It’s Good News Monday!
This Monday we talk about:
New Details on First Jones Act-Compliant Wind Turbine Installation Vessel
Are barriers effective for ‘loss of automatic DP control?’
Partnership Planning Remote-Controlled Tugboat for Port of Copenhagen
The people behind #bpNetZero
GE to test 3D-printed blade parts – starting with tips
Image Credit: gCaptain
More details have been released on the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine vessel. The vessel is being built for Dominion Energy at the Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Texas to ABS class. It’s 472 feet long and will be able to handle 12 MW and larger turbines, including foundations and heavy lifts. Dominion is developing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, including a smaller pilot project. The vessel’s name is Charybdis and will be built with 14,000 tons of domestic steel and a Huisman crane with a capacity of 2,200 tons. Overall cost is about $500 million.
Andy Goldsmith (IMCA). Image Credit: Riviera.
IMCA has released their findings for the annual ‘Dynamic Positioning Station Keeping Review’ and the high importance of reporting station keeping incidents. They received 144 reports from 104 vessels, short of what they would expect to receive.
“The largest percentage of main causes in 2020 was the ‘thruster/propulsion’ category at 33% (47). Eleven of these 47 (23%) resulted in the vessel not maintaining automatic DP control – a concerning increase on the previous year, when only 9% resulted in such a loss. ‘Power’ and ‘Computer’ categories were two other main causes making a large contribution to reporting; 18% of these reported events culminated in a loss of automatic DP control.
A secondary cause was identified in 129 of the reports. The most frequent remain the same as last year – ‘Electrical’ 41% and ‘Human Factors’ 26%. These, plus the newly introduced ‘Mechanical’ category (13%), represent more than 75% of all secondary causes.”
The good news is that OneStep Power is focused on eliminating as many of these events as possible through testing of DP systems aboard dynamically positioned vessels. We hope to see this number decrease as well as see more vessel owners report their DP issues.
“Svitzer Harmod. Credit: Kongsberg Maritime”.
An agreement is in place to develop the first remote-controlled tug for the Port of Copenhagen. Maersk subsidiary Svitzer and Kongsberg Maritime will work with ABS to create RECOTUG™, the first fully remote-controlled tugboat. They are starting with one tug to explore the technology and improve safety and efficiency. “‘While we are still several years away from seeing remotely operated tugs with no crew on board in commercial operation, there is no doubt that advanced autonomy is progressing fast across the maritime industry,’ said Ingrid Uppelschoten Snelderwaard, Svitzer’s global COO.”
Image Credit: bp.
bp is highlighting some of the people working on their NetZero ambitions in offshore wind, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), hydrocarbons, electric vehicles, cities, and solar. We are specifically impressed with Grace Rumford, who is working with the City of Houston to decarbonize. She’s working with Uber to develop EV charging infrastructure and Houston’s Climate Action Plan to take our city from 30 million tons of CO2 per year to carbon neutral by 2050. It’s an exciting time to be in energy!
GE wind turbine blades. Image Credit: Riviera.
GE Renewable Energy is going to start testing 3D printed blade tips for wind turbines. According to Riviera, “The last 10 m to 15 m of a modern blade captures 40% of the energy that spins the turbine.” The tip features a 3D printed structure with a low-cost thermoplastic skin and will be installed on one turbine with an additional tip for laboratory testing. Current blades are glass and carbon fiber in an epoxy or resin, but 3D printing can reduce weight, meaning greater power generation and less wear and tear on every piece of the system. The thermoplastic blade tips can also be melted down and recycled, closing the loop on the material life cycle.
Smile, it’s Good News Monday! :-)