The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has partnered with artificial intelligence technology company, Faculty, on a major programme to build the next generation of UK search and rescue.

Faculty is using advanced analytics and machine learning technology to analyse historical data on 9,000 search and rescue mission requests covering 43 months. MCA is working with Faculty to generate simulated missions data to test the robustness of its findings.

“Every day the UK’s search and rescue fleet is out saving lives and we’re immensely proud to be working with it,” said Tom Nixon, director of Faculty’s government practice. “Taking this step puts the MCA in the vanguard of data-driven public services and shows the important role data science can play in supporting the procurement process,” he added.

The work will help inform planning for the successor to the UK’s search and rescue helicopter capability, Search and Rescue 2nd generation (UKSAR2G). Faculty is working with the MCA to design simulation tools that will allow aviation partners bidding for UKSAR2G to virtually test performance against a variety of future scenarios.

The UK’s search and rescue helicopter fleet, with its distinctive red and white livery, comprises 21 aircraft operating from ten locations across the UK.

By Rebecca Strong

Source: Maritime Journal, Oct 23, 2020

Cows and horses aren’t the only fans of alfalfa. Yellow perch like it, too. That’s what Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators concluded when they fed the fish pellets made with a protein concentrate from the legume crop’s protein-rich leaves.

Information source: press release / USDA

They’re experimenting with alfalfa as part of a broader effort to find suitable alternatives to using fishmeal, a protein-rich ingredient in aquaculture feeds given to “farm-raised” finfish and shellfish. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing sector of the food industry worldwide, generating $1.37 billion in U.S. sales alone. However, there’s concern that increasing consumer demand for aquaculture products will outpace what the ocean’s wild-caught stock of sardine, anchovy, menhaden, and other small forage fish can supply as a fishmeal resource for aquafeeds.

According to Deborah Samac, who leads the ARS Plant Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minnesota, formulating aquafeeds with plant-based proteins could help lessen the need for fishmeal in aquafeeds, reducing aquaculture’s impact on aquatic natural resources. Using nutritious, affordable alternatives to fishmeal could also ease the burden on pelagic fish populations, which are important members of the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants, particularly larger predatory species.

Soybean meal, barley, and algae are among alternatives being explored or already commercialized. Now, many of the same qualities that make alfalfa “Queen of the Forages” (and third-largest U.S. field crop) could put it on the aquafeed shortlist as well. These include a crude protein content of 15 to 22 percent and a rich assortment of vitamins, including A, B, and D, as well as minerals such as magnesium and copper.

Alfalfa is typically fed to dairy cows, beef cattle and horses as hay, silage or a direct forage. But it can also be “juiced” for its protein concentrate, and that’s the form Samac and her University of Minnesota (UM) collaborators used for their yellow perch feeding trials.

The actual formulation process can involve passing alfalfa leaves through a screw press, squeezing out juices, and then heating and centrifuging them to produce a protein concentrate, which is then dried and processed into small pellets along with other ingredients.

The feeding trial results showed that perch given pellets containing the alfalfa protein concentrate (APC) gained somewhat less weight than perch given fishmeal formulations. But there was little difference between their health, longevity, and overall wellbeing. Their fillet yields, quality, composition, and flavor were also similar.

According to Samac, alfalfa could help impart greater sustainability to the $133.5 billion global aquafeed market by virtue of the ecosystem “services” and other benefits the crop provides.

For example, as a legume, it is a superstar at naturally converting atmospheric nitrogen into a form that corn and other crops can use for their growth, alleviating the need to apply chemical fertilizers. Alfalfa’s robust growth makes it an ideal cover crop, anchoring the soil, retaining its moisture, helping it store carbon, and controlling weeds. Alfalfa flowers are also important food for both wild and domesticated bees, contributing to the latter’s production of honey, wax, and other products.

Samac said additional studies are underway to fine-tune the APC concentrations used in aquafeed formulations, evaluate different processing methods, and expand feeding trials, which include rainbow trout. Value-added uses for byproducts of the APC juicing process will also be explored, she added.

Her collaborators on the effort are Jessica Coburn, Scott Wells, Craig Sheaffer, Roger Ruan, and Nicholas Phelps—all of UM in St. Paul—and Gibson Gaylord of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bozeman Fish Technology Center. Collaborators on the expanded trials include Dong Fang Deng (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Matt Digman (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and animal physiologist Brian Shepherd, with ARS’ Dairy Forage Research Unit in Madison, WI.

Source: Aquaculture Magazine, Oct 19 2020

MARINE POLLUTION: A waste cleanup team formed by the Taoyuan City Government hopes to change the public’s behavior and reduce production of waste at the source

By Cheng Shu-ting and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A marine waste cleanup team established last year by the Taoyuan City Government hopes to inspire change in public behavior by exposing the extent of waste near the coast, it said on Saturday.

The team — which conducted its first cleanup on July 28 — is headed by Taoyuan Office of Coast Administration Construction Director Lin Li-chang (林立昌).

“Our mission is not to clean up all of the waste in the sea, but rather to improve public awareness of the marine ecosystem and thereby reduce the production of waste at the source,” he said.

Waste is a common sight along Taiwan’s west coast and when the team cleans up a section of the coastline, it finds waste at the same spot again the following day, he said.

“Part of it drifts here with the ocean currents from other countries, and part of it is domestic waste that washes into the sea through streams and rivers,” Lin said.

Lighter waste, such as plastic and polystyrene foam, generally float on the ocean’s surface, while heavier garbage — including fishing nets, glass, dense plastic items, such as disposable utensils, and metal items — sink to the bottom, he said.

“All of this is human-made waste. It is not uncommon even to see discarded bicycles on the ocean floor,” he said.

The team performed its first cleanup at the Guanxin Algal Reefs Ecosystem Wildlife Conservation Area (觀新藻礁生態系野生動物保護區) in Taoyuan.

The team chose the spot because, unlike other areas along the west coast where drifting sand makes the water murky, the clear water allowed the team to clearly demonstrate the extent of the waste problem, Lin said.

However, even there team members could only see about 30cm ahead in the water, he added.

The team later went on to clean up Keelung’s Chaojing Bay Conservation Area (潮境公園) and Pingtung County’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球).

“I believe that through these cleanup operations we can slowly influence the behavior of people living nearby,” he said.

However, safety was also a concern, and the team limited its activities to waters near the coast, and always took the season and weather into account, Lin said.

“The northeasterly winds that blow during the winter have a major effect on Taiwan’s waters, so we largely limit our operations to the period between May and October,” he said.

The team also works with fisheries officials and uses data analysis to determine when visibility in the water would be least affected by coastal sand drifts, he said.

Source: TAIPEI TIMES, Oct 19, 2020

As wind turbines grow in size, they become more expensive to manufacture, but larger and larger units continue to drive down the cost of electricity from offshore wind.

2020 has seen leading manufacturers of offshore wind turbines unveil new, larger, higher capacity units. Siemens Gamesa’s 14-MW offshore wind turbine (which is expected to be capable of 15 MW in due course) is set to become commercially available from the mid-2020s and larger versions of existing turbines are in development elsewhere, not least GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X and a new turbine from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.

Larger turbines are more expensive to manufacture, but analysis by Rystad Energy demonstrates that, although they are more expensive, using new-generation turbines reduces overall costs for large-scale offshore windfarms.

This is because the additional cost involved in manufacturing giant turbines is mitigated by the need to install fewer of them, and the efficiency gains associated with more technologically advanced turbines.

Every turbine also needs a foundation, so the overall number of foundations required for a project decreases, as does the need for array cables.

Rystad Energy analysed the cost of using turbines of differing sizes for a 1-GW offshore project. Utilising 14–MW turbines instead of 10–MW units, the number required for a 1 GW project falls by 28 units, from 100 to 72. Moving to a 14–MW turbine from a 12–MW turbine still offers a reduction of nearly 11 units.

Overall, the analysis shows that using the largest turbines for a new 1–GW windfarm can provide cost savings of nearly US$100M, compared to installing currently available 10–MW turbines.

Rystad Energy product manager offshore wind Alexander Flotre says, “Siemens Gamesa’s latest turbine is a step towards dramatically reducing development and levelised costs worldwide.

“With larger turbines come greater savings and greater revenue generation potential over the duration of projects, increasing the offshore wind industry’s competitiveness.”

Rystad Energy assumes the cost of a turbine is approximately US$800,000 per MW on average for currently available units, that is, turbines with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 MW, with a 2.5% premium applied for each additional MW for the larger units expected in the medium-term, to reflect anticipated efforts by manufacturers to capture upside.

“For this analysis, we estimate the cost of a 10–MW turbine is US$8M, while a 12–MW and a 14–MW turbine would cost approximately US$10.1M and US$12.3M, respectively,” says Rystad Energy.

“Moving from a 10–MW turbine to a 14–MW turbine could result in higher costs, of approximately US$85M for manufacturing. Utilising a 14–MW turbine in lieu of a 12–MW unit could add almost US$45M to manufacturing costs.”

Foundations are the main components that offer opportunities for cost reductions if larger turbines are utilised. Rystad Energy estimates that a foundation typically costs between US$3M and US$4M, with variations relating largely to foundation type and water depth.

In a 10 MW to 14 MW switch, cost savings could exceed US$100M for the developer, while savings in a 12–MW to 14–MW scenario would range from US$30M to US$50M.

The cost of array cables varies based on the turbine size. While the use of larger turbines implies potential cost savings through fewer foundations, the added length required for array cables for 14–MW turbines is likely to keep overall cable costs flat. However, the lower turbine count reduces the number of cabling runs and connection of turbines to the offshore substation, which in turn could cut installation costs.

“This analysis shows that although larger units are expected to drive up the cost of turbines, reductions from other segments – namely foundations – could result in cost savings of US$100M to US$120M in manufacturing costs alone, helping to offset some of the developer’s expenses,” says Rystad Energy.

Rystad Energy also estimates the cost of installing a turbine ranges from US$0.5M to US$1M, and the cost of installing foundations ranges from US$1M to US$1.5M per unit.

Using the midpoint in each range, for a 1–GW project the implied savings exceed US$50M when using 14–MW instead of 10–MW units. Comparing 14–MW with 12–MW turbines, potential savings exceed US$20M.

Furthermore, the reduction in cabling runs and connections due to the lower number of array cables could lead to additional savings of between US$5M and US$15M, when using 14–MW turbines rather than 12–MW and 10–MW turbines.

In addition to potential cost savings from reducing the number of units required, the increase in turbine size can also drive other efficiency gains. Rystad Energy analysed the potential reduction in the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) using Equinor’s Empire Wind in the US as a case study.

In this case, using 10–MW turbines, the estimated LCOE is approximately US$75/MWh. Opting for 12–MW turbines, LCOE falls to approximately US$71/MWh. With a further upgrade to 14–MW turbines, LCOE is estimated to be US$68/MWh.

“With the incremental increase in size, turbines and offshore windfarms become more economical – not just in terms of reduced upfront costs, but also in longer-term power generation potential,” Rystad Energy concludes.

GE to provide 13-MW version of Haliade-X for Dogger Bank

GE Renewable Energy is to supply an uprated version of its Haliade-X offshore wind turbine for the massive Dogger Bank offshore windfarm in the UK.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm and GE Renewable Energy signed a contract on 22 September 2020 for 13-MW Haliade-X turbines for the Dogger Bank A and Dogger Bank B phases of the project. When launched, the Haliade-X was described as a 12-MW unit.

The award, which is subject to Dogger Bank A and B reaching financial close, covers the supply of 190 Haliade-X 13-MW turbines, split evenly at 95 turbines for each of the first two phases of the project.

The Haliade-X 13MW is an enhanced version of the successful 12-MW prototype unit which has been generating power in Rotterdam since November 2019 and recently secured its provisional type certificate from DNV GL.

The prototype unit, which set a world record in January 2020 by being the first wind turbine to produce 288 MWh in one day, will start operating at 13 MW in the coming months as part of its ongoing testing and certification process.

As part of the agreement with SSE, GE Renewable Energy will establish its marshalling harbour activities at Able Seaton Port in Hartlepool which will serve as the base for turbine service equipment, installation and commissioning activities for Dogger Bank A and B.

This will see the delivery of components for the 13-MW wind turbines to the port, including the nacelle, three tower sections and three 107-m long blades, for pre-assembly onsite at Able Seaton prior to transport out to the North Sea for installation. This activity will lead to 120 skilled jobs at the port during construction. Turbine installation is expected to commence in 2023 at Dogger Bank A.

The announcement also includes a five-year service and warranty agreement supporting operational jobs in the maintenance of the windfarm.

by David Foxwell

Source:Riviera, Oct 15, 2020