In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
- The US’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm orders 62 13 MW wind turbines.
- NOAA launches a newly redesigned climate website.
- Clean energy sourcing is key to reaching climate goals, finds a new report.
- UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.
Vineyard Wind turbines
GE Renewable Energy announced this week that it received an order in its fiscal third quarter from Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, to supply 62 Haliade-X 13 megawatt (MW) wind turbines for Vineyard Wind 1, the first utility-scale offshore wind installation in the US.
The 800 MW wind farm will power the equivalent of 400,000 US households and businesses. It will be installed 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Vineyard Wind 1 recently became the first offshore wind farm in the US to achieve a financial close, which enabled Vineyard Wind and GE to achieve this latest contractual milestone.
Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen said:
With the order now placed for GE’s Haliade-X turbines, we are setting the stage for a new industry, one that will create jobs, save ratepayers more than $1 billion, and contribute greatly to a reduction in carbon pollution.
Read more: First major US offshore wind farm achieves $2.3B financial close
NOAA’s new website
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) yesterday launched a newly redesigned version of Climate.gov, NOAA’s flagship website that provides the general public with information about climate.
US communities and businesses are increasingly requesting NOAA’s assistance and expertise in order to understand the complex and destructive impacts of climate change, and the new website has been redesigned to better meet the growing demand for climate science and information.
Climate.gov offers magazine-style articles about climate science and describes how climate conditions are changing with maps, graphics, features, and videos, as well as classroom-ready teaching resources matched to grade levels and science learning standards. The site’s redesigned Global Climate Dashboard gives a data-driven readout on the state of the climate system with public-friendly explainers and answers to frequently asked questions. The site provides access to commonly requested climate data and tools hosted by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and Regional Climate Centers. Climate.gov’s Climate Data Primer provides a guide for users who are new to climate data.
You can check out NOAA’s new climate website here.
Clean energy is key
French multinational consulting company Capgemini has published its annual report, the “World Energy Markets Observatory.”
The report analyzes the state and trends of electricity and gas markets and technologies across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and provides insights on progress in the fight against global warming and the ongoing transition to clean energy.
The report also explores the evolution of leading industry players and predicts major trends for the future.
Here are three key takeaways from this year’s report:
- Global governments should expect to multiply investments in low-emissions technology by as much as 5 to 10 times their estimated budgets over the next 20 years.
- Green hydrogen and other low-carbon technologies have the potential to decarbonize 15% of the world economy.
- Solar and wind power generation capacities rose in 2020, and supply of renewable-based electricity increased while renewable costs continued to decrease in 2020.
Philippe Vié, group vice president, energy and utilities sector, at Capgemini, said:
Much more investment in low-carbon generation is needed now if we are to meet both the growth in electrification – 2 to 3 times current capacity required by 2050 – and at the same time, decarbonizing electricity generation.
You can read the full report here.
Photo: GE Renewable Energy
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
Author: Michelle Lewis
Source: Electrek
