Equinor Archives - Saving Seafood

Right whale defenders question energy industry donations

April 27, 2022 — A group opposing wind projects off the coast of Massachusetts released a report Tuesday that documents contributions from wind energy developers to environmental groups in the state, donations that the authors of the report say cast questions on the ability of groups to analyze the impacts that wind projects have on the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

The report, released by the Save Right Whales Coalition, catalogs $4.2 million between wind developers like Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind, and Orsted to environmental groups in Massachusetts such as the Environmental League of Massachusetts, New England Aquarium, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The flow of money, coalition member Lisa Linowes said, raised a “red flag” for potential conflicts of interest when it comes to investigating the environmental impacts of offshore wind development in places where the North Atlantic Right Whale resides. The whale is one of the most endangered large whale species in the world, according to NOAA Fisheries.

“The public has come to trust the word of these organizations, that when they say wind turbines can be safely sited within and near the waters where the right whale lives, breeds, feeds, that they will be safe,” Linowes said. “Based on their public statements and based on the donations … we should question the priorities of these organizations.”

Empire Wind plans power delivery to New York in 2025

July 13, 2021 — Electricity from the Equinor and BP Empire Wind project should start coming into New York’s power grid in 2025, according to updated plans the joint venture has filed with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The first offshore wind energy project laid out for the New York Bight is a 79,350-acre tract, shaped like a slice of pizza wedged between two of the ship traffic separation lanes in the New York Harbor approaches.

With the enormous volume of vessel traffic in the region – container vessels at the port of New York and New Jersey, coastwise tug and barge tows, plus commercial and recreational fishing fleets – navigation has been the foremost issue since New York state energy planners first began looking to ocean wind as a power source.

“There is certainly a concern about setback” from the shipping traffic lanes, said Lucas Feinberg, a project manager with BOEM, during a July 8 online virtual public scoping session hosted by the agency.

Early on, planners agreed to a 1-nautical mile setback along the Empire Wind frontage along the shipping lanes. Formally known on charts as traffic separation schemes, the lanes fan out from the New York Harbor entrance at Ambrose Light.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Offshore wind projects line up for federal review

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.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Feds to begin review of wind farm off Long Beach

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.

Read the full story at the LI Herald

NEW YORK: Energy giant to hold forum with fishermen over cross-Sound cable route

May 5, 2021 — A European energy giant on Wednesday will hold a forum for concerned North Shore fishermen to outline the plan for a power cable route that will extend across the Long Island Sound.

The meeting, which is closed to the media, will address concerns by some fishermen that the route could complicate trap and trawl fishing in the Sound and elsewhere, Newsday has confirmed.

The route, as proposed by Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant, will extend more than 150 miles from windmills in the waters off Massachusetts to an electrical station in Astoria, Queens, traversing the entire Long Island Sound. It will cross over or under a dozen other power or communication cables that have operated in the waters for decades with few problems, Equinor said. Some longtime fishermen acknowledged this, saying the buried cable is unlikely to pose problems. The cables will be buried 4 to 6 feet deep for the entire route, Equinor has said.

Read the full story at Newsday

NY award will more than double the number of wind turbines planned for South Shore

January 20, 2021 — New York State’s decision last week to award two “massive” offshore wind power contracts to Norwegian energy giant Equinor will more than double the size of a planned wind farm off the coast of Long Island. It also promises “substantial” upgrades to a section of the electric grid at Oceanside.

The plan, announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last week as part of an expansive post-COVID-19 green economy, would bring the number the number of turbines expected to be spinning off the South Shore by 2027 to around 170, encompassing some 80,000 acres from Jones Beach to Islip, the company said. New York has a stated goal of some 9,000 megawatts of wind power by 2035, to displace carbon-belching conventional plants.

The state awarded the projects to Norwegian energy giant Equinor, which in 2019 was awarded a separate contract for 816 megawatts in a project called Empire Wind 1, some 15 miles off Jones Beach. That project will be constructed by 2024 directly adjacent to the newly awarded Empire Wind 2 and will be “built as one project, in sequence,” said Siri Espedal Kindem, president of Equinor’s U.S. Wind division. Empire Wind 2 is expected to be comprised of some 90 turbines.

She said the company is interested in bidding for new lease areas off the coast of Long Island, a process currently stalled under the Trump Administration.

Read the full story at Newsday

European developers build out dominance in US offshore wind race

October 8, 2020 — Utilities and oil majors from Europe are slicing up the Eastern Seaboard when it comes to the burgeoning U.S. offshore wind industry, with fewer domestic-owned developers so far putting money into a sector that is expected to balloon over the coming decade.

BP PLC became the latest company to enter the fray in September, when it bought into two offshore wind developments owned by Norway’s Equinor ASA, the Beacon Wind and Empire Wind projects, which between them have development potential of 4,400 MW, including an 816-MW state contract already awarded for Empire Wind. The joint venture between the two oil and gas firms follows a host of deals and leasing rounds that have seen the major players of Europe’s own offshore boom take the lead in the sector’s next big market.

Denmark’s Ørsted A/S, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and the BP-Equinor joint venture now own just over 11,600 MW of planned projects along the coast, while Dominion Energy Inc. and Eversource Energy — the next two top owners — are sitting on a combined 4,500 MW of projects, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

Read the full story at S&P Global

BP Enters Offshore Wind Market With $1.1 Billion Equinor Deal. Why The Stock Is Falling.

September 11, 2020 — BP stock fell on Thursday, as the oil major entered the offshore wind market in a $1.1 billion deal with Norwegian energy giant Equinor.

The FTSE 100-listed company has agreed to buy 50% stakes in two of Equinor’s wind farm developments on the U.S. East Coast—the Empire Wind project in New York and the Beacon Wind farm in Massachusetts.

The two companies have also formed a strategic partnership to pursue further opportunities for offshore wind in the U.S.

The back story. In February—shortly after Bernard Looney became its chief executive—BP set out an action plan to become net zero on carbon by 2050. The company ramped up its strategy last month, saying it won’t explore in any new countries and announcing a tenfold increase in low-carbon investment to $5 billion a year by 2030.

Read the full story at MarketWatch

Equinor names New England offshore Beacon Wind

June 2, 2020 — Norwegian energy company Equinor has given the name Beacon Wind to a planned offshore wind farm off the US New England coast.

Beacon Wind will be located about 32km south of Massachusetts and 112km east of New York.

Wildlife surveys for the project kicked off last year and this summer more surveys will be undertaken to characterise conditions of the lease area, the company said.

These include looking at the geologic conditions, benthic habitat and checking for the presence of obstructions and sensitive resources.

Equinor Wind said its Boston-based team is actively engaged with commercial fishermen and their representatives to ensure that the development of Beacon Wind coexists successfully with traditional northeast maritime industries.

“Insights and feedback from the fishing industry are critical to the collaborative development of Beacon Wind,” the company said.

Read the full story at ReNews

Coast Guard backs wind industry on turbine layout

June 1, 2020 — The offshore wind power industry cleared one of its last remaining bureaucratic hurdles Wednesday with the release of a long-awaited report from the Coast Guard that essentially agrees with an industry proposal on turbine layout.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study has concluded that turbines should be spaced 1.2 miles apart and oriented in the same direction across seven offshore wind lease areas totaling around 1,400 square miles south of Nantucket.

Concerned with vessel safety and the ability to maneuver while fishing, some fishermen and industry groups sought larger lanes, as wide as 4 miles, to transit to fishing grounds, but the five wind power companies holding the leases said that would force them to crowd turbines outside the travel lanes, making it less safe to navigate and fish.

The offshore wind leaseholders — Equinor, Mayflower Wind, Orsted/Eversource and Vineyard Wind — had been concerned that some of the layouts proposed by other stakeholders could reduce the number of turbines and power generation. The increasing efficiency and power capacity of newer turbines have alleviated some of that concern.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times