Offshore wind farming has picked up steam during the last decade, with more & more countries installing these gigantic turbines in their coastal waters. The largest wind farm in the world is located of the coast of Jutland, in the North Sea. An even larger farm has been given the green light for off the coast of Britain.
One of the largest offshore areas in the U.S. with shallow water is off Cape Cod, where a major wind farm has been proposed.
The construction of these farms have given rise to a new class of ship: the Turbine Installation Vessel.
Turbine Installation Vessels (TIV)
The first purpose built TIV was the TIV Mayflower Resolution, currently known as the TIV Resolution & owned by MPI Offshore. This vessel utilizes both dynamic positioning & jack-up technology. [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · dynamic positioning, green power, wind farm, wind_farm
For those of you that try to keep up with events in the blogosphere, you may know that today is Blog Action Day 2009. For those of you that don’t, Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that “unites the world’s blogger” by encouraging them to post about the same issue on the same day. The website says that this years event will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web, currently with 8,886 registered blogs and 12,509,322 readers from 148 Countries. So what is this years issue you ask? Climate Change.
Without a doubt, the maritime shipping industry has seen the effects of climate change. Just recently, Beluga Group announced that two of its multipurpose heavy lift project carriers successfully transited the Northeast Passage – a journey that in years past has not been possible.
But not only has the maritime shipping industry seen the effects of climate change first hand, but more and more stress is being put on the shipping industry to decrease its carbon emissions and its harmful affects on the global environment. While some companies simply aim to abide by laws governing ship emissions, a few are coming up with radical ideas to reduce the impact. Here is a look at some those ideas currently in operation that are at the forefront of an industry under fire. [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · blog_action_day, Environment, green power
September 2009 saw the initial operation of the first high temperature fuel cell to be run on board of a ship. The operation was launched as part of the FellowSHIP research project (Fuel Cells for Low Emission Ships): a project to test fully integrated on-board fuel cells – both on board of vessels, as well as offshore platforms – and to make them commercially viable.
The Tognum supplied HotModule is scheduled for service on the Norwegian offshore supply vessel “Viking Lady” to first test its suitability for green on-board power generation by means of fuel cells. The HotModule is fully integrated in the existing on-board power generation infrastructure of the vessel, delivering 320 kW of the current power supply requirements, whilst being powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · Environment, fuel cell, green power, Wartsila
This weeks Ship Photo of The Week is of the Alaskan Navigator docked at BP Terminal Pier T at The Port of Long Beach. What’s exciting about this is that it is the world’s first oil tanker terminal equipped with shore power to eliminate air emissions from docked vessels. Instead of running its diesel engines while at berth, the 941-foot Navigator plugged into a shore-side electricty grid to power its off-loading operations. The Port of Long Beach tells us: [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · Environment, green power, oil_tanker, ship photo
In an effort to bring our readers more “green” stories, we take a look at the worlds first wave farm off the coast of Portugal. dvice.com brings us more on this new technology that is powering over 1,500 homes.
There’s power in them thar waves! That’s why Portugal built Agucadoura, the world’s first wave farm off its coast, consisting of three Wave Energy Converters [also known as Pelamis P-750 machines] generating a total of 2.25MW.
The elongated metal contraptions bob up and down with the waves, while internal pistons, attached to the sea floor, remain stationary and pump hydraulic fluid. This drives electric generators, whose power is brought ashore by underwater electrical cables. The wave farm is now tapping into enough constant, renewable energy to power 1500 homes.
Who knew there was so much power in the ocean waves? If we laid these 459-foot orange caterpillars all over the world’s oceans, we could tap 2 terawatts of power, twice the consumption of the entire world. That’s not exactly practical, but a smaller-scale rollout of such generators might be a clean power alternative, ready to be snapped up by an energy-starved planet. More info and photos HERE
The farm officially opened in September of 2008 using three Pelamis P-750 machines capable of generating a total of 2.25 MW, with capacity set to increase to 21MW after a second phase is introduced.
More Links, Photos and Video’s…..
[Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · green power, Marine Technology, wave farm
So this is a little bit more complex than building a boat out of popsicle sticks, but after all, it’s going to eventually be sailed over 11,000 miles on the open ocean.
According to CNN, the ambitious eco-adventurer De Rothschild is currently in the process of collecting and constructing a boat made almost entirely out of plastic PET bottles. In April, Rothschild plans to sail his boat, called the Plastiki, from San Francisco to Sydney.
The Plastiki is a 60-foot catamaran will be made up of an estimated 12,000 to 16,000 2-liter soda bottles, stripped of their labels, washed, filled with dry-ice powder and then resealed. The dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas and pressurizes the bottle, making it rigid. Additionally, two wind turbines and an array of solar panels will charge a bank of 12-volt batteries, which will power several onboard laptop computers, a GPS and SAT phone. When it’s all finished, the Plastiki will be 90% recylced material.
De Rothschild hopes his creation, now being built on a San Francisco pier, will boost recycling of plastic bottles, encourage people to embrace clean, renewable energy and help people see that consumer waste can be a potential resource.
“The idea is to put no kind of pollution back into the atmosphere, or into our oceans for that matter, so everything on the boat will be composted. Everything will be recycled. Even the vessel is going to end up being recycled when we finish,” he told CNN.
Check out this video for more on the Plastiki’s construction:
[Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · design, Environment, green power, recycle
The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command has recently chartered the M/V Beluga Skysails for over a month long voyage transporting Air Force and Army cargo from Europe to the U.S. This is the first time the U.S. Navy is using a vessel with the sky sails technology.
The 400 ft. M/V Beluga Skysails is the world’s first cargo ship that uses sky sails technology; a new wind propulsion system with a huge towing kite that provides additional thrust for the ship at sea – a sustainable solution for reducing fuel consumption, costs and emissions. It is estimated that a sky sail can reduce fuel consumption by 20 to 30 percent, or roughly $1,600 per day.
When asked of MSC’s choice for choosing the M/V Beluga Skysails: “MSC values innovation that leads to cost savings,” said Navy Capt. Nick Holman, commander of Sealift Logistics Command Europe, MSC’s area command for Europe and Africa. “We are proud to be collaborating with innovators in the commercial maritime world to provide our customers with efficient and quality service.” [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · alternative energy, Beluga SkySails, green power, MSC, skysails, U.S. Navy
The ship pictured above fails to impress the Icelandic tourists who board her for a short whale watching tour but after talking with the crew their attitude changes. ABC News tells us:
By April, visitors to Europe’s northernmost capital will get a taste of that future by taking whale-watching tours aboard the ship, or renting one of the world’s first hydrogen-powered hire cars.
The conversion of the Elding to hydrogen power will initially be confined to the use of a fuel cell to power the engine that runs its lighting, but for 43 euros ($72) a trip, the ship will offer whale-watchers unprecedented peace.
When the crew spots whales at sea, they shut down the main engines to let people hear the mammals swim and blow water – an experience owner Vignir Sigursveinsson says has been marred in the past by the rumble of a diesel auxiliary engine below.
“When we have the hydrogen machine, the boat will be completely soundless, which will make the experience of seeing the whales in their natural habitat even more magical,” he said.
For more on this ambitious project click HERE then visit the Icelandic New Energy Commission HERE.
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Tags: · alternative energy, fuel cell, green power, hydrogen, iceland, marine-engineering
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