uncertainty

Empire Wind moves forward

February 13, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Empire Wind 1, the first offshore wind project that will connect to the New York City grid, has received the financing needed to move forward. Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company developing the project, closed on a more than $3 billion financing package.

The wind farm will span 80,000 acres in an area 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island. When completed, it will have a capacity of 810 megawatts. Equinor has executed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to purchase power from Empire Wind 1 for 25 years at a strike price of $155/MWh. The operations and maintenance hub for Empire Wind 1 will be at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Commercial operation is expected by 2027.

The previously-planned Empire Wind 2 project was terminated a year ago because of inflation, interest rates, and supply chain disruptions. More broadly, the U.S. offshore wind industry has been struggling for the past year.

With the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, there is much greater uncertainty facing the industry. As a result of the election, Attentive Energy, a planned 3-gigawatt wind project off the coasts of New York and New Jersey has been put on pause. Trump’s public disdain for offshore wind energy is likely to create a major slowdown in the growth of the offshore wind pipeline. On the other hand, the new administration is less likely to have much influence on projects already in progress including 4 gigawatts under active construction and more than 50 gigawatts in other stages of development.

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Empire Wind 1 secures $3B+ financing package, enters ‘full execution mode’

Photo, posted May 2, 2022, courtesy of California Energy Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Corals and climate change

December 24, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change is a major threat to coral reefs around the world. Ocean warming triggers coral bleaching – a stress response where corals expel the symbiotic algae essential for their survival. If coral bleaching is severe, it can lead to coral death.

A new study led by scientists from Newcastle University in England suggests that corals are unlikely to adapt to ocean warming quickly enough to keep pace with global warming, unless there are rapid reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Science, found that coral heat tolerance adaptation via natural selection could keep pace with ocean warming, but only if the climate goals of the Paris Agreement are realized. In the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming by the end of the century to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

However, current climate policies around the world have the globe on track to warm by three degrees Celsius. According to the research team, this could lead to significant reductions in reef health, elevated risks of local coral extinctions, and considerable uncertainty in the so-called “evolvability” of corals.

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. They are often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea” because they support an incredible variety of marine life. They provide essential ecosystem services, such as protecting coastlines from erosion and storm surges, supporting fisheries, and serving as a source of income through tourism. Coral reef health is vital for the health of the planet.

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Coral adaptation unlikely to keep pace with global warming

Photo, posted June 9, 2012, courtesy of Bokissa Private Island Resort via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Offshore wind and the wake effect

May 28, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Electricity demand in the U.S. continues to grow and, in the summer, homes and businesses crank up their air conditioning which drives demand even further. Many East Coast cities are banking on offshore wind projects that are underway in the Atlantic Ocean to help meet that growing demand. The first offshore turbines are now producing power off the coasts of Massachusetts and New York.

Electric power utilities need to know how much power they can get from offshore wind farms, and this is not that easy to predict. Wind is variable, so there is some built-in uncertainty. But there is also a phenomenon known as the wake effect to contend with.

When wind passes through a series of giant turbines, the ones in front extract some energy from the wind and, as a result, the wind slows down and becomes more turbulent behind the turbines. So, the downstream turbines get slower wind and may produce less power.

A study by the University of Colorado has modeled this phenomenon for planned wind farms in the Atlantic Coast region and has found that power output could be reduced by over 30%. Researchers are installing weather monitors and radar sensors in islands off the New England coast to better understand the behavior of the wind in the area and improve prediction models.

The New England grid covers Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Even with the wake effect, offshore wind is predicted to be able to provide 60% of the electricity needs of the grid, but it is important to be able to accurately predict what it can produce.

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How much energy can offshore wind farms in the US produce? New study sheds light

Photo, posted August 31, 2022, courtesy of Nina Ali via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Clouds And Global Warming | Earth Wise

March 9, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Recent climate models from multiple organizations project that the amount of warming that doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide would cause would be much more than previously estimated. And one of the significant changes to the models relates to the role of clouds.

Clouds have long been a major uncertainty in climate calculations. Clouds can shade the earth and thereby provide cooling. But clouds can also trap heat. Which effect dominates depends on how reflective the clouds are, how high up they are, and whether it is day or night. The dynamics of clouds are complicated.

If you fly across the ocean, you will see blankets of low clouds extending for hundreds of miles. These marine stratus and stratocumulus clouds predominantly cool the Earth. In fact, they shade roughly a fifth of the oceans and reflect 30-60% of the solar radiation that hits them back into space.

Recent studies indicate that as global temperatures rise, these clouds are likely to become thinner or burn off entirely, leaving more clear skies through which the sun may add another degree Celsius or more to global warming.

The concerns about clouds are part of the larger issue about feedbacks in warming the world. It has long been clear that the greenhouse effect of doubling CO2 levels in the atmosphere would raise global temperature. But there are amplifying feedback effects. Melting large areas of snow and ice reduces reflectivity and allows the land and oceans to absorb more heat. More water vapor entering the atmosphere traps more heat. And now clouds are another concern.

Overall, these effects are leading to climate models predicting much larger global temperature increases, which is a scary prospect for the world.

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Why Clouds Are the Key to New Troubling Projections on Warming

Photo, posted September 10, 2006, courtesy of Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.