Category Archives: Offshore

The OPTS is based on a lifting platform rather than a motion compensated gangway and uses a platform basket that is fully compensated

Despite the downturn in the oil and gas sector, the market for offshore access systems or walk-to-work motion compensated gangways shows no signs of slowing down, with new technology and new concepts being brought to market

Rarely a month has gone by in the last couple of years without a manufacturer unveiling a new offshore access system or bringing an enhanced version of existing equipment to the offshore oil and gas and offshore wind markets.

That trend continued into Q3 2017, when a newly formed Dutch company, Lift2Work, confirmed that is building the first six examples of a new type of unit, the offshore personnel transfer system or OPTS, and Barge Master and Bosch Rexroth installed another new walk-to-work system on Vroon Offshores vessel VOS Start. Another well known manufacturer, Uptime in Norway, unveiled a new, larger motion compensated gangway not long after Ampelmann mobilised its first N-type Icemann access system.

Rotterdam-based Lift2Work will build, service, sell and rent the OPTS, which it describes as an innovative way to transfer people and/or tools and equipment offshore.

Unlike the other walk-to-work systems highlighted above, the OPTS is not a gangway but is fully motion compensated. It was designed to provide access to offshore oil and gas platforms, offshore wind structures and other vessels and structures. It has the ability to move freely through 360 degrees and has a reach of 24 m horizontally and more than 20 m vertically above deck level. It can also drop to 6 m below the level of the deck, for example, for rescue purposes.

Originally developed by Offshore Cooperation (OFFCO) in the Netherlands, it is based on a lifting platform rather than a conventional walk-to-work motion compensated gangway. It uses a platform basket that is fully compensated and controlled by an operator.

With an arm length of 10 m and a basic footprint of 2,440 mm x 2,440 mm, it was also designed to be easy to integrate onto a deck. Installation is very easy, said the company. The OPTS weighs approximately 15 tonnes and is easy to transport in an ISO container. It is easy to operate after introductory training and provides accurate and stable lifting of loads. The company says it can transfer up to six people at an outreach of 18 m or four people at a 24 m outreach.

As highlighted above, another new motion compensated gangway has been developed by Barge Master and Bosch Rexroth. It has been installed on Vroons offshore support vesselVOS Startand will be used to transport personnel and cargo to offshore windfarms but is equally suited to applications in the offshore oil and gas sector.

The Netherlands-based companies worked closely to create the motion compensated gangway. Launching the gangway on 21 June at Boxtel, the Netherlands, Barge Master chief executive Martijn Koppert explained that the gangway will be mounted on a pedestal that holds an integrated elevator, used to transport both people and pallet trolleys from ship deck and levels below to the level of the gangway. It can be literally any height, he said.

Bosch Rexroth sales manager offshore projects Boy Biermans described the gangways telescopic sections, which allow its length to be adjusted to the situation offshore by an electric winch system. This next-generation gangway is equipped with extremely fast sensors and control technology, he said. Because of this, the system is able to compensate for wave heights of up to 3 m, resulting in an operating window that can be up to four times higher than other available systems in the market, making it truly unique.

Uptimes new, larger offshore access system, the Uptime 30 m active motion compensated gangway, has what the company says is a totally new design that the company believes will be a game changer in the offshore oil and gasandoffshore wind industries.

The walk-to-work system is being offered with several different setups: on a fixed pedestal, on an adjustable pedestal, with elevator tower amidships or in the centre of the vessel, as an add-on system on existing elevator towers and on a skid. This gives optimal, customised workability for different projects,said Uptime.The gangway will be operated from the wheelhouse wing or from the gangway itself. Our Uptime 23.4 m will still be offered and may of course still be the best option for some projects and setups,the company concluded.

Ampelmann and Uptime International have both recently won contracts for their walk-to-work solutions in the offshore oil and gas and renewables markets. Ampelmann secured a contract in Venezuela that will spread the use of its gangway technology into the Caribbean. The Cardon IV group ordered an A-type system for its operations on the Perla fieldoff Venezuela. The walk-to-work system was deployed on Bumi Armadas 2010-built offshore support vesselArmada Tuah 85to provide access for the workforce to the Perla platform.

The A-type system is a full active motion compensated access gangway, designed to transfer personnel safely and efficiently to offshore structures. Cardon IV has chosen Ampelmann as its partner in this long-term project for the next two years, said Ampelmann business development manager for Latin America Andres Garcia.

Uptime International has won a contract from Cemre Marin to deliver one of its walk-to-work systems to a service operation vessel that is being built at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey. The vessel is being built for French vessel owner Louis Dreyfus Armateurs for delivery in 2018. The vessel will provide service support for four offshore windfarms off the German coast. These are the Borkum Riffgrund 1 and 2 and Gode Wind 1 and 2 windfarms operated by Dong Energy.

The Uptime system will be an active motion compensated gangway and an adjustable pedestal integrated with an elevator tower. The vessel was designed by Salt Ship Design for personnel and cargo transfer to these offshore windfarms

Van Oords installation vesselAeolushas been fitted with a telescopic access bridge (TAB) by the Netherlands-based SMST. The TAB-M includes a flat rack and pedestal elevator system and will be used for work at the Walney Extension offshore windfarm in the UK.

After training by SMST,the Aeoluscrew completed the first connection on 24 June in significant wave heights of 1 m and wind speeds of 20 m/s. The Walney Extension project requires the transition pieces to be installed in DP2 mode so needs a compensated gangway. The telescopic pedestal will assist with the high tide differences, enabling height compensation of up to 6 m.

Walk-to-work offering owners better rates than subsea market

The subsea vessel market is showing signs of recovery, but a number of owners have long been securing work for subsea vessels above water, rather than below, by fitting them with walk-to-work systems.

Broker Fearnley Offshore Supply AS (FOSAS) said there has been significant subsea vessel activity above the surface and noted that active heave compensated gangways have had an important impact on the subsea vessel market as a whole.

In a July 2017 report, FOSAS said high-end subsea vessels such as Boa Sub C, Polar Queen, Normand Jarl, Normand Jarstein, Acergy Viking, Edda Fauna and Stril Server have been supporting topside work, either in the offshore wind market or in the offshore oil and gas segment.

The trend is almost, if quite without exception, that most operators are securing modern vessels, in part due to Special Purpose Ship regulations and requirements but also because vessel owners are attracted to walk-to-work campaigns because they typically offer longer charter periods and slightly better margins than the current subsea market, said FOSAS.

This trend has a positive impact on the supply overhang for this segment albeit a moderate one that, at best, is only part of a solution. For short-term and spot subsea scopes, however, the competition is fiercer and the income potential is lower while the vessel options are numerous. Rates reflect this.

Read more:

Lifting platform joins growing ranks of offshore access offerings - OSJ Magazine

ByWilliam H. Funk

Bay Journal

Scientists are worried that anexecutive orderissued by President Trump earlier this year that seeks to open large portions of the mid-Atlantic and other coastal areas to oil and gas exploration would harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale and other species that occasionally visit the Chesapeake Bay.

Trumps order, issued April 28, reverses a 2016 policy from theObama administrationthat closed federal waters off portions of the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling as part of the administrations effort to boost domestic energy production. The order also instructed federal agencies to streamline the permitting process to speed approval of seismic testing to locate oil and gas reserves in those areas.

But the action is increasingly unpopular with many elected officials along the East Coast.

Hogan, Frosh opposed

In July, MarylandGov. Larry Hoganpublically stated his opposition to any further offshore exploration. And the attorneys general from nine East Coast jurisdictions including those from Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Delaware submitted comments opposing additional surveys.

The proposed seismic tests are themselves disruptive and harmful, MarylandAttorney General Brian Froshsaid in a statement. Worse, they are the precursors to offshore drilling that would put the Chesapeake Bay at risk to drilling-related contamination. That contamination would have catastrophic impacts on fragile ecosystems and important economies. This is a foolish gamble with our precious natural resources.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginiais the lone Southeastern governor supporting marine oil exploration, saying he never had a problem with seismic testing. While 127 municipalities have passed resolutions against the tests, only five are in Virginia.

But coastal Virginians unease with seismic tests appears to be growing. In July, thecity council of Norfolkpassed a unanimous resolution opposing both offshore drilling and seismic testing, citing threats to marine life, local fisheries and wetlands that offer vital protection from rising seas. The previous month, the city council of Virginia Beach also voted to oppose offshore drilling.

24/7 airguns

The seismic testing has raised particular concern because of its potential impact on marine life. The tests are conducted by firing seismic airguns from ships every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, at a noise level that would rupture a human eardrum, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group which was among10 organizationsthat filed suit May 3 over the executive order. Among the plaintiffs contentions is that seismic blasts could deafen and even kill whales, dolphins and other animals.

Cetaceans whales and their relatives use specialized echolocation for almost all of their activities, including hunting, migration, courtship and communication, but they are extremely sensitive to underwater sound vibrations, scientists say. Right whales, whose population is thought to number only around 500, could be at particular risk, they say.

As far as the impact goes, the chances of an animal being outright killed by seismic air gun arrays are slim, said Doug Nowacek, with the Duke Marine Lab, according to Coastal Review Online. The effects that we worry about mostly are producing sound in their environment, and thats the sensory mode they use.

To locate new sources of undersea oil, companies employ airguns to blast powerful acoustic waves formed of compressed air down and through the seafloor. Each seismic test can affect an area of more than 2,500 square nautical miles, raising background noise levels to 260 decibels, approximately equaling the epicenter of a grenade blast.

This can go on continuously for weeks or even months, according to a2013 reportreleased by theinternational bodycarrying out the United Nations-sponsored Convention on Biodiversity.

Not just whales affected, plankton too

Scientists say potential harm is not limited to large marine mammals. Zooplankton, tiny microscopic invertebrates that constitute the core of the marine food chain for everything from shrimp to baleen whales, could also be impacted.

In aJune 2017 studypublished in the journal Nature, a team of marine ecologists found that, experimental airgun signal exposure decreased zooplankton abundance when compared with controls, as measured by sonar and net tows, and caused a twoto threefold increase in dead adult and larval zooplankton.

The studys conclusion says that, There is a significant and unacknowledged potential for ocean ecosystem function and productivity to be negatively impacted by present seismic technology.

In May, 133 environmental and civic organizations sent a joint letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke asking him not to proceed with the Trump administrations plan to expand offshore oil drilling and related seismic testing, stating that offshore drilling brings unacceptable risks to our oceans, coastal residents, communities, existing economies, and our climate.

But Zinke followed up on the presidents executive order with an order of his own on May 11, setting the seismic testing in motion. Seismic surveying helps a variety of federal and state partners better understand our nations offshore areas, including locating offshore hazards, siting of wind turbines, as well as offshore energy development, Zinke said in a statement. Allowing this scientific pursuit enables us to safely identify and evaluate resources that belong to the American people.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has also proposed authorizing more than 90,000 miles of active seismic blasting which, based on the results of the Nature report, would constitute approximately 135,000 square miles, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council.

How it works

Reflection seismology, as the geophysical exploratory process is called, uses concussive compressed air to send a sudden shock of sound beneath the ocean surface. Oil deposits can be detected by a geological interpretation of what the bounced sounds, called reflections, reveal what lies beneath.

Reflections are gathered and collated by floating hydrophones, also called towed arrays or streamers, which emit 10 to 15-hertz echoes that bounce off the seafloor. Where geologically suitable, up to 20 or 30 kilometers of the oceans floor can be penetrated through this technique.

Oil companies look for two seafloor features to indicate the presence of oil: salt domes and seeps. Salt domes were created over eons when oceanic regions were repeatedly drowned and parched, to atmospheric events such as glaciation. This periodic give and take of oceanic deposits squeezes buoyant sea salt to the top of the sedimentary layer, trapping oil and gas underneath, which leaves a unique shape and composition detectable to seismic exploration.

Seeps occur when oil and gas escape from the seabed and cloudily rise through the water column toward the ocean surface, making them verifiable through onsite seafloor analysis.

Deafening array of underwater sounds

Maria Morell is with the zoology department of the University of British Columbia, and specializes in marine mammal acoustics. When a mammal is exposed to an audible sound of high intensity and long duration, she said, the sensory cells of the inner ear can suffer mechanical and metabolical fatigue, followed by a cascade of alterations that can lead to temporary or permanent hearing loss.

Testing for oil, she said, adds another stressful seismic factor to a deafening environment that the Atlantics marine mammals must confront every day, including maritime transport, offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, industrial and military sonar, military and civilian engineering activities, supersonic aircraft noise, the construction and operation of sea-based wind farms, and acoustic deterrent and harassment devices.

Ingrid Biedron, a marine biologist with the conservation group Oceana, said that Trumps call for offshore drilling may be difficult to enact under federal law. Current proposals conflict with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, she said. They also conflict with the Endangered Species Act because several endangered whale species use the area proposed for seismic airgun blasting.

Citing a federal study, she said that, If seismic airgun surveys are approved in the Atlantic, by the governments own numbers, up to 138,000 whales and dolphins could be harmed and up to 13 million disturbed.

Potential harm to marine species from seismic testing isnt limited to cetaceans. Jessica Coakley, a fishery management specialist with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, said that these impacts stretch from the recent stranding of giant squid off Spain in areas adjacent to seismic testing to sensitive habitats such as deep-sea corals.

Ocean noise roadmap

The recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationsOcean Noise Roadmaprecognizes that sound is a fundamental component of the physical and biological habitat that many aquatic animals and ecosystems have evolved to rely on over millions of years.

In addition, Coakley said, the University of Rhode Island, in partnership with NOAA, has created a website called sound in the sea, through which visitors can click to hear what seismic airguns actually sound like when heard several thousand kilometers away underwater.

The speed of sound underwater is five times faster than sounds traveling through air, so marine creatures perceive sound coming from much farther distances than their terrestrial counterparts.

For animals that rely on sound as much as we do on sight, its not difficult to imagine the grinding anxiety of being subjected to a constant bombardment of sensory deprivation caused by seismic activities, including oil exploration. Marine mammals already facing an uphill struggle for survival could face yet another industrial challenge.

Scientists are especially worried about the North Atlantic right whale, Beidron said, Increased noise from seismic blasting could be one of the factors that further tips this species toward extinction.

Last spring, 28 top marine mammal scientists specializing in right whales signed a statement declaring unequivocally that for this species, among the most endangered whales on the planet, and already facing a desperate level of endangerment, widespread seismic surveys may well represent a tipping point, contributing significantly to a decline towards extinction.

wfunk@bayjournal.com

Bay Journal is published byBay Journal Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to inform the public about issues that affect the Chesapeake Bay. A print editionis published monthly and is distributed free of charge. News, features and commentary are available free online atbayjournal.com.MarylandReporter.comis partnering with the Bay Journal by publishing one of its articles every Friday.

See original here:

Opposition grows to seismic testing for offshore oil amid concerns ... - MarylandReporter.com

If the U.S. is serious about offshore wind, regulators should think seriously about how the energy gets back to shore.

Theres a strong case to be made for taking the transmission portion [of projects] and treating it as a separate entity, said Neil Kirby, HVDC business development manager at GE Energy Connections.

If every project developer takes responsibility for their own grid interconnection, then some may end up choosing a technology that is less than optimal for their projects, thereby increasing costs.

Offshore wind farms can use either alternating current (AC) or high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links to export current to shore. Selecting the right technology for a given location can make a measurable difference to capital costs and production losses.

In a nutshell, HVDC has higher capital costs but is much better than AC for transporting large amounts of energy over long distances.

A single wind farm might almost always find it cheaper to go for an AC link. But if several projects share an HVDC connection, they could incur fewer transmission losses and deliver energy at lower cost.

The critical point at which it makes sense to invest in HVDC rather than AC is when the export volume reaches roughly a gigawatt, Kirby said.

And thats the problem: If the interconnection is the developers responsibility, then they are unlikely ever to install an HVDC line unless they win a gigawatts worth of projects in the same area, which is an unlikely prospect.

Across Europe, which had more than 12 gigawatts of capacity installed at the end of 2016, this problem has led to a proliferation of AC interconnections even in places where HVDC would be preferable.

In the U.K., for example, They have been stretching the capabilities of the cable and the compensation needed, Kirby said.

GE, which is keen to push HVDC for renewable energy transmission elsewhere, last month installed its first-ever HVDC converter platform for offshore wind.

The DolWin3 offshore converter station in the southwestern German North Sea, approximately 80 kilometers from land, was awarded by the transmission system operator TenneT and will connect two wind farms.

The technology represents a crucial turning point for offshore wind...and how we are able to move that energy efficiently, said Patrick Plas, general manager of HVDC and grid solutions at GE Energy Connections, in a press note.

Plans to set the U.S. offshore wind industry up with an East Coast HVDC network got off to a good start in 2010, when Google said it would invest $5 billion in a 350-mile transmission system called the Atlantic Wind Connection, with up to 6 gigawatts of capacity.

The focus of the project was New Jersey, which at the time had just signed an Offshore Wind Economic Development Act with the intention of supporting over a gigawatt of capacity.

New Jerseys offshore wind ambitions failed to take off, however, and the Atlantic Wind Connection website stopped giving updates on the project in 2013.

Given the sluggish pace of progress for the U.S. offshore wind industry, it remains to be seen whether the Atlantic Wind Connection, or another plan like it, will materialize.

Deepwater Wind, developer of Americas sole operating commercial offshore wind farm, had to build its own interconnection link to get power from the Block Island project in Rhode Island.

At 30 megawatts and 3 miles away from the shore, the Block Island project is relatively small. It made sense for the transmission system to be based on AC.

And with analysts predictingthat U.S. offshore wind installations won't reach HVDC-worthy levels until at least the middle of the next decade, it looks as though most upcoming projects will find it cheaper to stick with AC if developers have to build their own grid links.

For the sake of a more efficient, cost-effective industry, it would be better if another party took on the decision-making process for them, Kirby argued.

Separating wind farm projects from interconnection infrastructure would be a big step forward, he said, since a move to adopt HVDC technology is never going to happen based on pure economics.

Read this article:

AC or HVDC? To Slash Offshore Wind Costs, America Needs to Think Carefully About Transmission - Greentech Media

Lower operating costs for shuttle tankers improve result despite revenue fall.

Teekay Offshore Partners has cut its second quarter loss despite a fall in revenue.

The US MLP said the net deficit to 30 June was $16.46m, from $100.12m in 2016.

The mixed fleet, including FPSOs, shuttle tankers and tugs, brought in revenue of $265m, compared to $284m a year ago.

The result was hit by the redelivery of the Varg FPSO at the end of July 2016 and the Navion Saga FSO in October 2016, plus lower utilisation of thetowage

Did you know that 46% of our readers consider TradeWinds theirsinglemost important source for shipping news?

_ Worlds biggest shipping news service _ Shipping news as it happens _ Unrivalled insight and content

_ Market leading news _ Clear, unbiased reporting from around the globe _ Exclusive, unique content

Enjoy unrivalled, round the clock coverage on news and information that influences your daily business decisions.

_ In-depth reporting from shipping's most trusted journalists _ Breaking news, features, market and financial information, and full archive _ Access whenever and wherever you want

Read this article:

Teekay Offshore slashes second quarter loss - TradeWinds (subscription)

Dive Brief:

In theory, there is enough offshore wind potential on the East Coast to meet electricity needs from Florida to Maine, but the costs are still high, especially compared with the cheaper onshore wind and solar energy. The University of Delaware Special Initiative on Offshore Wind has estimated that the Atlantic coast holds 330 GW of offshore wind power, which would be sufficient to power the entire East Coast.

Yet the industry's growth is starting to gain momentum in the United States after wind developer DeepwaterWind completed the nation's first successful offshore wind farm and two Northeastern states set offshore wind targets.But with the federal wind production tax credit set to phase out in 2019, a bipartisan pair of Senators are pushing to create an offshore-specific credit.

By giving private sector companies the certainty they need, our legislation will help accelerate the development of this promising industry in America and create a new, sustainable source of domestic power," said Collins in a statement.

Ten other Senators have signed onto the bill; all of them are Democrats or Independent, most representing coastal states.

Democratic Senators supporting the bill include: Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ben Cardin (Maryland), Chris Coons (Delaware), Robert Menendez (New Jersey), Edward Markey (Massachusetts), Jack Reed (Rhode Island), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island). Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, is also supporting the bill.

Link:

Senators introduce offshore wind credits in bipartisan bill - Utility Dive

8/2/2017

MOSCOW -- Rosneft celebrates 15 years of safe offshore operations in Vietnam Rosneft Vietnam B.V., a Rosneft subsidiary operating Block 06.1 on Vietnam shelf celebrates 15 years of safe offshore operations. In this period Rosneft Vietnam employees and contractors operated 5,400 days without accidents, which is one of the best indicators in the industry.

Photo: Rosneft.

Implementation of Vietnam projects is one of the priorities of Rosnefts international strategy. Over 15 years the Company produced 53.5 Bcm of gas at Vietnam offshore fields and supplied 20% of feedstock for power generating facilities of the country.

In 2018 Rosneft Vietnam plans to drill another three wells as part of development of Vietnam offshore projects. Two production wells will be drilled at Block 06.1 aiming at development of prospective areas of Phong Lan Dai and Lan Do fields. One exploration well will also be drilled at the adjacent Block 05-3/11 also located in Nam Kon Son basin.

Combining two wells into one drilling program will generate synergy between the two projects, help cut back the duration of drilling works and allow maximizing the efficiency of exploration projects in Rosneft's Vietnamese assets.

Development of offshore fields in one of the most dynamically growing countries of the Asian-Pacific Region is a good example of high-tech cooperation between Rosneft and international partners.

Read the original:

Rosneft celebrates 15 years of safe offshore operations in Vietnam - WorldOil (subscription)

A Kotug Smit tug assists the loading of a barge with one of the Culzean jackets

Kotug Smit Towage assisted Heerema group in loading a key UK offshore oil and gas production facility. One Kotug Smit tug was used for safely assisting the load out of two steel jackets for offshore platforms being built for the Culzean gas-condensate project in the North Sea.

The jackets for the central processing platform and the utilities and living quarters platform were loaded on to a Heerema barge from Heeremas fabrication yard in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Other tugs were used to assist the tow of the barge out of the port. The jackets were then towed from the yard to the UK sector of the central North Sea for installation.

Two Kotug Smit tow masters were responsible for the co-ordination between the tugs during the load-out project. There were planning meetings to discuss safety aspects of the load-out operations and the transit from the yard to sea. The meeting involved representatives of Heerema, pilots and the linesmen.

They generated an overview of the required preparations, the actual operation, procedures, outlined responsibilities, communications and operation restrictions. This contributed to the successful and safe loadout of the Culzean jackets.

More here:

Kotug Smit assists in key offshore load out project - OSJ Magazine

Tesla and wind farm developer Deepwater Wind are planning to team up to create the largest project in the world that combines an offshore wind farm with large-scale electricity storage, the companies announced Tuesday.

The project, called the Revolution Wind Farm, would generate electricity about 12 miles off the shore of Marthas Vineyard, Mass., and store some of it in large batteries built by Tesla. The project would have the capacity to generate 144 megawatts of wind power, or enough electricity to power 80,000 homes, according to Deepwater Wind.

The Block Island Wind Farm, America's first offshore wind farm, was built by Deepwater Wind and began operating in 2016. Credit: NREL/flickr

If approved by the state, the wind farm would begin operating in 2023. It is expected to be built next to another wind farm proposed by Deepwater Wind called the South Fork Wind Project. That project would serve Long Island, N.Y.

The companies proposed Revolution Wind as part of a call in Massachusetts for new sources of renewable energy across the state. The state hopes to generate more clean energy to meet its climate goals by cutting the states greenhouse gas emissions. Electric power plants running on coal and natural gas have historically been Americas largest source of carbon pollution contributing to climate change.

Revolution Wind brings together two new industries in the U.S. offshore wind and electricity storage. The expansion and scalability of renewables depends in part on new ways to store wind and solar power, which today can only be used when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Big batteries are seen as a solution to that problem because they allow renewable energy to be used whenever its needed.

So far, batteries are most often used to store solar power. Tesla has teamed up with electric companies in California to build batteries to help them use more solar, but it has not used the batteries for offshore wind power anywhere in the U.S.

Tesla has not said what kind of batteries it plans to use for Revolution Wind, but the large batteries it currently builds, including the Tesla PowerPack, are composed of 16 pods that together weigh more than 3 tons and are 7 feet tall. The pods are daisy-chained together and provide hundreds of kilowatts of power. Tesla declined to comment.

If approved, the Revolution Wind Farm will be built by Deepwater Wind, which switched on Americas first offshore wind farm in Rhode Island last year. That farm lead to the shutdown of a diesel-fired power plant on Block Island.

In a statement, Deepwater Wind said the offshore wind-battery storage pairing will provide clean energy during the times of highest electricity demand. The project will prevent the need for new power plants that operate only when power demand is at its daily peak.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources said he had not seen the proposal and was unable to comment.

You May Also Like: Miami Just Had Its Hottest Month on Record Warming May Turn Africas Arid Sahel Green: Researchers The Larsen C Iceberg Is Expected to Have Company The Arctic Has Been Crazy Warm All Year. This Is What It Means for Sea Ice

Read this article:

Tesla Joins Effort to Pair Batteries With Offshore Wind - Climate Central

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Beijing to 'Strengthen Oversight' of Offshore Loans Backed by Domestic Collateral Wall Street Journal (subscription) China is stepping up scrutiny of the practice of borrowing overseas by putting up collateral back at home, seeking to stanch capital outflows swollen by companies' aggressive pursuit of deals abroad. The country's forex regulator says it will ...

Continued here:

Beijing to 'Strengthen Oversight' of Offshore Loans Backed by Domestic Collateral - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

BBC News

Probe after men board offshore platform in Cromarty Firth BBC News Two men boarded a deserted offshore platform parked in a Highlands firth and filmed themselves exploring it and cooking food in its galley. The pair, who describe themselves as "urban explorers", took a dinghy to the Ocean Princess, one of several ... and more »

View original post here:

Probe after men board offshore platform in Cromarty Firth - BBC News