Japan’s first large-scale offshore wind farm started operation on December 22 – a major milestone in the country’s transition to renewables. Japan already operates several demonstration offshore wind turbines, but this is its first commercial offshore wind farm. The 140 megawatt (MW) project consists of two offshore wind farms – Noshiro and Akita. Noshiro…

Solar contractor SALT Energy has installed a rooftop solar system in Florida that’s now the state’s largest rooftop solar system, as well as its largest privately owned solar project. The 3.24 megawatt (MW) solar project is installed on the roof of Badia Spices’ 300,000-square-foot factory in Sweetwater, Florida, which is in Miami-Dade County. The project…

Swedish multinational power company Vattenfall announced today that it has successfully conducted large-scale seabed surveys with uncrewed robotic boats at several of its offshore wind farms in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK. Offshore wind farm operators need to periodically survey the seabed around turbine foundations and substation jacket legs to monitor changes in cable…

The world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland, has been in operation since 2017. On its fifth birthday, its operators shared how it’s going and what they’ve learned. Hywind Scotland, a pilot project, is off the coast of Peterhead, the easternmost point in mainland Scotland, in Aberdeenshire. It consists of five floating…

Aerones uses robots to repair, inspect, clean, and ice-proof wind turbines, and the Latvia-based startup just raised $38.9 million in funding. TechCrunch reported that the funding was raised this month “from dozens of undisclosed investors.” And according to its SEC filing, it looks as though Aerones is hoping to bring in another $2.5 million.…

Toyota Motor North America (Toyota) and Oncor Electric Delivery (Oncor), a Texas-based electric transmission and distribution company, have agreed to collaborate on a pilot project around vehicle-to-grid (V2G), a technology that allows vehicles to flow energy from their battery back onto the electric grid. The effort will be led by Toyota’s Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions…

Renewable energy provided almost 23% of US electrical generation during the first 10 months of 2022, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. The final issue of the 2022 EIA “Electric Power Monthly” report series, which was released in December and contains data through October 31, reflects that renewable energy – wind, utility and…

The world’s most powerful wind turbine – the Vestas V236-15.0 MW offshore prototype – has produced its first power.  It’s now fully installed at the Østerild Test Center for large wind turbines in Western Jutland, Denmark, and it will undergo an extensive test and verification program before full type certification and serial production begins. The…

The UK’s Dogger Bank, which will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm once it’s completed in 2026, will need to remove unexploded ordnance (UXO) items before it can proceed. The UXO items were identified during an inspection campaign last year, and they’ll be cleared in February. Dogger Bank is being built in three 1.2 GW phases…

Big global companies have secured a record 36.7 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy to power their operations in 2022, up 18% from 2021 – and big tech bought the most, according to a new report. BloombergNEF’s (BNEF) “1H 2023 Corporate Energy Market Outlook” assessed 167 big corporations that announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) in 36 markets worldwide.…