Saving Seafood

Virginia’s first offshore wind turbines promise jobs and clean power. They won’t come cheap

July 1, 2020 — The boat had just lost sight of land when two delicate shapes appeared on the horizon, like needles sprouting from the sea. As the boat got closer, they seemed to grow — and grow — until they towered above passing container ships.

Two wind turbines now rise higher than the Washington Monument off the coast of Virginia Beach, $300 million down payments on what state officials wager will be a new industry and a source of clean energy for the future.

The last 253-foot blade was attached to one of the turbines Friday by contractors for Dominion Energy, Virginia’s biggest utility and the owner of the project. On Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed laws creating a state Office of Offshore Wind and setting a mandate for 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2034.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

US completes construction of second offshore wind farm

July 1, 2020 — The second offshore wind farm in the U.S. has been completed, featuring the installation of a two-turbine, 12-megawatt pilot facility 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The project was completed by Dominion Energy.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm is a five-turbine facility off the coast of Rhode Island, the Block Island Wind Farm.

Called the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project, this new wind farm is the first to be approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to be installed in federal waters, and the second constructed in the United States, according to a press release.

The turbines will undergo testing before being used later this summer. At peak output, they will produce enough power for 3,000 Virginia households.

“The construction of these two turbines is a major milestone not only for offshore wind in Virginia but also for offshore wind in the United States,” said Dominion Energy Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II in a prepared statement. “Clean energy jobs have the potential to serve as a catalyst to re-ignite the economy following the impacts of the pandemic and continue driving down carbon emissions.”

Read the full story at The Hill

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance Calls for Correction on Coast Guard Study; Cites ‘Serious’ Errors

July 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA):

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has officially requested that the U.S. Coast Guard revise and correct its Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study (MARIPARS), citing “serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction.” On June 29th, it filed a formal Request for Correction under the Information Quality Act in order to improve the objectivity and utility of the disseminated information.

The Coast Guard MARIPARS study examined current waterway uses in the areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which are sites of proposed offshore wind energy development. Understanding these ocean use patterns is critical for successfully designing any offshore development, and for minimizing interactions between the proposed developments and existing activity.

Unfortunately, the Coast Guard’s final report, issued on May 27th, contained several key errors, and the process “failed to address nearly all of the substantive comments from fisheries professionals.” These include dozens of comments from vessel operators, fishing companies, and fishing associations, as well as independent experts including the New England Fishery Management Council, the New Bedford Port Authority, the Rhode Island Fisheries Advisory Board, and Dr. Thomas Sproul.

One key error involved the Coast Guard’s reliance on “inappropriate data sources.” RODA previously warned the Coast Guard that most fishing vessels in Massachusetts and Rhode Island do not use Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology onboard, and that any analysis of fishing vessel activity and movement should not rely on AIS data. Despite this warning, the Coast Guard cited only AIS data in its study. Additionally, while the MARIPARS contains a list of nearly 900 contacts in its “stakeholder outreach” section, only two are active commercial fishermen – hardly sufficient to inform a study primarily focused on fishing vessels.

Despite drawing conclusions about the amount of space necessary to conduct fishing operations, the study similarly did not include important information on the nature of fishing activity in the region, including the spatial requirements of vessels and their gear, and the changes in vessel traffic patterns that are likely to result from wind turbine construction.

The study’s flaws were not limited to its analysis of fishing activity. The Coast Guard also failed to properly analyze a range of alternative spacing proposals for wind turbines that included dedicated transit lanes for fishing vessels. Rather than provide an analysis of the impacts transit lanes would have, the Coast Guard simply asserted “project developers have made clear that larger corridors … would result in reduced [turbine] spacing.” RODA asserts in its appeal that the Coast Guard should have conducted a full, independent evaluation of this claim. Instead, “it relied on developers’ attestations that there are a predetermined number of turbines that will be placed in the wind energy areas,” which is at odds with the public record and how the development process is supposed to work.

RODA’s Request for Correction raises further issues, including unsubstantiated claims made by the Coast Guard about the nature of potential radar interference from wind turbines as well as simple calculation errors included in the study.

In light of these numerous errors, RODA considers the conclusions of the study “wholly unsupported and unsubstantiated by the record” and is requesting that the Coast Guard address and correct these errors. It is specifically asking for relief in the form of: (1) revising the analysis using appropriate data and calculations; (2) clear documentation of the MARIPARS’ limitations; (3) a formal, independent peer review; and (4) not using the MARIPARS as a basis for regulatory decisions pending these corrections.

Since the publication of the final MARIPARS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Vineyard Wind I project to analyze cumulative impacts of offshore wind energy development off of New England. That document relies heavily on the MARIPARS in assessing the navigational safety impacts of the project’s preferred layout.

Read RODA’s full Request for Correction here

Support for 1-mile offshore wind turbine spacing in BOEM’s first ‘virtual’ public hearing

June 29, 2020 — Supporters of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project came out online June 26 to call on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to approve the 800-megawatt plan in southern New England waters, with spacing turbine towers in a 1 nautical mile grid.

“Vineyard Wind 1 is the most significant step we can take” for reducing carbon emissions in Massachusetts, said Tom Soldini of Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., adding that the company will provide 40 to 50 permanent jobs to the island community.

Friday’s public hearing – staged using the Zoom virtual meeting app with public comment by telephone – was the first step in a 45-day public comment period on BOEM’s new supplemental environmental impact statement on the Vineyard Wind project, and its broader look at the cumulative impacts of 15 more offshore wind projects planned along the U.S. East Coast.

The agency plans to arrive at recommended alternatives for Vineyard Wind in November and finalize those with a formal record of decision by Dec. 18.

BOEM is looking at one scenario for four-mile-wide vessel transit lanes through wind energy leases off southern New England – referred to as alternative F in its supplemental environmental impact statement. That concept was proposed in January by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of commercial fishing groups.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New England looks to Europe to assess environmental impacts of offshore energy facilities

June 24, 2020 — Rhode Island is still the only state in the country with an offshore wind farm, but that will change in the coming years as wind farms are built along the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Virginia all the way up to Maine.

Now five years old, the Block Island wind farm, consisting of just five turbines, has been the subject of considerable study as scientists determine what impacts, if any, the construction of the facility and the turbines themselves are having on the ecosystem. Researchers are also looking to the future, when thousands of wind turbines will be coming online.

At the second of four webinars in the 17th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium, scientists from the University of Rhode Island and elsewhere heard from researchers in Europe, where offshore wind power has been commonplace for decades.

Entitled “Offshore Renewable Energy — Changes in Habitats and Ecosystems,” the June 15 symposium focused on the impacts of individual turbines and larger-scale wind energy installations on the diversity and interactions of marine species.

Emma Sheehan of the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom and Jan Vanaverbeke of the Royal Institute for Natural Sciences in Belgium presented some of the findings of their research on the environmental impacts of large-scale commercial wind and wave energy farms.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

Offshore Wind Companies Are Racing To Develop America’s East Coast. First They Must Appease The Fishermen.

June 18, 2020 — On a windy stretch of ocean ten miles northeast of Martha’s Vineyard lies the watery grave of America’s first major offshore wind farm.

This is where a Boston-based company called Energy Management planned to build 130 Statue of Liberty-sized turbines, enough to supply power to 200,000 homes.

But the project known as Cape Wind never made it beyond the planning stages. Facing relentless opposition from wealthy homeowners on Nantucket Sound, including the billionaire industrialist William Koch and the late Democratic senator Ted Kennedy, it drowned in a sea of lawsuits over 16 years. Energy Management declared it dead in December 2017.

Cape Wind’s historic failure, even as Europe and Asia add more offshore wind farms every year, has become an infamous cautionary tale for the wind development industry. It seemed the US was destined to lag behind its peers.

Read the full story at Forbes

Wind temporarily taken out of Ørsted project’s sails

June 17, 2020 — The $720 million Skipjack Wind Farm, the center of the controversy for a deal to make landfall at Fenwick Island State Park, has been pushed back until 2023.

Ørsted, the Danish company developing the wind farm, announced the project is moving at a slower pace due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) prolonging its study on the impact of offshore wind buildouts. In turn, that delays the Notice of Intent, a milestone toward receiving final approval.

“Our projects are moving forward, although at a slower pace than originally expected … it is no longer realistic to receive the Notice of Intent from BOEM in due time to meet the commissioning date in late 2022,” Henrik Poulsen, Ørsted president and CEO, said in an April earnings call.

The Skipjack project, proposed to be 19 miles off the Maryland-Delaware coast, would include 12 megawatt turbines about 800 feet tall. It would generate enough electricity for 35,000 homes in the Delmarva region.

Read the full story at the Delaware Business Times

New Jersey aims to lead nation in offshore wind. So it’s building the biggest turbine port in the country.

June 17, 2020 — New Jersey wants to be known for more than just its shores and casinos.

It aims to be the hub of the nation’s nascent offshore wind energy industry.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is set to announce the construction of what he calls the country’s first port dedicated to constructing the colossal turbines that may one day dot the East Coast horizon as Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states rush to build more renewable energy.

For New Jersey, it is about more than just tackling climate change. Just as Texas is the de facto capital of the U.S. oil and gas industry, New Jersey wants to be an economic engine for offshore wind.

“We have a huge opportunity,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. “Somebody’s going to get to be the Houston of American offshore wind.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Delaware River site chosen for New Jersey offshore wind port

June 17, 2020 — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state will develop a dedicated offshore wind energy port on the lower Delaware River, spending up to $400 million to support the state’s ambitious goal of developing 7,500 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2035.

Located adjacent to the Hope Creek nuclear power station in Lower Alloways Creek Township in rural Salem County, the site of 200-plus acres is close to the deep-draft ship channel from Philadelphia to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic – and downstream from highway bridges over the river. That eliminates the constraints of air draft at other East Coast ports like New York, where even bridge clearances of 200 feet will not be enough to accommodate the size of next-generation turbine components carried on barges and installation vessels.

“Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only protect our environment but also greatly expand our state economy in a way that has immediate impacts and paves the way for long-term growth,” Murphy said Tuesday in announcing the site selection. “The New Jersey Wind Port will create thousands of high-quality jobs, bring millions of investment dollars to our state, and establish New Jersey as the national capital of offshore wind.”

Murphy’s announcement came at a pivotal moment for U.S. offshore wind, days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a supplemental draft environmental impact statement that looks at cumulative impacts of more than a dozen proposed turbine arrays off the East Coast.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: MCFA’s Statement on today’s Climate Council Meeting

June 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association:

“Today, the Energy Working Group proposed the development of offshore wind as a solution to address our state’s energy needs,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “The industrialization of the Gulf of Maine, through the development of offshore wind, is something the fishing community is increasingly concerned about. We hope that a real and robust outreach effort to fishermen is undertaken before any decision is made as to how to achieve our state’s goals for carbon reduction.”

Martens added, “Fishermen have been stewards of Maine’s marine environment for generations and they want to be included in discussions that have the potential to impact not just their livelihood but the environment that they love and depend on. Because of the lack of industry representation on the council and because of the poor precedent set by Aqua Ventus, we are worried that once again Maine’s fishermen will be last to be invited to the table.”