Monthly Archives: February 2022

A Siemens Gamesa blade factory on the banks of the River Humber in Hull, England on October 11, 2021.

PAUL ELLIS | AFP | Getty Images

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has cut its guidance for the coming year after a turbulent period that has seen its market capitalization nearly halve.

The wind turbine manufacturer on Thursday said it continued to be "challenged by market dynamics," as supply chain disruptions weighed on results.

Between October and December 2021, the company said revenue fell to 1.83 billion euros (around $2.06 billion) a year-on-year decline of 20.3%. The Spain-headquartered firm also reported an operating loss of 309 million euros and a net loss attributable to shareholders of 403 million euros.

Performance had been affected by supply chain disruptions in manufacturing alongside challenges in project execution and its onshore segment, it said.

"Considering the results in Q1 FY22 and the fact that the company does not expect supply conditions to normalize in the remainder of the year, Siemens Gamesa has adjusted its guidance for FY22," the company added.

It now expects revenue to shrink by between 9% and 2% year-over-year (it previously saw a contraction of between 7% and 2%).

The results come after the company announced it was replacing CEO Andreas Nauen with Jochen Eickholt on March 1.

Siemens Gamesa's shares were flat on Thursday morning, but have fallen over 45% in the last 12 months.

As a result the company's market capitalization has slid from 22.9 billion euros a year ago, to around 12.58 billion euros currently.

Earlier this month the company which the Global Wind Energy Council said was the world's biggest supplier of offshore turbines in 2020 said supply chain tensions had "resulted in higher than expected cost inflation, mainly affecting our Wind Turbine segment."

The company also cited what it called "volatile market conditions" as having "impacted some of our customers' investment decisions." This had led to delays in some of its projects.

Siemens Gamesa's travails come after Danish turbine maker Vestas acknowledged that the wind energy sector faced a rocky road ahead due to a multitude of factors.

"The supply chain instability caused by the pandemic and leading to increasing transportation and logistics costs, is expected to continue to impact the wind power industry throughout 2022," it said last Wednesday.

"In addition, Vestas will experience increased impact from cost inflation within raw materials, wind turbine components and energy prices."

On Wednesday Miguel Angel Lpez, chairman of Siemens Gamesa's board of directors, said the company was "experiencing significant challenges in its Onshore business in a very difficult market."

The company, he said, had "appointed an executive with a strong track record in managing complex operational situations and in successfully turning around underperforming businesses."

Read the original here:

Offshore wind powerhouse Siemens Gamesa sees its value nearly halve in a year - CNBC

The Interior Department is under pressure from both the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists over an assessment of an offshore drilling lease sale first greenlighted by the Trump administration.

A cancellation of the offshore lease in the Gulf of Mexico by a federal judge was a win for the Biden administration, but now the decision rests with the Interior Department on how to proceed.

The agency faces a tough decision about whether to cancel, change or maintain the sale without the ability to blame the outcome on Trump-era calculations.

The development is the latest in a saga of court challenges regarding this particular offshore drilling lease sale.

The lease sale, known as Lease Sale 257, was originally approved at the end of former President TrumpDonald TrumpConservative leader O'Toole ousted in Canada Biden nominee faces scrutiny over fintech work, compensation Overnight Defense & National Security Pentagon deploying 3,000 troops to Europe MOREs tenure. It was later carried out by the Biden administration after a June ruling against its pause on new oil and gas leasing.

Last week, Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee, invalidated the sale and the leases won during it, stating that the Trump administrations assessment had failed to account for how the sale would change global fossil fuel demand, potentially worsening climate change.

In his decision, Contreras gave the Biden administration a great deal of latitude on how to approach the solution to this problem, writing that he would vacate Lease Sale 257 and allow the agency an opportunity to remedy its ... error as it so chooses in the first instance.

The Court does not specify how BOEM must do so, on what timeline, or what ultimate conclusion it must reach, leaving those issues to the sound discretion of the agency, he said, referring to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Asked about next steps, the Interior Department referred The Hill to a statement issued on the decision in which spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said the department was reviewing the courts decision concerning deficiencies.

Schwartz also emphasized that the department was compelled to proceed with Lease Sale 257 by the June ruling and said that deficiencies in the overall oil and gas program need change.

Especially in the face of the climate crisis, we need to take the time to make significant and long overdue programmatic reforms, she said.

According to Sara Gosman, an environmental law professor at the University of Arkansas, the ruling leaves the BOEM, which is overseen by the Interior Department, with multiple options.

In an emailed statement to The Hill, Gosman said that after its revised analysis, the department could choose to either not hold the sale or decide to hold a smaller one if these decisions are backed by a new analysis.

She also said that the department may be able to drag its feet and not make a decision until the end of the current leasing period, effectively halting it.

However, Gosman noted that the dragging-its-feet approach would be risky because of the June injunction, saying in a follow-up interview that it could spur additional litigation or that the court could even hold the federal government in contempt.

At the start of his tenure, President BidenJoe BidenOath Keepers leader spoke to Jan. 6 panel from detention center Biden nominee faces scrutiny over fintech work, compensation Overnight Defense & National Security Pentagon deploying 3,000 troops to Europe MORE issued a pause on all new drilling lease sales as the Interior Department reviewed the federal oil and gas program.

In June, Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction against that pause, ruling that as the case proceeded, the administration would have to continue its leasing program.

The sale took place in November and received fierce backlash from environmentalists, who said the department should have modified the sale or waited for the results of an appeal.

In August, they sued over it, and a court last week ruled in the environmentalists favor.

The Interior Department is now under close scrutiny from both the oil and gas industry and environmental groups while they await its decision on the matter.

Environmentalists hope that the sale will ultimately be canceled.

I think that any reasonable, science-based, comprehensive analysis would show that it is simply too harmful to the environment and cant go forward, said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

If youre putting us on a course to address the climate crisis, there is no reason to keep holding sales because there is already so much leased today, said Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities.

Meanwhile, industry groups and Republican-led states have pushed for a robust drilling program.

We would be hopeful that they would understand that a decision to not move forward with some urgency would be detrimental to Americans for many reasons when it comes to the need for domestic energy production, said Erik Milito, president of the Natural Ocean Industries Association, which represents both offshore drilling and offshore wind interests.

The Biden administration last year wrapped up its assessment of its overall oil and gas leasing program, saying that it should raise royalties for onshore drilling, but did not make a similar recommendation for offshore drilling.

Instead, it said that BOEM was working on changes following a different report recommending that it ensure it is capturing the full value of the leases it offers.

It also said, for both onshore and offshore drilling, the department will continue to study the best way to incorporate the cost of the planet-warming emissions but it didnt lay out specific steps that would be taken.

Weiss said that, overall, he hopes the department action is part of a larger plan to meet its climate goals.

At the end of the day, President Biden has said we have to limit the impacts of climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We have to put America on track to net-zero emissions by 2050. You cant do that if youre continuing to hold lease sales, but you also have to do it the right way to get us there, he said.

And so, what I hope this is part of is a comprehensive plan to reaching that net-zero, he added.

Industry is also closely watching what the administration will do with oil and gas leasing in general.

It will be incumbent on the Administration to defend responsible U.S. offshore production and to take the necessary steps, including the development of a new U.S. offshore oil and gas leasing program, to ensure continued leasing and energy production from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, for the benefit of all Americans, Milito said in a statement following the latest court decision.

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Court's invalidation of offshore drilling sale ratchets up the pressure on Interior | TheHill - The Hill

Andrew Scandalios, senior managing director, new york co-office head, JLL (JLL, Google Maps)

UPDATE 2/2/22 6:04 PM: Nothings cheap at Gucci, but now we know how much it would cost to buy the building that its Soho location calls home.

An institutional owner advised by JP Morgan Global Alternatives sold 375 West Broadway for $130 million. The building houses a 10,000-square-foot Gucci store on the ground floor beneath 60,000 square feet of office space.

The buyer was identified as an offshore family office advised by Macquarie Asset Management. A JLL team led by Andrew Scandalios and David Giancola represented the owner, whose identity could not be determined through public records.

The building is fully leased, with a weighted average lease term of less than five years. Block, the conglomerate of digital payment company Cash App, music streaming app TIDAL and crypto platform TBD54566975, holds the offices, spread across the top four floors.

Real Estate Equities bought the building for $81 million in 2013, when it housed an Anthropologie. They sold it a year later for $118.9 million.

Retail foot traffic in Soho ticked back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021, according to data from Placer.ai. The platform shows just over 144,000 visits to area retail locations in December 2021, 101 percent of the levels recorded in December 2019.

However, Manhattans retail recovery has proved uneven.

Upscale brands in recent months opened outposts away from the traditional Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue shopping hubs, the New York Post reported in October. Companies looking to take advantage of lesser retail rents and the opportunity to pivot from e-commerce to physical retail turned to locations in Soho and the Meatpacking District.

UPDATE: A previous version of this article mistakenly identified Pearlmark as the seller. Pearlmark was an old adviser to the owner, not the owner.

Contact Joe Lovinger

Continued here:

Guccis Soho location sold to offshore buyer for $130M - The Real Deal

Sen. Angus KingAngus KingEnergy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale Biden topromoteanti-gun violence measures in NYC trip New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans MORE (I-Maine) leda group of all senators representing the Gulf of Maine in a letter Wednesday asking the Biden administration to thoroughly research the impact of planned offshore wind power projects on local economies.

King was joined on the bipartisan letter by Sens. Ed MarkeyEd MarkeyEnergy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans Senate Democrats call for DOJ crackdown on counterfeit masks MORE (D-Mass.), Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenBiden nominee faces scrutiny over fintech work, compensation Schumer brushes off talk of possible primary threats to Manchin, Sinema Energy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale MORE (D-Mass.), Susan CollinsSusan Margaret CollinsTrump Jan. 6 comments renew momentum behind riot probe Energy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale 'Ghost Army' members to be awarded Congressional Gold Medal MORE (R-Maine), Jeanne ShaheenCynthia (Jeanne) Jeanne ShaheenRussia crisis exacerbates US political divisions Energy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans MORE (D-N.H.) and Maggie HassanMargaret (Maggie) HassanEnergy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans Democrats press cryptomining companies on energy consumption MORE (D-N.H.).

We recognize the potential for our states to produce significant clean, renewable energy and to harbor a new industry and workforce through responsible development of offshore wind off our shores, the senators wrote in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Amanda Lefton.

However, it is essential that BOEM do additional outreach and research to inform the agencys planning process prior to conducting lease sales and to improve the ability to assess, predict, monitor, and manage potential environmental impacts of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine, they added.

The senators noted additional data gaps on the projected economic impacts of the offshore development plans, calling for regionally specific research into those effects.

The Biden administration has set a goal of having 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power operating by 2030, with broader plans for leases along the east and west coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Maine. Interior Secretary Deb HaalandDeb HaalandEnergy & Environment Interior in hot seat after court halts drilling sale New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans Interior weighs fee hike for upcoming public lands drilling auctions MORE said in October that the department could hold as many as seven offshore wind lease sales by 2025. The U.S. currently has just two operating offshore wind farms that comprise 42 megawatts of wind capacity.

With the exception of Collins, the only Republican representing New England in the Senate, all signers of the letter have consistently backed the Biden administration on environmental and energy policy. Collins was one of 19 Republicans who joined every Senate Democrat in voting for last years bipartisan infrastructure package, which included increased funding for renewable energy transmission lines.

The Hill has reached out to the BOEM for comment.

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New England senators ask Biden admin to study economic impacts of offshore wind plans | TheHill - The Hill

The creak is a distinctive sound wooden oars kiss the oarlocks, wood rubs green bronze and squeals before it settles into a silent groove. A stroke, pause, water drips and then another stroke. Head turns side-to-side, wary and cautious. A cadence forms between boat and rower.

The trip across the water varies in time, depending on tide, current and the wind. Weather is friend or foe and theres no telling until youre in it when rowing off island for food, a doctors visit or to take children to school.

For those brave enough to test the waters of an island-bound life today, transit to the mainland is much safer and faster. Powerboats make the trip a much easier one, though certainly less dramatic. But before all of that, rowing a dory was the very first chore if one was to leave their island home.

Here along the Down East coast island living was a unique and hard way of life for many. Lighthouse keepers and their families are the select few now recognized for their bravery and steadfast determination to bring light to the waters along the coast. Many of these stories emanate from isolated spots in dark, cold waters, such as Libby Island Light celebrated in Philmore Wass Lighthouse in My Lifeand where his family lived for 21 years.

But for others island living is just a day and then another steeped in challenges, wrapped in isolation, comforted by unbridled beauty and cherished as a normal way of life.

Maines coastal waters are home to approximately 4,000 islands. Of those, only 15 or so un-bridged Maine islands have year-round populations. According to the 2020 census, Vinalhaven had the largest population with nearly 1,300 residents and Frenchboro had the smallest with 29.

Monhegan Island was the first island I visited once I found Maine. The island is home to a fishing fleet and artists but still has no automobiles, as it buffers itself against modern ways. What I remember most was a sense of isolation I had not felt before. I was there with other people, but seeing water surround it while hiking its trails instilled a sense of foreboding loneliness in me.

There are islands Down East where generations of families once built houses and lived. Starboard Island now called Ingalls is accessible via the bar at low tide. Families who lived on the island would take the children by rowboat to attend school on the mainland at the one-room schoolhouse, which still stands today, in the village of Starboard. Ingalls Island is now home to families only during the summer. Foster Island, its concrete castle now gone, has a lone cabin on that spot, and Roque Island, with its rare crescent sand beach, is home to a number of families during the summer months, as well.

What makes people venture onto islands to live out their days on a bump in the water? This passage from Philip Conklings Islands in Timesays it best: On these islands is an underlying tautness that characterizes much of this lovely coast. It is the tension between rootedness and impermanence, between bounty and failure, between un-giving rock and shifting sand. This cold coast is silent witness to the enduring truth that human enterprise may come and go, may rise and recede like the tide, and that sea and granite alone may endure.

I have recently read about a couple whose choice it was to live on an island. Over time this location proved to be the only place they could have lived and been happy. Life is like that, revealing more and providing answers as time moves by.

That couple, Art and Nan Kellam, lived life on purpose and did so for more than 40 years. Their island was Placentia Island off the eastern coast of Maine, near Mount Desert Island. They found it, bought it and then built a life upon it. Our first year was one of discovery, in our surroundings, in others, and in ourselves, Nan Kellam wrote in 1950.

The Kellams are gone, but remnants of their life on that island still hover in the air, on the islands beach and in the fields of grass, rock and trees. The shade of their steps lie all around to be found by visitors from time to time, shared by fauna and flora every single day. The dory they used to row back and forth to the mainland is upside down, its hull like bleached whalebone peeking for its other parts, while slowly sinking into time.

A life of two became three when Art and Nan set foot on that island. Now the island is all that remains, a family member mourning and remembering loved ones. The island gave, it took, and it demanded respect over time. Like all families, quarrels were inevitable but love was always constant.

When I look toward islands today, I see yesterday island and islanders looking right back at me. I see pointed spires of trees catch and hold fog as it annoys, gulls floating on bands of unseen air, rocks pummeled by surf, the spray wetting my view.

I see the lives of those that chose a life on the island: children play on the beach and wave, clothes hung out to dry wave, too; men fix boats and mend traps, women wrap their arms staring out to the horizon; livestock roam, landscapes are painted, words are written, time stands still and all is good, all is calm, and all is so very perfect.

More articles from the BDN

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Living on an offshore Maine island isn't for the faint of heart - Bangor Daily News