It’s Good News Monday!
This Monday we talk about:
Veteran’s Day In Peace And War
"Hundreds of Jobs" - Equinor Picks Port of Albany for Offshore Wind Tower Making Facility
bp and Ørsted team up on clean hydrogen project
Boston Dynamics Robot ‘Spot’ Learning New Tricks Offshore Oil Rig
VIDEO: Subsea 7 Expands Fleet with Newbuild Reel-lay Vessel Skandi Vega
Midshipman Sydney Barber Breaks Barriers at United States Naval Academy
Wärtsilä to Make CBO Flamengo Brazil's First PSV Fitted with a Battery Pack
Image Credit: gCaptain
Our team at OneStep Power says Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served and are currently serving. gCaptain has a great tribute to Veterans Day with some amazing stories about mariner veterans, pirates, and wars fought at sea. Check out their article here.
Image Credit: Offshore Engineer
Equinor, the Norwegian energy company, has proposed the first offshore wind tower manufacturing facility in the United States for the Port of Albany, in New York. The project is a joint development with Marmen and Welcon to convert the port to manufacture offshore wind turbines, and could create as many as 350 jobs in the area.
“The Port of Albany extension initiative is part of the bid Equinor submitted in response to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) latest offshore wind energy solicitation, which seeks up to 2.5 gigawatts of offshore wind and multi-port infrastructure investment plans (PIIPs). The development of a tower manufacturing facility at the Port of Albany is contingent upon NYSERDA selecting Equinor’s bid and PIIP.”
As Equinor looks to expand to New York, and the state seeks to build offshore wind as a major part of its economy, it looks like a good partnership. Maritime operations will help sustain other jobs in the area as well. bp and Equinor announced a partnership for offshore wind in the U.S. in September 2020.
Image Credit: bp
bp and Ørsted are getting together to build a new green hydrogen project at the Lingen refinery in North West Germany. The project will produce hydrogen from water using wind power. “When operational in 2024, the industrial-scale 50MW electrolyser – which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen gases – could generate one tonne of renewable hydrogen per hour.” This could replace over 20% of Lingen’s grey hydrogen, which is hydrogen formed by natural gas through a process that produces CO2 emissions.
The project is part of bp’s Net Zero by 2050 commitment. Renewable hydrogen needs to be cost-effective, and this new plant will help heavy industries who need lots of hydrogen for their processes. “bp and Ørsted have together applied for funding for the Lingen Green Hydrogen project from the EU Innovation Fund ̶ one of the largest funding programmes for innovative low carbon technologies, which focuses particularly on energy-intensive industries.”
Image Credit: gCaptain
Boston Dynamics’ robot dog ‘Spot’, is learning to work on oil rigs. “Working on an oil rig operated by BP Plc nearly 190 miles (305 km) offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, the company is programming Spot to read gauges, look for corrosion, map out the facility and even sniff out methane on its Mad Dog rig.” Spot will help with observation by freeing up personnel to do other work. They hope Spot will provide more data for places where it may be dangerous or limited for humans.
Video Credit: Offshore Engineer
Subsea 7, an offshore installation specialty company, is expanding its fleet with the newbuild reel-lay vessel Seven Vega. Dutch shipbuilder Royal IHC built the Class 3 dynamically positioned vessel. “Its reel-lay system has a 600-ton top tension capacity consisting of a 32-meter main reel and a 17-meter auxiliary reel with a maximum storage capacity of 5,600 and 1,600 tons respectively. The vessel is fitted with cranes offering a lifting capacity of 250 and 50 tons, and several smaller cranes alongside two side-launching work-class remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) systems.” Pipelay installation can be done from shallow waters to 3000 meters deep. The vessel is already in operation and being loaded with pipe for its first project and is currently moored in Norway.
Image Credit: gCaptain
“For the first time in the 175-year history of the United States Naval Academy, an African American woman has been chosen to the lead midshipmen as brigade commander.” Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber, from Lake Forest, IL, was named to this top leadership position on Friday. She will be the highest-ranking midshipman as brigade commander. This is a semester-long position for the mechanical engineering major.
“As a walk-on sprinter and hurdler of the Navy Women’s Varsity Track and Field team, Barber has lettered all three years of competing and is a USNA record holder for the outdoor 4x400m relay. She is also the co-president of the Navy Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, secretary for the National Society of Black Engineers, and a member of the USNA Gospel Choir and Midshipman Black Studies Club. Barber served as the 13th company’s executive officer this past Plebe Summer and currently serves as the brigade’s 1st regiment executive officer.”
The current brigade commander said she is the “perfect person” to lead the brigade.
Image Credit: Offshore Engineer
Finland based Wärtsilä will be working with CBO, a Brazilian offshore support vessel operator to convert one of their offshore vessels to hybrid power. The CBO Flamengo was built in 2012 and will be the first vessel in Latin America and Brazil to be fitted with a hybrid battery pack system. The goal of the system is to reduce energy consumption and improve the carbon footprint of the dynamically positioned vessel. “The Wärtsilä Hybrid Solution to be installed on the ‘CBO Flamengo’ complies with the DNV-GL’s ‘Battery Power’ class notation, allowing the ship’s engines to run more efficiently by operating safely with fewer engines at a higher load, the Finnish firm said.” Redundancy power will be improved and running engines for fewer hours will decrease maintenance costs. Equipment delivery is scheduled for April 2021.
Smile, it’s Good News Monday! :-)