Saving Seafood

Maryland can start construction on its first offshore wind farm

December 5, 2024 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved US Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan for Maryland’s first offshore wind farm Tuesday.

The state has ambitious offshore wind goals and past failed agreements with Danish renewable energy giant Orsted.

“After more than four years of rigorous and robust analysis, we are thrilled to have secured this final BOEM approval,” said US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski. “US Wind’s projects will produce massive amounts of homegrown energy and will help satisfy the region’s critical need for more electricity, all while supporting good local jobs.”

The Maryland Offshore Wind Project is planned in three phases, two of which have been named – MarWin and Momentum Wind – and have received offshore renewable energy certificates from the state of Maryland.

Read the full story at The Center Square

Tracking Sea Creature Stress Related to Wind Turbine Construction

December 5, 2024 — With hundreds of towering offshore wind turbines planned to be built in the waters south of Martha’s Vineyard, a team of local scientists is working to find out if the construction noise will hurt ocean life.

As regulators consider projects up and down the east coast, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been simulating the booming sound of pile driving turbine monopiles to see if it has an effect on a variety of species. So far, results have been mixed.

While there’s been research into how turbine construction impacts the endangered right whale, the ocean’s small ground critters have largely been left to fend for themselves, said Aran Mooney, an associate scientist at WHOI.

“This is a knowledge gap, and it could really impact the fisheries,” he said.

The research team has been replicating construction and observing its effects on lobsters, sea scallops, flounder, squid and black sea bass. Mr. Mooney’s work was contracted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency that oversees offshore wind energy.

In the past few years, the WHOI scientists have determined the impact the noise has on squid by playing an audio recording of pile driving as they were enclosed in a tank.

“The sound profiles are pretty much the same as what we see in offshore wind, actual construction.” Mr. Mooney said.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Ocean City continues with lawsuit following US Wind receiving final approval

December 4, 2024 — US Wind, Inc. announced Tuesday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has granted final approval for the company’s Construction and Operations Plan, completing the federal permitting process for its offshore wind project.

“This is a proud moment for US Wind,” said Jeff Grybowski, US Wind CEO. “After more than four years of rigorous and robust analysis, we are thrilled to have secured this final BOEM approval. US Wind’s projects will produce massive amounts of homegrown energy and will help satisfy the region’s critical need for more electricity, all while supporting good local jobs.”

The project, located in a federal lease area off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, has the potential to generate up to 2 gigawatts of offshore wind power — enough to power more than 600,000 homes in the region, according to US Wind.

However, the project has faced significant opposition from the Ocean City community and other local organizations. The Town of Ocean City, joined by groups such as the Worcester County Commissioners, Coastal Association of Realtors and the Commercial and Recreational Fishing Industry, say they will continue to move forward with a lawsuit against BOEM to challenge its approval of US Wind’s project.

Read the full story at Coast TV

US Wind Wins Final Approval for Offshore Wind Project

December 4, 2024 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued its final approval of US Wind’s construction of a wind project off the coast of Delmarva.

According to US Wind, BOEM issued the permit for the Construction and Operations Plan, the final step in the company’s ongoing federal permitting application Tuesday, December 3.

The approved project includes the construction and operation of up to 114 wind turbine generators, up to four offshore substation platforms, a meteorological tower, and offshore export cable corridors. The project could also see wind power cables coming ashore under 3Rs Beach in Delaware.

The Town of Ocean City, along with multiple co-plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit in October challenging BOEM’s approval process of US Wind’s proposed project.

Read the full story at WBOC

BOEM Publishes Final SouthCoast Wind Impact Statement

November 29, 2024 — The federal Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) recently published the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 147-turbine SouthCoast Wind project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

Southcoast Wind’s offshore turbines will primarily be visible off the coast of Nantucket, but the company’s pathway to profitability relies in part on permitting from the state of Rhode Island. The company plans to run a transmission cable through the state’s coastal waters, up the Sakonnet River, over Portsmouth’s Common Fence Point, and across Mount Hope Bay to Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts.

The 491-page EIS document delves into details about the project’s anticipated impact on everything from fisheries and whales to underwater archaeological sites of cultural significance. It also includes a “finding of adverse effect” on nine historic locations, including two historic sites with ocean views on Nantucket and in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Read the full article at the Newport Daily News

MASSACHUSETTS: Town Urges Islanders To Lobby Federal And State Preservation Authorities Over SouthCoast Wind Mitigation

November 27, 2024 — With the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) set to issue a permit for the SouthCoast Wind project south of Nantucket next month, the town has put out an “urgent” plea for island residents to lobby state and federal preservation authorities to stall the process.

The goal is not only to get BOEM to improve its proposed mitigation for Nantucket, but also to potentially drag out the approval process beyond the Jan. 20th, 2025 inauguration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to end offshore wind projects on “day one.”

The SouthCoast Wind project is still in the midst of the so-called Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act, which deals with the impacts on historic propertiesthe Se and gives the town standing with BOEM, as the island is a registered National Historic Landmark. The town has already objected to BOEM’s mitigation proposal for the SouthCoast Wind: just $150,000 for historic property surveys and archeological assessments – to limit the impact of the offshore energy development on the island. Despite those objections during the Section 106 process, BOEM appears poised to issue a permit for SouthCoast Wind on December 19, an approval which opponents believe is being rushed through before the Biden administration leaves the White House.

Read the full article at Nantucket Current

MASSACHUSETTS: Ocean-energy center on New Bedford’s Homers Wharf hurts fishing industry, says abutter

November 25, 2024 — A proposed state ocean-energy center fronting Homers Wharf is drawing opposition from a prominent local attorney who is an abutting property owner.

Richard T. Moses, who is also a retired Superior Court judge, said the proposed building “clearly does not belong on Homers Wharf” in a letter to the City Council Property Committee.

City Council approval is required for the proposal because the Mass. Clean Energy Center wants to lease the site for 15 years. The Port Authority’s enabling legislation requires a council OK for leases longer than five years.

Read the full article at Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Town Turns Its Attention To Next Wind Farm On The Horizon: SouthCoast Wind

November 18, 2024 — Even as the town continues to address the fallout from the July 13th blade failure at Vineyard Wind, it is now turning its attention to the next offshore wind farm slated to be built in the waters off Nantucket.

SouthCoast Wind is a 2,400 megawatt offshore wind project slated for an area approximately 23 miles southwest of the island consisting of 149 wind turbines, each standing 1,066 feet tall – even higher than Vineyard Wind’s turbines which are 853 feet tall. The project recently secured key state permits and completed an environmental review by the federal government.

The final environmental impact statement for SouthCoast Wind released by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) concluded that the visibility of SouthCoast Wind’s turbines “would have long-term, continuous, and moderate impacts on the Nantucket Historic District.”

The town is already objecting to SouthCoast Wind’s proposed mitigation efforts – just $150,000 for historic property surveys and archeological assessments – to limit the impact of the offshore energy development on the island.

Read the full article at Nantucket Current

Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind development in Gulf of Mexico

November 15, 2024 — A surprise pitch from a Chicago company with no experience building offshore wind farms has reignited enthusiasm for wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hecate Energy, a company best known for land-based solar projects, presented its plan to build a 133-turbine wind farm in the Gulf shortly after the Biden administration canceled the region’s second lease auction in July due to insufficient interest from bidders.

The failed auction came on the heels of the Gulf’s disappointing first-ever auction in 2023, which drew just one successful bid, submitted by German wind energy giant RWE, for a tract south of Lake Charles, and no bids for two areas near Galveston, Texas.

The Gulf’s offshore wind industry “could use a positive headline,” Hecate wrote in its application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency in charge of offshore wind development in federal waters. By proceeding with Hecate’s application, BOEM could “generate momentum” in a region overlooked by offshore wind developers, the application said.

Hecate’s gambit appears to be paying off. Invenergy, another Chicago energy company, recently threw down a proposal for roughly the same two areas of the western Gulf, about 25 miles from Galveston. In an “Indication of Interest” letter sent to the BOEM in September, Invenergy proposed up to 140 turbines with a total capacity of about 2,500 megawatts, enough to power about a half-million homes. Hecate’s more modest plan would likely produce approximately 2,000 megawatts.

Suddenly, the Gulf is back in play, said Cameron Poole, energy and innovation manager for the economic development organization Greater New Orleans, Inc. While the Gulf has stronger storms and fewer potential energy customers than the East Coast, which has been the focus of U.S. offshore wind development, “these new proposals show that developers aren’t scared away by that,” Poole said. “It shows that interest is still growing in the Gulf.”

Read the full article at the Louisiana Illuminator 

SouthCoast Wind clears federal environmental hurdle

November 13, 2024 — A 147-turbine offshore wind project planned off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard will not harm local species and habitat any more than climate change already is, according to a federal review published on Friday.

One exception: North Atlantic right whales, which could face “moderate adverse” direct and indirect impacts from the SouthCoast Wind project that would not otherwise exist, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s report. The report specifically named vessel noise as potentially disruptive to marine mammals, especially fin and endangered right whales. However, it does not link these disruptions to whale deaths, a contention which has been largely debunked by scientists, including within the federal government. 

“There is no relationship between offshore wind and dead whales,” said Bob Kenney, an emeritus marine research scientist at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

The 2,400-page environmental impact statement on SouthCoast Wind marks a significant step — though not the final sign off — in the multilayered, multi-step regulatory process governing offshore wind. Project developers are still awaiting federal approval on a construction and operations plan — a date for which has not been set — alongside a host of state-level reviews, including several in Rhode Island.

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current