Mainstream Renewable Power, the pureplay global wind and solar company majority-owned by Aker Horizons, has announced that KF Wind, a 1,125MW floating offshore wind project being developed off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea, has secured the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval from the Ministry of Environment for the totality of the two-phase project.  

The Award of the EIA is a key milestone for the development of the two-phase floating offshore wind project, advancing towards construction.
The EIA comprises the first phase, East Blue Power, of 375MW and the second phase, KF Wind, of 750MW. The scope includes 75 turbines and floating foundations, two bottom fixed offshore substations, three submarine export cables of 80 kilometers each, one onshore substation and the onshore high voltage line of 4.5 kilometers until the interconnection point at Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)’s Shinonsan onshore substation.

KF Wind is a joint venture owned by Mainstream (33.3%) and Ocean Winds (66.7%).

Vard has signed a contract for the design and construction of a second hybrid ocean energy construction vessel (OECV) for the Norwegian shipping group Island Offshore.

In May, the companies signed a contract for one firm OECVs with an option for two sister vessels. This new contract confirms the first option.

“We are happy to confirm this order, demonstrating our faith in the market outlook and our commitment to continue renewing our fleet. The vessel will further strengthen Island Offshore’s positioning in attractive market segments based on a fleet of versatile advanced offshore vessels,” said Chairman Morten Ulstein.

The Vard Group’s technology subsidiary Vard Electro is participating in the project with comprehensive deliveries of SeaQ equipment and sustainable solutions, including SeaQ Power with energy storage systems and SeaQ shore connection, SeaQ Bridge with full integration and an extensive SeaQ Communication network that includes network and entertainment systems.

The SeaQ Control system will have a new portable monitoring station. This new tool is an integral part of the SeaQ IAS and SeaQ ePMS systems that enable digital solutions to be seamlessly shared within the cyber-proof network onboard and onshore.

Vard Interiors will…

Kongsberg Maritime’s rim-drive azimuth thruster has achieved Silent-E notation from DNV, the first of its kind to receive this certification.

Installed on the new commissioning service operation vessel (CSOV) Norwind Hurricane and its sister vessels, the thruster demonstrated exceptional performance in reducing underwater noise pollution during a recent trial.

To assess the noise levels of the Norwind Hurricane, an extensive underwater noise study was conducted using hydrophones placed on the seabed. The results unequivocally confirmed the effectiveness of the rim-drive thruster in reducing underwater noise.

Roy Ove Standal, Chief Operating Officer at Norwind Offshore, said: “The rim-drive propulsion system stands out for its ability to reduce the need for additional support systems, leading to notable energy savings. It also contributes to increased onboard comfort due to its lower noise levels. Achieving the Silent-E notation further demonstrates our commitment to protecting the marine environment.”

Leif Vartdal, hydrodynamics specialist at Kongsberg Maritime, says that rim-drive thrusters are inherently quieter than conventional thrusters due to their simpler design with fewer moving parts and excellent hydrodynamic characteristics….

New Zealand said on Monday it would pass laws by the end of this year to reverse a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, and take urgent steps to remove regulatory hurdles to import LNG amid energy shortages.

The law would end the ban, in place since 2018, on exploration outside onshore Taranaki, an energy-rich region on the country’s North Island as the right-of-centre government plans to lure investment to the country’s oil and gas sector.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said severe shortages over the last few weeks had led energy prices to spike to some of the highest levels among developed economies.

“We are responding to a situation as I said New Zealand should never have seen in the first place,” Luxon said during a media briefing, and urged opposition parties to support the bill.

“It would be the sensible, common sense thing to do if they genuinely cared about New Zealand’s energy security.”

The previous centre-left Labour-led government banned offshore petroleum exploration.

Natural gas production fell by 12.5% in 2023 and a further 27.8% in the first three months of 2024, triggering a nationwide energy shortage as generators switched to more coal and diesel to power the grid, Energy Minister Simeon Brown said.

Renewables including hydro,…

Search and rescue for missing persons is always challenging for the specialist recovery teams involved, regardless of the environment they’re working in.

But the teams looking for the missing aboard the Bayesian yacht which sank off the coast of Sicily leaving several people dead, have faced particularly challenging conditions. Even though the boat lies in relatively shallow water of 50 meters, underwater operations are affected by numerous factors which make them the most complex of search and rescue efforts.

Best practice shows that searches should be coordinated, with areas that are being searched expanding outwards from the last known location. This makes the most efficent use of available teams and equipment, which are selected depending on targets and environments being searched, while updating and refining the operation as new information becomes available.

Land-based searches may be more straightforward as the recovery team can usually walk or move about more easily. Searching in water is more challenging, whether in rivers, lakes or the open ocean.

Inland waterway searches, such as rivers, canals and lakes are more constrained in their extent than the sea and open ocean due to surface area and depth.

Searchers use a variety of techniques,…

GE Vernova’s shares fell nearly 7% on Friday following a turbine-blade failure at an offshore wind farm in the UK, the latest in a string of incidents involving the power service firm’s equipment.

The incident was reported at the Dogger Bank A project, located more than 130 km off the northeast coast of England, according to a statement from the project authorities.

GE Vernova said no injuries were reported and that it was investigating the blade failure, without giving details.

The company faced a similar incident at the wind farm in May that was attributed to an installation failure.

That was followed by another incident in July at the Vineyard Wind offshore project near the Massachusetts coast when a turbine blade made by the company broke, scattering pieces of fiberglass into the water that washed up on nearby beaches.

“The question going forward will be whether this is a one-time installation issue or a manufacturing fault of the Haliade-X blades, similar to last month’s failure at the Vineyard Wind project. The latter could have much more long-term implications,” Raymond James analyst Graham Price said.

GE Vernova, which became an independent company in April following a three-way split of General Electric, has a 12-month forward…

Ukraine’s Navy confirmed on Friday that it had destroyed a ferry in the Russian port of Kavkaz that was used to deliver fuel and weapons to occupied Crimea.

Local authorities had earlier said the ferry was set ablaze and damaged in Thursday’s attack on the port in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.

“Another undoubtedly military objective has been destroyed. Its purpose was to provide fuel for the invaders. The ferry sank and this port (Kavkaz) is not usable until the ferry is removed,” Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainian television.

“It was the ferries that accounted for three quarters of all logistics and were the main channel (of supply),” he added.

The ferry was carrying 30 fuel tanks, said Fyodor Babenkov, district head of the town of Temryuk which includes the port. He said it sustained significant damage as a result of the attack, Kyiv’s latest strike on Russian territory as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds on.

The port of Kavkaz is one of Russia’s largest outlets on the Black Sea. It handles ships both for exports and for fuel supplies to Crimea, seized by Russian forces in 2014.

(Reuters – Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Christina Fincher and Timothy Heritage)