Vast Iceberg Poised to Crack off Antarctica
B shattered like car safety glass into thousands and thousands of pieces. It disappeared in the space of about a week," he told Reuters. Last year was the warmest on record by a wide margin, stoked by greenhouse gases and an El Nino weather event that released heat from the Pacific Ocean, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday. In November, almost 200 nations reaffirmed plans to combat climate change as an "urgent duty", worried that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will try to undo a hard-won global accord for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (Report
NOAA Honors Fugro
policy, improve sustainable use and advance scientific research. Additionally, crowd sourced bathymetry data acquired by Fugro in the North Atlantic Ocean is feeding into a regional initiative known as the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation. Signed in 2013 between the U.S., Canada and the European Union, the statement provides a means for understanding the shared waters of the North Atlantic for scientific, environmental and economic benefits. The Galway Statement specifically references seabed mapping as an activity where cooperation will result in multilateral and mutual benefits
ABB Wins $140 Mln Order for HVDC Station
million AC subsea cable system order for connecting the Danish Kriegers Flak wind farm in 2015. The interconnector will have a capacity of 400 megawatts (MW), equivalent to the energy requirement of more than 400,000 households. This critical infrastructure development is co-financed by the European Union and will mark a step toward European renewable energy targets. In addition to allowing the integration of more renewable energy into the grid, the interconnector project will provide enhanced power security and offer additional opportunities for energy trading. “ABB has an unparalleled
Europe’s Deepest Glider Under Development
;s first ultra-deep-sea robot glider. This glider will be capable of sampling the ocean autonomously at depths of 5000m, and maybe more in the future, for up to three months at a time. This project, which includes the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), has won 8 million Euro of funding from the European Union’s Horizon2020 programme to develop and test this innovative new technology. The capability of this new glider to reach at least 75% of the ocean will open up new possibilities for science and industry. These include monitoring submarine biodiversity and conducting environmental impact
Global Maritime to Support EU Wave Energy Project
Global Maritime Consultancy & Engineering, a provider of marine warranty, dynamic positioning and engineering services to the offshore sector, is to provide mooring and risk management support to the European Union’s OPERA (Open Sea Operating Experience to Reduce Wave Energy Cost) project. Global Maritime is part of a 12-member consortium led by TECNALIA (the first privately funded applied research and technological development center in Spain) for the three and a half year program with the objective being to progress offshore wave energy development, reduce costs, and ‘de-risk
US Oil Drillers Add Rigs for Third Week in a Row
in July 2014 to reach a near 13-year low of about $26 in February this year. Since the February price low, U.S. crude futures have almost recouped half their losses. On Friday, they were trading at around $47, or 3 percent lower on the week, amid anxiety over Britain's possible exit from the European Union. To figure out how many rigs U.S. producers will likely add, analysts said they look to drilling permits, which they forecast rising. In most states, producers drill a land well about two months after the state issues a permit because the firm has already incurred significant
MOU for Offshore Wind Development in Taiwan
whilst reducing risk and environmental impact. Recent projects include marine warranty services for the Block Island Wind Farm, America’s first offshore wind farm; a recent site specific survey for an offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea; and the provision of mooring solutions for the European Union’s OPERA wave energy project. The launch event also included presentations from Neil Walker, Managing Director of Global Maritime Europe; Steven Foong, Business Development Manager of Global Maritime Consultancy Pte, Singapore; and Ekkehard Stade, Country Manager of Global Maritime
EIB Invests in Commercial Wave Energy
has identified commercial leads in six countries and has the potential objective of selling more than 50 units in the four coming years. The project will also be financed by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. The Wave Energy Device project has the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020. InnovFin is a range of EIB Group products designed to facilitate access to finance for innovative businesses. InnovFin Energy Demonstration Projects provides loans, loan guarantees or equity-type investments of between EUR 7.5 million and EUR 75 million for innovative
Oil Volatility Index Jumps as US Crude Plunges
level since March 2. U.S. crude futures closed the session down $2.29, or 4.8 percent, at $45.14 a barrel, having earlier hit a two-month low at $44.87. Resurgent output from across the world and uncertainty around the global economy after Britain's unexpected vote to exit the European Union have weighed on oil. In the United States, the market is flooded with excess refined product, painting a grim picture for demand. In addition to fundamental concerns, oil's technical support level around $45.80 was also breached on Thursday afternoon, traders said. (Reporting
Canada Embarks on Arctic Survey Mission
before embarking on a six-week expedition in the Arctic Ocean. On the voyage between Canada and Norway, the Canadian Hydrographic Service will undertake a seabed-mapping expedition under the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. This will be the fifth such expedition, which involves Canada, the European Union and the United States. After the Canada-Sweden expedition ends, Canadian researchers aboard the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent will go on to collect data in the Canada Basin, in the western Arctic Ocean, as part of a collaboration with colleagues from the United States. “Securing
U.S. to Crack Down on Ocean Noise that Harms Fish
collapsing bubbles whose sound waves stun prey and ward off predators. NOAA has long required noise permits for one-off events, like drilling. The draft plan would be the first to broadly set long-term rules around noise levels. Many oil companies already invest in quieter technology, and the European Union is also developing targets for ocean noise. The United Nations' International Maritime Organization in 2014 adopted voluntary guidelines to reduce underwater noise from ships. The NOAA proposal has critics on the left and right. Michael Jasny, a marine noise expert at the nonprofit Natural
SMD Tests Subsea Mining Vehicle Prototype
valuable European underwater mineral resources. U.K.-based subsea engineering specialist Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd (SMD) is technical lead on the VAMOS (viable alternative mine operating system) project, a 42-month international research and development venture, which is part-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. At a cost of approximately €12.6 million ($14.9 million), SMD and its partners in the VAMOS Consortium, have designed and built a prototype robotic underwater mining vehicle with launch and recovery technology to perform field
Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage Project Underway
it from entering the atmosphere. Project Acorn is a low cost CCS system in Northeast Scotland which could be operational by 2023. It will exploit redundant North Sea gas distribution assets. The Acorn CCS Project has now begun a feasibility study after concluding funding from the European Union’s funding round Accelerating CCS Technologies (ACT). The ACT Acorn study is being led by Pale Blue Dot Energy with project partners Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage (University of Aberdeen, University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University), University of Liverpool, Bellona (Norway)
Loss of Diversity Near Melting Coastal Glaciers
facility by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA). It has since established itself as a trusted research platform for numerous international and interdisciplinary network programmes, which were supported by the European Union and Argentinian funding organisations throughout the past decade. “Sustainable long-term research and coordinated, interdisciplinary Antarctic research programmes are essential in order to explain the local changes in coastal ecosystems in connection with global warming,” says Doris
Norway's Planned Subsea Cable to UK May Be Canceled
impact will be evaluated and only then can the Norwegian state decide to proceed with any other cables, said Eide. There have been concerns that British plans for more power links with Europe to avert a looming electricity shortfall could be hindered if the country no longer has a say in European Union regulation of networks and power trading. Britain faces an energy supply crunch by the early 2020s as coal power stations close and its oil and gas production declines. To help boost supply, it plans new interconnectors with France, Denmark, Belgium and Norway to provide up
FORESEA Backs 10 Offshore Renewable Energy Developers
dedicated to marine renewable energies. The Region is supporting the sector by funding leading-edge test infrastructures such as the SEM-REV,” said Bruno Retailleau, President of the French region Pays de la Loire and President of the Atlantic Arc Commission of CPMR. "The European Union should foster these bottom-up developments by supporting R&I projects and facilitating commercialization. Tests in open-sea conditions are a critical stage in validating a technology but they require significant levels of investment. The FORESEA project addresses in a very concrete manner
Expanded Underwater Robotics Ready for Oil Spills
and dynamic image of the spill. This cooperating multivehicle robotic technology will allow a cheap, flexible, expandable, precise and rapid decision support system, improving the capacity of responding to these events. Expanded Underwater Robotics ready for Oil Spills (e-URready4OS) is a European Union co-funded project (Directorate General – European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, DG-ECHO) aimed to join forces to make available a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with operational capability
