This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
World's Largest Offshore Wind Developer to Invest $30 Billion in Green Energy
To save the world from climate catastrophe, the world needs to urgently phase out the use of fossil fuels.
On Wednesday, Danish energy company Orsted announced a major investment program as it seeks to become one of the "renewable majors" leading a global shift away from planet-warming fuels, Reuters reported.
Orsted, which built the largest offshore wind farm on Earth, plans to invest 200 billion Danish crowns ($30.26 billion) in green energy between 2019 and 2025, the firm said.
Offshore wind projects will receive 75-85 percent of the total investment, while onshore investments will receive the remaining 15-20 percent. Bioenergy and customer solutions will constitute 0 to 5 percent of the spending.
Overall, Orsted (formerly Dong Energy) seeks to bump its share of green energy production to 99 percent by 2025, up from 64 percent in 2017.
"Today, our portfolio consists of 11.9 GW (gigawatts) of offshore and onshore wind farms and biomass-fired combined heat and power plants that are either in production, under construction or have been given final investment decision," Henrik Poulsen, Orsted's CEO and president, said in a press release. "Towards 2030, it's our strategic ambition to reach an installed capacity of more than 30GW, provided that the build-out creates value for our shareholders," he added. "As an important step, we're raising our 2025 ambition for offshore wind from 11-12 GW to 15 GW."
Poulsen said the global market for renewable energy is expected to more than triple towards 2030.
In September, Orsted officially opened the world's largest offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea. The 659-megawatt Walney Extension, located approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Cumbria, England, consists of 87 turbines and is capable of generating enough renewable energy to power almost 600,000 UK homes.
Offshore wind technology is rapidly advancing, and the Walney Extension is expected to lose its "world's largest" title to Orsted's Hornsea Project One off the UK's Yorkshire coast. The under-construction wind farm is expected to be fully operational by 2020 and will have a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, or enough power for more than one million UK homes.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Erica Cirino
Visit a coral reef off the coast of Miami or the Maldives and you may see fields of bleached white instead of a burst of colors.
By Jason Bittel
High up in the mountains of Montana's Glacier National Park, there are two species of insect that only a fly fishermen or entomologist would probably recognize. Known as stoneflies, these aquatic bugs are similar to dragonflies and mayflies in that they spend part of their lives underwater before emerging onto the land, where they transform into winged adults less than a half inch long. However, unlike those other species, stoneflies do their thing only where cold, clean waters flow.
By Bob Curley
- The new chicken sandwiches at McDonald's, Popeyes, and Chick-fil-A all contain the MSG flavor enhancement chemical.
- Experts say MSG can enhance the so-called umami flavor of a food.
- The ingredient is found in everything from Chinese food and pizza to prepackaged sandwiches and table sauces.
McDonald's wants to get in on the chicken sandwich war currently being waged between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A.
'We Have So Much More to Do': Youth Climate Activists Declare as Global Elite Close Out Davos Forum
By Andrea Germanos
Youth climate activists marched through the streets of Davos, Switzerland Friday as the World Economic Forum wrapped up in a Fridays for Future demonstration underscoring their demand that the global elite act swiftly to tackle the climate emergency.
Trending
By Tim Radford
The year is less than four weeks old, but scientists already know that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to head upwards — as they have every year since measurements began — leading to a continuation of the Earth's rising heat.