Amazon developed really cool technology to aid workplace social distancing and anyone can use it free – ROI-NJ.com

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At this point, those who cannot work remotely certainly know the importance of maintaining social distancing at their workstations. Whether they are in a factory, a health care facility, an airport or train station or any office where you just have to be there 6 feet is the rule when youre on the job.

Maintaining that distance when you go to the breakroom, down a main corridor or the stairs, or even through the entrance and exit isnt easy. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus doesnt hold off if youre keeping your distance most of the time. It needs to be all the time.

That was the impetus for the Distance Assistant, which Amazon created for its workforce in hundreds of locations around the country. It is in almost all New Jersey facilities.

Simply put, cameras are set up in key areas to capture everyone who walks through. Then, through artificial intelligence, it places a colored bubble around each person. Green? Youre good to go. Yellow? Youre starting to get too close. Red? Time to back off and create the required distance.

Amazons Heather MacDougall, vice president, worldwide, workplace health and safety, said its just one way the company is using technology to keep its millions of employees safe on the job.

Its a really useful tool for people to see in real time how theyre doing with social distancing, she said. We place this in areas where people step away from work. Theyre in sort of this lull, where theres this desire to want to go up and talk to the person that you see and to forget for a moment about the importance of social distancing.

The Distance Assistant is one of more than 150 new safety features the company has implemented or created since the global pandemic started. Its also one that the company is willingly giving away for free.

Its technology thats available now for anybody to download, she said. As long as you have a computer, and a camera, you can download the technology that weve crowdsourced and made publicly available so anybody can create their own Distance Assistant.

MacDougall said Amazon feels the technology serves the greater good and wants to share it with all. Its an example, she said, of how Amazon has made employee safety even the safety of employees at other companies a top priority.

Not everyone has access to the same technology, scientists or health and safety experts that we do, which is why I think its really important to focus on some of the basics, and then also to share our learnings with businesses, government and communities so that we can all learn and apply best practices where we can, she said.

The company shares the product and other ideas in a variety of ways, MacDougall said. There are national groups such as the National Safety Council or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or other employer community groups.

MacDougall said a lot of companies have reached out to Amazon individually. Sometimes, they are customers of Amazon Web Services, and they just want to hear how Amazon operations has been dealing with the pandemic. Other times, she said, its just a matter of picking up the phone. Amazon is happy to do so.

Then, there are the relationships she said the company has made with health authorities.

At the local level, county level, state level and the national level, its really important to have those discussions with others about what their expertise is, and what they want us to do, as well as share with them what we are doing, and constantly asking, Is this what you want to see? What more information can we share with you? she said.

MacDougall said the Distance Assistant originated from an existing process the company already had.

Weve deployed artificial intelligence and machine learning to our cameras footage that we already have in our buildings, she said. But we retrofitted them so that we could use our cameras to help site leaders identify areas that might have high traffic, where we need to implement additional measures to improve social distancing.

Through this technology, we saw an opportunity to take it a step further.

MacDougall said she hopes other companies will take advantage.

This is one that I think that a lot of people have been super-excited about, because its easy for any employer to implement, she said. And its thanks to our experts here at Amazon who saw a need and came up with an innovation thats easy to deploy.

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Amazon developed really cool technology to aid workplace social distancing and anyone can use it free - ROI-NJ.com

Defending Ayn Rand’s Reputation in the Media – New Ideal

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ARIs Elan Journo takes to a popular podcast to defend Rands reputation against smears.

A major focus of the Ayn Rand Institutes mission is to protect the legacy of Ayn Rand, and to defend Rands reputation against (often willful) mischaracterizations of her philosophy in the media and elsewhere.

On October 22, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman smeared Ayn Rand in a prominent article titled How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill? (the title was changed online after publication). The Institute issued a powerful and timely response to set the record straight.

As part of that response, ARI senior fellow Elan Journo joined the popular podcast The Lars Larson Show to discuss the matter.

Krugmans criticism of Ayn Rand blamed her philosophy for the death of hundreds of thousands of people during the Covid-19 pandemic. He painted her viewpoint as anti-science and one that holds that government has no role in stopping the spread of life-threatening and highly contagious infectious disease.

Journo argued that Krugmans denigration of Rand was unjust, dishonest, embarrassing and baseless. He explained that Rand advocated precisely the opposite of the caricature painted by Krugman: she was a champion of reason and science. She also thought that government does have a role in protecting individuals from dangerous infectious disease as part of its legitimate function of protecting individual rights.

Journo also set the record straight about ARIs position on how to handle the pandemic, emphasizing that the federal government has had the wrong approach since the problem started. Drawing points from Onkar Ghates essay A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease, he explained that it is the governments responsibility to invest in pandemic preparedness: the testing, tracing, and isolating of infected individuals while leaving healthy people free to use their best judgment to navigate the intricacies of a pandemic. He further clarified that freedom doesnt mean the freedom to infect others, as Krugman tried to pass off as Rands position.

Listen to the full interview below and stay tuned for future appearances of ARI intellectuals on your favorite podcasts.

If you value the ideas presented here, please become an ARI Member today.

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Defending Ayn Rand's Reputation in the Media - New Ideal

Letter: Only ‘We’ can save the world | Letters to the Editor – Daily Herald

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Only 'We' can save the world

Citizens have a big decision to make. Are we a nation of "I" or a nation of "We"? Currently the nation has become a libertarian culture of "I," an Ayn Rand greed-driven, me-first society where the top 1% owns 20% of the nation's wealth, and the bottom 20% live in abject poverty. And lacking social mobility, many remain trapped in the world of their birth.

A nation of "We" has a high level of social mobility where government of, by and for the people celebrates freedom, justice and equality for all. By its very nature, democracy is a "We" form of government. "We" forms the basic core of every world religion.

Freedom and wealth for the few is the result of the current Republican "I" agenda. The Democratic Party, the party of "We," is committed to sharing the nation's bounty and caring for the sick.

So what is our choice? Enduring the inequality of an "I" society, or a "We" community that shares and cares, including everyone? "I" leads to hedonism, "We" leads to good citizenship. "I" threatens the planet. Only "We" can save it.

-- Ron Molen, Salt Lake City

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Pandemic and the prisoner’s dilemma – DTNext

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Chennai:

Madhur Anand, an ecologist, and her husband, Chris Bauch, a mathematical biologist (inset), were optimally situated during the spring lockdown, working from home in Guelph, Ontario, to watch the pandemic play out and to discuss patterns of behaviour, within their community and beyond, as we all tried to keep safe and carry on. Their offices at home are separated only by a wall, rather than a 45-minute drive. Dr Anand is the director of the new Guelph Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Guelph, and Dr Bauch runs a lab at the University of Waterloo.

The couples collaborative research usually focuses on the interplay between human behaviour and environment systems for instance, with pollution, deforestation and climate change. Whereas those dynamics unfold slowly, the pandemic provided an acute example of rapid change. Societal change is not the kind of thing you can easily experiment with, Dr Anand said.

But here we were in the middle of a huge social experiment. Like many scientists, they redirected their research to COVID-19. The resulting study, led by their doctoral student Peter Jentsch and currently under peer review, looked at vaccination prioritisation: To save the most lives, who should get the vaccine first? As infectious disease studies go, their methodology was somewhat atypical because it applied game theory, a mathematical way of modelling how people make strategic decisions within a group.

Each individual has choices, but the payoff for each choice depends on choices made by others. This is whats called a prisoners dilemma game players weigh cooperation against betrayal, often producing a less than optimal outcome for the common good. The pandemic presents an everyday complexity of such choices. Imagine, Dr Bauch said, if everyone followed public health recommendations: They wore masks, socially distanced, washed their hands, followed stay-at-home orders. In that case there is a significantly reduced risk of infection, he said.

But there are always trade-offs and temptations to defect from the regimen. Masks are annoying. Hand-washing is tedious. You need a hug. The pandemic is a prisoners dilemma game played out repeatedly, Dr Bauch said. In lectures, he invokes a comparison between Ayn Rand, who made a virtue of selfishness, and the Star Trek character Spock, who said, The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Now the vaccine adds one more protective layer. The perceived benefits and costs of vaccination are often expressed as concerns about safety and side effects. If you are on the fence about vaccination, you might decide noticing lower infection rates as vaccination campaigns gain speed that it no longer seems so critical to get the jab.

Some people might play a wait-and-see game, Dr Bauch said. People who choose not to be vaccinated effectively get a free ride, reaping the benefits of reduced virus transmission generated by the people who do opt for vaccination. But the free rides generate a collective threat.

That is the prisoners dilemma, Dr Bauch said. When infection levels are low, people feel less at risk, let down their guard, and then infection levels again rise; the ebb and flow between our behaviour and the virus causes the pandemic waves. We end up in this unhappy medium, he said.

The origins of game theory can be found in the 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour, by the mathematician John von Neumann and the economist Oskar Morgenstern. The applications range from evolution to psychology to computer science; theres even a book called The Game Theorists Guide to Parenting. Dr Bauch did pioneering work combining game theory and epidemiological modelling, with colleagues including Alison Galvani, an epidemiologist and the director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modelling and Analysis. Vaccination decisions based purely on self-interest can lead to vaccination coverage that is lower than what is optimal for society overall, Dr Galvani said in an email.

The self-interest strategy maximizing individual payoff is called the Nash equilibrium. Dr Galvanis later research included psychological data and demonstrated that vaccination decisions can be influenced by altruism, thereby boosting uptake beyond the Nash equilibrium and serving the common good.

She noted, however, that game theory assumes people are rational in their decision-making. Fear can suppress vaccination to precarious levels insufficient to prevent the spread of an outbreak, she said.

A 2019 investigation using game theory to study vaccination showed that vaccine hesitancy could be explained by a mathy mechanism called hysteresis. In general terms, hysteresis occurs when the effects of a force persist even after the force is removed the response lags. Paper clips exposed to a magnetic field still cling together after the field is turned off; unemployment rates can remain high even in a recovery economy.

Similarly, even after a vaccine is deemed safe and efficacious, uptake rates often remain low. The hysteresis effect makes the population hysterical, or sensitive, to the perceived risks of the vaccine, said Xingru Chen, a doctoral student in mathematics at Dartmouth College, and the papers co-author, with her adviser Feng Fu, a mathematician and biomedical data scientist (who recently applied a similar approach to the dilemma of social distancing).

It boils down to a fundamental problem known as the tragedy of the commons, Chen said. There is a misalignment of individual interests and societal interests. To overcome the hysteresis effect, she said, vaccination should be promoted as an act of altruism ones personal contribution to defeating the pandemic.

A subsequent iteration of the coronavirus game-theory study explored how vaccine compliance affects the number of deaths prevented.

If a small subset of the population chooses not to get the vaccine, it affects us all, said Dr Anand, who is also an author and a poet.

Incorporating game theory, Jentsch said, injects an interesting dose of realism. It captures how people respond to the ups and downs of daily existence, and how our actions in turn make all the difference. An army of umbrellas wont change the weather, but vaccination can be a powerful force in defeating the coronavirus.

Vaccination campaigns now underway in Canada and the United States follow the direct protection approach. Because the coronavirus is more widespread south of the shared border, the best time for the switch to indirect protection may occur sooner in the U.S., Dr Bauch said. Also, he noted, indirect protection could be a useful route for low- and middle-income countries who will not get the vaccine as soon as wealthy countries.

Siobhan Roberts is a reporter with NYT2020

The New York Times

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No light at the end of the Syrian tunnel – World – Al-Ahram Weekly – Ahram Online

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What began as protests demanding reform and the lifting of the heavy hand of the security agencies in Syria in 2011 has mushroomed over the past decade into a long and bitter conflict with the involvement of intertwining domestic, regional and international interests. The demands of the people have been ignored, and the international community has forgotten the root causes of the original protests. Meanwhile, the Syrian people have endured colossal human and material losses, the greatest in the past 50 years, according to UN figures.

During the first year, the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad dealt with the peaceful protests with enormous brutality, causing them to escalate into a full-scale uprising and then a revolution widely supported by the Arabs and the international community. In the second year, however, the revolution was militarised, and the violence escalated, followed by immense human and economic losses. The Syrian state and society were impacted on all levels, and the conflict became a civil war involving Syrians and non-Syrians alike.

Syrian opposition figure Saeed Moqbel commented that Bashar Al-Assad has been ruling Syria as if the country and everything in it are his personal possessions. He has exercised sectarian and discriminatory policies against the people, greatly harming national unity and stripping away the countrys demographic identity. He has tried to seize legitimacy by force, tyrannising the people and destroying the state. This is a regime that does not believe in freedom or democratic solutions and that will never abandon its despotic ways.

Since the Syrian people have been unable to resolve their political troubles, various scenarios involving international powers have come to the fore. Along with neighbouring Turkey, there are many other players in Syria today, including Iran, Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, many of which are likely to play an important role in deciding the countrys future. Israel has avoided being directly involved, even though it has influenced the course of the crisis and wants to see an unstable Syria swamped with difficulties.

The Syrian regime did not collapse due to support from Iran and then from Russia. Al-Assad and his regime have remained at the helm, trying to govern a country that is teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state even in security and military terms. Today, the regime only controls a portion of the countrys territory, while Turkey and the US control others. Iran and its militias control other parts, though these are diminishing as the US puts more pressure on Tehran.

Over the past decade, various peace and political-reform initiatives have been proposed by the Arabs that the Syrian regime has rejected out of hand, severing its ties with most Arab countries. The UN stepped in and has proposed other initiatives, including the Geneva Conference, UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Constitutional Committee, but none of these have succeeded. Russia has also led several initiatives and aims to tailor a political solution that serves the regime. However, these Russian attempts have all failed to find a solution to the crisis.

All the major players in Syria assert that they are invested in finding a political solution that will maintain the integrity and borders of the country, despite disputes over issues such as power-sharing, democratic representation and central government. Yet, in 2012, armed groups began pouring into Syria from abroad, carving up the country among warring rivals that reflected the interests of their financiers and supporters. Governance, security, judicial and educational structures in every region now reflect the ideology of those in control of them, and a socio-economic war has broken out on the margins of the military war, with various warlords digging in their heels.

With help from Russia, which sent its troops into Syria in 2015, the Syrian regime was able to regain control of most of the country with the exception of the Idlib province in northwest Syria, which is the stronghold of the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition, and northeast Syria under Kurdish control with US backing. Some pockets are controlled by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), formerly the Al-Nusra Front, which is listed as a terrorist organisation.

REFORMS: In 2012, the ruling Syrian Baath Party lost much of its notional influence after Al-Assad issued a new constitution without the article proclaiming the leadership of the Baath Party of state and society.

The new constitution gives further powers to the president, and to sweeten the pill, political pluralism was allowed, creating innocuous parties under the thumb of the security agencies. The latter have been given leeway without accountability, and Al-Assad continues to obstruct political solutions that do not serve his interests.

Areas under opposition control were subjected to informal mixed governance. The opposition formed an interim government in the north, and local councils relied on networks that operated intermittently, increasing the ongoing fragmentation and causing international donors to step back. Continued human-rights violations, war crimes and a lack of accountability have undermined attempts to achieve a sustainable peace.

A 2018 UN human-rights report said that civilians were being deliberately targeted in the conflict in Syria using illegal and brutal methods. The violations included destroying civilian infrastructure, medical facilities, schools and markets. Mass detentions, forced disappearances, torture and abuses against children reached unprecedented levels.

The Syrian conflict has become an international issue, and international players have gained great influence. However, efforts to rebuild the country vanished when Washington linked reconstruction to a political solution and warned the international community to shelve the issue until tangible steps were taken.

The opposition weakened, as did the government, which caused the regime to raise taxes and control the flow of humanitarian aid. The economy collapsed, the value of the Syrian lira went into freefall and hunger spread across the country.

Several parallel peace processes got underway under international sponsorship, including by the US. The UN sponsored the Geneva Process in 2012, and Russia launched the Astana Process in 2017 with a focus on military and security issues. In 2015, UN Security Council Resolution 2254 was adopted as an alternative to the Geneva Process with lower expectations. In 2019 and 2020, the process lost momentum due to domestic and international developments including increased sanctions by the US and Turkey taking control of northern Syria.

Despite multiple peace initiatives, the instability has continued until today. The probability that the conflict would worsen remained although military operations declined across the country. Much hope has hung on the Constitutional Committee created by the UN in 2019 to draft a new constitution for the country. However, the committee has met just four times, and it has not even taken preliminary steps towards penning a new constitution.

Sanctions have taken their toll on Syrian society, and the war economy has worsened, with the continued accumulation of illegal wealth. There are some 5.5 million Syrian refugees, mostly located in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Many of them live below the poverty line and under harsh socio-economic conditions. According to UN sources, there are more than 11.7 million people in Syria, five million of whom are children, who need at least one form of humanitarian aid.

The countrys healthcare facilities have deteriorated, and 48 per cent of the population are unable to receive medical attention. Some 15.5 million Syrians lack regular access to potable water, while thousands of schools have been destroyed, and more than one million children are not attending school since more than 140,000 teachers have lost their jobs. Syria will grapple with an entire lost generation in the future.

Commenting on the sanctions and how they brutalise the population, dissident Syrian diplomat Bashar Al-Haj Ali said that the sanctions did not cut off the livelihood of the regime. They used them to oppress and humiliate the people and bring them to their knees. The regime was protected from punishment by repeated Russian vetoes in the UN Security Council, and it has been immune from accountability for using chemical weapons, committing war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The regime continues to steal from humanitarian agencies, most notably the UN, the International Red Cross and the International Red Crescent, and it will continue to evade punishment unless there is an international mechanism based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter, namely, the use of force to implement international resolutions, Al-Haj Ali said.

Over the past decade, unemployment in Syria has shot up to 55 per cent and 75 per cent among young people. Women have been plagued by gender-based violence, tolerance has decreased and persecution based on identity, ideology, religion and race has increased. Poverty levels have risen to nearly 40 per cent, and much of the population now lives on less than $1.90 a day. The sharp social and economic downturn has resulted in a steep decline in the middle class.

Among the major problems are the refugees, demographic changes, poverty, the foreign military presence, the regimes rejecting any political solution it disagrees with, Israels security, Russian expansionism, Irans sectarian ambitions, Washingtons ambitions, Turkeys intention to secure its border at the expense of Syria and everyones desire to control energy resources. All these factors make a political solution very difficult, Moqbel said.

Some 35 per cent of Syrian territories are controlled by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by the US and Turkey. Almost all of the countrys water, agricultural and especially oil resources are controlled by the PYD.

The Syrian people have lost confidence and feel betrayed. The majority of Syrians believe in a conspiracy against them, which ironically was the first accusation hurled by Al-Assad at the peaceful unarmed protesters who rose up against him at the beginning of the revolution. But the conspiracy is not against the regime, but against the freedom of the people and the democracy they sought, Al-Haj Ali said.

A decade after the conflict in Syria began, there are no winners or losers. What is needed is a new social contract and forging ahead on a consensual process based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254 that guarantees a transition to a plural and democratic country. The countrys political institutions must be restructured to erase the remnants of conflict and sectarianism, which will likely continue for decades if such steps are not taken.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 December, 2020 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly

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14 MLAs wouldn’t have left if Congress hadn’t supported JDS: Siddaramaiah – The New Indian Express

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By Express News Service

MYSURU:Irked by former CM H D Kumaraswamys charge that he had played a role in the collapse of the Congress-JDS coalition government, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah accused the former of running the government from a star hotel, and not taking MLAs into confidence.If I had plans of pulling down the Kumaraswamy government, I would not give my consent to make him CM as the JDS had just 38 MLAs, Siddaramaiah said at a Congress workers meet here on Friday.

He accused Kumaraswamy of being inaccessible to ministers and failing to listen to their grievances, and felt that the government would not have collapsed if he had reciprocated. Claiming that 14 party MLAs would not have left if the Congress had not supported the JDS, he hit out at Kumaraswamy for joining hands with the BJP after enjoying power with the support of the Congress.

Accusing the BJP government of being against social justice, Siddaramaiah said instead of accepting the caste-based socio-economic report to roll out constitutional benefits to the deserving, leaders are busy announcing caste-based corporations. The Ahinda leader said the special component funds for SCs and STs had been reduced to `21,000 crore from `36,000 crore, and was sure that Dalits would not vote for the BJP.

Criticising the anti-cow bill, Siddaramaiah claimed he would not hesitate to eat beef as it is his personal choice. He accused the government of misgovernance, saying that CM B S Yediyurappa and his son B Y Vijayendra had indulged in corruption, and accepted money through cheque and RTGS. The government had reduced rice for the poor from 7kg to 5kg, and was conspiring to shut down APMCs in the next five years, he added.

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14 MLAs wouldn't have left if Congress hadn't supported JDS: Siddaramaiah - The New Indian Express

Dominion files plans with federal regulators for 2.6 GW offshore wind project, largest in US to date – Utility Dive

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Dive Brief:

BOEM has a queue of construction and operations plans to review for offshore wind projects along the East Coast the regulator extended its timeline for considering Vineyard Wind's Massachusetts project,to better consider the projected growth of the wind resource in its leasing areas.

Dominion's filing includes construction, operations and conceptual decommissioning plans for activity 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, as well as information about the onshore and support facilities that will be involved in the project.

The utility announced the filing on Friday, two days following an announcement with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, D, concerning progress on the construction of offshore wind turbine installation vessels being made in the United States, in compliance with the Jones Act. The maritime commerce law requires vessels carrying goods between different points in the U.S. to be built, owned and operated by American citizens.

"Dominion Energy is proud to be leading a consortium of respected industry participants in the construction of the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, which will provide significant American jobs, and provide a reliable, home-grown installation solution with the capacity to handle the next generation of large-scale, highly-efficient turbine technologies," Dominion President and CEO Robert Blue said during a press event.

The 2.6 GW offshore wind project is estimated to generate approximately $5 million per year in local and state tax revenue during construction, and almost $11 million annually once the project is complete, according to an analysis released by Dominion. An environmental impact study from Mangum Economics says the project would generate $143 million in economic impact per year during construction and $210 million annually during turbine operation.

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Federal stimulus includes wind, solar tax credit extensions, adds first US offshore wind tax credit – Utility Dive

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Dive Brief:

Congress on Monday passed another stimulus package as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The package includes extensions on the solar and wind production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC), energy efficiency incentives, research and development "enhancements" for clean energy technologies and more, according to a joint statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The relief package is the second implemented this year, and the first to extend aid to the renewable energy industry. It also includes several provisions from the Senate's American Energy Innovation Act, championed by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., earlier this year, as well as from the House's companion bill. The inclusion marks the first time in 13 years Congress has passed comprehensive energy policy.

The clean energy industry, including energy efficiency, electric vehicle, storage and renewables advocates, have been vying for aid since the pandemic's early days.

Democrats as early as March urged Congress to include renewable energy relief that would extend tax credits for wind and solar or convert the credits to direct pay. Though none of those provisions were included in the first round of stimulus, following opposition from President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, support for clean energy inclusion has been building.

The Internal Revenue Service ultimately extended safe harbor deadlines for renewable energy projects at risk of losing funding due to supply chain and other disruptions. And Republicans in July joined in urging congressional leadership to consider extending more aid and stimulus to the renewable energy industry.

The Senate also grew closer to passing its comprehensive energy innovation bill that provides research and development grants for a number of clean energy technologies, including wind, solar, storage, carbon capture and nuclear. But the American Energy Innovation Act does not include many of the wind and solar industry's critical asks including tax credit extensions and the industry was hoping to see Congress get more done for them by the end of the year.

The omnibus legislation will extend the PTC and ITC for land-based wind for one year at 60% of the project's full value, extend the solar ITC two years at 26% and give offshore wind projects for the first time a 30% ITC for projects that began construction starting Jan. 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2025. It also extends the tax credit for carbon capture by two years. Renewables advocates had hoped to convert the tax credits into direct payments, but were broadly pleased with the tax credit extension.

"We appreciate that Congress has recognized clean energy's significant contributions to our nation's economy and role in providing jobs and investments during the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic," said Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association in a statement.

The bill also extends credits for energy efficient homes up to $2,000 for new energy efficient homes through 2021, and spends $1.7 billion reauthorizing the Weatherization Assistance Program that now considers renewable energy installations a weatherization measure.

For energy storage, it will reduce the costs of short-term, long-term, seasonal, and transportation energy storage technologies through a $1.08 billion investment over five years. Storage advocates had been pushing for a standalone tax credit, but the Energy Storage Association said it was pleased the the Better Energy Storage Technology Act was included in the package.The package also includes $2.36 billion for smart grid technology.

Finally, the omnibus bill would provide billions of dollars in clean energy research and development, including $1.5 billion for solar and $625 million for wind. It also includes R&D for advanced nuclear, carbon capture and storage, carbon removal and more. The provisions of the American Energy Innovation Act and Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act are being dubbed "The Energy Act of 2020."

"The Energy Act of 2020 provides a down payment on the technologies that will be critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector, industry, and buildings and addressing climate change," said Manchin in a statement."This focus on research, development, and demonstration will create high quality jobs and ensure the United States continues to lead the world in the clean energy future."

The package was broadly praised by business, clean energy and climate interests, but some environmental advocates were critical of the bill's support for carbon capture and a provision that would allow for reprocessing nuclear waste.

[O]verall, the bill is a mixed bag because of provisions that prop up dirty fuels and unsafe technologies," said John Bowman, managing director for government affairs at Natural Resources Defense Councilin a statement. "Given President-elect Bidens historic commitment to address our climate crisis, welook forward to working with him and the new Congress to promote the genuine clean-energy transition we need.

"Why does the business community stand so strongly behind this bill? Because we know that the development and commercialization of technology is the single most important factor that will determine how quickly and at what cost greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced around the world," said Marty Durbin, senior vice president of policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a statement. "No emissions goal or degree target will matter if the technology essential to meet it is not developed and deployed."

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Federal stimulus includes wind, solar tax credit extensions, adds first US offshore wind tax credit - Utility Dive

Eni and PTTEP Awarded Third Block Offshore UAE – Journal of Petroleum Technology

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Source: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced today that it has awarded an offshore exploration concession to Italys Eni and Thailands PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP).

Eni will operate Offshore Block 3 during the exploration phase and, along with its partner PTTEP, will be required to spend at least $412 million locating potential targets and drilling appraisal wells. The figure also includes a participation fee.

This award follows the one achieved by the same consortium in 2019 for offshore exploration Blocks 1 and 2 and represents a further important step towards the realization of Enis strategy to become a leading actor in the development and production in Abu Dhabi, Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, said in the announcement.

He added that, Offshore Block 3 represents a challenging opportunity that can unlock significant value thanks to exploration and appraisal of shallow and deep reservoirs.

Located northwest of Abu Dhabi, Offshore Block 3 covers an offshore area of about 11,660 km2 (~4,500 sq mi) that has been partially surveyed with 3D seismic. ADNOC said because the southern edge of the block borders existing onshore oil and gas fields that it has promising potential.

Upon making a commercial discovery, production rights will be granted for up to 35 years. ADNOC holds rights to claim a 60% stake in the production phase of the concession.

Despite volatile market conditions, we are making very good progress in delivering Abu Dhabis second competitive block bid round, underscoring our world-class resource potential and the UAEs stable and reliable investment environment, Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of ADNOC Group, said in the statement.

Part of Enis and PTTEPs financial commitment will help fund ADNOCs mega seismic survey that is already underway in the block area.

This worlds largest 3D seismic survey is deploying industry-leading technologies to capture high-resolution 3D images of the complex geology at ultra-deep locations below the surface and will be used to identify potential hydrocarbon reservoirs, said ADNOC in its announcement of the award.

Eni and PTTEP won their first two offshore concessions from ADNOC during its first competitive bid round in January 2019. The two companies are in the middle of exploring for potential targets in these concessions, known as Offshore Block 1 and Offshore Block 2.

Earlier this month, ADNOC awarded an onshore concession to Occidental Petroleum covering an area of more than 4,200 km2 (~1625 sq mi).

Source: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

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Eni and PTTEP Awarded Third Block Offshore UAE - Journal of Petroleum Technology

NOV to upgrade Wind Orca’s crane | Offshore – Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

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Offshore staff

COPENHAGEN, Denmark Cadeler (formerly Swire Blue Ocean) has contracted NOV to install a new crane on the windfarm installation vessel Wind Orca.

The new crane is expected to have a lifting capacity of 1,600 metric tons (1,764 tons) at a radius of 40 m (131 ft), with the main hook at a height of 159.7 m (524 ft) above the main deck. This will enable installation of next generation (more than 14 MW) offshore wind turbines, Cadeler said.

Its current crane has a 1,200-metric ton (1,323-ton) lifting capacity at a radius of 31 m (102 ft).

The crane replacement on the Wind Orca is expected to start in October 2023, with completion in March 2024.

Cadeler has also secured an option in the contract to replace the crane on the windfarm installation vessel Wind Osprey. The total sum of the contract for replacement of both cranes is $102 million, including decommissioning of the old cranes, as well as the design, manufacturing, and installation of the new cranes.

12/22/2020

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NOV to upgrade Wind Orca's crane | Offshore - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

GE’s huge wind turbines to power ‘world’s biggest offshore wind farm’ | TheHill – The Hill

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American manufacturing company General Electric (GE) will supply new wind turbines for a 1.2 gigawatt portion of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, the worlds largest offshore wind farm that will help make renewable energy options accessible.

Located in the northeast coast of the U.K., the Dogger Bank Wind Farm is a joint venture between companies SSE Renewables and Equinor, and is expected to be finished by 2026. GE will install their turbines in 2025.

The turbine model GE will be supplying to Dogger Bank will be the Haliade-X, and the order will consist of a total of 190 units.

Worlds largest offshore wind farm to use giant 14MW turbines! Equinors & SSEs Dogger Bank is worlds largest offshore wind farm! Its being built in three phases off Englands northeast coast! #windpower #RenewableEnergy #Sustainabilityhttps://t.co/URu6Qw9utC

Dogger Bank C will use a 14 MW version of the Haliade-X, the most powerful offshore wind turbine in operation today, John Lavelle, the President & CEO of Offshore Wind at GEs Renewable Energy branch, said in a press release. In doing so, this unique project will both continue to build on the UK's leadership in offshore wind and serve as a showcase for innovative technology that is helping to provide more clean, renewable energy.

GEs Haliade-X reports a capacity factor or the ratio of actual energy produced over the maximum possible output of 60 to 64 percent, a reported five to seven points above the industry standard.

Using power from a single turbine can save roughly 52,000 metric tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent of emissions generated by 11,000 vehicles annually.

The Dogger Bank will be capable of powering up to6 million homes by the time of completion.

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GE's huge wind turbines to power 'world's biggest offshore wind farm' | TheHill - The Hill

Why Offshore Wind and Energy Giants Are Chasing Off-Grid Green Hydrogen – Greentech Media News

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The European Union wants to build 40 gigawatts of green hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030and estimates that 80 to120 gigawatts of solar and wind will be needed to power them.

Thats a new headache for Europes grid operators. Decarbonization is expected to double the demand for electricity as transport and heat are also electrified.

Taking hydrogen production off the power grid could be a win-win solution to these problems. Thats the idea behind plans for what's termed "islanded" hydrogen, which would pair electrolyzers with offshore wind farms and send hydrogen molecules, rather than electrons, back to shore.

The AquaVentus consortium, led by German utility RWE, is exploring the deployment of up to 10 GW of islanded green hydrogen by 2035, with the island of Heligoland serving as a central hub. That makes it the largest green hydrogen proposal on the drawing board thus far. Other AquaVentus partners include Siemens Energy, Vattenfall, Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and Shell.

AquaVentus is significantly larger than the 4 GW plans in Saudi Arabia, although that project, in the new megacity Neom, is planned to be up and running in 2025.

Industrial applicationswill be a big source of demand for hydrogen, even more so in the early days of this transition. In Europe, that means clusters of demand in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. Hydrogen piped back from AquaVentus would land downriver from the port of Hamburg.

The costs of transporting hydrogen from ocean platforms via pipeline may appear at first glance to be much greater than the costs of laying undersea transmission to carry electricity to shore. But that doesnt take into account the cost of offshore substations to collect wind farm power, or the severely congested state of the onshore power grid. A massive coordinated effort will be needed to whip those gridsinto shape to absorb the rapidly growing amount of offshore wind power being planned.

In light of those challenges, piping hydrogen back to demand centers may make sense, particularly for a North Sea region that already hosts an extensive undersea pipeline infrastructure and deep industry experience in building it. So far, however, the initial wave ofislanded hydrogen projects are starting small.

Earlier in December, Siemens Gamesa announced an islanded green hydrogen trial in Denmark that will start operations next month. An existing 3 MW turbine is connected to an alkaline electrolyzer, and hydrogen will be transferred to tankers for use in Everfuels hydrogen refueling stations. The Brande Hydrogen project 3 MW turbine will produce enough fuel for 50 to 70 taxis.

Once a wind farm can produce hydrogen independent of a grid, you can place the wind farm where you find the strongest winds on good sites without concerns for grid availability, Henrik Mortensen, senior business analystfor innovation and products at Siemens Gamesa, told GTM in an email.

With the EUs ambitions for green hydrogen production, it will be necessary to go to offshore wind. Here we see great potential in wind farms moving molecules to shore instead of electrons.

Another islanded hydrogen project in the U.K., dubbed Dolphyn, is proposing a 2 MW and 10 MW pilot for floating wind turbines with on-board electrolyzers. An analysis by ERM, the firm behind Dolphyn, showed the total lifetime costs of four different setups.

Two use floating turbines with electrolyzers, each using different floating foundations (single spar and semi-submersible). A third uses a central platform offshore for the hydrogen production, and the fourth simply runs the power back to onshore electrolyzers.

At all distances from the shore, 50, 100and 250 kilometers, a semi-submersible floating turbine with on-board electrolyzers was the cheapest. Beyond 100 kilometers, the costs of high-voltage cables back to shore start to create a gulf in cost.

The Dolphyn project has led to the concept of islanded hydrogen being considered in National Grids Future Energy Scenarios.

Rob Gibson is the whole system and gas supply manager for National Grid Electricity System Operator. He and his team developed the emission, hydrogen and gas inputs for the Future Energy Scenarios. They consider a number of potential outcomes for the energy system, with hydrogen an increasing area of focus.

Gibson describes the various envisioned outcomes as credible extremes. Its most ambitious, the "Leading The Way" scenario, sketches out a situation where the impending hydrogen economy uses all green hydrogen generated from renewable energy. Other scenarios rely more on blue hydrogen, or hydrogen made from fossil fuel feedstocks with the resulting carbon emissions captured and stored.

With the 10 GW proposal from RWE and partners now out in the open, Gibson considers the momentum for green hydrogen to be growing, even though he personally thinks a combination of blue and green is more likely.

It definitely adds a level of credibility around the potential for an all-green hydrogen future, and then skipping over, potentially, the blue one, Gibson said in an interview. As it stands, blue hydrogen is being presented by some as a transition fuel for green.

Of course, neither of these two technologies are proven at scale, making comparisons at this point a bit premature. Still, theres a view that we hear when engaging with the industry that by the time blue hydrogen is up and running, the cost of green hydrogen could be equal to it, Gibson said. If thats the case, why would you invest twice?

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Why Offshore Wind and Energy Giants Are Chasing Off-Grid Green Hydrogen - Greentech Media News

Study ‘to help Scots businesses win global offshore work’ – reNEWS

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The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) has commissioned a report to help Scots companies win business in the global offshore wind market.

The councils supply chain and clusters group is working with BVG Associates on the study to help businesses that want to win work do so by reviewing how contracts are awarded in other sectors.

BVG Associates has already begun fieldwork for the project and will be contacting businesses in the supply chain and beyond in the first few months of 2021.

Analysts will investigate best practice in offshore wind as well as the oil and gas, aerospace and automotive industries to provide a blueprint for supply chain companies to get involved in the sector.

SOWEC supply chain and clusters lead Stephen Thompson said: Recognising that pre-qualification, accreditation and contractual terms can be a significant barrier to entry and success for many companies, BVG Associates will look at best practice in other sectors and at how to achieve standardised processes, as well as how to increase opportunities for Scottish companies to succeed more widely.

The results of this work will enable SOWEC to drive forward changes to the supply chain process and give confidence to the industry and supply chain.

The report, which is expected to be delivered by March 2021, will also explore the opportunity for greater collaboration throughout the supply chain.

The study will also look at the wider UK and international markets for export opportunities.

Funding for the study was previously announced by Crown Estate Scotland in September.

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Study 'to help Scots businesses win global offshore work' - reNEWS

GE’s giant turbines will power final phase of the ‘world’s biggest offshore wind farm’ – CNBC

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General Electric's renewable energy division has been chosen as the preferred turbine supplier for the third and final phase of an offshore wind farm that's set to be the largest on the planet.

According to an announcement from SSE Renewables on Friday, a 14 megawatt (MW) version of GE's huge Haliade-X turbine will be used at a British energy project called Dogger Bank C. The first two phases, Dogger Bank A and B, are to use a 13 MW version of the Haliade-X.

Dogger Bank C is a joint venture between Equinor and SSE Renewables. The turbine supply agreement, as well as the service and warranty agreements, are all set to be finalized in the first quarter of next year. The deals are subject to Dogger Bank C reaching financial close at the end of 2021. If all goes to plan, turbine installation for the third phase will start in 2025.

With 107-meter long blades and a height of 248 meters, the scale of the Haliade-X turbine is considerable.

In a statement, Halfdan Brustad, vice president for Dogger Bank at Equinor, said turbine innovation had "played a huge role in bringing down the cost of offshore wind."

"These world-leading turbines will help us deliver renewable electricity at the lowest cost possible for millions of people across the U.K.," Brustad added.

Situated in waters off the northeast coast of England, the Dogger Bank Wind Farm will have a total capacity of 3.6 gigawatts when completed.

Equinor and SSE have both described it as the "world's biggest offshore wind farm," and it will have the ability to power millions of homes in the U.K. annually.

Earlier this month, both Equinor and SSE sold 10% stakes in the first two phases of the project to Italian firm Eni. Upon completion of this deal, Equinor and SSE's shares of Dogger Bank A & B will still amount to 40% each.

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GE's giant turbines will power final phase of the 'world's biggest offshore wind farm' - CNBC

Iberdrola to acquire stake in offshore wind projects developer Sea Wind – Power Technology

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Spanish electric utility company Iberdrola has signed an agreement to acquire a 50% stake in offshore wind development company Sea Wind, which has a seven-project pipeline.

These projects are in the early stage of development and have a potential capacity up to 7.3GW.

The deal is in line with Iberdrolas geographical diversification strategy in investment-friendly markets and also creates a Baltic hub together with offshore wind projects in Germany and Sweden.

Additionally, the transaction will also help the company to position itself in the initial stage of development of the countrys offshore wind market.

The alliance between Iberdrola and Sea Wind is also open to the incorporation of Polish partners in the future.

With this transaction, Iberdrola is also promoting the creation of an offshore wind hub in the Baltic Sea which would act as the epicentre of offshore services and local content for the companys projects in Germany, Poland and Sweden.

Poland is said to have outlined a strategy to decarbonise its energy mix and intends to install nearly 8GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

Earlier Iberdrola and Sea Wind worked together for the development of the Baltic Eagle project off the German coast.

With this alliance in Poland, Iberdrola has completed its tenth corporate transaction so far this year, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

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Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

In September this year, Iberdrola agreed to buy out Japans green energy supplier Acacia Renewables.

Macquaries Green Investment Group (GIG) agreed to sell the shares, but financial details were not disclosed by either company.

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Iberdrola to acquire stake in offshore wind projects developer Sea Wind - Power Technology

Edison Chouest Offshore to Install First Battery Pack on a Jones Act PSV – gcaptain.com

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Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore has announced plans to install a battery system on board one of its 312-foot platform supply vessels working for a major oil and gas company in the Gulf of Mexico.

ECO will work with U.S.-based Marine Technologies on the project, which includes options for additional vessels. This integrated solution between a marine propulsion and battery system will be the first of its kind to allow the PSV to work on one generator in the 500-meter zone, ECO said, referring to the 500-meter safety zone around offshore installations.

ECO this Fall announced plans to build and operate the first-ever Jones Act compliant Service Operations Vessel (SOV) for the U.S. offshore wind industry. The company said these projects, combined with its proprietary shore power systems, C-Power, are examples of its effort to help client achieve long-term emissions reductions.

In pursuit of our long-term vision for renewable energy development and reduced emissions, Edison Chouest Offshore strives to improve efficiency through technology and innovation. Receiving the first-ever contract for battery technology in the Jones Act market demonstrates the close relationship we maintain with our clients and their trust in working with Edison Chouest Offshore, said Dino Chouest, Executive Vice President of ECO.

Through these efforts, we can reduce our carbon footprint and protect the environment for future generations, while our technological innovations make our customers offshore operations more efficient and cost-effective, said Chouest.

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Edison Chouest Offshore to Install First Battery Pack on a Jones Act PSV - gcaptain.com

Heerema and Safeway Team Up Offshore Taiwan – Offshore WIND

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Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) has awarded the Dutch offshore transfer equipment specialist Safeway with a contract to supply a Safeway Seagull type motion compensated gangway system for installation on the CSV Normand Baltic.

This is Safeways first contract for HMC, and it is also the first time the Safeway Seagull system with 3D crane function will be deployed to transfer personnel and cargo during an offshore wind project in Taiwan.

We have already reached record transfer speeds for the safe and efficient transfer of people and cargo with this type of gangway, and we are excited to be partnering with Heerema for the very first time and for the opportunity to prove to them our high-quality service, said Wijnand van Aalst, CEO at Safeway.

Obviously we are honoured that Heerema has opted to make use of Safeway Seagulls unique features such as roll compensation, height adjustment, zero impact bumpering/hover mode and counterweight, ensuring unrivalled workability throughout the year.

Heeremas scope of work on the offshore wind project involves the transport and installation of 111 wind turbine foundations as well as the installation of two offshore substations. The installation work will be executed by Heeremas heavy lift vessel Aegir.

The project in question is rsteds 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a located some 35 to 50 kilometres offshore.

Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms will feature Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines installed onjacket foundations.

The rental contract for the 28 metre-long walk-to-work Safeway Seagull gangway will commence during the first half of 2021 for an initial term of up to 168 days, with an option for a possible extension, Safeway said.

This will be Safeways first W2W-project offshore Taiwan.

Not only are we adding a new country to our portfolio, we are also gaining further access to the Asia Pacific region after successful jobs in Australia and Malaysia, Van Aalst said.

Walk to Work operations are becoming increasingly important in this region and with our Safeway Seagull gangway type we can ensure maximum efficiency of operations for our clients.

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Heerema and Safeway Team Up Offshore Taiwan - Offshore WIND

Rossi relishing new venture into offshore sailing – International Sailing Federation

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In recent times, more and more sailors have decided to try their hand at offshore sailing - specifically, double handed offshore - and Claudia Rossi is no different.

And the challenge of an offshore adventure with one other sailor, as well as the addition of the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat Event at Paris 2024, is what tempted Rossi into this new venture.

"It's the beginning for me with offshore sailing, but I already love it," she admitted.

"When you sail a long distance, you feel free.

"You are completely in contact with the sea, with the boat, and sometimes you have to sail alone when the other person is sleeping. It's an amazing feeling and an exciting experience.

"I think that if you want to sail offshore, you don't have to be just a good sailor, but you have to be a good skipper.

"When you're sailing double handed, it's really hard because you have to know so many things; you have to understand the weather, you have to know each role on board, and at the same time you have to be able to sleep in really bad conditions sometimes, so it's not easy.

"You should also know your co skipper very well, because the most important thing is teamwork.

"When I started offshore sailing, my first choice to sail with was Matteo because we've sailed together for a long time.

"We are very good friends; he really knows me, and he knows how to help me during a race.

"We really enjoy it together and I'm really happy to share this new challenge with him."

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the 2020 calendar, Rossi and Mason have managed to gain some racing experience already. Their target, with Paris 2024 on the horizon, is to get better and better and continue to enjoy themselves along the way.

"Big Wool Sailing Team have done two races this year," explained Rossi.

"We started with the European Championship in Genoa - there were eight boats on the starting line, and it was a really high level and hard competition.

"The race was about 300 miles and we finished in 67 hours. It was really hard but at the same time we really enjoyed it. We improved a lot and we were fighting until the end.

"Since then, we have started to work on our point of weakness and fix our point of strength.

"The second race that we did was the Nastro Rosa Tour event in Venezia.

"It was completely different because the race was about 100 miles and there were just three boats on the starting line. We finished in second place, but it was for sure a competitive race.

"For a long time we were in first place, but at the end we made a mistake and we lost some distance, so we finished second.

"But it was a really good event and for sure we improved a lot of things.

"I think that the inclusion of double handed offshore in the next Olympic Games is very important for the progress of our sport.

"It's a big opportunity for many professional sailors with different ages and different backgrounds, so I'm sure it will be a very hard competition.

"The offshore event in Paris 2024 will be really involving for people at home, because they can interact with us by using Virtual Regatta, or they can just follow us by the tracking, so it will be fun for them.

"We just asked about this during the European Championship in Genoa, and everyone we spoke to was really happy about this service."

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Rossi relishing new venture into offshore sailing - International Sailing Federation

Scorpio Bulkers Takes $500M Writedown to Shift to Offshore Wind Sector – The Maritime Executive

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Illustration courtesy Scorpio Bulkers

By The Maritime Executive 12-20-2020 07:00:00

NYSE-listed Scorpio Bulkers announced Sunday that its board has formally approved its plan to sell all of its remaining dry bulk fleet and exit the sector by the end of 2021. The remarkable move comes as Scorpio plans to invest in its first $250 million-plus wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

Scorpio has been steadily selling off its Kamsarmax and Ultramax bulkers at a steady clip of one to two (or more) per week since late September. The final decision to exit the sector means that Scorpio will take a write-down of up to $500 million on the value of its current and recently-sold vessels, including about $50-70 million in transaction costs and financing charges. It is also ending its relationship with its ship managers, the related companies Scorpio Commercial Management and Scorpio Ship Management.

Scorpio will soon have a new name to match its new occupation, the company said. The board plans to introduce a resolution to change its name by January 8.

The reason for Scorpio's transition is market-driven, according to chairman and CEO Emanuele Lauro. The EU plans to spend$1 trillion on offshore wind - primarily for transmission infrastructure -in order to achieve 300 gigawatts ofcapacity by 2050. The UK wants to install offshore wind turbines at the rate of one per day between now and 2030, enough to power every household in the country. Japan intendsto install up to 45 gigawatts by 2040. And the U.S. market is primed to take off, though the timing depends heavily on federal permitting decisions.

Scorpio says that these rapidly accelerating plans offer an excellent opportunity for shareholder value and return on investment. Compared to a fleet of Kamsarmax bulkers, a handful of high value WTIVs will bring "more predictable, higher and better-quality returns over multiple years . . . at comparatively low levels of leverage," according to managing director David Morant.

Scorpio's first WTIV is due for delivery in late 2023, and it has options for three more. In its investor prospectus, the firm predicts that the global market needs at least 15 hi-spec WTIVs by 2024 in order to meet global demand, and there are only five today. One more is currently on order in the United States, one in Japan and at least two in China.

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Scorpio Bulkers Takes $500M Writedown to Shift to Offshore Wind Sector - The Maritime Executive

Offshore wind in its sails – WorkBoat

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The Biden administration takes over on Jan. 20, and when it does, its expected that offshore wind energys prospects in the U.S. will improve greatly.

As Kirk Moore writes in the January issue of WorkBoat, offshore wind occupied a curious position in the Trump administration often mocked and belittled by the president in public even as his own former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) forged ahead enabling plans for 15 East Coast offshore projects and studying prospects off California.

But in the new administration, expect to see more of 2010, when then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar predicted offshore wind would become a major U.S. energy source. Also, expect Biden to revive the Obama administrations all of the above energy strategy.

This could prove to be a nice boost for the offshore service sector, which has been getting crushed in recent years.

Though Gulf of Mexico OSV operators and the Offshore Marine Service Association were late to the offshore wind party, they are now fully engaged. Recently, OMSA and offshore operators successfully lobbied Congress to pass several pieces of legislation to reaffirm that the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act which governs oil and gas production in U.S. waters and favors using U.S. vessels and labor must likewise cover the renewable energy sector. It will provide parity between offshore oil and gas projects and offshore wind projects, said OMSA president Aaron Smith.

The Gulf offshore industry is a deep pool of talent for the developing wind industry. The first U.S. commercial offshore wind project, the Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island, was built in 2016 with help from Louisiana liftboat operators Aries Marine Corp. and Falcon Global LLC, and with foundation jackets and pilings supplied by Gulf Island Fabrication.

And while the incoming Biden administration is expected to dramatically scale back oil and gas permitting, it will likely face pressure to sustain oil development in the deepwater U.S. Gulf. Under the all of the above scenario, this, too, could help boost the beleaguered OSV industry.

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Offshore wind in its sails - WorkBoat