Daily Archives: August 12, 2022

CEC Adopts Historic California Offshore Wind Goals, Enough to Power Upwards of 25 Million Homes – California Energy Commission

Posted: August 12, 2022 at 9:31 am

For Immediate Release: Aug 10, 2022

New goals of up to 5,000 MW by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045 will accelerate Californias transition to 100% clean electricity

SACRAMENTO Today the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted a report establishing offshore wind goals and moving the state one step closer to development of the clean energy resource off Californias coast. Preliminary findings in the report set planning goals of 2,000-5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045, enough electricity to power 3.75 million initially and 25 million homes by mid-century.

California is home to some of the best offshore wind resources in the country, a power source that can play a major role in helping the state achieve 100 percent clean electricity and carbon neutrality. Offshore wind is a critical clean energy source at night complementing solar energy by providing generation at the end of the day and into the evening as the sun sets.

These ambitious yet achievable goals are an important signal of how committed California is to bringing the offshore wind industry to our state, said CEC Chair David Hochschild. This remarkable resource will generate clean electricity around the clock and help us transition away from fossil fuel-based energy as quickly as possible while ensuring grid reliability.

The CEC developed the report in coordination with federal, state, and local agencies and stakeholders including Tribal governments, fisheries and other ocean users. It is the first of several products the CEC must prepare to create a strategic plan for offshore wind energy development as required by Assembly Bill 525. It reflects the latest available research on technical potential.

The success of our states climate goals requires all-hands-on deck and we are committed to ongoing consultation with other agencies and those most impacted by the scale-up needed to achieve 100 percent clean electricity, said CEC Vice Chair Siva Gunda.

CEC staff will next study the economic benefits of offshore wind in relation to seaport investments and workforce development needs. Staff will also create a roadmap to develop a permitting process for offshore wind energy facilities and associated electricity and transmission infrastructure. The entire plan must be submitted to the Legislature by June 2023.

Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an agreement opening the West Coast for development for the first time. As a result of the partnership, in May, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managementreleased a proposed sale noticefor offshore wind leases off the northern and central coasts in areas designated as most suitable for commercial wind energy activities near Humboldt and Morro Bay.

Plans for renovations to prepare for offshore wind activities are already underway at the Port of Humboldt Bay with $10.5 million in funding approved by the CEC earlier this year. Governor Newsoms202223 budget proposalbuilds on this effort and proposes an additional $45 million for other needed upgrades at waterfront facilities.

To learn more about Californias offshore wind efforts, visit the CECs Offshore Renewable Energy Page.

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About the California Energy Commission

The California Energy Commission is leading the state to a 100 percent clean energy future. It hasseven core responsibilities: developing renewable energy, transforming transportation, increasing energy efficiency, investing in energy innovation, advancing state energy policy, certifying thermal power plants, and preparing for energy emergencies.

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CEC Adopts Historic California Offshore Wind Goals, Enough to Power Upwards of 25 Million Homes - California Energy Commission

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Tech’s Offshore Hiring Has Gone Into Overdrive – WIRED

Posted: at 9:31 am

In the Past year, Sebastin, a developer based in Ecuador, has received more LinkedIn messages from recruiters trying to poach him than ever before. One particular message caught his eye: It was from a Miami-based delivery startup. Sebastin, who asked that his last name not be used to avoid jeopardizing his current employment, was excited by the potential growth opportunity.

I would like to know how companies in the United States work, how things are done there, he says. Many other experienced developers outside the US have found themselves in increasingly high demand from American tech companies as the rise of remote work and a US talent shortage have spurred searches for more globalized teams.

A 2022 report from tech services company Commit estimated that offshoring software development roles would increase by 70 percent over the next year. Some companies, like Coinbase and Shopify, have already hired aggressively outside the US to fill open technical roles. Software developers are shaping up to be the first global role, says Alex Bouaziz, the CEO of Deel, a startup that provides payroll and remote hiring services. His company saw a 50 percent increase in its US-based clients hiring abroad in 2022.

In the past, companies accessed a wider pool of talent by strategically building offices in secondary markets. It was mostly like we have an HQ1, then we pick one market and we build HQ2, says Dylan Serota, cofounder of Terminal, a company that connects developers in Latin America, Spain, and Poland with startups in places like the US and UK. Terminal provides the infrastructure to offer benefits and pay local taxes, something many smaller companies dont have the resources to put in place. The rise of remote has encouraged companies to rethink their approach to talent in ways they would not have considered doing before, says Serota.

To help facilitate this process, companies like Terminal and Telescoped vet developers and startups and then provide benefits like health insurance, pay local taxes on behalf of the developers, and ensure the developers receive perks like paid time off and equity. About 80 percent of the developers we work with have equity in the startups they work with, says Serota.

Many new hires are coming from countries like the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, and India. While tech companies have long sought out those markets to cheaply staff call centers, content moderator positions, and IT departments, they are now following talent to fill open roles on any of their teams. We used to think of this as a cost arbitrage storyyou hire in Mexico or India because its cheaper, says Jimit Arora, a partner at the research firm Everest Group. Now I see this as a talent arbitrage story. You go where the talent is.

Latin American talent, in particular, has attracted attention from companies based in the US. The region shares time zones with the US, and seeking out talent in cities like Mexico City or Bogota allows startups to avoid competing for talent in places like San Francisco, says Bouaziz. Its also significantly cheaper: The average monthly salary for a software engineer in Mexico is $3,165, according to Coders Link, a platform that connects Latin American talent with US-based tech companies. Thats about one-fifth the salary of a software engineer in San Francisco. The war in Ukraine, which was a major hub for IT outsourcing, has also accelerated this trend, according to Serota. As workers were forced to flee their homes or fight the Russian invasion, foreign companies have sought new places to offshore their work, and Serota says the demand has shifted rapidly to Latin America, as well as some other markets in Eastern Europe.

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Methane Emissions from U.S. Shallow Offshore Platforms Exceed Those on Land, Study Finds – Offshore Engineer

Posted: at 9:31 am

Measurements of methane emissions from shallow wateroiland gas platforms in the U.S.Gulf of Mexico found they were substantially higher than those from drilling on land, according to research published on Thursday.

The study, by researchers at non-profit Carbon Mapper, the University of Arizona, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Michigan and Arizona State University, is among the first to measure methane leaking from offshore facilities, which account for about 30% of globaloiland gas production but are difficult to study because they are so remote.

The researchers found a methane loss rate, a measure of emissions relative to production, of 23% to 66% from the offshore platforms compared with 3.3% to 3.7% in previousstudies of drilling activity in the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S.oilfield.

"What this study does is it highlights that there is something going on here," Alana Ayasse, the study's lead author, said in an interview. "We see a lot of emissions relative to the low production."

Flights, conducted in the spring and autumn in 2021, observed 151 shallow water platforms, about 8% of active shallow water infrastructure. Those facilities tend to be older and lower-producing than deepwater platforms, which Carbon Mapper hopes to take measurements of later this year.

Carbon Mapper measures emissions using aircraft equipped with remote sensing technology. To see emissions over dark water, researchers devised a way to target the sun's reflection to illuminate the areas it was observing.

The studyalso found that the offshoreemissions were more persistentthan those onshore. That means they were detected frequently over multiple flights in 2021.A small number of sources, typically tanks, pipelines and vent booms, were responsible for most of the emissions.

Theoiland gas industry is responsible for about 20% of methane emissions from human activity. Scientists have warned that countries must make rapid reductions in methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, to stave off the worst effects of global warming.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom/Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Methane Emissions from U.S. Shallow Offshore Platforms Exceed Those on Land, Study Finds - Offshore Engineer

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The first North American freshwater offshore wind farm will be in Lake Erie – Electrek.co

Posted: at 9:31 am

Despite pushback from residents, the Supreme Court of Ohio yesterday approved a permit for the construction of North Americas first freshwater offshore wind farm, which will be cited in Lake Erie, around eight miles north of Cleveland.

Residents of Bratenahl, a village in Ohios Cuyahoga County on the southern shore of Lake Erie, sued to stop the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporations (LEEDCo) Icebreaker Wind, a six-turbine, 20.7-megawatt (MW) offshore wind demonstration project, which will test offshore wind viability in the Great Lakes.

LEEDCo wrote:

Lake Erie is an ideal location for offshore wind, with ample available interconnect capacity, large load centers along the coast, growing energy demand due to existing plant retirements, a strong manufacturing base, and limited other sources of renewable energy.

The Bratenahl residents objected to the project on the basis of it not having enough evidence that it wouldnt harm birds and bats, and that the project would not serve the public interest as defined by Ohio law. They also dont want further wind farms to be installed in Lake Erie.

The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled 6-1 in favor of Icebreaker Wind. It stated that the Ohio Power Siting Board provided multiple studies that demonstrated a low impact on birds and bats, and that the wind farm would have minimal impact on the publics enjoyment of Lake Erie.

Justice Jennifer Brunner wrote on page 13:

Rather than requiring Icebreaker to resolve those matters before issuing the certificate, the board determined that the conditions on its grant of the certificate were sufficient to protect birds and bats and to ensure that the facility represented the minimum adverse environmental impact.

Icebreaker Wind will interconnect with the Cleveland Public Power transmission system at the Lake Road 138kV substation.

LEEDCo asserts that the Great Lakes hold enough energy potential to power the entire country. The winds of Lake Erie alone could meet over 10% of our electricity needs by 2030.

Read more: Biden to expand offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico

Photo: LEEDCo Simulation

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How the climate bill would shift offshore wind in 4 states – E&E News

Posted: at 9:31 am

The Democrats climate bill would erase former President Donald Trumps 10-year moratorium on offshore wind in the U.S. Southeast, but few experts are betting on a regionwide surge in projects.

Signed by Trump in 2020, the moratorium banned new leasing for all types of energy off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It went into effect last month (Energywire, Sept. 29, 2020).

The Inflation Reduction Act which the Senate passed over the weekend and is expected to be taken up by the House soon would strip away the ban on offshore wind lease sales, while leaving it in place for oil and gas drilling.

But wind power has not generally experienced warm welcomes in the Southeast. Just one onshore wind farm the Avangrid-owned Amazon Wind Farm near Elizabeth City, N.C.currently generates electrons across the four moratorium states. Interest in offshore wind also has been mixed.

Lifting the moratorium may not transform that reality, even if Democrats climate bill becomes law, some clean energy advocates and environmentalists acknowledge.

In places such as Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, state officials largely havent enacted measures to promote offshore wind. This is in stark contrast to the state guarantees to buy offshore wind power that were crucial to the industrys emergence in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.

North Carolina stands out as the regions clear exception, taking concrete steps to embrace the industry. One of its major utilities, Duke Energy, won the right to generate power from federal lease areas for offshore wind in May, as did French oil and gas major TotalEnergies SE. The states Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, also has laid out specific targets for the sector: 2.8 gigawatts by 2030, and 8 gigawatts a decade later.

Across other states, however, little groundwork has been done to establish offshore winds foothold as a future resource. And it remains unclear if, or how quickly, official indifference might transform into boosterism.

In South Carolina, for instance, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster recently signed a law calling for a first study of how offshore winds need for locally made parts and staging ports could benefit the state economically.

That could help convince South Carolinians that their state is well positioned to host the industry, said Hailey Deres, program associate at the Southeastern Wind Coalition.

Still, Deres added, I dont think that there is going to be any immediate push for an offshore wind project even if the moratorium is lifted.

Action on offshore wind is probably farthest off in Georgia, where initial explorations from Georgia Power a decade ago havent led to firm commitments, and Florida, where the federal government has yet to begin preliminary offshore wind scoping that would allow for commercial development.

The Southeastern states also face a physical disadvantage in their wind conditions, at least compared with blustery waters like those off Massachusetts.

Generally speaking, Southern states have lower wind speeds on land and at sea so the potential is lower than the Northern states, said Walt Musial, offshore wind research lead at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

That might make developers less willing to attempt projects, although Musial noted that wind conditions are still considered economic for power generation in many areas.

Still, many offshore wind advocates are optimistic about ending the moratorium.

The Southeast has historically not been viewed as the best place for wind energy development, but ending Trumps moratorium would give states a chance to change that, as North Carolina has already begun to do, saidChris Carnevale, climate advocacy director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Offshore wind could also complement solar a focus of many Southern utilities development by generating power at times when sunlight grows weaker, allowing for a higher concentration of renewables on the grid, he said.

It would be a very positive thing for our region if the moratorium is lifted, said Carnevale.

Offshore winds future in the Southeast might depend on a handful of factors different from those governing its rise in the Northeast.

First is the central role of utilities and state regulators.

Where climate commitments from Democratic governors and legislators along with independent developers drove growth in New England, large utilities like Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Georgia Power and NextEra will determine much of what happens in the southern Atlantic, said South Carolina-based Aaron Barr, global head of onshore wind research for Wood Mackenzie.

Its really hard to build anything, particularly these massive offshore wind projects, without some involvement from the regulated utilities in all of these states, Barr said. The pathway for offshore wind in the Southeast is really through these regulated utilities.

The moratorium removal is one of several dominoes falling in the Southeast to get the offshore wind industry and its supply chain moving, he said.

Now that this moratorium may be going away, it really opens up a lot of doors, he said.

The cost of offshore wind power may also be more of a consideration in the region than in the Northeast, where governors were often eager to profile themselves as climate leaders. Transmission costs to bring the electricity generated offshore to population centers inland can push up price tags.

Jennette Gayer of Environment Georgia said falling costs as the industry matures might demonstrate the case for offshore wind to officials in Georgia, although her state shouldnt wait for that proof, she argued.

As turbines multiply across the East Coast, I expect well see costs come down significantly, said Gayer. Were on pace to install a lot of offshore wind over the next couple of years. We should be doing that right now in the state of Georgia.

Another special consideration for the Southeast especially for Florida may be vulnerability to hurricanes.

But that may be a challenge that diminishes over time. Technology is developing to deploy typhoon class turbines with larger rotors that can withstand hurricane-force winds, said Musial of NREL. Those are also likely needed for the western and central Gulf of Mexico, where the Biden administration is planning its first lease sales next year, he said.

Floridas offshore wind outlook may be limited by other unique pressures, like its huge tourism industry, sensitive environmental and wildlife implications, shipping lanes and fishing impacts, said Barr of Wood Mackenzie.

Put together, those issues mean Florida may be a challenging offshore wind market, he said. Yet it has extensive coastlines to offer, and its two largest utilities both have strong wind credentials: Duke, which is leading offshore wind in North Carolina, and NextEra, the largest onshore wind producer in the country.

None of the complications in Florida would entirely rule out offshore wind there, particularly with the Biden administrations push for offshore wind.

I havent seen the same momentum for [the Interior Department] to create an offshore lease area off the coast of Florida as I have in the Carolinas, Barr said. But, you know, this moratorium is over. That could easily happen.

In North Carolina, the offshore wind outlook has been picking up steam, and some argue that the removal of the moratorium will only accelerate that.

Thats mostly due to Dukes activity. The utility has long been the bellwether determining whether offshore wind could take off, and its recent commitment to the sector when it secured the highest bid for a lease off the states coast earlier this year was seen by wind advocates as a turning point for the state. Thats in addition to the passage of a law last year mandating North Carolina utilities cut emissions by 70 percent by the end of the decade, which offshore wind could help secure.

North Carolina Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat who led the push to remove the moratorium, said the ban had represented a threat to reaching those state targets.

It would just be leaving a utility-scale resource, you know, off the table as were going through this energy transition, she said. Thats the real reason for offshore wind is because its utility scale.

Ironically, the Trump-era moratorium may have helped offshore wind reach this pivotal moment in North Carolina.

A few months before it went into effect, theBiden administration added two new lease areas to the North Carolina wind footprint, with a combined capacity to power 500,000 homes (Energywire, May 12).

That came partly at the behest of Cooper, North Carolinas governor, who wrote in March to the Interior Departments Bureau of Ocean Energy Management urging it to finish work on the lease areas before the ban kicked in. Members of the states delegation made similar pleas.

We saw the lease sale make it over the finish line because of the moratorium. If anything, it mightve hastened that, said Carnevale of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The lease sale also introduced a new player into North Carolinas offshore wind space to drive investment: France-based TotalEnergies, which won one of the two leases.

TotalEnergies is one of the largest oil companies in the world and is experienced in offshore energy development. But importantly for North Carolina, its also eagerly diversifying its portfolio to offset its carbon emissions on a quest to reach 100 gigawatts of renewable power by 2030.

Ross said removing the moratorium would mean a chance to scale up, allowing the southern Atlantic states to compete for a slice of the U.S. offshore wind supply chain thats going to be needed in the coming years, from construction experts to build the first fleet of offshore wind farms to companies to service them once they are in action. There also will be the manufacturers that make the thousands of turbines blades, towers, foundations and nacelles needed to create this industry in the United States.

Its a shame, because the moratorium was unnecessary, Ross said. It really delayed things. But, you know, were getting it fixed pretty darn quick.

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Keppel, unit to invest in German offshore wind farm in renewables push – Reuters

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A view of a Keppel Corporation shipyard in Singapore January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su

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Aug 12 (Reuters) - Singaporean conglomerate Keppel Corp (KPLM.SI) said on Friday it would spend 305 million euros ($314.7 million) along with a unit for a 50.01% stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns 50% of Borkum Riffgrund 2, an offshore wind farm in Germany.

The deal comes as companies race to increase their exposure to renewable energy assets which have risen in prominence in recent years amid a global push towards clean and sustainable energy.

"The transaction further accelerates the growth of the group's exposure in renewable energy assets," Keppel said in a statement, adding that it would have a total renewable energy portfolio of about 2.2 gigawatts after the investment was completed.

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Borkum Riffgrund 2, which is located off the coast of Lower Saxony in the North Sea and has an operating capacity of about 465 megawatts, is 50% owned by Danish renewables firm Orsted (ORSTED.CO). Thai power producer Gulf Energy Development (GULF.BK) owns the entire SPV.

Keppel said it would fund its share of the deal through capital contributions to the joint venture, while its unit may pay for the investment with a combination of internal funds, equity, debt and external borrowings.

The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.

($1 = 0.9693 euros)

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Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Testing underway on Sears Island as potential offshore wind development hub – Maine Public

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Work is underway to test the first of two sites as a potential hub for wind energy development off Maine's coast.

Gov. Janet Mills directed the Maine Department of Transportation to explore the midcoast town of Searsport. A study done last year pointed to a portion of state-owned land on Sears Island and also nearby Mack Point as potential site options.

Crews have begun cutting trees and clearing a path on the island for geotechnical drilling and testing, said Matt Burns, executive director of the Maine Port Authority.

Testing will eventually happen at the Mack Point terminal as well, he said.

"We want to collect this data and really be able to look at the sites side by side, compare the pros and cons and distill that data that's actually digestible by a group that could look at it objectively," Burns said.

Rolf Olsen, vice president of Friends of Sears Island, said he supports Searsport as a potential hub for wind energy development but believes the island should be preserved for recreational purposes.

Mack Point terminal is already an industrial site and has served as a delivery point for land-based wind turbines.

"There's 50 years of history trying to develop Sears Island, and this is the latest iteration," Olsen said. "I'm in favor of wind energy, alternative energy, but do it on Mack Point, not Sears Island."

Burns said the Sears Island testing should be finished by the end of this month. There's no timeline for when the state might choose between these two sites or consider other alternatives, he added.

Maine wants to establish the nation's first offshore floating wind research array in the Gulf Maine, which it views as a key step in achieving its renewable goals of 80% by 2030.

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Big Oil Set to Cash in On Trillion-dollar Offshore Wind Prize – Offshore Engineer

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By Akif Chaudhry, Principal Analyst, Corporate Research, Wood Mackenzie

No longer in its infancy, offshore wind is a proven technology on course to play a key role in the decarbonisation of the global economy. Over the next decade, the industry will attract almost US$1 trillion in new investment.

A growing number of competitors are flocking to take advantage of the massive opportunities that will be created by the boom. The Majors notably the European Majors are no exception. Right now, their share of the market is small, but ambition is ramping up as they bet bigger with their investments in the zero-carbon value chain. And there is all to play for as the offshore wind industry scales rapidly and globally.

[Wood Mackenzie's] insight Why the Majors need to consider margins in weighing up offshore wind uses a proprietary new metric to break down why offshore wind offers a big prize for Big Oil. Using the expertise of our Corporate Service, we provide a detailed analysis of the relative performance of new field assets across the oil and gas industry and compare that to offshore wind.

Offshore wind delivers by some margin

The upstream sector has long analysed cash margins on a per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) basis. This well-understood metric reveals how much operating cashflow upstream oil and gas assets generate per unit of production. Its especially useful for articulating cash generation capacity and benchmarking portfolios.

Conventional analysis of renewables pitted against oil and gas investment usually focuses on relative risk and returns. But comparison with the legacy business needs new metrics. [Wood Mackenzie's] new cash margin metric operating cash flow per gigajoule equivalent (GJe) goes beyond traditional comparisons. And it reveals that offshore wind comes up trumps.Credit: Wood Mackenzie

Drawing on composite data from [Wood Mackenzie's] Lens Upstream and Lens Power platforms, [Wood Mackenzie's] study shows how a group of renewable leaders offshore wind portfolios stack up against the Majors oil and gas portfolios on this key metric. Tracking this asset-by-asset data demonstrates that offshore wind will deliver 25% higher unit operating cash margins in comparison to new field oil and gas projects.

Even the lowest offshore wind portfolio average operating cash margin is above the upstream average. And the renewable technologys margins trump deepwater Big Oils highest margin asset class.

Offshore winds strong operating cash margin performance shows that the financial prize is more than simply long-term and steady cash flows. Such a cash wedge within a business is a good way to support other portfolio areas or, indeed, a significant dividend commitment, and to hedge exposure to carbon and hydrocarbon prices.

Returns do, of course, matter. Falling IRRs from offshore wind projects will not be sustainable if the sector is to attract the capital required for it to play its part in meeting global climate goals. Mid-single digit returns will not be acceptable.

Companies have already been leaning on traditional tools of debt-financing and asset rotation to lift IRRs. As the sector matures other levers, such as increasing merchant exposure, power trading and building power-to-x projects, will also come into play to boost returns.

The Majors can play the long game with offshore wind

Offshore wind is not without challenges: dark clouds of supply-led cost inflation and rising cost of debt are looming large. The industry is currently grappling with oversupply, while the demands of next-generation technology mean that massive investment will be needed to back new tower production facilities.

But after years of managing volatility in oil and gas, the Majors are equipped to get the balance between risk and return right. And they are flush with deep pockets of cash to take advantage of the huge upcoming opportunities.

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Albany residents offered training for offshore wind jobs The Daily Gazette – The Daily Gazette

Posted: at 9:31 am

ALBANY The developers of a wind farm 30 miles off the shore of Long Island are providing $300,000 to train residents of Albanys South End neighborhood to help build it.

Orsted and Eversource, partners on the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind Project, announced the funding with local officials and potential trainees Wednesday at the Multi-Craft Apprenticeship Preparation Program training center in Albany.

It is drawn from the $1 million Upper Hudson Workforce Development Fund created by the Sunrise Wind project.

Sunrise is one of the first major offshore wind power projects in the United States, and one of the largest. An entire supply chain and support apparatus must be created for it.

More than 150 miles from the areawhere Sunrise will stand, foundation components will be built in the Port of Coeymans and towers will be built in the Port of Albany.

Residents of the South End, which adjoins the Port of Albany, are targeted for the job training because it is a historically disadvantaged neighborhood, with lower income and greater exposure to air pollution.

This is a long-awaited and exciting opportunity that will provide job training and sustainable unionized employment opportunities to low-income residents and people of color from Albanys South End neighborhood, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said.

The goal is to recruit workers of color and/or lower income to careers through which they may sustain a family, and to bring more diversity to the building trades in the process.

The new funding will cover pay, training and emergency financial needs for 15 to 20 participants each in 2022 and 2023.

The structured worksite and classroom training is designed to equip participants to navigate a union apprenticeship program.

Offshore wind is part of New York States plan to reach a zero-emissions electric grid by 2040. The target is at least 9,000 megawatts of power generated by offshore wind turbines by the year 2035.

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Are Accounting Firms Really Sending 30% of Their Work Offshore? – Going Concern

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In the past several weeks we have heard and read about huge amounts of work getting sent offshore. To India mostly, also the Philippines. Outsourcing is nothing new and rather expected given todays talent shortages but 30%? Perhaps more?

Doing a quick search pulled up a 2011 Accountancy Age article which mentioned PwC wanted to send 20% of its core audit hours to India by 2014, this would have been a leap from the 1-2% of work being outsourced at the time that article was written 10+ years ago. We found a couple recent pieces that repeat a single statistic: prior to the pandemic, about 6.2% of accounting firms used offshore staffing, post-pandemic that number grew to 41.3% with many more firms not currently offshoring but open to the idea.

Would anyone care to share their experiences with offshoring at your firm? Because what were hearing isnt great.

The guy who always comments you kids better stop insisting on remote work or your firm is going to replace you with Indian labor on our WFH articles is also welcome to say his piece, your moment has finally arrived buddy!

Have something to add to this story? Give us a shout by email, Twitter, or text/call the tipline at 202-505-8885. As always, all tips are anonymous.

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