Wind power

Last month, the US generated 18% of its electricity from wind and solar (59 TWh) for the first time. That beat the previous record set in March 2021 (53 TWh), according to new data from global energy think tank Ember.

All 10 offshore wind turbines have now been installed by Dutch maritime company Van Oord off Italy’s Puglia coast – the heel of Italy’s boot. It’s Italy’s first offshore wind farm, and the first in the Mediterranean Sea.

A 10.5 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind farm will be built in Morocco’s Guelmim-Oued Noun region, and it will supply the UK with clean energy via subsea cables. The twin 1.8 GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables will be the world’s longest.

Germany’s economy and climate ministry today announced a more ambitious target of clean energy making up 80% of its power mix by 2030 – a bump up from its previous target of 65%. Currently, 40.9% of Germany’s power mix consists of clean energy.

In the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today, there’s good news and bad news. We’re spotlighting the good news: EVs and clean energy can help us limit climate change.

Wind and solar, the fastest-growing sources of electricity, reached a record 10% of global electricity in 50 countries in 2021, according to a report released today by independent energy think tank Ember. Overall, clean sources generated 38% of the world’s electricity in 2021, beating coal, at 36%.

As UK prime minister Boris Johnson is due to unveil his energy plan this week, a British cabinet minister made a suggestion yesterday on a news program that he thinks would win the support of communities who live near onshore wind farms. Could it work?

Columbus, Ohio, headquartered American Electric Power’s 998-megawatt (MW) Traverse Wind Energy Center in Oklahoma is now online. It’s the largest single wind farm built at one time in North America.

The UK’s total pipeline of offshore wind projects has now reached 86 gigawatts (GW), according to new research published today by not-for-profit renewable energy trade association RenewableUK.

Almost half of Ukraine’s renewable energy facilities, which have a combined capacity of almost 4 gigawatts (GW) and worth of more than $5.6 billion, are in the firing line due to Russian aggression, according to the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE).

Danish wind turbine manufacturing giant Vestas will suspend work on four Russian wind projects in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Vestas will also suspend all new commercial activities in Russia.

The US offshore wind industry is ramping up quickly, and so too are the essential industries that will support it. Danish wind giant Ørsted, New England energy company Eversource, and Louisiana-based marine transport company Edison Chouest Offshore yesterday announced that shipbuilding has started on the Eco Edison, the first Jones Act-qualified offshore wind farm service operations vessel in the US.  

Norwegian energy giant Equinor and UK-headquartered bp announced yesterday that they have made an agreement with New York City to transform the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a major offshore wind operations and staging hub.

2021 was a record-breaking year for investment in and deployment of clean energy, battery storage, and EVs in the US, according to the “2022 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook” published today by BloombergNEF (BNEF) and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE).

Petrofac, a London-headquartered global company that designs, builds, and operates energy facilities, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Amsterdam-based Seawind Ocean Technology to deploy the latter’s two-bladed floating wind turbines.

The US is now on track to achieve at least 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind generation by 2030 – a goal that the Biden administration announced on March 29, 2021.

Kansas state senator Mike Thompson (R-Shawnee), a former meteorologist, is not a supporter of clean energy. So he’s sponsoring a bill that could kneecap Kansas’ thriving wind power industry.

Toronto-headquartered global energy transition platform Amp Energy is going to build what will be known as the Scottish Green Battery Complex. They will be the two largest grid-connected battery storage facilities in Europe.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has forecast in its January Short-Term Energy Outlook that rising electricity generation from clean energy such as solar and wind will reduce generation from fossil fuel-fired power plants over the next two years. 

Crown Estate Scotland, which held Scotland’s largest-ever auction of offshore wind permits, today announced that it has selected 17 projects out of 74 applications in its ScotWind Leasing round.

Clean energy made up 46% of Germany’s net public power generation in 2021. That was down from 50% in 2020, according to Fraunhofer ISE, the largest solar energy research institute in Europe.