Saving Seafood

US has only one offshore wind energy farm, but a $70 billion market is on the way

December 16, 2019 — Just three years ago five giant wind turbines in the waters off Block Island, Rhode Island, started spinning 30 MW of electricity to that tiny community of about a thousand residents. While it remains the only offshore wind farm in the U.S., that’s about to dramatically change.

According to the Department of Energy, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 2,000 GW of capacity per year, nearly double the nation’s current electricity use. Even if only 1% of that potential is captured, nearly 6.5 million homes could be powered by offshore wind energy within the next decade.

Today states along the Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Virginia, are poised to join a renewable-energy revolution that will not only provide clean, green electricity but also create tens of thousands of jobs, revitalize distressed port cities and spur economic growth in dozens of coastal communities.

“We are in an incredible growth period,” said Laura Morton, a senior director at the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C. She cited a recent white paper from the Special Initiative for Offshore Wind that projects a $70 billion business pipeline in the U.S. by 2030.

Read the full story at CNBC

Offshore wind still looks to get a foothold in California

December 9, 2019 — There may be a literal energy windfall off the coast of California but it is still unclear whether the federal government will give approval to specific sites and how long it will take before tall turbines are bobbing on the Pacific, sending electricity to customers across the Golden State.

Wind energy’s boosters are eager to see proposed projects get the go-ahead.

“Let’s get a couple of these rolling, get some floating offshore turbines out there and build this over time, which is exactly what you’re seeing on the East Coast,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.

For now, the state, local and federal governments are working with military brass to negotiate a possible agreement that could see a way clear for a pair of sites off the coast of Central California but a compromise thus far has proved elusive.

Read the full story at The San Diego Union-Tribune

Virginia is all-in on offshore wind but Dominion’s decision raises questions about cost, competence

November 4, 2019 — It’s not every day that the names of a major utility and the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization share space on a banner. But at the American Wind Energy Association’s annual offshore wind conference earlier this month in Boston, the logos of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club and Dominion Energy bookended those of half a dozen state agencies, educational institutions and business development organizations on a banner proclaiming Virginia’s commitment to offshore wind.

The banner anchored a large corner booth showcasing the strengths Virginia brings to the growing industry. Broad stakeholder support is one advantage; unlike Massachusetts, Virginia has seen little opposition to its plans for developing the 112,799-acre offshore wind energy area 27 miles out from Virginia Beach.

This broad stakeholder support is the product of more than a decade of work on the part of researchers, environmental organizations, the business community and elected leaders from both parties.

For the Sierra Club and Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, offshore wind offers carbon-free, renewable energy and a way to position the Virginia as a leader in the green economy. For the Port of Virginia and Virginia Beach Economic Development, it brings new business opportunities. For Old Dominion University and Virginia Tidewater Community College, it’s a chance to train young people and participate in ground-breaking research in ocean science and engineering. And for Dominion Energy, it offers a new avenue for profit and a way to rebrand itself as a clean energy company without having to shed its core investments in fracked gas.

Read the full story at the Virginia Mercury

Wind turbines and fishing nets fight for offshore space

September 10, 2019 — If Block Island represents the promise of offshore wind, the industry faces a series of challenges lurking just beneath the surface of the waves. Opponents of offshore wind have raised concerns ranging from the turbines’ impact on military radar to worries they could clog shipping channels. Perhaps most dangerous to developers’ ambitions: the growing and increasingly coordinated opposition from the commercial fishing industry.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently delayed Vineyard Wind, an 84-turbine project planned for the shallow waters 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, out of concern for its impact on fishing. The $2.8 billion project had been scheduled to begin construction this fall, putting it on course to become the first large-scale offshore wind development in the United States.

Now its future looks less certain. Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist who has made deregulation a hallmark of his tenure, has said he will not allow the project to proceed until a cumulative impact study of all the projects planned along the Eastern Seaboard can be completed (Climatewire, Aug. 12).

Read the full story at National Wind Watch

AWEA names new lead on offshore wind sector

July 17, 2019 — With momentum building for East Coast wind power, the American Wind Energy Association announced that Laura Smith Morton will lead policy and regulatory efforts on behalf of the U.S. industry’s offshore wind sector.

Morton assumed her new role on July 8 as AWEA’s senior director for policy and regulatory affairs for offshore wind, as Vineyard Wind, Ørsted and other developers push to obtain permits and begin developing their federal leases off New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

In a statement from AWEA, Morton said she is happy to be working again on offshore wind, after more than 10 years of experience in the field as a lawyer and in senior roles at the federal Department of Energy, Council on Environmental Quality and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It’s immensely gratifying to be back working on offshore wind issues. As this new American energy industry scales up, we must strike the right balance with policies that encourage development, job creation, and the revitalization of coastal infrastructure while also engaging with other ocean users to ensure all can prosper,” said Morton.  “I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work so this industry can put more steel in the water.”

Morton contributed to the original National Offshore Wind Strategy published by the DOE and Department of the Interior, which charted a course to build the U.S. offshore wind industry, and led multiple interagency teams charged with creating efficiencies in the permitting process for clean energy projects.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

America’s Wind Farms Are Ready to Go It Alone

November 15, 2018 — A coming-of-age moment is bearing down on the U.S. wind power industry, and proponents say it’s ready—well, mostly ready.

For a quarter-century, the industry has been supported by federal tax credits that helped it attract $250 billion in investments and create 100,000 jobs, according to the American Wind Energy Association. That support ends next year, but analysts and executives say the credits have done what they were supposed to do: make the industry competitive.

Established supply chains, taller towers, bigger rotor blades, and the use of artificial intelligence to boost efficiency have made wind power cheaper than coal and on a par with natural gas. And soon enough, offshore wind farms could expand the renewable energy source’s influence beyond rural states such as Texas and Kansas to the high-population corridors along the East and West coasts. “Wind has matured now,” says Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa who first championed the tax credits in 1992. “It’s ready to compete.”

Since North America’s first offshore wind farm opened off Rhode Island in late 2016, the industry has secured a dozen offshore leases from the federal government to build similar operations elsewhere. Dominion Energy Inc. got in under the federal tax credit deadline with its plan to build a pilot wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach by late 2020. On Nov. 2, state regulators approved the plan for a two-turbine farm expected to cost $300 million and generate 12 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 3,000 homes.

Success could help Dominion in its quest to build turbines that would generate 2 gigawatts of power on an adjacent site. “Utilities make 20- and 30-year decisions, and they’ve kind of voted with their pocketbook,” says Chris Brown, president of turbine maker Vestas North America. “We’re ready to compete in a subsidy-free world.”

In 2007 wind was the prevalent renewable energy source in just seven states. By last year that had grown to 16 states, according to a September report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In Kansas, wind generated 36 percent of state power in 2017, putting it just behind coal, at 38 percent. In the first six months of 2018, though, wind jumped ahead, 42 percent to 35 percent, the EIA report showed.

Development of new plants will likely slow without the benefit of the credits, analysts say, but the industry has momentum on its side. “The fact is, there will be a slowdown,” says Declan Flanagan, chief executive officer of renewable power developer Lincoln Clean Energy LLC. “Obviously it’s a value stream that goes away. We’ve got to make it up by competitiveness.”

It won’t be easy. While developers have spent $1.1 trillion globally on new wind farms over the past dozen years, more money is going into solar energy systems these days. And the massive turbines needed to generate gigawatts of power, which can rise 600 feet in the air, have spurred protests both on- and offshore, slowing development. The complaints: The turbines are unsightly, and there are concerns the offshore plants will hurt fishing, a key East Coast industry.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Business Week

Commercial fishermen question wind farm video

February 16, 2018 — BOSTON — Offshore wind proponents are touting new undersea footage that suggests a vibrant marine habitat is growing around the nation’s first offshore wind farm — a five-turbine operation off Rhode Island’s waters.

The American Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group, says the roughly two-minute clip it posted on YouTube this week shows the potential for the nation’s fishing industry as larger projects are envisioned up and down the East Coast.

“The turbine foundations are now acting as an artificial reef,” said Nancy Sopko, the wind energy association’s director of offshore wind and federal legislative affairs. “This is a success story that can be replicated all along our coastlines.”

But the video does little to temper the concerns of commercial fishermen, who are worried about navigating dense forests of turbines to get to their historic fishing grounds, says Jim Kendall, a former scallop fisherman in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“This is nice and fun to see, but it doesn’t tip the conversation,” Seth Rolbein, of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance in Chatham, Massachusetts, said of the video.

Offshore wind developers from New England to the Carolinas are racing to build the nation’s first large-scale wind farm. Many of the projects call for hundreds of turbines to be built miles away from shore, sometimes within or along the path to lucrative fishing spots.

The wind energy association video shows beds of mussels taking shape and small fish swimming around the turbine bases. The brief underwater footage is juxtaposed with longer testimonials from local recreational fishermen and charter boat owners who say the Deepwater Wind project has been a boon for them since opened it more than a year ago.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times