Dragging anchors are a problem for coral reefs and the ecosystems they support. Bonaire, a destination for scuba divers, prohibits spear fishing on the entire island as well anchoring in restricted areas where they have permanent buoys that you may use for an hour or so at no cost.
The last time I visited on my boat the customs official said to me on parting, “All we have is Bon Aire (good air).”
The Captain
I have a stake in Innovate Corp (VATE) that has stakes in various business lines. One of those business lines was involved in laying of undersea cables. VATE had a % ownership in the venture, and the Chinese partner made an offer for the VATE stake. VATE received an upfront payment on time, but the final payment was delayed for about 6 months.
The other data I have relates to knowing about one of the bigger players in the sector - Subsea 7. Just know the company exists. Have not followed the company closely, but do know they exist. Okay, one more point. This was 7 or 8 years ago. Offshore driller Seadrill (SDRL) had a Brazilian subsidiary that focused on pipe-laying vessels. The vessels were in demand so SDRL bumped up their order for additional vessels. IIRC, the vessels cost $200M-a-pop. Not as expensive as a drilling rig or drillship, but not exactly cheap.
What is the cheapest energy source per kWh?
Hydroelectric power is the cheapest energy source because the infrastructure has been in place for a long time, and it produces electricity consistently. It is also worth noting that wind power now comes in at $0.04 to $0.06 per kWh, making wind power the cheapest in some areas.
This is a hotly debated topic, and there are two possibilities: solar and tidal. In the past, the cost of technology and the lack of efficiency drove up the cost of solar. As efficiency and ease of installation continue to improve, this cost will come down, but it’s still more expensive. However, it’s worth noting that the average cost per kWh of solar is now around $0.10, while fossil fuels average between $0.05 and $0.17 per kWh.
Is nuclear energy expensive?
Nuclear is also much more expensive, the WNISR report said. The cost of generating solar power ranges from $36 to $44 per megawatt hour (MWh), the WNISR said, while onshore wind power comes in at $29–$56 per MWh. Nuclear energy costs between $112 and $189.Sep 23, 2019
Announced today (10/24), dry bulk shipping entity Diana Shipping Inc (DSX) creating a subsidiary entity that will participate in the offshore wind vessel arena
I have no idea what a Commissioning Service Operation Vessel (CSOV) does, but supposedly it is offshore wind related. DSX has a few partners in this venture.
Obviously, no near term impacts.
“It’s clear there are inherent issues affecting the performance and reliability of subsea cables that are within the industry’s control. Failures can stem from any stage in the cable lifecycle – from design to manufacture, handling and installation, through to operation and maintenance.”
From the Gulski paper:
The reasons for offshore failures are manifold and according to Ref. [7] they could be classified into two categories:
— Faults in the open sea, caused by dragging fishing nets, anchor strikes and erosion resulting in the abrasion of the cable due to its [lateral movement]
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/lateral-movement) under the influence of hydrodynamic loading;
— Faults as a result of inadequate preparation, planning and building at the beginning of a OWF project, in combination with insufficient risk identification, the (project specific) subsea cable design and the shortcomings in how specific procedures are implemented.
According to Ref. [5], two-thirds of recorded cable faults can be attributed to contractor errors during installation work, even if these deficiencies are mostly not identified until windfarm operation has started.
DB2
However, those number leave out the grid costs (backup, balancing, connection) which are a couple of orders of magnitude higher for renewables than for reliables.
DB2
Orsted CEO Ousts Top Executives After $4 Billion Impairment
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-14/orsted-cfo-coo-step-down-weeks-after-4-billion-impairment#xj4y7vzkg
Orsted A/S’s chief Mads Nipper dismissed two top executives as the company fights to recover from huge writedowns connected to abandoned projects. The Danish wind developer needs to present a fast turnaround strategy…
DB2
Major offshore wind projects in New York canceled in latest blow to industry
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/19/new-york-offshore-wind-canceled-00153319
The decision is another setback to New York’s aspirations to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030…NYSERDA, the state authority in charge of the deals, announced Friday that no final agreements could be reached with the three projects that received provisional awards in October 2023. Those bids were all linked to major supply chain investments by General Electric and a larger turbine it planned to build that was aimed at boosting the region’s renewable energy portfolio…
In February, POLITICO’s E&E News reported that GE didn’t plan to move forward with an 18 megawatt turbine. NYSERDA confirmed that was the main reason no final awards were made. A smaller turbine means a project would need more individual turbine locations to deliver the same power — and the costs would have been higher…
The authority was already expected to start another round of offshore wind bids and may accelerate those efforts…The unsuccessful solicitation comes after several blows to the industry in the U.S. in the past year, indicating the high costs and regulatory hurdles each project faces — along with the concern over socking utility customers with higher bills to pay for them.
DB2
And another existing wind project being dismantled. Looks like the energy company failed to follow the law.
Wind turbines on sacred Osage land must be removed, according to court ruling : NPR
I posted a book review of a 2021 book with this cost info–
A chart shows major reductions in cost of electricity with onshore wind cheapest at $53/mwhr, solar at $88, offshore wind $115, coal steady at $109 and nuclear rising sharply at $155.
And yet households pay more for electricity in places with more renewables (think Germany, California).
Are renewables affecting income distribution and increasing the risk of household poverty?
Pereira et al.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544218325738
In fact, growth in the installed capacity of renewable energy has increased electricity prices, which raises the question of how households have withstood the cost of energy transition…This paper proves that both income and risk of household poverty are directly linked with renewable energies , in both the short- and long-run.
DB2
Actual cost is not the only variable, there are also taxes and other politics involved.
The Captain
“Actual cost is not the only variable, there are also taxes and other politics involved.”
Indeed.
DB2
Plus don’t forget new installation means new depreciation charges. Old equipment is often fully depreciated. That makes it less costly.
Texas has generates more renewable energy than California. How do rates in California compare with Texas?
South Dakota and Iowa generate a much larger percentage of their power from renewables than either California or Texas. Are rates especially high in those states?
The correlation is not perfect, but a number of research papers on energy poverty have noted the correlation.
Last year I ran a couple of regressions:
Cost = (.014 x %Penetration) + 0.077
p-value = 0.0011
Is the slope significantly different from zero? Yes.
And for solar penetration:
For the same 20 largest GDP countries the slope of cost versus solar penetration is twice as steep.
Cost = (.028 x %Penetration) + 0.046
DB2
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/24/new-york-offshore-wind-00153556
In the rush to save New York’s offshore industry from collapse last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration bet big on three new wind farms — and even bigger on General Electric…
For months, it’s been clear GE Vernova, a spinoff of GE, couldn’t deliver the crucial parts all three wind farms were forced to use. And, late last week, New York officials announced all three projects are dead in the water.
Interesting enough, these problems were known over a year ago. From March 2023:
Turbine builders like GE have tried to combat declining power purchase agreements (PPAs) and shrinking tax credits with “faster product launches, more variants, more product derivatives”, GE onshore wind head Vic Abate told the GE 2023 investor conference. “The result of that was more complexity, lower quality and higher costs,” he said…
GE is not the only company suffering from upsizing its turbines too quickly, with the industry increasingly suffering from getting too big, too fast. Faulty components created a €472 million ($A28 million) hole in Siemens Gamesa’s December quarter result, making up more than half of the nearly billion-euro loss for the period. And Vestas added €210 million in warranty provisions for repairs in the December quarter, as rising call outs and higher upgrade costs bite at the Danish company, too.
DB2
The canceled projects pushed New York further adrift of meeting its goal. Today, a little more than a quarter of New York’s power comes from renewable sources, the vast majority of it hydropower. Offshore wind was supposed to help the state reach 70 percent, with New York officials targeting 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2035. Last week’s decision nixed almost half of it.
“It’s obviously a setback. I mean, there’s no way to sugarcoat it,” said Fred Zalcman, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance. “It was to be a big part of New York’s portfolio — and kind of the linchpin — in getting to nine gigawatts by 2035.”
The cancellations owe to a variety of factors. The offshore wind market is still adjusting to the effects of inflation and higher interest rates. It also reflects New York’s push to link offshore wind projects with manufacturing facilities onshore. And it came just as GE Vernova emerged as a stand-alone company from General Electric, with a struggling offshore wind division that reported a $1.1 billion loss last year.
DB2
Buying GE itself with the on-going airplane maintenance business would seem like a better investment.