Saving Seafood

Interior agency advances offshore wind on both coasts

October 24, 2018 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is taking steps that could lead to offshore wind farms along the East and West coasts.

BOEM on Oct. 19 asked companies to indicate their interest in developing three areas off the coast of California. BOEM is part of the Department of the Interior.

The parcels off California’s central and northern coastline total about 687,825 acres, but BOEM said it would consider changing the size of areas eligible for wind leases. BOEM delineated the areas in consultation with an interagency task force and the state of California.

BOEM this year received an unsolicited lease request from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, which is leading an effort to develop a wind farm offshore Humboldt County, according to the agency.

In March, the RCEA, a joint powers agency, selected a group of companies to develop the offshore project, including Principle Power, EDPR Offshore North America, Aker Solutions, H.T. Harvey & Associates and Herrera Environmental Consultants. The group aims to bring the wind farm into service in 2025.

Also, in early 2016, BOEM received an unsolicited lease request from Trident Winds for a project off Morro Bay, according to the agency.

Read the full story at Public Power

 

Vineyard Wind Signs Milestone Lease Deal With Massachusetts

October 23, 2018 — Massachusetts’ Baker-Polito administration and Vineyard Wind have announced a lease agreement to use the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal as the primary staging and deployment location for Vineyard Wind’s offshore development.

In May, an 800 MW offshore wind farm proposed by Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, was selected as the winning bid under Massachusetts’ 83C offshore wind solicitation.

Constructed and operated by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal is a 29-acre heavy-lift facility designed to support the construction, assembly and deployment of offshore wind projects, as well as handle bulk, break-bulk, container and large specialty marine cargo. The new agreement between MassCEC and Vineyard Wind represents a commitment to an 18-month lease at $6 million annually.

“By signing this lease agreement with Vineyard Wind, we have achieved another major milestone to secure long-term jobs and economic growth for the people of Massachusetts,” says Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. “Establishing an offshore wind supply chain in Massachusetts is critical to our mission to strengthen our economy while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.”

In April, MassCEC released a report on the workforce needs and economic impact of the emerging offshore wind industry. It found that the deployment of 1,600 MW of offshore wind is estimated to support 6,870-9,850 job years over the next 10 years and generate a total economic impact in Massachusetts of $1.4 billion-$2.1 billion.

“The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal provides Massachusetts with an important piece of infrastructure that will be critical in helping the offshore wind industry to establish operations in this new American marketplace,” says Stephen Pike, CEO of MassCEC.

“Today’s announcement not only cements Vineyard Wind’s commitment to stage the nation’s first industrial-scale offshore wind project from the Port of New Bedford, but it reinforces New Bedford’s leadership position in offshore wind energy,” adds New Bedford’s mayor, Jon Mitchell.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

BOEM requires transit corridors for offshore wind energy areas

October 22, 2018 — The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is requiring offshore wind energy developers to set aside vessel transit corridors, amid intense discussions with the commercial fishing industry.

In a notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the agency announced it would offer an additional 390,000 acres south of Massachusetts for lease on Dec. 13. That would extend large areas already leased from Block Island, R.I., to south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The BOEM notice includes a new requirement for planning safe transit lanes through future arrays of turbine towers on the shallow continental shelf.

“The fishing industry has raised concerns with the ability to safely transit the existing and offered leases, particularly with their ability to quickly and safely return to port during inclement weather,” agency officials wrote.

At a Sept. 20 meeting in Massachusetts, Coast Guard officials and fishing industry groups proposed transit lanes through the leases to BOEM and wind developers Baystate Wind, Vineyard Wind and Deepwater Wind (since merged with Norwegian energy company Equinor, formerly known as Statoil).

“Representatives from the squid, groundfish, scallop, and other fisheries agreed that the two nautical-mile-wide transit corridors through the existing leases would provide the ability to safely transit to and from the fishing grounds. BOEM expects these, or similar, transit corridors to be finalized in the near future, and future lessees will be required to incorporate them into their plans,” the lease sale notice states.

Read the full story at Work Boat   

 

CALIFORNIA: U.S. Department of Interior soliciting interest in developing Central Coast offshore wind farms

October 19, 2018 — The U.S. Department of the Interior is taking public comment on two possible areas for wind farms on the Central Coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is accepting interest in three sites off the California coast for potential wind development. One section would stretch from Cambria to San Simeon approximately 32 miles offshore, while a second site sits offshore the present Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.

The third area for potential wind development in California is near Humboldt Bay. Much of California’s coastline is otherwise off-limits to offshore wind farms.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is accepting interest from companies who want to develop the wind sites. A 100-day public comment period is also open until January 27.

The administration hopes that will lead to the West Coast’s first offshore wind auction.

Trident Winds, a German company, has already expressed interest in the Morro Bay site. Trident has proposed building roughly 100 floating wind turbines that would generate enough power for 300,000 homes.

Read the full story at KSBY

Trump administration to hold Massachusetts offshore wind auction in December

October 19, 2018 — Nearly 400,000 acres of the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area will be up for grabs in December, as the Trump administration holds its next offshore wind auction, officials announced this week.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke revealed Wednesday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will auction off 388,569 acres located on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Massachusetts on Dec. 13.

A total of 19 companies — including Deepwater Wind New England, LLC, Mayflower Wind Energy LLC, and Northeast Wind Energy, LLC, among others — have qualified to take part in the auction, according to the agency’s final sale notice.

The bureau will auction off three leases that are located in an area where two former leases were unsold during the Atlantic Wind Lease Sale in January 2015. The new lease areas will respectively cover about 129,000 acres, 127,000 acres and 132,000 acres.

Zinke touted the December auction, offering that “the Massachusetts sale has a lot of potential for both energy and economic activity.”

“If fully developed, the wind auction could support approximately 4.1 gigawatts of power to supply nearly 1.5 million homes,” he said in a statement. “This is just one example of the importance of fostering wind energy as a new American industry.”

Read the full story at MassLive

Offshore wind farms planned on East and West coasts

October 19, 2018 — The U.S. government is taking steps to develop offshore wind farms off both coasts.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced this week the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold an offshore wind auction Dec. 13 for nearly 390,000 acres (157,831 hectares) of ocean off Massachusetts.

Zinke said the area, if fully developed, could supply power to nearly 1.5 million homes.

He also announced the bureau is opening its environmental review of a 15-turbine project off Long Island, New York, proposed by Deepwater Wind, operators of the nation’s lone commercial wind farm off Rhode Island.

And in California, Zinke announced the bureau is seeking comment on possible areas for wind development off the state’s central and northern coasts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

MASSACHUSETTS: Feds see much potential in state’s offshore wind

October 19, 2018 — The federal government plans in December to hold an offshore wind auction featuring 390,000 acres off the coast of Massachusetts, an area that officials say could provide enough power to serve 1.5 million homes.

“The Massachusetts sale has a lot of potential for both energy and economic activity,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement after announcing plans for the Dec. 13 auction while addressing the American Wind Energy Association’s Offshore Wind Conference on Wednesday in Washington.

The federal government has previously leased waters off the coast of Massachusetts for offshore wind development and one of those leaseholders, Vineyard Wind, was selected by state and utility officials to build an 800-megawatt commercial wind energy installation south of Martha’s Vineyard.

On March 30, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its notice to prepare an environmental impact statement for the construction and operations plan submitted by Vineyard Wind.

Read the full story at The Salem News

Trump administration opens door for California offshore wind farms

October 18, 2018 — The Trump administration is considering allowing companies to build offshore wind farms off the coast of California.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said his department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will start taking comments this week on potential areas within about 1,073 square miles on California’s outer continental shelf that could host wind turbines.

The announcement, initially made at an industry conference Wednesday, came alongside news that BOEM will hold an auction in December to sell the rights to build offshore wind farms in an area off Massachusetts’s coast and that officials will start the environmental review process for the proposed South Fork Wind Project, a 15-turbine wind farm off Rhode Island.

While the Trump administration has sought to promote fossil fuels across numerous policy actions, Zinke said officials also strongly support wind power.

“I’m very bullish on offshore wind, and harnessing this renewable resource is a big part of the Trump administration’s made in America energy strategy,” Zinke said in a statement.

“We are always looking at new ways to increase American innovation and productivity to provide abundant and affordable energy for our homes and manufacturers. I think this is a win for America.”

The United States currently has just one utility-scale offshore wind farm, the Block Island project off Rhode Island. Companies have leased spots off the East Coast for other potential wind projects.

Read the full story at The Hill

EDWARD KRAPLES: We need more, not less, competition for offshore wind

October 15, 2018 — The offshore wind era in the United States is here. With no need to burn fossil fuel, to enrich uranium, to dam rivers, or to build thousands of acres of solar panels, offshore wind is the most benign form of bulk power available to mankind.

Plans to seize the potential of offshore wind already have powerful momentum on the East Coast. Between Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey alone, more than 8,000 megawatts of wind power is envisioned. Building out 1,000 megawatts entails up to $5 billion of capital investment, drawing the attention of developers far and wide. So far, European companies — mostly giant, state-spawned enterprises with deep experience in the offshore — have been quickest to recognize this enormous investment opportunity. This week the Danish firm Ørsted bought the only remaining independent US company with offshore wind positions, Deepwater.

Ørsted’s acquisition of Deepwater naturally diminishes the amount of competition for offshore wind contracts. Policy-makers in Massachusetts should immediately take two actions: first, Gov. Charlie Baker should ask the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to increase the number of planned offshore wind lease areas from two to three. Another lease area would assure that the loss of Deepwater as a competitive entrant will be offset by the emergence of a new lease owner off the coast of Massachusetts.

Second, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources should even more strongly promote an ocean grid that serves as a platform for multiple offshore wind developers. The first request for proposals that have solicited offshore power did not stipulate anything about the transmission that will take it to market. Naturally, extremely large and competent offshore wind generators dearly wish to own both the wind farms and the conduit to land and have advanced arguments to the effect that, they, and they alone, can get the job done right.

But letting each generator plan and build and own major transmission lines to shore is akin to letting Walmart plan and build and own the interstate that leads to its stores using its customers money. Bundling generation and transmission limits bidders to the few that have the capacity to do both. Limiting the offshore opportunities to only a few competitors is never good for those paying the bills.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

Judge Tosses Seafood Industry Challenge to East Coast Wind Farm

October 3, 2018 — A seafood industry challenge to a $42.5 million lease for a wind farm off the coast of New York was filed prematurely, a federal judge has ruled.

Led by the Fisheries Survival Fund, the plaintiffs in the case said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed to adequately consider how the Statoil Wind US LLC wind energy facility would impact fishermen, along with other environmental and economic impacts.

The plaintiffs also argued that the agency failed to consider adequate alternatives or prepare an environmental impact statement, which the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said was unnecessary after determining that there were no foreseeable environmental impacts that would significantly impact the human environment.

But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, while finding that  the Fisheries Survival Fund and the other  plaintiffs had standing to bring claims under the National Environmental Policy Act, ruled Sunday they were not yet ripe.

That’s because Statoil Wind US LLC, the company developing the 26-mile wind farm roughly 11 miles out from Long Island, must first submit its construction and operations plans, along with a site assessment, while the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management retains authority to reject any or all of those.

“The presence of these ‘conditions’ does not transform the lease into an irretrievable commitment of resources,” the 24-page ruling says.

Chutkan later adds: “The lease sale does not represent the final word on anything, nor does it commit any resources, even putting aside the question of whether it does so irretrievably,” the 24-page ruling says.

If its site assessment plan is approved, Statoil will have five years to conduct surveys and propose construction and operations plans.

Read the full story at Courthouse News