Saving Seafood

New Jersey Releases Offshore Wind Strategic Plan

October 29, 2020 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved and published online the New Jersey Offshore Wind Strategic Plan on Sept. 9. The 500-plus-page document is the state’s comprehensive map for achieving 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035. It makes recommendations on establishing an offshore wind industry that achieves net economic benefits while also protecting the environment, commercial and recreational fishing interests, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

While developing the state’s offshore wind resources, the state Department of Environmental Protection is tasked with identifying and prioritizing the research and monitoring the industry with ongoing habitat surveys as well as fish and wildlife studies.

Chief to the success of the industry is the offshore wind renewable energy certificate (OREC) funding mechanism, the method by which New Jersey ratepayers will fund offshore wind projects and how revenues from these projects will be refunded and delivered to ratepayers. OREC funding mechanism rules mandate that the OREC price reflect the total capital and operating costs for an offshore wind project, offset by any state or federal tax or production credits and any other subsidies or grants, as approved by the board.

Read the full story at The Sand Piper

NEW JERSEY: Gov. Murphy signs bill expanding definition of qualified offshore wind project

January 22, 2020 — Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law on Tuesday a bill to expand the definition of a qualified offshore wind project, which amends an existing law that is commonly referred to as the “Offshore Wind Economic Development Act.”

The measure requires developers seeking New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approval as a qualified offshore wind project to include within its detailed description for the project any transmission facilities and interconnection facilities to be installed.

The bill allows the NJBPU to conduct one or more competitive solicitations for open access offshore wind transmission facilities designed to expedite the collection or delivery of offshore wind energy from qualified projects to the electric transmission system.

Read the full story at NJBiz

Ørsted US Offshore Wind announces partnership with Rutgers University

May 17, 2019 — Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind will support academic research activities related to offshore wind at Rutgers University under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed Thursday.

Ørsted will make an initial contribution to Rutgers, followed by additional funding contingent upon being granted an OREC application by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

Ørsted submitted an application for its Ocean Wind project to the NJBPU in December 2018 to develop the first offshore wind farm in New Jersey. The announcement for the award is expected from the NJBPU in summer 2019.

“Rutgers University is a premier institution that can provide us with ongoing research that will help propel the New Jersey offshore wind industry forward,” Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and president of Ørsted North America, said in a statement. “We are very happy to partner with them as we progress with our Ocean Wind project.”

Read the full story at NJBiz

Wind “Stakeholder” Group Meets In NJ

November 30, 2018 — While it appears that actual invitations weren’t sent to many stakeholders in the fishing community – certainly not by way of public email blast or general notification – the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is expected to meet with local “stakeholders” starting December 4 regarding wind farm development off the Jersey Shore.

Despite a noticeable lack of outreach and often restrictive holiday season planning, BPU will hold three Public Stakeholder Meetings in early December focused on Governor Murphy’s offshore wind goals and the BPU’s solicitation for 1,100 MW of offshore wind capacity.

A tip by Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) executive director Greg DiDomenico (who said he “stumbled across the announcement by accident”) reveals how BPU staff, members of the NJ Offshore Wind Interagency Taskforce, offshore wind developers, and environmental non-government organizations (NGO’s) are expected to meet three times in December to review the State’s process for developing offshore wind.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

New Jersey moves forward on state’s Offshore Wind Strategic Plan

August 17, 2018 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) has selected Ramboll to coordinate and facilitate the development of the State’s Offshore Wind (OSW) Strategic Plan as called for under Governor Murphy’s Executive Order No. 8, which set the most ambitious goal in the U.S. of 3,500 MW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

The OSW Strategic Plan will guide the development of offshore wind as a renewable energy source in the State. Ramboll will lead a team that includes Stantec Consulting Services Inc., Rutgers Energy Institute Wind Group (REI-Wind LESS/CAIT), BVG Associates LLC (BVGA), the Business Network for Offshore Wind (the Network), InGroup Inc., and Endeavor Fisheries (Endeavor).

This strong team of New Jersey practitioners and firms brings experience in all areas of the developing offshore wind market, both domestically and internationally. Their combined U.S. and global experience and expertise provides a deep understanding of the offshore wind market and the specific implications for New Jersey.

Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

Wind energy eyes restart in N.J. with Gov. Phil Murphy in office

March 8, 2018 — ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — After building New Jersey’s only wind-energy complex here in 2005, Paul J. Gallagher teamed up with a group of commercial fishermen on an even more ambitious project: building the nation’s first offshore wind farm within sight of the city’s famous Boardwalk.

Fishermen’s Energy LLC spent millions of dollars to obtain permits to build a demonstration project in state waters three miles off Atlantic City. But Gov. Chris Christie, concerned about the high costs of offshore wind, declined to create the rules needed to get the industry off the ground. Fishermen’s closed its office last year and let go its staff after a $47 million federal grant expired.

“Last year was hard,” said Gallagher, 67, Fishermen’s chief operating officer. “We just slowed to a crawl and cut a lot of expenses.”

The political winds have shifted in New Jersey, and Gov. Murphy’s inauguration in January has dramatically revived prospects for the state’s offshore wind industry, which advocates hope could supply up to a third of the state’s power by 2030.

The new governor signed an executive order directing the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to restart the process to create the rules governing the offshore wind market, which was authorized under the state’s landmark 2010 Offshore Wind Economic Development Act but stalled under Christie.

Gallagher has returned to the public circuit, selling Fishermen’s as the only fully permitted shovel-ready offshore project in New Jersey, though it lost the title as America’s first offshore commercial project to a Rhode Island wind farm in 2016.

“We’re maybe the only offshore project in the United States that can be built in the next 24 months,” Gallagher said.

Read the full story at the Philadelphia Inquirer

 

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen’s Energy Ocean Wind Project Tries Again for Governor’s Approval

March 24, 2016 — Fishermen’s Energy, a consortium of South Jersey commercial fisheries that formed a wind power company in order to influence where such farms on the ocean can locate – away from important fishing and ocean scalloping grounds – has sought for six years to set up a demonstration wind farm 2.8 nautical miles off Atlantic City. Its plan for six wind turbines, producing 24 megawatts of electricity, has the backing of the New Jersey Legislature, environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the federal Department of Energy, and it obtained permits from state and local entities.

The only roadblock has been the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The BPU must issue a wind renewable energy certificate, a funding mechanism for the proposed project, before the small wind farm can move forward. The BPU has said in the past that the project would be too costly for ratepayers to support. Fishermen’s Energy has always denied that claim, stating the BPU had come to a faulty conclusion through faulty mathematics.

After a 2015 bill that would have given Fishermen’s Energy Wind Project an expedited pass through the BPU was pocket-vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie, the Legislature recently passed a revised bill that now awaits the governor’s signature.

The revised Senate bill, S-988, passed the Senate, 23-11, in February. The concurrent bill A-3093 was passed by the Assembly on March 14.

The Senate bill was sponsored by Sen. Jim Whelan, with the concurrent bill sponsored by Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, both of Atlantic County. The revised bill eliminated language that directed the BPU to grant the required permit, and it deleted some language in the previous Assembly bill that would have eliminated a cost-benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis has been the bone of contention between the BPU and Fishermen’s Energy for the past two years.

Paul Gallagher, Fishermen’s Energy’s chief operating officer and general counsel, said he has no fears of such an analysis by the BPU now that certain qualifications have changed.

A company from China was originally going to supply the turbines, but now Fishermen’s Energy has decided to purchase turbines from Siemens, the world’s leader in wind turbine technology, with ocean turbines built in Germany and Denmark. On Tuesday, Gallagher said, “In December, Congress passed a five-year extension of the tax benefit project that makes it easier to attract investors. So we have a newly configured project, using Siemens turbines made in Germany and Denmark, traditional Western financing, plus tax incentives to make it even a more cost-effective project then what was rejected before” by the BPU.

“The bill is a relatively benign bill. It tells the BPU to let us come in and submit again. It’s on the governor’s desk, and we hope he signs it.”

Read the full story at The Sand Paper