Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is sticking to its already-delayed timeline for deciding whether to approve Vineyard Wind’s 800-megawatt offshore wind project. At least for now.

New leasing will generate revenue for a government spending hard to lessen the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the national economy, says EnBW North America boss

Most utility-scale projects due online in 2020 have largely sourced their components by now, said Mona Dajani, partner and co-head of the energy and infrastructure projects team at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. She expects those projects to remain on track.

"Largely speaking, most of the utility-scale projects are going forward" despite "a couple that have had one-off challenges," agreed Andy Klump, founder and CEO of Clean Energy Associates LLC, a North American-owned and China-based supply chain management and engineering services firm.

Firms that obtain their equipment from convoluted overseas supply chains can learn from corporate investors, now seeking to reduce the volatility in their stock portfolios. Risk reduction is a rational response to irrational times.

In the long term, our current crisis will require companies all over the world, in virtually every sector, to improve at assessing their supply chain risk amid global uncertainties — whether a trade war or a pandemic.

Andy Klump, chief executive officer of the China-based and North American-owned Clean Energy Associates, said present supply chain dynamics are “quite a stark contrast to where utilization stood in late January or early February, when factories were shut down post-Chinese New Year.”

“Now we see factories back up and running and fully utilized within China, but then we’re also seeing certain end markets like Germany or the U.S., which are being impacted by the spread of the virus,” Klump said.

BNOW is concerned with the economic hardship imposed on secondary and tertiary U.S. suppliers due to the global spread of COVID-19.

Offshore wind has been touted by many eastern states and governors as an opportunity to create jobs. Analysts see the growing momentum of projects as a way to further lower costs by creating a local supply chain, which could be jeopardized by a long-term shutdown and recession.

This was going to be the year that offshore wind energy made a giant leap in the United States. Then the coronavirus arrived.

An offshore wind trade group said its main concern is the health of its workers, but the group also worries that the virus will slow or stop work throughout the chain of suppliers and other service providers.

The schedule kicks off at 9 a.m. EST (13.00 GMT) on Tuesday, April 21, with an hour long look at “Offshore Wind: The Challenges Ahead.” Immediately afterwards, members of the media may join a separate press conference call at 10 a.m. EST to pose questions to Liz Burdock, CEO of the Business Network; Jaime Steve, senior vice president for Policy & Programs; and selected speakers to be announced from the rest of the program.

Businesses that shut their doors or send workers home don’t need as much power, and that's before accounting for the growing likelihood of a recession. What impact will the coronavirus outbreak have on corporate demand for renewable energy?

As the United States and world head into an economic downturn fueled by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, federal officials are enacting direct subsidies to consumers and businesses to stave off recession.

The U.S. wind industry's chief trade group released its first estimate of the impact of the new coronavirus yesterday, finding that almost a third of U.S. industry jobs and $43 billion in industry investments could be endangered from the pandemic.

In a letter to House and Senate leadership, seven clean energy trade groups asked lawmakers to extend deadlines that would allow their projects to qualify for generous wind and solar federal tax credits despite delays caused by the spread of the coronavirus across the globe.

Despite recent stock market plunges and growing fears of economic fallout from the coronavirus epidemic, the global solar market is on track to expand by about 20% this year, according to Chinese manufacturer JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd.

Disruptions to trade and manufacturing from the coronavirus are coming at a critical time for the US renewable energy industry as project developers race to take advantage of expiring government incentives.

First there were the U.S. tariffs on solar components from China, now the coronavirus has struck in the heart of its manufacturing base, and still the solar industry is cranking out more and more panels at lower and lower costs.

One of the last pieces of the puzzle for net-zero-carbon power generation is falling into place. Lithium-ion batteries, the most popular technology of the moment for large-scale electricity storage, are getting cheaper. According to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the average levelised cost of energy for battery storage worldwide fell by more than three-quarters between 2012 and 2019, faster than that of onshore or offshore wind.

Officials at the Greater Augusta Utility District said months ago they were interested in finding out what benefits solar energy might offer the utility.

Now, along with the city of Augusta and the Kennebec County commissioners, the utility district has signed a 20-year contract to allow 3.91 megawatts of electricity to be generated from a solar array to be installed on utility district property in East Winthrop.