The Atlantic coast’s first floating offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Maine resulted in two provisional winners and $21.9 million in winning bids, with four lease areas awarded.
The first Atlantic floating offshore wind lease sale
The Biden-Harris administration announced that Avangrid Renewables and Invenergy NE Offshore Wind emerged as the winners after one round of bidding. Avangrid secured two leases for a total of $11.17 million – these areas encompass nearly 223,500 acres and are located around 29.5 nautical miles off the coast of Massachusetts. They can potentially deliver around 3 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy to the New England region.
Invenergy also obtained two lease areas, totaling just over 215,600 acres, with winning bids amounting to $10.78 million. One area is about 46 nautical miles from Maine, while the other is 21.6 nautical miles from Massachusetts. Together, these areas have the potential to supply renewable energy to more than 2.3 million homes.
Avangrid’s portfolio on the East Coast has now expanded significantly, with over 5 GW of offshore wind capacity planned – enough to power more than 2 million households. The company is involved in projects such as Vineyard Wind 1, New England Wind 1 and 2, and Kitty Hawk Wind South. With these new leases, Avangrid now holds the largest offshore wind development portfolio in the Northeast region.
As for getting those floating wind turbines out in the Atlantic, Avangrid asserts that it’s positioned to leverage the global expertise of its parent company, Iberdrola, which is pioneering floating offshore wind in Europe.
The Gulf of Maine wind lease sale is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s initiative to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind by 2035. Since taking office, the administration has approved 10 commercial offshore wind projects – starting from zero – that together could power more than 5 million homes. It has also conducted six offshore wind lease auctions, including the first-ever for the Pacific and Gulf Coasts.
Liz Burdock, CEO of Oceantic Network, stated: “Today’s successful auction demonstrates that offshore wind will continue to play a leading role in the Northeast’s energy future. These lease areas will deliver well-paying, local jobs, and drive significant investment in manufacturing facilities, ports, and transmission development. Despite the general uncertainty around the upcoming presidential election, this is a vote of confidence for an American industry that has already received nearly $3 billion of new supply chain investment in the first nine months of 2024.”
Electrek’s Take
When it comes to the bigger offshore wind picture, Electrekreported last month that the global wind turbine order intake reached new highs in the first half of 2024, with 91.2 GW of activity, a 23% increase year-over-year, thanks to the Asia-Pacific region, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie.
Global onshore wind order intake activity increased in the first half of 2024, but the offshore sector struggled, with order intake decreasing 38% year-over-year through the first half (-4.1 GW), as challenging project economics have curbed the market.
Luke Lewandowski, vice president, global renewables research at Wood Mackenzie, noted that “the offshore market has almost 30 GW of conditional orders globally, 21 GW of which are for projects in Europe and the US, but challenging economics continue to delay conversion into firm orders.”
So today’s auction announcement is historic – putting floating offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine was only a concept four years ago. However, only four of the eight areas attracted high bids, which isn’t surprising considering the current challenges facing US offshore wind and the tight election, with one candidate threatening to undermine the industry.
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check outEnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get startedhere. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
However, Tesla has since removed Nissan from its list of automakers with access and switched the Japanese automaker back to the “coming soon” list.
Nissan confirmed to Electrek that access is not currently available, but it will be available by the end of the year.
It sounds like a miscommunication on Tesla’s side. We hear that it should be coming soon.
Elon Musk fired Tesla’s entire charging team – seemingly to make an example of its then-head of charging, Rebecca Tinucci, who reportedly disagreed with Musk about making further layoffs following another layoff wave.
Instead of just firing her, Musk decided to fire the entire team and then sent an email to other Tesla managers using the charging team situation as a warning.
Tesla has since had to rehire several former members of its charging team to rebuild the department.
This is believed to have slowed down the opening of the Supercharger network to other automakers in North America. We were told that communications with Tesla’s charging team were difficult to non-existent for those automakers for weeks earlier this year.
Europe’s “green dream” Northvolt has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after a rescue package failed to go through, leaving the battery maker with just one week’s worth of cash in the account. Cofounder and CEO Peter Carlsson, who spearheaded a costly expansion, has also quit.
The Swedish-owned battery maker filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas, reports Bloomberg, with $5.8 billion debt. CEO Peter Carlsson, Telsa’s former chief products officer, stepped down from his role as CEO after the filing, but will remain onboard as advisor and director.
According to a statement, Northvolt said that its main factory will maintain business as usual during the reorganization, as the company now has a buffer from creditors, giving it time to restructure the balance sheet. However, the company said that this will not impact its business in Germany, and through the court process, Northvolt now has access to about $145 million in cash collateral. An additional $100 million in debtor-in-possession financing will be added to the pot via one of its customers, the report said.
The company still has a $7 billion project in place in Quebec – a new campus that is set to include a cell production plant, battery recycling, and cathode active-material production facilities – and the bankruptcy won’t affect those plans, the company said on its website. “Northvolt Germany and Northvolt North America, subsidiaries of Northvolt AB with projects in Germany and Canada, are financed separately and will continue to operate as usual outside of the Chapter 11 process as key parts of Northvolt’s strategic positioning.”
The plant is expected to have capacity to produce 30 GWh of battery cell every year, with an expansion set to double that output, making it enough to power 1 million EVs. The Canadian government is putting $1.334 billion CND toward the project, with Quebec chipping in another $1.37 billion CND.
Northvolt has hit hard times in recent months, once thought of as Europe’s best shot to homegrown EVs and the makers of “the world’s greenest battery.” Enthusiasm mounted as the company opened the doors to its first plant in Sweden, in the small town of Skelleftea near the Arctic Circle, in 2021. Billions of dollars have been invested into the company, and Volvo, VW, and BMW rushed to place future orders.
All of this enthusiasm has been fueled by a vision to cut dependency on China by creating greener EV batteries using 100 percent recycled nickel, manganese, and cobalt. Plans were put in place to build factories in Gothenburg, in southern Sweden, and Poland, Germany, and Canada, all backed by huge government subsidies. Back in January, the company raised an additional $5 billion, firmly locking in its position as one of Europe’s best-funded startups and recipient of the largest-ever green loan in the EU.
But then things started going south, with Northvolt’s production problems and massive delays forcing BMW to cancel its €2 billion battery cell order with the company. This past May, Northvolt also announced that it pushing back its plans for an IPO until next year. The interim report that followed revealed the dire state of its finances and how far its production had fallen short of goals, with Carlsson admitting he had been “too aggressive” with the company’s expansion plan.
Since Northvolt has put in place a series of changes to reset the company’s course, including bringing onboard a new CFO, leaving the former CFO to focus solely on expansion plans. Plus the company started making cuts, including closing down its research center, Cuberg, in San Francisco and deprioritizing secondary businesses. At the end of September, Northvolt announced that it would cut 1,600 staff from three Swedish sites and about 20 percent of its international workforce.
Last month, Volvo started proceedings to take over their joint venture with Northvolt, while Volkswagen Group’s representative to Northvolt’s board stepped down this month. Sweden, for its part, is ruling out taking a stake to save its homegrown enterprise, Bloomberg reports. Carlsson had said last month that the company needs more than $900 million to permanently shore up its finances.
Photo credit: Northvolt
If you’re an electric vehicle owner, charge up your car at home with rooftop solar panels. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing on solar, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Leading yard operation 3PL YMX Logistics has announced plans to deploy fully twenty (20) of Orange EV’s fully electric Class 8 terminal trucks at a number of distribution and manufacturing sites across North America.
As the shipping and logistics industries increasingly move to embrace electrification, yard operations have proven to be an almost ideal use case for EVs, enabling companies like Orange EV, which specialize in yard hostlers or terminal tractors, to drive real, impactful change. To that end, companies like YMX are partnering with Orange EV.
“This relationship between YMX and Orange EV is a significant step forward in transforming yard operations across North America,” said Matt Yearling, CEO of YMX Logistics. “Besides the initial benefits of reduction in emissions and carbon footprint, our customers are also seeing improvements in the overall operational efficiency and seeking to expand. Our team members have also been sharing positive feedback about their new equipment and highlighting the positive impact on their health and day-to-day activities.”
This Orange looks good in blue
One of the most interesting aspects of this story – beyond the Orange EV HUSK-e XP’s almost unbelievable 180,000 lb. GCWR spec. – is that this isn’t a story about California’s ports, which mandate EVs. Instead, YMX is truly deploying these trucks throughout the country, with at least four currently in Chicago (and more on the way).
“Our collaboration with YMX Logistics represents a powerful stride in delivering sustainable yard solutions at scale for enterprise customers,” explains Wayne Mathisen, CEO of Orange EV. “With rising demand for electric yard trucks, our joint efforts ensure that more companies can access the environmental, financial, and operational benefits of electrification … this is a win for the planet, the workforce, and the bottom line of these organizations.”
We interviewed Orange EV founder Kurt Neutgens on The Heavy Equipment Podcast a few months back, but if you’re not familiar with these purpose-built trucks, it’s worth a listen.