Offshore wind Archives - Page 195 of 244

NEW JERSEY: Cape May County Looks to “Co-Exist” With Wind Farm

February 26, 2020 — With the prospect of 90 turbines sitting a mile apart 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City in a wind farm project slated for 2024, a public forum Tuesday laid out some concerns about the possible impacts on tourism, the environment and the fishing industry.

The program, hosted by the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, was held at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City.

Speakers, including Joseph Fiordaliso, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Cape May County Chamber officials, County Tourism Director Diane Wieland and fishing industry experts, heard from Orsted, the company building the wind farm.

Among the dignitaries in attendance at the standing-room-only event was former Gov. Jim Florio, who did not speak about the project.

The project is touted by Orsted, which has built 26 other wind farms, as one that would supply clean renewable energy, power more than half a million New Jersey homes and create thousands of jobs.

Read the full story at the O.C. N.J. Daily

Deal emerges to bring 1st offshore wind farms to California

February 24, 2020 — Offshore wind developers are lining up to build the first wind turbines off the coast of California.

But they have a problem called the Department of Defense.

For years, the military has managed to block the establishment of offshore wind lease areas off of Southern and central California, effectively holding back development across the entire state.

Defense officials have said turbines would interrupt training exercises run by the Navy, the Air Force and other branches of the military out of a network of Southern and central California bases.

Wind could interfere with radar and other instruments of communication, and get in the way of low-altitude flights and live-fire operations, they say.

Now, a tentative compromise is being floated by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) with backing from the military and federal and state agencies: Let developers produce wind power in central California waters that the military had once ruled incompatible with its own operations, in exchange for a moratorium on turbines in other nearby waters. Details of the compromise were described to E&E News by the congressman and Defense and state officials involved in negotiations.

At stake could be the prospects for the first offshore wind farm on the West Coast and likely the country’s first to use floating turbines at large scale.

Offshore wind also could help California meet its 2045 goal of decarbonizing electricity, in part because offshore turbines would complement solar by producing more energy at night, helping getting around the “duck curve” challenge.

Read the full story at E&E News

Vineyard Wind Biologist Talks Common Ground with Fishing Industry

February 21, 2020 — With about 20 years of experience on the seas, Crista Bank has worked in academia as a fisheries biologist, conducted research with commercial fishermen, earned her 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license, journeyed across the globe aboard traditional sailing vessels and taught marine science in New England, Southern California and the Florida Keys.

In May 2018, she became a fisheries liaison for Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind developer based in New Bedford where she grew up and now lives. The company has two projects in the works — Vineyard Wind I, a 800-megawatt project off the coast of Massachusetts and Park City Wind, an 804-megawatt project for the Bridgeport region.

According to Bank, the “big objective” is communication between fishermen and Vineyard Wind.

“Some of it is teaching two industries about [each other] because the fishermen don’t totally understand offshore wind and developers don’t understand the fishing industry, so my job is to try to have both industries understand the other a little bit better,” she said.

The main purpose of her job is to make sure the developers at Vineyard Wind are receiving accurate information about the fishermen’s concerns and how the fishing industry might be impacted by offshore wind. She also relays information to the fishermen about offshore wind projects and Vineyard Wind’s work “to make sure that the fishermen are not going to be pushed out of their industry,” which she said has been beleaguered by multiple challenges.

Read the full story at The Connecticut Examiner

Vineyard Wind facing lots of hurdles

February 19, 2020 — A federal regulator speaking at a conference in Boston on Tuesday posted a slide suggesting Vineyard Wind would be operational in 2023, but the company itself is not saying whether its wind farm will be generating electricity by then.

Vineyward Wind originally hoped to begin construction in 2019 and have half the 800 megawatt wind farm up and running by January 15, 2022, and the remaining half a year later. That timetable was dashed when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put the project on hold in August 2019 to allow for a broader review of the cumulative impact of the many wind farms being proposed along the East Coast. Last week, the federal agency said its review of Vineyard Wind would be completed this December.

Jim Bennett, the program manager of the renewable energy program at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, gave a slide presentation at a wind energy conference sponsored by the University of Delaware that listed 2023 as the year when Vineyard Wind would be operational. He then quickly added: “Please don’t take these dates as absolutes. They’re estimates based on our regulatory programs.”

The timing issue is significant for the nation’s first large-scale wind farm. Last year, when the project was put on hold, Vineyard Wind said it needed a quick resolution of the federal environmental review or the project might collapse. Since then, the company has indicated its construction plans are moving forward, but officials have declined to comment on how they intend to overcome the many hurdles caused by the regulatory delay.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

Orsted updates South Fork wind farm plan amid concerns about delays

February 19, 2020 — Danish energy giant Orsted has filed an update to the construction and operation plan for its proposed South Fork wind farm, amid doubts by opponents and a state lawmaker that it will hit its contracted December 2022 completion date.

The proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a joint venture of Orsted USA and Eversource, last year announced plans to update its construction and operations plan for the project, which would be located in federal waters 30 miles from Montauk Point. Despite the filing last Friday, a federal website lists the project review status as “paused.”

It’s uncertain how comprehensive the revised construction plan is, or specifically what’s in it. Asked for details, Orsted spokeswoman Meaghan Wims would say only that the updated plan includes wider turbine spacing of “1 nautical mile by 1 nautical mile.”

Nor would she say whether the update would impact permitting or construction timelines. Delays in a federal review of a separate project by rival developer Vineyard Wind have pushed its scheduled completion beyond its planned date in 2022.

“We continue to monitor developments at the federal level,” Wims said in a statement. “While it is too early to say the exact impact that those delays may have on our timeline, we are watching the federal permitting process closely.”

Read the full story at Newsday

Senate Commission Wants Answers Regarding Exposed Block Island Wind Farm Cables

February 18, 2020 — A Senate commission wants to know who is to blame and who is going to pay to bury the exposed electric cables from the Block Island Wind Farm.

The Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) said its geologist recommended before construction of the offshore wind facility that Deepwater Wind, now owned by Denmark-based Ørsted, bury the two cables 6-8 feet deep using a process known as horizontal directional drilling.

Deepwater Wind, however, relied on an independent engineering report that concluded the 12-inch-diameter cable could be buried at a depth of 2-4 feet using a devise called a jet plow.

According to CRMC executive director Grover Fugate, CRMC’s governing board relied on the independent report to approve the more shallow depth using the jet plow process.

Fugate explained at a recent commission hearing that the jet plow was preferred because it uses a high-pressure spray of water to quickly create a trench and bury the cable. That worked for the sandy seafloor further offshore, but when the jet plow encountered the boulders and cobble near Block Island’s Crescent Beach it simply rose over the impediments and buried the cables at a shallow depth.

The 34,500-volt power line from the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm reaches shore at Fred Benson Town Beach and leaves the island for Narragansett at Crescent Beach to the north. Keeping portions of the cables buried at Crescent Beach has been a struggle for the past four years.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Political Interference Blamed for Vineyard Wind Delays

February 18, 2020 — Vineyard Wind is coming to terms with the fact that its wind project is behind schedule, as accusations of political meddling escalate.

On Feb. 7, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released an updated permitting guideline that moved the facility’s likely completion date beyond Jan. 15, 2022 — the day the $2.8 billion project is under contract to begin delivering 400 megawatts of electricity capacity to Massachusetts.

Vineyard Wind is now renegotiating its power-purchase agreement with the three utilities that are buying the electricity. The company is also in discussions with the Treasury Department about preserving an expiring tax credit.

The delay is being caused by a holdup with BOEM’s environmental impact statement (EIS). A draft of the report was initially expected last year, but after the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declined to endorse the report, it was pushed off until late 2019 or early 2020. Back then several members of Congress from Massachusetts claimed the delay was politically motivated.

Read the full story at EcoRI

BOEM issues new timeline for offshore wind review

February 14, 2020 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has pushed back to December 2020 a final environmental impact statement on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project, meaning backers of the 800-megawatt development off southern New England will miss their 2022 target to start making electricity.

Preliminary findings from that study – examining the potential cumulative effects of Vineyard Wind and more than a dozen other utility-scale projects planned off the East Coast – were originally anticipated for completion in March 2020. Rumors in the offshore industry circulated in late 2019 that the process could extend into late 2020, but regulators confirmed Feb. 11 they have been pushed back that to June 12 – with a final decision by Dec. 18.

“While we need to analyze what a longer permitting timeline will need for beginning construction, commercial operation in 2022 is no longer expected,” said Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind, in a Feb. 11 response to the agency update. “We look forward to the clarity that will come with a final EIS so that Vineyard Wind and deliver this project to Massachusetts and kick off the new U.S. offshore wind industry.”

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Vineyard Wind project delayed

February 12, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, the company developing an offshore wind farm that was the subject of a protracted dispute with Rhode Island fishermen, is pushing back the expected date of operation for the $2.8-billion project.

The company says that because of delays in permitting it will not be able to make its 2022 target date to go on line.

“We have received updated information from the Department of Interior that indicates the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Vineyard Wind I project will be published later than what was previously anticipated,” Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“While we need to analyze what a longer permitting timeline will mean for beginning construction, commercial operation in 2022 is no longer expected,” he continued. “We look forward to the clarity that will come with a final EIS so that Vineyard Wind can deliver this project to Massachusetts and kick off the new US offshore energy industry.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

The Vineyard Wind project is getting delayed — again

February 12, 2020 — The planned offshore wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard has hit yet another setback.

After receiving notice that federal officials won’t decide on a key permit until more than 16 months later than expected, Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen says the project — originally slated to be operational next year — isn’t expected to produce power until sometime beyond 2022.

“While we need to analyze what a longer permitting timeline will mean for beginning construction, commercial operation in 2022 is no longer expected,’ he said. “We look forward to the clarity that will come with a final EIS so that Vineyard Wind can deliver this project to Massachusetts and kick off the new US offshore energy industry.”

Read the full story at Boston.com