Saving Seafood

CT study will examine relationship of new offshore wind farm on marine ecosystems

November 27, 2023 — New local fisheries research will look into the impacts of Connecticut’s first offshore wind farm on marine ecosystems in southern New England waters.

Scientists with UConn Avery Point will spend the next two years examining how Revolution Wind, located about 30 miles from Connecticut’s coast, would affect marine habitats and food chains.

On Nov. 20, project developers – Eversource and Ørsted – got final approval for construction of the wind farm, which is expected to power up more than 300,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island in 2025.

The UConn team is in early stages of the study, and will begin site research in spring 2024. The team’s focus is the potential effects on marine habitats, food webs and shifts in commercially important species.

Read the full article at WSHU

Avangrid avoids $1 billion write-off after ending plans to build CT’s Park City Wind farm

October 28, 2023 — Avangrid reported Thursday that in canceling its Park City Wind farm for Connecticut, it sidestepped more than $1 billion in write-offs as projected costs outstripped revenue it expected under a power purchase agreement with the state.

Avangrid, a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola, has its headquarters in Orange. Avangrid’s subsidiaries include United Illuminating, which owns power lines that provide electricity in the Bridgeport and New Haven metropolitan areas. UI sued the state in September after regulators denied a rate increase it had sought.

Avangrid also owns Central Maine Power, which has its headquarters in Auburn where officials issued a “shelter in place” advisory after the overnight mass shootings in adjacent Lewiston. Just after 9 a.m. on Thursday, CMP alerted customers it would coordinate with local law enforcement in responding to any outages Thursday morning.

“We have many Central Maine Power employees in Lewiston and all over Maine who are likely severely impacted by this horrible act of senseless violence,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra, speaking Thursday morning on a conference call with investment analysts. “We are monitoring the situation very closely and we are prepared to provide every resource available to our employees and our affected communities. Our hearts and thoughts from all of us at CMP, Avangrid and Iberdrola are with the Lewiston community in this difficult time.”

Avangrid unilaterally pulled the plug on the Park City Wind farm several weeks ago, as the cost of construction outstripped revenue projections from a power purchase agreement with the state of Connecticut. The companies had aimed to start construction by 2026.

In August, Avangrid restarted construction of a transmission line through Maine to feed electricity to the New England grid from hydropower plants in Canada, after a court decision in its favor. At 1,200 megawatts, the New England Clean Energy Connect lines would deliver 50 percent more power than Park City Wind at optimal wind conditions.

Read the full article at Stamford Advocate

As CT scrambles to save wind, developers step up off Jersey Shore

October 10, 2023 — As Avangrid and Orsted waffle on wind farms off the southern New England coast amid runaway costs, two more big developers are pushing ahead undeterred for a big installation off New Jersey — presumably at a price point that could raise the bar on what Connecticut and other states will have to pay to get the wheels turning on wind power.

Attentive Energy announced it would bid on a power purchase agreement from New Jersey for a new proposed wind farm, the same day Avangrid announced it would back out of Park City Wind. The project was second in the pipeline to generate carbon-free electricity for Connecticut from offshore winds, after Orsted’s Revolution Wind.

A subsidiary of France-based TotalEnergies, Attentive Energy is pairing with the Corio Generation affiliate of Macquarie Group based in Australia.  New Jersey kept the window open for bids from March through August, coinciding with a stretch in which some offshore wind developers elected to cut their losses amid high interest rates that are making it more expensive to finance projects with loans, and continuing problems with the array of suppliers needed for the projects.

Read the full article at ctpost

New England states join to buy offshore wind power as US industry struggles

October 5, 2023 — Three U.S. states in New England – Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut – on Wednesday agreed to jointly procure offshore wind power as soaring interest rates and rising equipment and labor costs have made some projects uneconomic.

By joining forces, the states hope to counter the pain rippling across the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, which is expected to play a key part in decarbonizing the power sector and revitalizing domestic manufacturing.

Earlier this week, another offshore wind developer canceled agreements to sell power to local utilities – this time in Connecticut – because the previously agreed upon prices for that power was too low to cover the rising cost of building the project.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced the agreement between the three states at the American Clean Power Association’s Offshore WINDPOWER Conference in Boston, according to a press release on the governor’s website.

Read the full article at Reuters

Connecticut: CT’s biggest offshore wind project nearly dead in the water

October 4, 2023 — Connecticut’s largest offshore wind project — Park City Wind — is not quite dead in the water but is now on serious life support.

Its developer, Avangrid, announced Monday night that it and Connecticut’s utilities have terminated an agreement for the utilities to buy the power from the project. In doing so, Park City, at 804 megawatts, becomes the third major New England offshore wind project, and the second for Avangrid, to hit the shoals.

The reason for each is the same. The economy has shifted so much since the power purchase agreements, PPAs, were negotiated, that the projects are no longer viable.

Avangrid said in a statement that the “unprecedented economic headwinds facing the industry including record inflation, supply chain disruptions, and sharp interest rate hikes” have “rendered the Park City Wind project unfinanceable under its existing contracts.”

“After exploring all potential solutions to the financial challenges facing the project, and engaging in good-faith and productive discussions with Connecticut state officials regarding these challenges, it is clear the best path forward for Park City Wind is in the termination of the Power Purchase Agreements and a rebid of the project,” the Avangrid statement continued. Avangrid will pay $16 million to terminate the agreement.

Read the full article at CT Mirror

CT innovator IDs illegal trawlers with AI and ears in the ocean

August 14, 2023 — With millions of dollars from venture capital investors, a Connecticut startup that emerged from the submarine industry is using artificial intelligence to pioneer new underwater technology, from tracking illegal fishing to protecting whales during construction of offshore wind farms.

Miles off the U.S. coast, Groton-based ThayerMahan is readying a nautical network of buoys and roaming sea drones to ID commercial fishing trawlers that may be operating illegally, whether in U.S. territorial waters or those of other nations where catch limits are abused routinely to put pressure on fish stocks.

Closer to home in partnership with Hydrotechnik-Luebeck based in Germany, ThayerMahan is assisting offshore wind developers with a system to “bubble wrap” wind turbine monopiles with curtains of sound-absorbing bubbles, in an effort to minimize disruptions for whales and other marine life. ThayerMahan is tracking whale positions to determine if any are swimming too close to turbine construction sites and is helping wind farm developers comply with federal environmental rules.

Mike Connor retired as a vice admiral overseeing the U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet to start ThayerMahan in 2016, seeing the need for a startup that could develop a networked system of underwater sensors to help the Navy identify vessels. Connor named the company for the naval power theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, who was a major influence in the global naval buildup preceding World War I.

Read the full article at ctpost

Connecticut bans harvest of horseshoe crabs

August 14, 2023 — Connecticut has banned the harvesting of horseshoe crabs along its coastline amid concerns about the ecological health of the species, which is prized for its life-saving blue blood.

The ban, approved by the state Legislature, outlaws horseshoe crab hand harvesting beginning on Oct. 1. Anyone caught violating the law faces a $25 fine for each crab harvested. There are exemptions for scientific and medical purposes if it is determined that doing so will not harm the overall horseshoe crab population.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who signed the bill on Wednesday, said the number of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound and throughout the Atlantic Coast has been “severely depleted” in recent years, raising concerns that the species could go the way of the dinosaurs.

Read the full article at the Center Square

Comment on Revolution Wind’s draft EIS

September 7, 2022 —

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a 598-page draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm proposed to be constructed in Rhode Island waters. A 1,178-page appendix document with more information surrounding the project and the draft environmental impact statement was also released.

According to the Revolution Wind website, this project will provide “Connecticut and Rhode Island residents 100 percent renewable energy to help conserve the New England environment.” However, the offshore wind farm will be closest to Martha’s Vineyard, 12 miles southwest of the Island. The project will be 15 miles away from Rhode Island, and 32 miles away from Connecticut. The project is anticipated to have 100 turbines and two export cables. The export cables will make landfall in Rhode Island. Revolution Wind is owned by Orsted and Eversource.

Read the full article at MV Times

Milford laboratory working to make sure CT’s shellfish industry survives

August 23, 2022 — Thousands of people came to Milford this weekend for the Milford Oysterfest. They served up some 30,000 oysters, all grown in the water off Connecticut’s coast. As they enjoy those tasty shellfish, they may not know that, right nearby, scientists are constantly studying those oysters.

Just across the harbor is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory. The scientists working there try to make the shellfish industry thrive.

“Among our main projects are to improve the hatchery techniques so that it’s more effective and dependable to have shellfish seed to plant,” explained Dr. Gary Wikfors, Aquaculture Sustainability Branch Chief of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Shellfishing is a $30 million industry in Connecticut, and Connecticut’s senior senator wants to see more funding to study it.

Read the full story at WTNH

 

Great Meadows Marsh Project is Restoring Salt Marsh Habitat and Building Resilience in Coastal Connecticut

May 17, 2022 — Funding recovered from three pollution cases is supporting restoration of nearly 40 acres of salt marsh and other coastal habitats at Great Meadows Marsh. The marsh is located in the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Stratford, Connecticut. Through this effort, NOAA and partners are strengthening the climate resilience of this important coastal ecosystem.

Great Meadows Marsh lies immediately west of where the Housatonic River meets with Long Island Sound. Most other salt marshes in Connecticut, as well as many marshes along the Atlantic coast, were historically ditched to eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes. Great Meadows Marsh, however, is home to the largest remaining expanse of unditched salt marsh in Connecticut. The unditched condition of this marsh provides a healthier and more functional habitat overall.

Salt marshes provide habitat for fish and wildlife, trap pollution, and reduce damage from storms and flooding—important benefits  for local communities. The Great Meadows Marsh restoration effort will provide important habitat for fish, including spawning and nursery habitat for forage fish like Atlantic silverside, mummichog, and Atlantic menhaden. It will also help build the ecological resilience of the marsh to respond to increasing sea level rise.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries