July 6, 2021 — A project of the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) in the United States, in collaboration with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, aims to measure the frequency range that minke whales can hear.
The research would fill in an information gap and help lessen human disturbance to a wide range of baleen whales. But it involves capturing and temporarily restraining wild whales, a tricky procedure that some animal rights groups say could stress the big cetaceans.
July 2, 2021 — A new committee associated with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is taking on a study of how planned wind turbines off the U.S. East Coast may affect vessel radars.
Knowing how mariners will see turbine towers on radar – and see each other’s vessels moving past them – will help the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in planning for those projects.
With BOEM aiming to have environmental reviews for 16 of those projects by 2025, the agency is looking to expand understanding of how marine radars can be affected, said Arianna Baker, a BOEM program analyst, during an introductory online meeting June 29 with committee members. The National Academies committee mission is “to assess impacts of offshore wind turbine generators on marine vessel radar and identify techniques that can be used to mitigate those impacts,” according to an announcement of the meeting.
Previous studies the agency is looking at include one by the British Wind Energy Association that examined the Kentish Flats project near approaches to the Port of London during 2006, a time of smaller, less powerful turbines and earlier generations of marine radar. A 2007 report from that study described radar reflections, mirror images and other phenomena seen by operators.
Now BOEM is reviewing plans by developers to erect 12- to 14-megawatt turbines, and how that could affect the radar images mariners use in navigation.
July 1, 2021 — Park City Wind, a second major wind project put forward by Orange-based Avangrid, is a step closer to reality after getting a key approval from federal regulators.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued approval to go ahead with an environmental impact study for Park City Wind, an 804-megawatt offshore project under development by Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
“This is another important milestone for Avangrid’s portfolio of offshore wind projects,” said CEO Dennis Arriola. “We look forward to working with BOEM, the Lamont Administration, community leaders and our partners to successfully develop Park City Wind and deliver clean energy to our home state of Connecticut.”
If completed, Park City Wind would be the state’s largest offshore wind project and has a commitment from the state to buy its electricity.
June 30, 2021 — The pipeline of offshore wind projects is coming into clearer view with federal officials this week planning to start their official review of a development that could offer as much as 2.3 gigawatts of power to northeastern states.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans on Wednesday to publish a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind South, a project of up to 130 turbines that the company, which is separately developing a project solely for Massachusetts utilities, plans to build out in phases. The first phase, 804 MW of power, is earmarked as Park City Wind and is under contract with Connecticut.
The notice of intent will kick off a 30-day public comment period during which BOEM will hold three virtual meetings to identify issues it should consider as it prepares a draft environmental impact statement which will then be subject to further review and its own approval. Earlier this month, BOEM began a similar process for Equinor’s 816-megawatt Empire Wind project that’s expected to deliver power to New York.
The Vineyard Wind South project is planned for the remaining southwestern portion of the 260 square mile lease area that will host the Massachusetts-contracted Vineyard Wind I project at the northeastern end. If the Vineyard Wind South project is fully developed, BOEM said it could include “up to 130 wind turbine generators, two to five offshore substations, inter-array cables, and up to five export cables connecting to the onshore electric grid in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at up to three onshore substations.”
June 25, 2021 — A $3 billion proposal to build what would be New York state’s largest offshore wind farm is taking shape, with plans to run an underground cable through Long Beach to a substation near the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park. A precise location for the cable has not yet been determined.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will soon begin an environmental review of the construction and operation of what would be called Empire Wind, off Long Island’s South Shore. The review is expected to take two years, and the project would need state approval as well. Work on Empire Wind would begin no sooner than 2023. Long Beach would not be involved in the approval process, but would help determine the location of the underground cable.
The wind turbines would be about 15 miles offshore.
The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is strongly opposed to the project, claiming that fish, and fishermen, will be adversely affected.
Equinor, a company based in Norway, has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first in 2019, to supply 816 megawatts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January, for Long Island’s South Shore.
June 23, 2021 — Two federal agencies are partnering to pursue more offshore wind energy along the Atlantic Coast, though much of North Carolina’s coastline doesn’t seem to be involved.
Meanwhile, state officials are pursuing similar plans.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued an announcement June 14 they’ve entered into an agreement to support planning and reviewing renewable energy projects on the outer continental shelf. The partnership is made in an effort to pursue President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14008, which commits to creating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
In an action mirroring President Biden’s executive order, Gov. Roy Cooper issued June 9 his own executive order, E.O. 218. According to a press release from his office, the order highlights “North Carolina’s commitment to offshore wind power.”
“Offshore wind power will help North Carolina create jobs and generate economic development while helping us transition to a clean energy economy,” Gov. Cooper said in the release. “North Carolina’s national leadership in clean energy and manufacturing, plus our highly trained workforce, create a strong business environment for offshore wind supply chain and manufacturing companies.”
BOEM public information officer Stephen Boutwell said in an email June 15 to the News-Times the bureau is “in the planning stages for potentially issuing additional wind leases offshore (of) North and South Carolina.”
June 23, 2021 — Offshore wind power is coming to New York for the first time, and it would be the largest wind farm in the nation to date.
As CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reports, a video simulation of what’s called the Empire Wind Project, off Long Island and New Jersey, shows what it will look like from shore.
Winds of change off Long Island, where offshore wind turbines will one day bring clean energy. To visualize the nation’s first large scale offshore wind farm, with its 174 turbines, the developer created a simulation from Jones Beach, which has some relieved they’re further offshore than first proposed.
The scallop industry objects to its placement.
“Fishermen can’t fish in a wind farm, and so building a wind farm on fishing grounds takes those fishing grounds out of play for the fishermen,” said David Frulla, an attorney for the scallop industry. “You are looking at people losing their livelihoods.”
“Frankly, the biggest threat to our fishing industry is climate change,” Esposito said.
The Bureau of Energy Management invites comment before impact studies are launched.
The Empire Wind Farm would be some 19 miles off Long Branch, New Jersey.
June 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Kathryn Ford is now leading the center’s Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis Division. She is replacing Wendy Gabriel who retired in 2021 after 38 years with NOAA Fisheries.
This division executes a massive data acquisition, management, and analysis effort. It includes scientific ecosystem surveys on vessels operated by NOAA, universities, other national oceanographic laboratories, and fishing vessels. The team also analyzes biological trends in important fishery species. It conducts biological studies to understand how a range of ecosystem factors influence the growth and health of important fishery species.
Ford comes with a great respect for the work she will manage. “I believe in the science that this particular team brings to the table,” said Ford. “This division’s data collection and analysis are central to what the center does. They are the basis for all the other analyses.”
Ford comes to NOAA Fisheries after a career filled with multidisciplinary work in coastal and ocean science at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Initially hired there to pilot a remotely operated towed vehicle in a conservation engineering study, she eventually rose to lead the division’s fisheries habitat program.
Trained as an oceanographer, Ford has applied those skills to coastal and ocean planning, artificial reefs and eelgrass restoration, aquaculture, and offshore wind energy development. She served on:
June 18, 2021 — The federal Department of the Interior announced on Friday a proposed sale for offshore wind development on the outer continental shelf in the New York Bight, an area of shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast.
The sale would be the first competitive offshore wind lease sale of President Biden’s administration, which previously announced a goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
The proposed lease areas have the potential for seven gigawatts of wind energy, sufficient to power more than 2.6 million residences and support thousands of new jobs, according to a statement from the Interior Department.
The proposed sale notice includes eight lease areas in the New York Bight that could be auctioned for commercial wind energy development. A proposed sale notice published in the Federal Register on Friday opened a 60-day public comment period and provides information about potential areas that could be available for leasing, proposed lease provisions and conditions, and auction details. Comments received will be made available to the public and considered before a decision is made as to whether to publish a final sale notice, which would announce the time and date of a lease sale.
June 15, 2021 — In the latest Biden administration push to meet its target to deploy 30 GW of U.S. offshore wind energy by 2030, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency jumpstarted the process announced in March to lease federal ocean tracts for projects in the New York Bight area between Long Island, N.Y., and coastal New Jersey.
The preliminary lease notice, published on June 14, follows a US Interior Dept. alert on June 11 that it will also open Gulf of Mexico areas for project development, seeking builder interest and public comment.
The government notice for the New York lease, which foresees up to 7 GW of offshore wind in three designated zones, launches a 60-day comment period, with specifics on lease proposal dates and exact lease sites to follow. Most observers speculate the lease auction will be held this year.
Currently, 11 developers have indicated interest in building projects in those areas and are approved to bid by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency said. It said the areas could provide more than 9.8 GW of developable power supply.
Annie Hawkins, executive director of Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which represents fishing interests and has been a vocal project opponent, noted developer mandates to consult on potential impacts before turbine array designs are proposed. But in a statement, she remains concerned about opening new lease areas in the Bight, “which is perhaps the most spatially conflicted area in the country.”