Category Archives: Offshore

Papendrecht, 15November2021

Boskalis has been awarded a contract for the transportation and installation of the monopile foundations and substations for an offshore wind farm development with a value of approximately EUR 450 million.

Boskalis successful track record in offshore wind energy is founded in Europe and has expanded to Asia in recent years and more recently to the US East Coast. Boskalis unique offering of marine transport and installation capabilities through its state-of-the-art Bokalift 1 and Bokalift 2 crane vessels and versatile heavy transport fleet are ideally suited for large-scale offshore wind projects. This contract ties-up one year of crane vessel utilization days in addition to the equivalent of two years of heavy transport vessels. Engineering and pre-construction work has already commenced and project execution is scheduled to commence in 2023.

Boskalis strategy is aimed at leveraging on key macro-economic factors which drive worldwide demand in our markets: expansion of the global economy, increase in energy consumption, global population growth and the challenges that go hand in hand with climate change. This project is related to the development of generating renewable energy due to climate change and increasing energy consumption.

This is a Boskalis press release on the grounds of article 17 paragraph 1 of the European Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014).

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world. With core activities such as coastal defense, riverbank protection and land reclamation Boskalis is able to provide adaptive and mitigating solutions to combat the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, as well as delivering solutions for the increasing need for space in coastal and delta regions across the world. The company facilitates the development of offshore energy infrastructure, including renewable wind energy. Boskalis is furthermore active in the construction and maintenance of ports, waterways, access channels and civil infrastructure, thus helping to facilitate trade flows and regional socio-economic development. In addition, Boskalis is a global marine salvage expert and has a number of strategic partnerships in harbor towage and terminal services (Keppel Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of more than 650 vessels and floating equipment and 9,900 employees, including associates, Boskalis is creating new horizons around the world.

This press release can also be found on our website http://www.boskalis.com.

Excerpt from:

Boskalis receives EUR 450 million offshore wind project - GlobeNewswire

The Danish Energy Agency and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency have launched a public consultation on the content of the environmental impact report for the Jammerland Bay nearshore wind farm.

Citizens, organisations, authorities, and others who may be affected by the project have the opportunity to make suggestions on what should be included in the environmental impact report for the project, the agencies said

Consultation responses must be sent to the Danish Energy Agency by 2 December.

Once an environmental impact report has been prepared for the project, the Danish Energy Agency and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency will submit the report for an eight-week public consultation.

The Danish Energy Agency will only make a final decision on whether the project can be granted an establishment permit once a public consultation of the environmental impact report has been carried out. Likewise, after the eight weeks of public consultation, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether environmental assessment permission can be granted for the project.

Back in 2014, the Danish Energy Agency authorised European Energy to carry out feasibility studies for an offshore wind farm in Jammerland Bay. The permit was later transferred to Jammerland Bay Nearshore A/S, which is owned by European Energy A/S.

European Energy plants to install between 34 and 60 offshore wind turbines with a maximum combined capacity of 240 MW in Jammerland Bay, east of the Great Belt.

The wind farm area plus the corridor to the cable covers a total sea area of about 31 square kilometres, and the distance from the wind farm area to the nearest coast in Jammerland Bay is about six kilometres. The offshore wind farm is expected to be connected to an existing substation at Asns Power Station.

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Danish Nearshore Wind Project Presses Ahead | Offshore Wind - Offshore WIND

By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Vedanta-led Cairn Oil & Gas on Tuesday said that it has entered into a partnership with US-based Halliburton Company to pursue the target of increasing its recoverable reserve from offshore assets to 300 mmboe (million barrels of oil equivalent), a 10-fold increase from the present cumulative of 30 mmboe. The step, Cairn claims, will double its capacity and contribute 50% to domestic crude production.

To increase domestic production, India needs to encourage exploration of new fields, increase investment and technology for ageing fields, and incentivise unconventional options like shale and gas. This latest partnership is a continuation of our commitment to increase capacity to 500k boepd and double our contribution to domestic crude production, said Prachur Sah, CEO, Cairn Oil & Gas.

As per Cairn, the partnership for offshore assets will evolve through three distinct stages of conceptual design, conceptual detailing, and execution. The offshore assets include Ravva, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, Cambay, on the western coast, and several newly acquired OALP (open acreage licensing policy) blocks.

We believe our collaboration with Cairn and engineered solutions will maximize their asset value and increase overall production growth for the country, said Sid Whyte, senior vice-president of Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific region for Halliburton. Cairn has also entered into an agreement with Halliburton for shale exploration targeting the Lower Barmer Hill (LBH) formation of western Rajasthan.Founded in 1919 Halliburton is one of the worlds largest providers of products and services to the energy industry.

Three stagesAs per Cairn, the partnership for offshore assets will evolve through three distinct stages of conceptual design, conceptual detailing, and execution. The offshore assets include Ravva, Cambay, and several newly acquired OALP

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Cairn, Halliburton tie up to tap more reserves from offshore assets - The New Indian Express

Wood has agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HYGEN Energy to accelerate the production of green hydrogen for decarbonising transportation in the United Kingdom.

Through the MoU, Wood and HYGEN Energy will develop solutions for future hydrogen production plants across the UK, beginning with the conceptual design for the facility at Herne Bay, Kent.

The Herne Bay facility will generate green hydrogen from existing offshore wind farms to be used in zero-emission mobility transport solutions in the Southeast of England, the consulting and engineering company said.

It is planned to commence production by the middle of 2023 and, on final completion, the plant will have a production capacity of between eight and nine tonnes of green hydrogen per day.

At Wood, we are committed to working with our clients to tackle global energy challenges and we know that producing hydrogen economically and at pace will be critical as we transition to a more integrated, lower carbon energy mix, Craig Shanaghey, Woods President, Operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa said.

With our hydrogen project track record and expertise across the full lifecycle, we are delighted to be working with HYGEN Energy and look forward to developing and delivering the impactful solutions which will play a key role in contributing to the UK governments hydrogen strategy and ambitious net-zero carbon emissions targets.

The MoU is said to mark a tangible step towards delivering the UK Governments strategy to achieve 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.

Jo Bamford, founder and Executive Chairman of HYGEN Energy, said the MOU with Wood marked a positive step forward for the UKs hydrogen sector: At HYGEN Energy, we have ambitious plans to build a network of green hydrogen production plants across the UK to provide zero-emission fuel for a number of uses, create strong jobs, and to help position the UK as a world-leader in the hydrogen sector. With partners on board such as Wood, were confident that we will realise those ambitions.

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Offshore Wind to Fuel Zero-Emission Transport in Southeast England | Offshore Wind - Offshore WIND

Published:6:00 AM November 19, 2021

I imagine that, like me, all readers were deeply disturbed when they heard about the attempted terrorist attack that took place in Liverpool last Sunday, during a time when a great many of us gathered together to pay our respects to our war dead.

The fact that the individual in question (Emad al-Swealmeen) appears to have plotted this attack for over eight months, to deliberately coincide with Remembrance Sunday, is even more disturbing. Targeting a womens hospital, where women and children were present, is sickening in itself.

Lets be clear. This man should never have been in our country. He had no right to be here. The Home Secretary was right in stating that its only our dysfunctional asylum system that has kept him here and potentially led to large numbers of innocent people being killed. His claim for asylum was rejected in 2014: he should have been immediately deported at this point.

Im glad the Home Secretary admits its a broken system. I appreciate that she inherited this dysfunctional system, and that enacting fundamental reforms does take time. However, it is clear that these reforms are critical and must be done at breakneck speed. Enough is enough.

The Nationality and Borders Bill will improve things, as will the Courts and Judicial Review Bill, but time will tell whether they go as far as they need to go in reforming a broken system.

Ipswich MP Tom Hunt says too much court time is taken up with failed asylum application appeals and there needs to be faster system- Credit: House of Commons

Last week I wrote my column about the Courts and Judicial Review Bill that Im currently sitting on. As I said, currentlyillegal immigrants who are fighting deportation essentially get threelegal bites of the cherry as opposed to two(like virtually every other type of case). Last week I made the point that this is placing significant pressure on our courts system contributing towards backlogs.

Following the publication of the column, I was attacked by a local lawyer who stated, The backlog in the courts system is not connected to the use of immigration appeals as suggested by Ipswich MP Tom Hunt. My response to that bizarre claim is, how could it possibly not be?

As it stands, High Court judges are being dragged away from their duties to hear around 750 cases every year involving judicial review of immigration cases. On average around 97% of these cases are unsuccessful.

Offshore processing would mean asylum seekers and immigrants remain in the country where they are based until their application is decided and only come to the UK if permitted- Credit: AP

With a limited number of High Court judges, having a number being dragged away from their main responsibilities to instead review a flood of spurious claims (750 per year on average) is inevitably going to contribute to pressure on the courts system. High court judge time is a precious resource; we should not allow it to be wasted.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website says that High Court judges can hear the most serious and sensitive cases, such as murder and rape cases. Currently, these high court judges are also spending time reviewing Cart Judicial Review cases too which takes 180 days of high court judge time every year. While clearly the backlog in courts is the result of a number of factors, evidently Cart Judicial Review is a contributing factor.

Ending Cart Judicial Reviews is one part of a package of measures the government is introducing to address the backlogs. The government has also committed resources to addressing delays in courts, through super courts and the nightingale courts which received 440million in the spending review. Taken together, all these measures are predicted to save up to 400 sitting days a year in Crown Courts.

However, Im confident that the vast majority of people in the country are sickened by a legal system that aids individuals such as Emad al-Swealmeen who are capable of doing us great harm. Quite frankly, Im keen to have an asylum system that enables us to boot out people like Emad al-Swealmeen immediately.

The reality is that the Courts and Judicial Review Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, and which the Labour Party have voted against, would make it easier for us to deport people such as Emad al-Swealmeen.

Its important to remember how this all links to preventing those who attempt to enter our country illegally from getting here in the first place. Unlike with a points-based immigration system, or a proper process driven way of taking in genuine refugees, we have absolutely no idea about the background of those individuals arriving illegally on our shores. Depressingly, so many seem to be staying. Clearly in the case of Emad al-Swealmeen some seem intent on doing great harm.

We should be seriously considering offshore processing as a way to increase control of borders and deter dangerous channel crossings. As Vice Chair of the Common Sense Group, I have been involved in discussions about pushing forward with an Australian style system, which would see offshore processing of asylum seekers.

The Nationality and Borders Bill will put in place the necessary framework for offshore processing. Australia already processes asylum seekers in this way, and Denmark haSrecently passed laws to enable a similar system. I have been engaging with Australian officials, and it is evident from these discussions that their immigration situation has only improved from offshore processing being introduced.

Offshore processing would mean channel-crossing migrants and asylum seekers would be kept in another country while their claims are processed. This would act as a deterrent, so there would be fewer claims to process overall.

Ultimately though, were the ones in Government and when it comes to the thorough reform of our asylum system and taking control of our borders, we are the only ones who can deliver.

Originally posted here:

Ipswich MP: Offshore processing best to tackle immigrants - Ipswich Star

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. The Quonset Development Corporation on Monday welcomed two businesses to its new Flex Industrial Campus Building with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The offshore wind support company and seafood delivery company join more than 200 businesses already at Quonset Business Park.

Steven J. King, managing director of the Quonset Development Corporation, welcomed Survitec and PrimeFish Seafood to their new location.

It is exciting to see Survitec choose Quonset to expand their offshore wind support services in the United States and PrimeFish Seafood become the latest in a growing sector of seafood companies, King said.

Survitec is a supplier for survival technology including immersion suits, life jackets, life rafts, fire safety and turbine escape devices. The firms recent acquisition of Norwegian PPE specialist Hansen Protection also brings with it offshore wind PPE rental provider HeliPPE.

Our new location in Rhode Island will be our flagship U.S. offshore wind hub, Mads Enemark Nrgreen, head of U.S. offshore wind at Survitec, said. Now, our customers in the region will have better access to the most advanced survival technology solutions, including our popular offshore PPE rental program.

PrimeFish Seafood is a 100-year-old, family-owned business that delivers restaurant quality, sustainable seafood. The company will use the flex space to store and deliver seafood throughout the country.

Established in 2017, the Flex Industrial Campus caters to businesses that may have outgrown their current spaces and are not equipped to renovate or to do a complete build-out.

Quonset and its development partner Flex Technology Park, LLC spent $3.2 million on the building, which has six leasable spaces ranging from 2,000 to 6,000 square feet.

Each Flex Industrial Building is equipped with high bay space for manufacturing, assembly or warehouse use, with ceilings up to 24 feet. Each building will provide full service utilities and was designed to allow tenants to customize spaces based on their own unique needs. Some of the Flex Industrial Buildings include office spaces as well.

There are three other Flex Industrial Campus Buildings across Quonset Business Park and all are fully leased out, according to the Quonset Development Corporation. The six companies across the Flex Industrial Campus employ 40 people.

Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos was scheduled to attend Mondays ceremony, but was unable to do so. She issued a statement about the opening.

The green economy is an integral part of our states growing business ecosystem, and whether it be sustainable fishing or harnessing the power of wind to create renewable energy, we are leading the way, Matos said. I am thrilled to welcome Survitec, which is making Rhode Island their offshore wind hub in the U.S., and PrimeFish Seafood, which is working to deliver sustainably caught seafood to homes across the country to their new facilities here in Rhode Island.

The business park is home to more than 200 companies and 12,200 jobs, according to the Quonset Development Corporation.

Link:

QDC welcomes new offshore wind and seafood businesses - The Independent

Elizabeth City, North Carolina, once sought to lure boaters up the Pasquotank River with free docking at its marina and welcome baskets of wine, cheese and roses.

Today, the harbor of hospitality is preparing a new pitch, trying to attract offshore wind manufacturers with the regions workforce and manufacturing capacity.

Northeastern North Carolina is a special place, commerce secretary Machelle Sanders said at a recent summit hosted by the historically Black Elizabeth City State University. Just as North Carolina has provided a runway for the Wright Brothers to take flight, the region is helping to develop clean energy.

With two offshore wind farms underway off the Outer Banks and a major turbine blade facility announced just across the state border, the potential in this largely impoverished region is vast. But experts and advocates stress that extreme poverty and economic disparity wont be erased without effort.

We have to be strategic about it, to make sure that the communities that really, really need this are benefiting from it, said Montravias King, an Elizabeth City State graduate and former city councilor. And if we dont, its not going to happen.

Regional pride ran high at the conference, with Sanders, a native of tiny Belhaven on the Pungo River, delivering the keynote address. Citing the areas ties to the Coast Guard and its tourism industry, she declared, we do have assets in this great part of the state.

But in many ways, northeastern North Carolina is a tale of two banks. On the Atlantic Ocean, theres the overwhelmingly White Outer Banks, once a string of modest fishing villages that today is a multibillion-dollar tourist attraction. Dare and Currituck, the two counties that encompass most of these barrier islands, are some of the states wealthiest by income and property value. In the last decade, Curritucks population grew by 19%, not far behind the Triangle and Charlotte.

Then there are the roughly 20 counties of the mainland, sometimes dubbed the Inner Banks by tourism promoters. With few exceptions, these communities have a higher portion of Black people than the state overall. In Bertie County, where the Chowan River empties into the Albemarle Sound, nearly two-thirds of the population is Black, the highest fraction in the state.

People of color were systematically shut out of the regions economic opportunities for centuries, and in recent decades, textile manufacturing jobs were lost to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Today, populations here are shrinking at the fastest rates in the state, and the economic indicators rank these counties among the poorest. Property values in Dare are four and a half times that of Pasquotank County, home to Elizabeth City.

Many feel little connection to the Outer Banks, said King, who now directs clean energy campaigns for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters in Raleigh. Its a different world out there.

In her address, Sanders acknowledged these inland counties and other rural areas of the state had often been left behind economically, a dynamic she knows well. I know very well what its like to be excluded, she said, because Im Black. Im a woman, and because Im from Belhaven.

But she and others at the conference said the entire region could benefit from offshore wind. In March, a report commissioned by her department found the industry was poised to invest $140 billion up and down the East Coast manufacturing specialized wind turbine components, shipping and assembling them at sea. We do deserve our fair share of that, she said. We are looking forward to that blossoming economy.

Already, theres economic activity underway in northeastern North Carolina because of two major offshore wind projects. Twenty-seven miles east of Virginia Beach, a Dominion Energy project is scheduled to begin delivering power in 2026. With a capacity of 2.6 gigawatts, the wind farm could create enough power for nearly 700,000 homes.

Avangrid Renewables plans a similarly sized project off the North Carolina coast, Kitty Hawk Offshore, slated for completion in 2030. (Larry Lombardi, the economic development director for Currituck County, says the wind farm is actually closer to his town, despite the name. I have to clarify so people understand, he told the Energy News Network, its 27 miles off the coast of Corolla.)

Power from both projects will come onshore to Virginia, and theyll be built and staged in that states Tidewater region. Together, theyre expected to create upwards of 1,700 construction-related jobs annually. Once the wind farms are up and running, theyll spur another 2,000 jobs for technicians, vessel managers, and other operations and maintenance workers.

Most of these jobs will be in Virginia, but within reach of Tar Heels across the border, many of whom already commute north for work. In Gates County, more than half of the employed work out of state, according to commerce officials.

Situated carefully beyond the coastal horizon, the Kitty Hawk wind turbines arent expected to be visible to beachgoers. But even if they were, Lombardi and others believe they could be a boost, not a bane to tourism.

We know from the offshore wind in Europe, he said, they have tourism boats going out there. They have fishing boats going out there. Its just going to add to what were already doing.

These two wind farms could be just the tip of the iceberg. According to the March report, 41 gigawatts of offshore wind could be installed up and down the Eastern seaboard by 2035. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat in his second term, wants a fifth of that to be off North Carolinas coast.

With todays technology in which one turbine has about 6 megawatts of power capacity those figures translate to more than 1,000 turbines off the states coast alone, with another 5,500 or so off the rest of the East Coast.

The structures require specialized parts, like towers 30 stories high, blades the length of football fields, and nacelles that would dwarf most office buildings. Today, all these components are made in Europe creating an unprecedented opening for suppliers in North Carolina.

Theres nothing else like this where you have a multibillion-dollar global industry that has zero footprint in the United States, said Steve Kalland, the director of the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center and contributor to the March study. Its wild.

Even when the ocean-based turbines reach the end of their useful lives, theyre likely to be refitted with the latest technology and reused. Manufacturers will need a steady workforce for decades to come. Its a multigenerational opportunity, said Kalland. Were not just going to build wind turbines for five years and then everybodys unemployed.

Though the Northeast states are ahead of the Southeast ones when it comes to establishing a market for offshore wind requiring some 20 gigawatts of the resource by 2035 theres still ample chance for North Carolina and its neighbors to play a leading role in the supply chain.

Thats part of why Cooper joined the governors of Maryland and Virginia last year in an agreement to work cooperatively to boost the regions participation in the offshore wind supply chain including through workforce training, enhancing deepwater ports, and upfitting and expanding factories.

Its already paying off. Last month, Siemens Gamesa announced it would build the countrys first offshore wind turbine blade facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, creating an estimated 300 direct jobs.

The factory is expected to supply the entire East Coast, but another major blade maker in North Carolina is not out of the question, Kalland said. And theres still potential for other major factories to produce towers, foundations, undersea cables, nacelles and more.

All of these things are going to have to get sourced out here in some way, shape or form, he said. We really think that the opportunity for job creation as you work your way through the parts and pieces is huge.

Thats especially true because North Carolinas manufacturing sector is already the largest of the East Coast states, and many companies here already produce onshore wind turbine components. More than 40 have already expressed interest in participating in the offshore wind supply chain.

At Wilmington, Morehead City, and Southport, the state also has opportunities to enhance its ports to assemble and ship large offshore wind components. Radio Island, between Morehead City and Beaufort, is considered the best near-term option.

Jeff Andreini, the vice president of new energy for Crowley Marine Services, glowed about the site at the Elizabeth City State conference. Radio Island is a tremendous opportunity, he said. Its a direct shot out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Andreini, whose company has a network of barges that can deliver offshore wind components to the point of construction, isnt the only one excited about the spot, said Jaime Simmons, program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition. The county commission and the economic development office are thrilled about it, she told the Energy News Network.

And though North Carolina is a so-called right-to-work state, which allows workers to be represented by unions without having to pay dues, the state AFL-CIO is still hopeful that offshore wind could help inject more union jobs into the states economy. Its so early and its so new, said Aiden Graham, campaign manager for the group, that nothing is set in stone.

To be sure, not all of these supply chain opportunities are in the states northeast corner, and its not the only area struggling economically. But experts and locals point to evidence that the region could get a significant boost from the industry.

First, theres the spillover effect from Virginia. There is a significant workforce opportunity, even if a lot of this manufacturing and construction work happens in the Hampton Roads area, Kalland said. Theres not enough specialized people in Hampton Roads theyre going to be drawing people from all over the place, and northeastern North Carolina is clearly one of those places.

Second, theres the presence of anchor companies, which provide direct jobs in manufacturing major components and open the door to industries further down the supply chain. Of the five existing potential anchor companies listed in the March report, three have a major presence in northeastern North Carolina.

One is Avangrid, which also operates the states only land-based wind farm, just outside of Elizabeth City. Based in Virginia Beach, Ashley McLeod directs stakeholder engagement for the companys Kitty Hawk project. At the conference, she stressed its expected boon: a $2 billion economic impact.

At the same time, the former school board member sought to assure the audience her company would protect the natural environment during siting and construction. Were making sure were doing it in the most responsible way, she said.

Another potential anchor in the area is L.S. Cables, a New Jersey company with a facility in Tarboro, just east of Rocky Mount in Edgecombe County, the most economically distressed in the state.

The company already supplies onshore wind and solar projects in the United States, according to the March report, and the Tarboro factory could, possibly with some modifications, play a key role to support the ocean cable needs of offshore wind.

Perhaps most promising is Nucor Steel, the largest U.S. steel producer in the country, with headquarters in Charlotte and a sizable facility in Hertford County.

They very much want to be part of constructing the towers, said Amy Braswell, the economic development director of Ahoskie, the countys largest town, population 4,659. The interest is already having a ripple effect. Were contacted by people who want to be in proximity to Nucor, she said, to work with them.

The countys economy could undoubtedly use more than a ripple. The 10th most economically distressed in the state, it has a median household income of $38,000 and an unemployment rate of over 6%.

I think its going to be a boon for eastern North Carolina and eastern Virginia, said Braswell of the offshore wind industry. Its going to be a boon for the citizens who are going to get really good jobs.

The areas numerous rivers and sounds could serve to transport large components by barge up to Virginia ports and down to North Carolina ones. The area also has a network of railroads and highways that ease transport.

We are not as susceptible to storm damages and things that you have to worry about closer to the coast yet we are an hour from anything, Braswell said. We think were ideally situated for it.

Still, these economic opportunities could be limited if North Carolina misses its offshore wind targets set by Cooper not an impossibility.

While the federal government is moving forward on a lease area 17 miles off the states southernmost shores, it will have to overcome opposition from over half a dozen local governments who oppose any turbines beachgoers might glimpse from the sand.

At the same time, a Trump-era ban on offshore wind, set to take effect next July, must be lifted by Congress for any other wind energy areas off North Carolinas coast to come to fruition. The Build Back Better bill contains language that would do just that, but its fate is still uncertain.

Fulfilling Coopers targets will almost certainly require additional state-level legislation, said Simmons. Even with a new law requiring a 70% reduction in Duke Energy power plant pollution by 2030, the state probably needs specific mandates for offshore wind to draw development off its coast and supply chain jobs with it.

This is such a new industry that were bound to get part of it, she said, but it will require a designated effort for North Carolina to capture what we know is economically possible.

While the AFL-CIO is optimistic about the possibilities for union jobs, those odds increase if federal or state policymakers tie green energy incentives to the opportunity to be in a union.

We can remake the economy to benefit working people and the planet and to grow the labor movement, Graham said, but its not a foregone conclusion.

The degree to which northeastern North Carolina benefits economically from offshore wind will also depend on how well prepared residents are to work in the industry. Thats why boosters say training programs at community colleges and at historically Black universities such as Elizabeth City State are critical.

Education is important, King said. Dont bring in people from outside we want to see those dollars flow in our communities.

The Cooper administration has already dipped its toes into these waters, working with Halifax County schools to create a pilot program for 20 high school students to work in solar and wind energy and earn course credit toward a bachelors degree.

The Governors Office and other partners are working to expand this program to include additional school systems, companies and industries including offshore wind, spokesperson Jordan Monaghan told the Energy News Network in an email.

King, who with Simmons and other clean energy groups is part of a new coalition to promote offshore wind, remains cautiously optimistic.

Were on the cusp of a clean energy revolution, he said. We have the opportunity to produce some real, high-earning jobs for people, that can change peoples lives. But it doesnt happen overnight you have to prepare people for it.

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In need of jobs, northeastern North Carolina sees promise in offshore wind - Energy News Network

This photograph, taken on June 13, 2017, shows the Block Island Wind Farm, Rhode Island.

David L. Ryan | Boston Globe | Getty Images

Ground has been broken on a project dubbed the United States' "first commercial scale offshore wind farm."

The construction's kickoff, which took place on Thursday, represents another step forward for America's fledgling offshore wind sector. Located in waters 15 miles off Martha's Vineyard,nearCape Cod in Massachusetts, it's hoped that the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 facility will start sending power to the grid in 2023.

Vineyard Wind 1 is being built by Vineyard Wind LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables. The latter is a subsidiary of Avangrid, which is 81.5% owned by Iberdrola, a major utility headquartered in Spain.

According to Vineyard Wind, Covell's Beach in Barnstable is "the site where two cables will make landfall and connect to the grid at a substation further inland on Cape Cod." The wind farm will use 62 of General Electric's huge Haliade-X turbines, producing electricity for over 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, it says.

The project is expected to cut carbon emissions by over 1.6 million metric tons annually. This represents the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars off the road every year, Vineyard Wind said.

"The US offshore wind industry holds tremendous promise for both job creation and reducing carbon pollution, and today's ground breaking, while historic, is just the first of many steps the industry will take as it grows," Christian T. Skakkebk, who is senior partner and co-founder of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said.

"CIP is excited to be a part of this first project, and we look forward to continuing to invest in and build out the offshore wind industry in the United States," Skakkebk said.

Elsewhere, Kathleen Theoharides, Massachusetts' Energy and Environmental Affairs secretary, said that "the start of onshore construction for the Vineyard Wind project marks the beginning of a historic new chapter for this industry in the United States."

While the U.S. is home to a well-developed onshore wind industry, the country's first offshore wind facility, the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm, only started commercial operations in late 2016.

In March 2021, the Departments of Energy, Interior and Commerce said they wanted to roll out 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by the year 2030, a move it's hoped will generate thousands of jobs and unlock billions of dollars in investment.

Despite these plans, the U.S. still has a long way to go before it catches up with more mature offshore wind markets such as the one found in Europe.

Last year, the sector there attracted 26.3 billion euros (around $29.7 billion) of financing for new offshore wind projects, according to figures from WindEurope. In 2020, 2.9 GW of offshore wind capacity was installed in Europe, the industry body says.

While the U.S. is looking to ramp up its offshore wind capacity, the challenge of moving away from fossil fuels is a huge one. Just this week, the U.S. held an auction for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Joe Biden had signed an executive orderin January directing the Secretary of the Interior to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters and to begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.

But in June, a federal judge in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunctionto block the administration's suspension and ordered that plans continue for lease sales that were delayed for the Gulf and Alaska waters.

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking an appeals court to overturn the judge's order.

CNBC's Emma Newburger contributed to this report

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Construction starts at America's first major offshore wind farm - CNBC

Windmills are seen at an eolic farm in Tocco da Casauria, central Italy October 14, 2010. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

MILAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Italy said on Friday it had received 64 expressions of interest to build offshore wind farms following a tender launched by the ecology transition ministry.

Italy is keen to boost the development of offshore renewable energy plants to help reach climate goals at a time when concern over damage to the landscape is slowing down the permitting of onshore facilities.

In a statement, the ministry said a first round of talks with companies and developers would be followed by meetings to look into the option of having more plants in the same coastal areas.

It said many of the projects proposed were off the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and along the Adriatic coast.

The groups that had to date answered the tender included ERG (ERG.MI), Eni (ENI.MI), Saipem (SPMI.MI), EDF-owned Edison (EDF.PA) and Fincantieri (FCT.MI).

Register

Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Jon Boyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Italy receives 64 expressions of interest for offshore wind farms - Reuters

After a 20-year incubation, planning for offshore wind energy has exploded under the Biden administration and fishermen on the East and West coasts are facing a steady stream of challenges, said panelists at a Pacific Marine Expo panel Thursday.

We have been fighting offshore wind since 2003. On the East Coast we think there are about 16 wind leases that are starting to crop up, said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

Our role has been rabble rouser to let people know whats involved in these projects, said Brady, a National Fisherman 2020 Highliner. I used to be a reporter. I think the truth is really important. They will pick you off, group by group, state by state. By having a collective force for all of us, we are able to fight it more effectively.

On West Coast waters, plans by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and wind developers are still in infancy but moving faster, said Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations.

This is where it is today, who knows where things will be tomorrow or this afternoon, Conroy quipped in summarizing the California situation.

The California state lands commission is looking at two pilot projects, four turbines each under environmental review, he said. The 376-square mile Morro Bay wind energy area formally opened the BOEM public comment period Friday. To the north, the Humboldt Wind Energy Area, outlined in July 2021, could move to the next stage with public comment in January, he said.

In Oregon, where BOEM has yet to propose call areas inviting industry proposals, the state is taking a measured approach with its own study group.

The process that has been unfolding in Oregon really could be a role model for the future, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife pressing BOEM for more detail, said Conroy.

Washington is even further behind Oregon, which is further behind California, but the Grays Harbor Wind development group is seeking support for a project there, he said.

The deepwater Gulf of Maine is another frontier for offshore wind developers but moving apace with encouragement from the state of Maine, said Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermens Association.

One turbine site for research has expanded to a 16-mile experimental wind power zone, said Porter. Our role has been as a mediator. Normally that would be your state agency, but there is no honest broker because our state is the applicant.

The big question is who gets to pick where these sites are going to be, said Porter. He noted how in Maine, where fishing tends to be territorial among lobstermen from the same ports, taking grounds from one group may prompt then to try moving into another area where theyre not very welcome.

We consider ourselves fishermen, but were also food producers, said Porter. While wind power advocates predict new jobs from offshore turbines, some displacement of fishing jobs is inevitable, he said.

Theres already an industry there. Yeah, you got plenty of it, but somebodys going to be looking for a new job, Porter added. In these small communities, you dont look for a new job, you look for a new life.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of about 200 members associated with the fishing industry, organized about four years ago so we could find a consensus in the industrys position on offshore wind and put that forward, said RODA Executive Director Annie Hawkins.

Now the group has a West Coast branch, and races to keep up with the Biden administrations ambitions.

There was a goal of 110 gigawatts by 2050, about four times the power grid of New England quoted in some federal planning, said Hawkins. Thats about 11,000 square miles of ocean.

But the shorter-term goal of 30 GW by 2030 is being called probably not achievable considering the challenges of building a U.S. supply chain, planning and permitting, she said.

To a large extent we really dont know what kind of technology were talking about right now, said Hawkins. There is no such thing as a 12- or 15-MW floating turbine. But thats what theyre planning for these areas.

Its apparent that government and industry are seeing the oceans as a previously unexploited source of energy and site for new development that would encounter stronger political opposition in populated areas on land, said Hawkins.

We are at the beginning of an entirely new era of how our government is looking at our oceans, she said. If youre not paying attention yet, its a darn good time to start doing it.

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Offshore wind plans coming fast and furious - National Fisherman