Saving Seafood

Study finds high return on investment for New Jersey offshore wind spending

September 4, 2018 — Every dollar spent in-state to build a 352-megawatt wind farm off the New Jersey coast would generate $1.83 in economic benefit, according to a new study by BW Research Partnership.

But it used a model developed by the federal government that assumed 56 percent of the $843 million in construction expenditures would likely go to out-of-state businesses. That means most of the positive ripple-effect spending would likely go to other states, and overall costs would outpace economic benefit here.

The report estimated about $383 million would be spent in-state to build the wind farm, which would generate an additional $319 million in ripple-effect spending, for a total in-state economic benefit of $702 million.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

CALIFORNIA: Navy now considering plans for ocean wind farms — and Morro Bay is a top prospect

September 4, 2018 — Efforts to build fields of floating wind turbines off the coast of California are gaining momentum, and Morro Bay might be at the front of the line.

Despite a lack of publicity, activity on the West Coast has been moving along — ”quite a bit of it,” according to Morro Bay city administrator Eric Endersby.

Endersby has been working to help Seattle-based Trident Winds find a home in Morro Bay for a multimillion dollar project that would tie into the grid in the city where the mothballed Dynegy power plant has sat idle since 2014.

Wind energy proposals present an attractive option in a state that’s aggressively pursuing clean energy solutions. Just this week, the state Assembly approved a bill that would mandate California generate 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2045.

Read the full story at The Tribune

JON MITCHELL: New York Wind Farms Could Harm Fishing Industry

August 30, 2018 — The city is continuing progress in developing the offshore wind industry without adversely affecting the commercial fishing industry. Mayor Jon Mitchell says we’ll see more activity in the area within the coming months.

However, in his weekly appearance on WBSM, the mayor voiced his concerns with proposed offshore wind farms that are proposed in the waters off New York and New Jersey

Mayor Mitchell said that those waters are much more heavily fished by New Bedford-based vessels than the wind farm areas off Massachusetts. He said that if those proposed wind developments become a reality, it will have a very adverse effect on the local fishing industry.

Read the full story at WBSM

Sturgeon, scallops and wind turbines

August 24, 2018 — Offshore wind energy companies are contending with many of the same environmental issues as other maritime industries in U.S. waters, and on a compressed timeline.

Pumped up by state policies encouraging renewable energy, and the Trump administration’s big buy-in to promote new domestic energy production, a dozen federal wind energy leases are already approved off the East Coast, and construction and operation plans for two projects are under review.

Deepwater Wind could have turbines on its South Fork Wind Farm off the east end of Long Island, N.Y., operational in 2020. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says developers have plans for 8.5 gigawatts capacity of offshore wind power, with construction picking up pace through the 2020s.

Renewable energy advocates hail this as a train coming down the track. Fishermen want scientists’ help to at least slow it down.

“We’re really hoping to partner with the scientific community in this process,” lawyer Anne Hawkins told an audience at the American Fisheries Society annual meeting in Atlantic City, N.J., this week.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Ocean science needs to catch up with offshore wind energy

August 23, 2018 — Construction could begin on East Coast offshore wind energy projects in the next couple of years, but the state of science to monitor their environmental effects is lagging badly, experts said at the annual American Fisheries Society meeting.

“We’re talking about building projects in a few years…yet we lack a built, on-the-ground monitoring program,” said Andrew Lipsky, a planning officer who leads research into offshore wind energy with the National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states are “where all the electrical demands are,” said Brian Hooker, a marine biologist with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy’s renewable energy program. Those states are driving the demand and developers have a dozen approved federal leases, with BOEM now reviewing two construction and operation plans, Hooker said Tuesday at the AFS meeting in Atlantic City, N.J.

A daylong session featured presentations by researchers looking at how building arrays of wind turbines on the shallow continental shelf could affect fish populations, and the commercial fishing industry.

For all its promotion as a “green” technology, offshore wind power faces its share of environmental hurdles. Wind developers will need to deal with potential conflicts over marine mammals, including the highly endangered northern right whales that migrate near massive wind arrays proposed off Massachusetts.

For mobile gear fishermen, there is fear that large parts of the leases could be effectively off-limits to them because towers are too close together to safely trawl or dredge. Advocates for the scallop and surf clam fleets argue that turbine arrays will effectively create “sanctuaries” for shellfish that are available in abundance thanks to responsible management.

This spring industry advocates organized the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, to bring together diverse East Coast fishing fleets and operators to more effectively engage the wind industry and federal and state regulators.

Their goal is to “get better outcomes,” said Anne Hawkins of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents scallop fishermen who have sued in federal court over New York offshore wind proposals.

Maps prepared by BOEM using federal fisheries data shows existing wind leases and potential future lease areas overlapping with the scallop fishery, based out of ports like New Bedford, Mass., and Cape May, N.J.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Offshore wind, fishing industries work to co-exist

August 23, 2018 — Offshore wind farm developer Orsted worked with the fishing community in designing its proposed 800 megawatt Bay State Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, and intends to do the same thing with its Ocean Wind project planned for off Atlantic City, a company biologist said Wednesday.

The company scrapped plans to scatter its 180 turbines to be most efficient in capturing wind, adopting instead a grid pattern at the request of fishermen. The patterned layout would be easier for fishing vessels to maneuver through and fish in, said Laura Morse.

Morse gave a presentation at a symposium on Fisheries and Offshore Energy at the American Fisheries Society’s annual meeting, which opened at the Convention Center here on Sunday and runs through Thursday.

Developers have acknowledged that the construction phase can disrupt fisheries with noise, heavy ship traffic, sediment increases in the water, and other factors. But the operational phase is much less disruptive to fishing, they have said.

Orsted also added two transit lanes, each a mile in width, for vessels to use to get into and out of the busy fishing port of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Morse declined to say how much less efficient the new design will be for generating electricity, calling the information proprietary.

Norway-based Equinor, which is proposing to develop Empire Wind in the New York Bight off North Jersey, has used ‘statements of common ground’ when negotiating with fishermen in the United Kingdom, said its representative Martin Goff.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Bay scientists: Offshore oil drilling would put Chesapeake Bay at risk

August 21, 2018 — After the Trump administration proposed allowing oil and gas exploration off the East Coast in January, the debate has largely focused on the potential harm to the Atlantic Ocean’s water quality and marine life.

That is, after all, where any new oil rigs would sprout if the administration has its way.

But what about impacts to the Chesapeake Bay? Could the United State’s largest estuary — the subject of a federal and multi-state program centered on reducing nutrient and sediment pollution — be at risk?

Yes, say some of the Bay’s top scientists.

“I don’t think there are any places in the world where they have developed oil and gas where they have been able to avoid spills,” said Carl Hershner, director of the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute for Marine Science.

Read the full story at The Bay Journal

Environmental forums across Southern California will focus on oil drilling, public lands

August 21, 2018 — Concerned with the prospects of new offshore oil drilling and easing of protections for public lands, environmentalists and community leaders will hold a series of public forums throughout Southern California over the next two weeks.

In addition to expert panels, organizers have invited state and federal legislators to participate in the events, which will include town halls in Newport Beach, Santa Clarita and Irvine.

“At stake are valuable fisheries and a way of life for many coastal communities,” according to a release by organizers. “The events will provide a venue for local community members and experts to discuss how a healthy ocean impacts their lives and how they can work with their elected leaders to protect the coast.”

The Trump administration is pursuing a plan to open new offshore oil leases throughout U.S. waters, including those off the entire California coast. Additionally, environmentalists have become increasingly concerned about federal recreation lands since the administration shrunk several national monuments last year and is considering dialing back some wildlife protections of the Endangered Species Act.

Read the full story at The Daily Breeze

NEW JERSEY: Ratepayer-funded offshore wind a boon to state’s labor, air quality

August 21, 2018 — The state is working to open the bidding for the first 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind energy by the end of the year, in time for developers to qualify for 2019 federal tax credits, a spokesperson for the Board of Public Utilities told a meeting of wind developers and supporters Monday.

That should save ratepayers about 12 percent of the building costs, said Anne Marie McShea, off-shore wind program administrator for the BPU at the conference Time for Turbines: What a Difference a Year Makes on Monday at the Atlantic County Utility Authority’s wastewater treatment facility.

The federal credits are due to end at the end of next year.

Ratepayers will finance the construction of offshore wind farms through an add-on to their monthly bills, awarded as Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Credits to developers in a competitive process.

The rules for the OREC process were published in the New Jersey Register on Monday, after being released in draft form last week.

The Offshore Wind Economic Development Act of 2010, intended to get the industry started here, was not implemented under Gov. Chris Christie, said Doug O’Malley of Environment New Jersey, one of the organizers. But Gov. Phil Murphy, who is looking for the state to rely 100 percent on clean energy by 2050, has made it a priority.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

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