Saving Seafood

Patent ruling delivers blow to GE’s wind turbine business — and to the nascent US offshore wind industry

September 9, 2022 — General Electric made a huge splash four years ago with plans to build what it called the Haliade-X, the most powerful wind-driven turbine to go up in the ocean at the time.

Taller than the Hancock tower. Each blade, roughly as long as a football field. Able to generate enough electricity for at least 6,000 homes. These goliaths would accelerate the adoption of offshore wind power and help Boston-based GE leapfrog its primary rivals in the quickly growing US market, Siemens Gamesa and Vestas. Then in 2020, GE outmaneuvered Vestas for the contract to supply the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, the Vineyard Wind project planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.

However, these grand plans ran into significant turbulence in federal court in Boston on Wednesday, when US District Judge William Young blocked the sale of the Haliade-X in the United States. With only three major players here, taking GE’s modern offshore turbine off the market could complicate life in a big way for US wind-farm developers.

Young’s ruling was based on a jury verdict in June that found several elements of GE’s Haliade-X infringed on a patent held by Siemens Gamesa, a European company considered to be the global market leader in offshore wind. Young allowed Haliade-X turbines to be installed at Vineyard Wind and another wind farm off the New Jersey coast, because they are so far along in development, as long as GE pays royalties. But beyond those projects, the injunction would require GE to come up with a new design. That’s not something that happens overnight.

This decision is a setback for GE, of course. But it may be an even bigger setback for the nation’s nascent offshore wind industry — the latest of many.

For its part, GE’s renewable energy division says it remains committed to the US offshore wind industry and is “confident in the legal and technical options available to us.”

Read the full article at The Boston Globe

Vineyard Wind pauses U.S. permitting over switch to GE turbines

December 3, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, which is developing the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, has temporarily withdrawn the project from the federal permitting process so the company can incorporate turbines from a new supplier, General Electric Co, in its design.

The move, which requires a technical review that will last several weeks, will almost certainly delay a federal decision over whether to approve the project until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

Calling the decision to pause the permitting process “difficult,” Vineyard Wind Chief Executive Lars Pedersen said in a statement issued on Tuesday that he hoped it would help avoid further delays.

Read the full story at Reuters

Vineyard Wind will use GE turbines for its massive project off Martha’s Vineyard

December 2, 2020 — Vineyard Wind LLC said Tuesday that it has picked General Electric to provide the turbines for what would be the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, a major step forward for the long-delayed project.

The wind farm developer, a joint venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had originally planned to install turbines from the manufacturer MHI Vestas in waters about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

But the federal permitting delays that have beset the $3 billion project and the expiration of a contract with MHI Vestas prompted Vineyard Wind to reimagine the layout of the wind farm. Instead of 84 towers, Vineyard Wind’s first project will consist of 62 of Boston-based GE’s Haliade-X towers, the most powerful offshore-wind turbines on the market.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

NEW YORK: Federal fish fight erupts over Hudson River PCB cleanup

March 31, 2016 — FORT EDWARD, NY — Federal agencies are fighting over how quickly the PCB dredging project of the Hudson River by General Electric Co. might someday make the fish once again safe to eat.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is disputing a finding by two other agencies — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — that EPA seriously overestimated by “several decades” how quickly recently-concluded GE river dredging will reduce PCBs in fish to levels fit for human consumption.

On Tuesday, EPA issued a 110-page rebuttal to the NOAA and Fish and Wildlife findings, which were first reported in 2015 and this week published in a peer-reviewed national scientific journal. Last fall, GE wrapped up a six-year dredging project between Fort Edward and Troy, although a coalition of environmental groups and river advocates said too much toxic pollution remains left behind.

EPA claimed less optimistic conclusions on future PCB levels in fish by other federal scientists “are not supported by the full range of available evidence,” according to an EPA statement accompanying its rebuttal.

Read the full story at the Albany Times-Union