which modern vessels can install them accelerates, the megawatt-per-day figure accelerates even faster. According to the trade body WindEurope, the average turbine size for offshore wind projects built in 2015 was 4.2 MW. In 2019 it was 7.8 MW. In 2024, the Sofia project in the U.K. will commence installation of using 14 MW turbines, assuming they don’t upgrade that figure before deployment.

At the same time, the volume of steel used per megawatt is decreasing and capacity factors are improving, as is operational performance. It’s a complex picture of interconnected improvements all occurring at varying rates.

The entire supply chain, not just the installation space, will require “significant investment” to make all this happen, Lassen said.

There’s no shortage of that. In 2019, BloombergNEF put offshore wind investment at $29.9 billion. In H1 2020, the BNEF figure was $35 billion.

The sector’s financial performance has been solid. Leading offshore wind developer Ørsted has a higher market capitalization than BP ($75 billion versus $55 billion). A revolution indeed.

Source: greentechmedia

The offshore wind strategy will back supply chains, innovation and cross-border planning for an unprecedented build-out.

The European Commission proposed a 60-gigawatt offshore wind target for 2030 on Thursday, a highly ambitious goal that would require an additional 48 GW of installed capacity in just under a decade.

A longer-term target of 300 GW by 2050 will also be established in support of the EU’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon by midcentury. The electrification of heat and transport, as well as an aggressive green hydrogen strategy, will require a massive target of this kind. Last year the European Commission said its net-zero target, and the broader goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius or below, would require between 240 and 450 GW of offshore wind.

“Europe is a world leader in offshore renewable energy and can become a powerhouse for its global development,” Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said in a statement. “We must step up our game by harnessing all the potential of offshore wind and by advancing other technologies such as wave, tidal and floating solar. We need to boost the EU’s domestic production to achieve our climate targets, feed the growing electricity demand and support the economy in its post-COVID recovery.”

The question now is how these targets will be met by European Union nations. No central tender program for renewables at the EU level currently exists. That task is for national governments to take up.

But the EC can provide access to numerous sources of additional funding for grid investments, manufacturing infrastructure and port equipment to serve the offshore wind sector. That includes access to support from the European Investment Bank and the €1.85 trillion ($2.08 trillion) economic recovery package.

Just as crucial could be the EC’s role in coordinating marine and grid planning efforts. Coastal member states are submitting individual seabed plans by March 2021 that will be used as the basis for planning and cooperation.

Transnational cooperation needed for offshore wind and transmission build-out

The European Commission wants countries using the same waters for offshore projects to cooperate on transmission infrastructure. A mechanism for cross-border investment in renewable projects is also in development. It would enable member states to fund projects in other EU member countries and share the benefits. The investor nation would get the contribution to its climate goals; the host nation would get the power.

Leading developer Ørsted welcomes the move to a more coordinated strategy.

“We see it as a logical next step to start building offshore wind farms with large interconnectors to several countries,” Rasmus Errboe, head of continental Europe at Ørsted Offshore, said in a statement. “The European Commission agrees on this, and we hope to see the first hybrid tenders, like the Danish Bornholm and North Sea Energy Hubs, take place within the next few years.”

So where will the gigawatts come from?

Germany has a 2030 target of 20 GW, France is looking to tender 8.75 GW by 2028, and the Netherlands will tender for 11.5 GW. Substantial contributions from Belgium, Denmark, Poland and the Baltic nations are also expected.

The strategy aims to develop commercial-scale floating wind projects too. That would open up the Mediterranean Sea for projects as well as increasing the available real estate in the North Sea, Black Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

“It is important to invest in new technologies and innovation,” said Giles Dickson, CEO at the trade body WindEurope. “Floating offshore will be up to a third of all offshore capacity by 2050. Now is the time to invest in large-scale demonstration projects to reduce costs. But continued…investments in bottom-fixed technology will also pay off. The learning curve is far from over.”

Source: greentechmedia

Potential investments in offshore wind and hydrogen are on the near-term horizon, says CEO Bernard Looney.

BP is readying offshore wind bids during the next six months with heightened hydrogen activity also in the pipeline, the oil major’s CEO, Bernard Looney, said Tuesday.

During the company’s Q3 results call, Bernard Looney said BP would “probably” bid in offshore wind auctions that are scheduled in the next six months. The firm revealed a U.S.-focused partnership with Equinor in September, its first foray into offshore wind. Looney said bidding in auctions over the next six months would also be carried out in partnerships rather than independently.

In its home market in the U.K., there are active seabed leasing rounds. Denmark’s 800 MW to 1,000 MW Thor project closes to bids on March 15. The Netherlands’ Hollandse Kust (west) project, which could be as large as 1,400 MW, is scheduled to tender in Q2 2021.

BP is targeting 20 gigawatts of renewables by 2025 and 50 GW by 2030. It currently has around 10 GW completed or in the works and options on another 20 GW. Most of its early successes have come via its 50 percent stake in solar developer Lightsource BP.

Looney said the company is more likely to add megawatts via partnerships, like those with Lightsource BP and Equinor, and capacity auctions than through merger and acquisition activity.

“Partnerships will be…a key factor in this build-out, quite frankly, just like [they are] in the traditional oil and gas business. […] We partner all around the world today in oil and gas, and partnership will be no different as we look to build out our low-carbon position.”

“Over the coming six months, you’ll probably see us bid [in offshore auction rounds]. We’ll do that in partnerships; we consider that a sort of organic build-out,” he said, adding that there are no “material” merger and acquisition deals in the immediate future but that they should not be ruled out as a possibility.

French rival Total has made several huge deals to swell its own portfolio of renewables, including major solar deals in Spain and India and wind acquisitions in the U.K., Denmark and France. Three solar deals in Spain have netted the company more than 5 gigawatts of capacity.

Hydrogen action likely “in the coming months”

Like many of its peers, BP is eyeing the potential of hydrogen across its business. Looney again stated that hydrogen is unlikely to become a significant accounting line until 2030. Despite that, he trailed an uptick in hydrogen activity in the short term.

BP is backing both blue and green hydrogen. A gas power plant in northeast England with carbon capture and storage capabilities will be the foundation of a low-carbon industrial cluster with blue hydrogen fed to industrial customers.

“I think hydrogen is a core part of what we believe in for the future,” he told analysts, adding that the focus for BP will be heavy transport and industry, with the company looking at using hydrogen at its own refineries in Germany. It is also exploring a green hydrogen distribution trial with utility RWE.

“We are believers in hydrogen being a fuel of choice, and maybe the fuel of choice for heavy-duty transport over the medium term. We’re in the midst of exploring that more [and the] partnerships that we might have around the world. That’s work that’s ongoing at the moment,” said Looney.

“You should expect to see a bit more from us in the coming months and certainly as we head into 2021,” he added.

BP results beat expectations

BP’s Q3 results saw it post a modest, and surprise, profit of $100 million. Financial analysts had been expecting a similar-sized loss. The figure compares to losses of $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2020 when oil and gas asset write-downs hit it hard.

The company also managed to dial its debt down by $500 million as it continues to improve its balance sheet and invest in low-carbon technology and services. To that end, the company halved its dividend earlier this year, the first dividend cut in a decade.

CFO Murray Auchincloss reiterated BP’s spending priorities, which start with the dividend, followed by reducing debt, low-carbon investment, oil and gas investment, and, finally, share buybacks, in that order.

Source: greentechmedia