Daily Archives: June 8, 2017

Building wind farms in the ocean is still more expensive than building them on land. But maybe not for much longer.

A new report from McKinseyfinds that fast growth, increased investment, bigger wind farms, falling costs and new technologies are driving new project bids to record lows in Europe.

Late last year, the Netherlands approved a bid for its cheapest offshore project yet, 54.50 ($61.10) per megawatt-hour, a sharp drop from the 72.70 ($81.50) per megawatt-hour bid for the same site just five months earlier. Denmark set its own record in a November auction, with a winning bid of 49.90 ($55.94) per megawatt-hour, down 50 percent from 2014.

Some of these bids are coming in at grid parity prices as well. In a German auction in April, the average winning bid for the projects was far below expectations, with some bids coming in at the wholesale electricity price -- meaning no subsidy is required.

One caveat: these are prices, not actual costs, McKinsey noted. Until the parks are actually built and running, it is impossible to know if they can be profitable at these prices. But companies would not be competing so fiercely -- the Dutch auction saw 38 bids -- if they didnt think they could be.

Offshore wind still costs about 40 percent more than onshore wind and 20 percent more than solar PV on a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) basis -- about 120 to 130 per megawatt-hour for 2016 projects, according to McKinsey.

But because offshore wind is at an earlier stage of development, its prices can be expected to fall further, faster, thus improving its competitive position. Indeed, McKinseys normalized wind farm data, which creates comparable figures for different sites based on water depth, site preparation, subsidies and other factors, shows how a combination of improvements could lead to projects in 2020 coming in at costs 68 percent below 2010 figures, as the following chart indicates.

Bigger turbines are a big deal, driving much of the cost reductions. Just last week, Vestas released its 9.5-megawatt offshore turbine, two to three times bigger than the standard turbines from only a few years ago By 2024, 13- to 15-megawatt models will likely hit the market, McKinsey predicts.

Improved logistics and operations and maintenance could translate into savings of as much as 10 per megawatt-hour in LCOE. Some of this involves a degree of cooperation across operators in sharing crew transfer vessels, helicopters and jack-up barges -- specialized vessels with steel support legs that can be lowered to the sea floor to give them stability to lift heavy turbines. But improved operations start with the relentless application of advanced analytics to improve predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, and component replacement, McKinsey noted.

Contracting and procurement could add another to 5 to 10 percent in cost savings, a figure thats actually being exceeded by the more adept wind farm developers today, McKinsey noted. At several companies, this rigorous purchasing approach has translated into 15 to 20 percent price reductions in the procurement of turbines. Improving project execution could cut costs by another 3 to 5 percent, and as for financing, each percentage-point decrease in the cost of capital brings a 5 to 10 percent improvement in LCOE for renewables.

Europe holds 90 percent of the worlds offshore wind capacity, giving it a maturing supply chain, a high level of expertise, and strong competition, the report notes. This European expertise is now being applied to other markets such as the United States and Asia, with the promise of cheaper and better-planned and -executed projects driving increased investor interest and government support.

In the U.S., the countrys first offshore wind project in Massachusetts is finally moving ahead, and the state has a goal of 1.6 gigawatts of offshore wind in the next decade. New York's first offshore wind push will be a90-megawatt project30 miles southeast of Long Island, and the state wants to add up to as much as 800 megawatts of capacity -- a process that kicked off with Statoil's win of a development area off New York's coast for $42 million in December.

In Asia, China has made offshore wind part of its five-year energy plan, and Korea and Taiwan are also considering offshore wind as part of their future energy mix, the report noted. Although in some areas of the world, the LCOE of offshore wind may never become at par with, say, solar PV, the value it can bring -- as less-intermittent baseload power generation near urban demand centers, offsetting supply deficits from solar PV in winter -- can make it a valuable addition to the energy mix.

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Offshore Wind Reaches Cost-Competitiveness Without Subsidies - Greentech Media

Trump and Zinke Must Disavow Plans to Re-Create Troubled Offshore Drilling Agency Common Dreams WASHINGTON - Today's Bloomberg News report that President Donald Trump and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are considering re-creating the ineffectual and corrupt structure of America's offshore oil drilling regulator would be a disaster for ... and more »

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Trump and Zinke Must Disavow Plans to Re-Create Troubled Offshore Drilling Agency - Common Dreams

Published on June 8th, 2017 | by Joshua S Hill

June 8th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has unveiled the next iteration in its V164 wind turbine series, a 9.5 megawatt turbine that is larger than the giant London Eye ferris wheel.

Only four months after the company unveiled its 9 megawatt (MW) wind turbine, MHI Vestas (the resulting collaboration between parent companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Vestas Wind Systems) unveiled the latest V164 wind turbine, the V164-9.5 MW. This currently ranks as the most powerful serially-produced wind turbine in the world, according to MHI Vestas, with massive 80-meter blades that result in a swept area of 21,124 meters-squared, larger than the London Eye.

OneV164-9.5 MW wind turbine alone could power 8,300 UK homes.

As a leader in the offshore wind industry, we are committed to lowering the cost of energy through innovative turbine technology, said Jens Tommerup, CEO of MHI Vestas. The launch of our V164-9.5 MW turbine is a testament to that leadership and to the ingenuity of our engineers and technicians. The V164-9.5 MW is built on the industry-leading V164 platform, the most powerful platform in operation. Just one single turbine is now capable of powering more than 8,300 UK homes.

MHI Vestas V164-8 MW wind turbines are already in operationat the258 MW Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Liverpool, in England, and will be installed at the370 MWNorther offshore wind power plant in Belgium.

Im very proud of our team for their hard work in launching our next generation turbine, the V164-9.5 MW, added Torben Hvid Larsen, Chief Technology Officer at MHI Vestas. With only minimal design changes, including a redesigned gearbox and cooling system upgrades, this turbine continues the legacy of the proven V164 platform and is available now to all MHI Vestas customers.

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Tags: MHI Vestas, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, V164, V164-9.5 MW, Vestas Wind Systems

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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MHI Vestas Offshore Unveils 9.5 Megawatt Wind Turbine - CleanTechnica

Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and a body of 25 energy companies have signed a pledge to increase Europes offshore wind capacity by a whopping five times over the next decade. This unprecedented push should not only supply the continent with ample clean energy, but also drive the price of offshore wind down in the future, making it more than competitive with fossil fuels.

Middelgrunden offshore wind farm off the shore of Copenhagen, Denmark. Image credits Lars Plougmann / Flickr.

Plopping wind farms offshore is one of those things that just makes perfect sense: its both easier and cheaper to install turbines at sea than on mountains,it doesnt use up valuable real estate driving installation prices even lower, all making for avery price competitive power source. While still controversial in the US, offshore wind has its roots firmly set down in Europe and many countries on the old continent are aggressively developing the technology. Because of this, offshore wind became one of the most efficient and fastest growing energy markets and its only going to get better.

Thats becauseGermany, Belgium, and Denmark have joined 25 high profile European energy companies, such as Dong Energy and Siemens Gamesa, to up offshore wind generation to a huge60 gigawattsin the next decade to put things into perspective, Europes current total offshore wind capacity totals roughly 13 gigawatts. Thats 4gigawatts a year, amounting to an almost fivefold increase over the next ten years.

But unlike the power these turbines will churn out, the announcement doesnt come out of the blue. The pledge comes hot on the heels of plans to construct an artificial island with some 7,000 offshore turbines in the North Sea by 2050. Such ambitious projects are hoped to start a domino effect, as the experience and efficiency gained from the works will slash installation prices around the world, making offshore turbines even more attractive (and more importantly, affordable) for other countries.

Existing European offshore windprojects have already lowered costs by 48%overthe last two years, and the technology is projected to become very competitive with new fossil fuel generators (such as natural gas power) by 2030.

With this Joint Statement, said Giles Dickson, chief executive officer of industry group WindEurope, leading businesses and governments are taking the next step by committing to cooperate on the deployment of big volumes for offshore wind energy.

The project ties into Europes efforts to develop low-carbon electricity generation systems to meet its emission reduction targets a 40% slash compared with 1990 levels by 2030 and its leaders are gambling that if theypave the way, other countries will follow suit in a bid to reach their own Paris pledges.

And given that WindEuropeestimatesthat about one quarter of the EUs electricity demand could be supplied via offshore wind for an average cost of54 euros/megawatt hour in the most favorable locations, were likely going to see a lot more of these turbines in the future.

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Germany, Belgium, Denmark, pledge to quintuple the EU's offshore wind in a decade - ZME Science

TAIPEI Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker, said on Thursday it will consider sites in Taiwan before offshore options when it decides the location of a multi-billion dollar foundry early next year.

The Taiwan government is helping the company find the ideal location for an advanced technology 3-nanometer chip plant, it added.

"We do not exclude locations in other countries, but a Taiwan location will be our first consideration," acting spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun told reporters on the sidelines of a shareholders' meeting.

The plan comes at a time when other tech heavyweights, like Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, which goes by the trade name of Foxconn, and Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, look to deepen investment in their U.S. businesses. This follows Donald Trump's presidential win last year, built on a campaign promise to boost American manufacturing and jobs.

TSMC Chairman Morris Chang said in January he would not rule out a U.S. plant but added that such a move would involve sacrifices for both the company and consumers, pointing to the benefits of being able to shift engineers across the firm's Taiwan factories.

TSMC, a major supplier to Apple Inc, has also flagged plans for the development of 5-nanometer chip plant. A Taiwan location for that factory is under environmental review, Sun said.

The contract chipmaker's plans for new plants come in the wake of record sales and profits last year and an upbeat outlook for 2017 as the shift to mobile computing creates robust global demand for its products.

"This year should also be a pretty good year. Our stock price is very, very good and healthy," Chang told shareholders on Thursday.

The stock closed up 0.7 percent at a record high to value the firm at T$5.52 trillion ($184 billion), boosted by Chang's comments and as shareholders approved a cash dividend of T$7 for 2016, up from T$6 a year earlier.

Its shares have climbed steadily over the past seven years and this year it surpassed Intel Corp in market value.

Chang played down TSMC's decision to pull out of the race for Toshiba Corp's highly prized chip business, saying after 6-7 weeks of intense deliberation earlier this year, the company decided the acquisition didn't fit with its strategy.

"This kind of opportunity will be there in the future," he told shareholders.

Toshiba aims to name the buyer for its $18 bln chips business next week, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

(Reporting by Jess Macy Yu and J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Murali Anantharaman; Editing by Sam Holmes and Edwina Gibbs)

BRUSSELS The European Union wants to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to get electronic evidence directly from tech companies, such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, even when stored in another European country.

BEIJING Alibaba Group Holding Ltd expects revenue growth of 45-49 percent in the 2018 fiscal year, said Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu on Thursday during an investor conference in Hangzhou, China.

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TSMC will consider Taiwan sites ahead of offshore ones for new foundry - Reuters

June 7 Paragon Offshore Plc:

* Paragon Offshore announces confirmation of restructuring plan

* Paragon Offshore announces confirmation of restructuring plan

* Paragon Offshore Plc - Paragon is planning for its emergence from chapter 11 in early july

* Paragon Offshore Plc - in confirming plan, bankruptcy court overruled all objections raised at confirmation

* Paragon Offshore - under consensual plan, co's existing equity will be deemed worthless

* Paragon Offshore-bankruptcy court approved co's consensual plan of reorganization under chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy code that co announced on may 2

* Paragon Offshore Plc - under consensual plan, company's secured creditors and unsecured bondholders will receive equity in a new reorganized parent co Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

June 8 BlackRock Inc said on Thursday it hired Goldman Sachs' Heather Brownlie as its U.S. head of fixed-income ETFs.

LONDON, June 9 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said the results of the election were disappointing for her party but were disastrous for Prime Minister Theresa May.

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BRIEF-Paragon Offshore reports confirmation of restructuring plan - Reuters