With steelwork fabrication about to start, designers for the world’s largest offshore wind farm are scrambling to redesign the first 175 turbine foundations. A generic foundation fault at several European wind farms is the latest squall the U.K.’s 1,000-MW London Array must navigate. Image: London Array Ltd. The U.K’s massive offshore wind project survived financial troubles. It now requires design tweaks. + Image U.K. Offshore Wind-Farm Projects Related Links: Building Cape Wind Won’t Be a Breeze “We have been asked to change the design,” says Jasper Jacobsen, project director at ABJV, the development’s construction joint venture. The team includes Denmark’s

The U.S. offshore wind market, which has lagged behind Europe for 20 years, has made significant strides in the past month as the controversial Cape Wind project near Cape Cod, Mass., received the first-ever approval from the U.S. Dept. of Interior to build such a wind farm. The project inked a power sales agreement with National Grid for half the output of the 468-MW wind farm. + Image Illustration: Walter Konefal Related Links: Britain’s Huge Offshore Wind Farm Faces An Array of Challenges Boston-based Cape Wind is years ahead of most other projects; its contract with London-based National Grid Plc

Despite last year’s economic downturn, global wind power capacity kept growing—particularly in China, which has squeaked past Germany to become the world’s second-largest wind power market behind the U.S. China more than doubled installed capacity in 2009 to 25.8 GW, says the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). “The biggest difference in terms of expansion comes from local Chinese manufacturers,” says Dheeraj Choudhary, the global renewable-energy business-unit chief at Cleveland manufacturer Parker Hannifin, which has provided hydraulics and other parts for Chinese-made wind turbines for a decade. GWEC reports about 80 domestic wind-turbine makers. Joanna Lewis, assistant professor at Georgetown University,

As the Tennessee Valley Authority reviews options for its power generation network, it soon will decide whether to shut down old coal-fired units and determine how many nuclear units to build, says Tom Kilgore, the federal power producer’s CEO. TVA has a goal of producing half its power with clean energy sources by 2020. Its plan is to focus on construction of nuclear generation and increased energy efficiency, Kilgore says. The utility has 59 units in its coal-fired fleet, 17 with scrubbers installed, but the remaining 42 are candidates for retirement, Kilgore says. A number have selective catalytic reduction equipment,

As BP struggles to cap a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the company is signing up fishermen onshore to help with cleanup. Photo: Craig Guillot landlocked Nicky Alfonso pulled his crab pots out of the water within days of the rig explosion. Lanvin LeBlanc, a Lafitte, La., resident, is one of more than 700 fisherman signed on so far. He single-handedly runs a 38-ft shrimp skiff. When officials closed the waters to all fishing between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida’s Pensacola Bay on May 2, LeBlanc effectively was put out of business. “This is

For the most part, contractors have not yet been engaged in cleanup or remediation efforts to combat the flow of oil encroaching on the Gulf Coast. Photo: Courtesy of La. Dept. of Natural Resources Permits have been approved for closing two breaches opened by hurricanes at Elmers Island, La. HNTB Corporation, Kansas City, Mo. has contracts in place with both the State of Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration and with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, that would allow either the state or the Corps to hire HNTB immediately. However, HNTB is currently engaged only

Even as the rivers of Middle and West Tennessee are returning to their pre-flood levels, damage estimates are rising rapidly. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean (D) on May 11 raised the damage estimate for the city to $1.56 billion, with 99% of the private sector having been inspected. Absent from the total are public buildings and infrastructure damaged by torrential rain that fell on May 1 and 2. Photo: Aerial Innovations of Tennessee PSC Metals Inc.’s recycling facility southeast of downtown Nashville sits submerged in floodwater after the Cumberland River overflowed its banks. David Penn, director of the Business and Economic

As oil company and government task-force teams struggled futilely for another week to control an offshore oil leak spewing an estimated 5,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico, forces on land prepared to mitigate the damage when the toxic spill comes ashore. On May 11, Congress commenced hearings on the disaster. On the same day, the federal government began to apply lessons learned from the April 20 disaster. The Obama administration tasked the National Academy of Engineering with running a technical, independent investigation. The U.S. Dept. of the Interior froze offshore drilling permits and announced a restructuring of

More than a week after a May 1 pipe break disrupted water supply in metropolitan Boston and forced two million residents to boil drinking water for 53 hours, authorities and contractors are trying to retrieve a critical pipe connector—which likely may manifest clues as to what caused the break—as well as documents detailing how upgrades to the affected pipe section were designed and installed more than a decade ago. Photo: AP/Wideworld Worker at site of Boston pipe rupture; a critical pipe connector has not been found. The rupture in a 150-ft section of pipe that carries water from the Quabbin

The owners of 19 California coastal powerplants—including two nuclear facilities—may have to spend billions to install closed-loop cooling towers to protect marine life. The state Water Quality Control Board passed regulations on May 4 that require plants using once-through ocean-water intakes for cooling to reduce water use by more than 90%. + Image Image: Southern California Edison Intake protection system at San Onofre is part of a previous $150-million mitigation. The rule, finalized by the board after five years of study and hours of debate, cites estimated annual mortality rates of 2.6 million fish and 19 billion fish larvae from