#equinor

[rjzimmerman]

Offshore Wind Projects Challenge Trump Administration’s Order to Stop Work. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

Developers of five offshore wind farms that were ordered last week by the Trump administration to halt construction are suing to restart work on at least three of the projects.

The Interior Department on Dec. 22 ordered companies to halt work on five wind farms in various stages of construction along the East Coast. They were: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind, both off the coast of New York; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut; Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia.

The administration cited unspecified national security concerns about the projects.

On Thursday, Orsted, the Danish energy giant that is building Revolution Wind, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On Friday Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind, did the same.

Both companies said they are seeking preliminary injunctions that would allow construction to continue as the litigation proceeds. Orsted is also building Sunrise Wind and said it was considering a similar legal challenge to restart work on that project, too.

The action this week comes after Dominion Energy, the developer of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, filed the first legal challenge, on Dec. 23. In its complaint in federal court in Virginia, Dominion said the administration’s actions were causing “immediate, irreparable harm” and $5 million in losses per day. The Virginia project is the largest of the five. A judge has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 9.

Avangrid, the developer of the fifth wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1 off the Massachusetts coast, has not indicated whether it plans to fight the administration. Vineyard Wind is already partly running, with about half of the project’s planned 62 turbines sending power to the electric grid.

The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.

At stake overall is about $25 billion of investment in the five wind farms. The projects were expected to create 10,000 jobs and to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses.

Revolution Wind is more than 87 percent complete, and the company has already installed all offshore foundations as well as 58 of 65 wind turbines. Empire Wind is more than 60 percent complete and is slated to deliver power to the grid in 2027.

[aroundtheworldin214days]

Along the Las Penas heritage neighborhood, Santa Ana hill staircase, shrimp and plantain dish and Santa Ana Port

[enerdatics]

Renewable Energy M&A: Equinor acquires Danish solar developer BeGre...

Renewable Energy M&A. Equinor. BeGreen. Bregentved Estate. Denmark. Sweden. Poland. Europe. Solar. November. 2022.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

The Godfather of Wind's New Floating Revolution

Bloomberg Quicktake

Earth's electricity needs could be met 11 times over if we filled our oceans with wind turbines. The problem is they're too expensive to build in deep water. Could floating technology change that? Presented by Sabic(..)

[liasnotes]

This was what my day looked like, visiting one of the worlds biggest oil and gas companies, Equnior. As my international business communications class and I visited their headquarters, we discussed how they can appeal to people our age, as well as how they justify their recent “environmentally friendly” business strategy while being a fossile fuel company. I found it super interesting and informative, and their building is absolutely crazy! The building itself is an architectural masterpiece with digital art displays in the ceiling, everything is super high-tech and their minimalistic interior mixed with the floor to ceiling windows in their meeting rooms displays nature in a way that makes it look like an art display, rather than reality. It made me motivated to work harder, and it was nice talking to people within the marketing and brand management field, as my own future career suddenly felt more real. I also just felt so cute walking around there in my little business attire - latte in one hand, VIP visitor card in the other, lol. It was a good day xx

[elladastinkardiamou]

Energy Giant Proposes Massive Floating Wind Farm in the Aegean

Norwegian energy giant Equinor, formerly the state-owned company Statoil, has made a proposal to the Greek government to create a floating wind farm. The project would be located in the center of the Aegean Sea and would be capable of serving up to 40,000 households.

According to the Athens News Agency, the investment plan has been discussed between the Norwegian ambassador to Greece and the Greek government.

The Norwegian company believes that a wind turbine platform will be an ideal investment for the region due to the relatively low waves there. However, there are strong winds prevailing over the sea in the area between Tinos, Syros and Mykonos Islands.

The Norwegian Embassy in Athens, which has taken initiatives in this direction, is co-organizing a seminar in April with ELETAEN, the Greek Wind Energy Association.

The forum will discuss floating wind turbines, which are offshore systems mounted on floating structures to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not feasible.

Through the seminar, the Norwegian Embassy will seek to highlight Norway’s experience in this domain and bring renewable energy companies in Greece into contact with Norwegian experts. Officials from the Greek government and the energy sector are also expected to participate.

[rjzimmerman]

Mark Carney pledges $1B in taxpayer money for a ‘carbon bomb’ project | NationofChange

Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

“Do governments have to do more? Absolutely,…without question. There is a gap between ambition and policies that’s large. It needs to close.” – Mark Carney, United Nations Climate Action & Financial Special Envoy. 

Now-Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke those words in 2021, commenting on news that the six largest Canadian banks had joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA)—an effort Carney spearheaded to steer capital away from fossil fuel development.

What a difference five years makes. All those financial institutions have since fled the now-defunct NZBA, which collapsed in 2025. Carney just pledged to pay $1 billion in required fees to the United Nations for the massive Bay du Nord offshore oil development in Newfoundland on behalf of oil giant Equinor, a move that might be described as a haiku of hypocrisy.

The Bay du Nord proposal would involve deep water drilling 500 km offshore of St. John’s, potentially extracting almost one billion barrels of oil with emissions per barrel just six percent lower than diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands.

When Newfoundland and Equinor signed a tentative agreement on royalties in early May, the federal government proudly proclaimed in a statement, “The Government of Canada is committed to helping de-risk this project to enable this important investment in Canada’s energy future to move forward.”

Strange. Canada pledged in 2009 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies along with our G20 partners. As part of the legally-binding 2015 Paris Agreement, Canada also committed to “making finance flows consistent with a pathway toward low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”. Yet Ottawa still shovels billions in public funds at a highly profitable and polluting sector, totaling almost $30 billion in 2024. 

“There is no good reason why the federal government should be using taxpayer dollars to give a giant subsidy to a foreign-owned oil company,” Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate at the non-profit Environmental Defense, told  DeSmog.

Environmental Defense previously conducted opinion polling which showed that two-thirds of the public oppose fossil fuel subsides. “That’s not how Canadians want their money used,” said Levin. “It violates the government’s own commitments that they have now had for decades about ending fossil fuel subsidies.”

Besides being unpopular and terrible for the climate, this latest gift from Carney to Norwegian-based Equinor also sets a troubling precedent. The Bay du Nord deposit lies in international waters, and would be the first project required to pay production fees under Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Carney government caving on paying this revenue rather than Equinor means that nations elsewhere in the world may be on the hook for private sector resource extraction beyond their territorial waters. 

[rjzimmerman]

Equinor considers ‘legal options’ against the Trump administration over canceled wind farm. (Heatmap AM)

Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned energy company behind Empire Wind, is reportedly considering suing the Trump administration after the Department of the Interior canceled its Long Island offshore wind farm last month. As my colleagues Emily Pontecorvo and Jael Holzman reported at the time, Empire Wind was “the second fully permitted offshore wind project” to be targeted by the administration, and its potential cancellation represents “a huge blow to New York State’s climate and clean energy goals.”

Equinor has already spent nearly $2 billion on Empire Wind, which was almost a third complete at the time Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered an immediate halt to construction. The company is now “considering its legal options,” The Guardian writes, and “may take Donald Trump’s administration to court.”