The size of the UK’s plans for offshore wind became clearer this week, when the government gave consent for the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
Dogger Bank Creyke Beck will sit in shallow water in the middle of the North Sea, 131 kilometres (81 miles) from the UK coast. It will cover an area of 8660 square kilometres, only slightly smaller than the country of Puerto Rico, which is 8870 square kilometers, and almost exactly the same size as Corsica.
The project forms part of the UK’s ambitious offshore building program. The UK is the world leader in offshore wind, and already has more offshore installed capacity that the rest of Europe combined.
Dogger Bank Creyke Beck will have an installed capacity of up to 2.4 gigawatts, enough to power 1.8 million households, and supply around 2.5% of all UK electricity.
It would be the second largest power generator in the UK after the Drax coal-fired station in North Yorkshire, which produces the 3.9 gigawatts of power, according to Forewind, the consortium of British and Norwegian energy companies behind the project.
That is, if it gets built. The project gained consent from UK energy secretary Ed Davey this week, taking it a step closer to actually being erected, but the process is a long one. The “pre-construction phase” is dues to last until 2019, and the construction phase stretches out to 2022.
Moreover, uncertainty in the subsidy environment is making projections more than tricky – like “squaring a circle,” according to one person in the industry.
It isn’t clear how much money will be in the yearly subsidy pot, for which energy projects have to bid. A UK general election in May could return a government more or less commited to renewable energy than the one in place. And even without regime change, it’s been an uncertain few years.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew recently visited Puerto Rico in an effort to show the administration’s support for the beleaguered territory. Lew’s comments on his trip to San Juan and his January 15 letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) make it clear that when it comes to Puerto Rico, the administration largely equates “support” with “bankruptcy.” The administration’s well-intentioned desire to help the people of Puerto Rico is laudable, but it is a mistake to give Puerto Rico the power to rewrite its laws and contracts through a retroactive application of new bankruptcy laws. The administration’s position is neither good policy for Puerto Rico nor the United States. Ambac is one of the country’s largest guarantors of municipal and state debt. In Puerto Rico, we insure well over $2 billion of the Commonwealth’s various debt obligations, and our commitments to the island extend until the year 2054. Our financial support of the Commonwealth helped build i...
This week, Puerto Rico faces another critical juncture in its debt crisis, as the House will devote simultaneous hearings to the island’s fiscal situation on Thursday. I will appear alongside a panel of other witnesses at the hearing before the House Financial Services’ Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, while Treasury Counselor Antonio Weiss will be the lone witness to testify before the House Natural Resources Committee. Puerto Rico’s complex and increasingly severe debt crisis demands federal intervention and, ultimately, a significant debt restructuring. The urgency of this need is not lost on Washington, where there is rare bipartisan consensus in Congress and within the administration that lawmakers must act to offer the island debt relief and put in place policies to foster long-term economic growth. As noted by Puerto Rico’s government and other observers, this is a task that presents significant challenges. The commonwealth has amassed a spiders’ web of de...
Puerto Rico’s debt exchange isn’t the only security swap for investors burned by the island’s financial collapse. Franklin Resources Inc. plans to close the $147 million Double Tax-Free Income Fund, whose strategy of plowing more of its assets into Puerto Rico than any other municipal-bond fund turned it into one of the worst performers. After the fund shriveled when investors pulled out money, Franklin is asking those remaining to exchange their shares for a piece of the $8.3 billion High Yield Tax-Free Income Fund, which has far less exposure to the island. “It parallels the life cycle of Puerto Rico in the debt markets,” said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics, a research firm based in Concord, Massachusetts. “As the island becomes increasingly insolvent, investing strategies dependent on the island also become insolvent.” U.S. mutual funds for years were eager buyers of the Caribbean territory’s debt, which is tax-exempt everywhere in the nation and provided ...
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