Saving Seafood

Rules to protect whales issued to offshore wind firm prepping for N.J. construction

September 14, 2023 — As developers get closer to building the Jersey Shore’s first offshore wind turbines, the safety of marine mammals continues to be an important factor.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday issued Ørsted a construction authorization that outlines rules for protecting whales and dolphins while installing monopiles, turbines and other offshore wind infrastructure for its first project.

The number of stranded whales on the Atlantic Coast this year reached 62, including nearly two dozen in New York and New Jersey. Although three federal agencies and various experts have repeated that scientific evidence has yet to connect the strandings to offshore wind development, the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the permit.

Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 will be crucial in Gov. Phil Murphy’s larger ambition for New Jersey to become a leader in the clean energy alternative on the Eastern Seaboard.

Read the full article at NJ.com

Offshore wind energy plans advance in New Jersey amid opposition

September 14, 2023 — Two major offshore wind power projects are taking steps forward in New Jersey as the owners of one project agreed to bring the federal government in on their environmental monitoring plans at an earlier stage than has ever been done, and federal regulators said plans for another project are not expected to kill or seriously injure marine life.

They come as New Jersey continues to grow as a hub of opposition to offshore wind projects from residents’ groups and their political allies, mostly Republicans. The state’s Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled Legislature want to make the state the East Coast leader in offshore wind energy.

Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid Ventures, on Thursday announced a five-year partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promote the exchange of data and expertise on environmental monitoring for offshore wind projects.

The agreement will bring the federal agency into the company’s planning process at a much earlier stage than is currently done in the offshore wind industry, an arrangement that could become the new industry standard, according to company president Doug Perkins.

“Instead of us coming up with this on our own and getting some feedback from the agencies, we will work together to make sure that it’s efficient in the data they collect,” he said. “It creates the opportunity, the avenue for us to engage with them, and for them to engage with us, to make sure that our plans, how we’re sampling, where we’re sampling, when we’re sampling, fits with what they do and with what will be required of the industry.”

Read the full article at ABC News

U.S. Pushes Forward with Offshore Wind Despite Financial Pressures

September 14, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced yesterday that it has completed its environmental review of the proposed massive Empire Wind Farm Project, which would become the U.S.’s largest offshore wind site to gain approval. The Biden administration continues to push forward while developers are looking to reset their agreements to reflect the changing economics for the projects.

“BOEM is doing its part to meet the Administration’s ambitious energy goals – while remaining diligent in our efforts to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts to ocean users and the marine environment,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “We value the feedback we have received,” she said reporting the bureau plans to issue a Record of Decision on whether to approve the two-phase Empire Wind project this fall. That decision would establish the final conditions for the development, but not address the mounting financial issues which fall to the states.

Empire Wind, which is being developed by Equinor and BP, proposes the construction of two offshore wind projects, known as Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2, in lease areas located about 12 nautical miles south of Long Island, New York, and about 16.9 nautical miles east of Long Branch, New Jersey. The two projects will be electrically isolated and independent from each other.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

NEW JERSEY: 6 protesters arrested as onshore testing work for New Jersey wind farm begins

September 13, 2023 — Police arrested six protesters Tuesday who tried to disrupt the start of land-based testing for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. But the work progressed anyway.

Police in Ocean City, which has become the hub of resistance to offshore wind projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, arrested demonstrators after the city said they failed to heed four warnings to get out of the roadway.

“There were three people lying in the street,” said Robin Shaffer, a spokesman for Protect Our Coast NJ, a residents’ group opposed to the local project and to offshore wind in general.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind and Foss begin moving turbine components offshore

September 12, 2023 — Vineyard Wind and its U.S. service contractor Foss Maritime began shipping pieces for the project’s first GE Haliade-X wind turbine out of the port of New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 6 to the first installation site more than 30 miles off Cape Cod.

It was a landmark for the joint venture by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to install 804 megawatts of capacity on the first utility-scale offshore wind array in U.S. federal waters. Foss Maritime is using two purpose-built 400’ deck barges, the Marmac and Foss Prevailing Wind, for Jones Act-compliant delivery of turbine components to  construction partner DEME Group’s Denmark-flagged 433’x150’ Sea Installer vessel with 300’ deep legs stationed 65 miles from New Bedford south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The barges were built using Barge Master technology that uses a patented control system and cylinders that support a platform and actively compensate the motions of the barge. The wind turbine components are fastened to the motion compensated platform for a smooth ride in ocean conditions.

“It may look easy, but the safe transportation of these components miles over the open water is no small feat,” Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller said in an announcement of the first barge movement out of New Bedford.  “While we’ve had many firsts, once this turbine is installed, it will stand as a proud symbol of American’s energy transition.  I want to thank all of our partners for their continued collaboration and look forward to celebrating the progress of our industry.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

U.S. offshore wind slammed by runaway costs

September 11, 2023 — The U.S. offshore wind industry, banking on a big boost from the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, has found itself face-to-face with a major hurdle that’s been right there in the name all along: inflation.

In fact, the law might even be making it worse.

More than 10 gigawatts of offshore wind projects along the U.S. East Coast – the equivalent of roughly 10 nuclear power reactors – are at serious risk as higher costs force developers to re-crunch the numbers for proposals originally modeled years ago, before a run-up in interest rates and material costs. Orsted, the Danish wind giant, said this week it’s prepared to walk away from projects unless it gets even more government aid. Other developers are already paying tens of millions in penalties to exit contracts they say no longer make financial sense.

“It’s pretty evident that inflationary pressures have blunted the impact” of the IRA, said Josh Price, a director with Capstone, a Washington-based research group. “It wasn’t a silver bullet.”

Orsted’s warnings are the most concrete example yet of the limits of the IRA, which was hailed as a key driver for America’s nascent offshore wind industry. While the law provides at least $370 billion in grants, tax credits, and other incentives for climate and clean energy projects, that’s proving no match for rising inflation and borrowing costs. And by dangling higher incentives for companies sourcing U.S.-made parts, it’s fueling demand before the domestic supply chain catches up, driving prices higher still.

Read the full article at the Portland Press Herald

What do Orsted’s financial problems mean for Rhode Island’s stake in offshore wind?

September 11, 2023 — Orsted A/S, the offshore wind developer anchoring Rhode Island’s place in the industry, is facing rough seas.

The Danish wind giant said in an Aug. 29 announcement that it may write off $2.3 billion in its upcoming, third-quarter earnings. The warning, on the heels of the company’s  $87.8 million second-quarter loss, comes as supply chain slowdowns and interest rate hikes hamper a trio of East Coast projects, including the Revolution Wind project that will power Rhode Island. At best, costs are going up and schedules are behind, with the Ocean Wind project planned for New Jersey, now delayed from 2025 to 2026, executives said.

At worst, the company may abandon the project altogether.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

As US East Coast ramps up offshore wind power projects, much remains unknown

September 11, 2023 — As the U.S. races to build offshore wind power projects, transforming coastlines from Maine to South Carolina, much remains unknown about how the facilities could affect the environment.

And that worries some people, particularly those who depend on the sea for their livelihoods.

“We don’t have the science to know what the impact will be,” said Jim Hutchinson, managing editor of The Fisherman magazine in New Jersey. “The attitude has been, ‘Build it and we’ll figure it out.’”

Read the full article at Associated Press

NEW JERSEY: Wind Farm Protesters Vow to Continue Their Fight

September 12, 2023 — Wind farm developer Orsted recently hit the pause button on its proposed project that would include 98 towering turbines in the waters off the South Jersey coast.

But opponents say they will continue to fight until the project is stopped altogether.

On Sunday afternoon in drizzling rain, Congressman Jeff Van Drew, members of the local grassroots organization Protect Our Coast NJ and other anti-wind farm protesters rallied on 35th Street beach in Ocean City to reinforce their goal: No to wind farms, no to Orsted.

“You know it’s about the fishing industry. You know it’s about our beautiful animals that live in the sea. You know it’s about our environment,” Van Drew said to the crowd of a little more than 100 protesters. “You know it’s about our national security – literally, the Pentagon spoke against it and was squashed by the administration in Washington.”

Van Drew continued, “You know it’s about tripling our utility rates, maybe worse. Even Orsted admits that. There is nothing good about this project. The more you learn, the more you read, the more you dig, the more you look into it, the more you realize how very bad this is for all of us.”

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Power Demand High, But So Are Costs

September 10, 2023 — Gov. Maura Healey last week announced a new effort to procure up to 3,600 megawatts of offshore wind power – the largest call out to developers in the state’s history.

Together with three electric companies, the state is seeking projects to produce what amounts to about 25 per cent of Massachusetts’ annual electricity demand. The new request for proposals will likely be welcomed by offshore wind energy developers that have stalled under pre-pandemic agreements to supply power to the state’s main utility companies.

Two companies with plans to place wind turbines off Martha’s Vineyard have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to get out of old contracts that they said made the projects economically unviable.

The procurement push from the state is for projects that already have a lease in the outer continental shelf area more than 10 miles south of the Island and signals a willingness to offer developers flexibility as the state strives for more renewable energy.

“With our top academic institutions, robust workforce training programs, innovative companies and support from every level of government – Massachusetts is all-in on offshore wind,” Ms. Healey said in a statement on August 30.

The day before the state’s announcement, SouthCoast Wind agreed to pay $60 million to get out of its contract with three utilities that it had promised to supply power to from the proposed farm 30 miles off the Island. Commonwealth Wind, another developer planning to build to the south of Martha’s Vineyard, agreed to pay $48 million earlier this year.

“Closing these contracts was never the plan but impacts of Covid-related supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine made them unfinanceable,” SouthCoast Wind spokesperson Martha Keeley said in a statement to the Gazette.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette