Saving Seafood

Ørsted to deploy record size turbines in Atlantic City offshore wind farm

September 24, 2019 — The 1,100 megawatt Ocean Wind offshore wind farm to be built off the coast here will deploy a new generation 12 megawatt turbine that will be the largest and most powerful in the world, according to the developer of the project.

GE Renewable Energy will supply the newly developed turbines to the Atlantic City project, which will be the third largest wind farm in the world and open in 2024, Danish company Ørsted announced Thursday.

In March 2018, GE announced it was embarking on producing the world’s first 12 MW turbine, which some in the industry said could not be done.

While Ørsted recently announced it will mainly transmit Ocean Wind’s electricity into the grid at the closed Oyster Creek nuclear plant in Lacey Township, it also is still looking at sending some power through other New Jersey locations.

“There are a couple of other options we are looking at, including B.L. England,” Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, said of the closed electric generating plant in Beesleys Point, Upper Township.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

An $8 Billion Wind Farm Will Test Virginia’s Resolve to Be Green

September 23, 2019 — Dominion Energy Inc.’s customers have been pressing the Virginia utility giant for years to source more clean energy. On Thursday, the company heeded their call — with a $7.8 billion, ratepayer-backed plan to build the largest offshore wind farm in America.

The proposal is unprecedented. Never has a utility pitched an offshore wind project of this size — big enough to power 650,000 homes — and in such a way that would have its customers shouldering the costs. It still needs the approval of state regulators, and the blessing of others including the region’s grid operator. But the Richmond-based company is already promoting the plan as a major means of curbing its global-warming emissions 55% by 2030.

In proposing the wind project, Dominion Vice President Mark Mitchell said, the utility is “giving our customers what they have asked for — more renewable energy.”

Already, though, some of its big ratepayers are choosing to take another route. Customers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Kroger Co. applied for the right to bypass Dominion and negotiate directly with independent electricity suppliers for renewable energy. On Wednesday, less than 24 hours before Dominion announced is massive wind project, the Virginia State Corporation Commission gave them what they wanted, ruling that the utility must allow them to seek other options.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Ørsted wants offshore wind energy in harmony with fishing community, others, says Frederick Zalcman

September 23, 2019 — Building large-scale infrastructure in the public trust is a profound responsibility. It requires technical skill, capital and, critically, a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to engaging with stakeholders – listening, asking questions and adapting to differing perspectives. That’s why I was pleased to learn Rep. Jeff Van Drew was bringing together the South Jersey community, including representatives of the fishing community and other local businesses, to talk about the development of the new American offshore wind industry, and how it may affect New Jersey.

This is important because offshore wind is poised to be a huge new industry on the East Coast, with projects underway by many developers spanning from Massachusetts to North Carolina. As the world’s largest operator of offshore wind projects, and proud developer of New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm, we believe this new American industry will not only provide cost-effective clean energy and good-paying jobs, but also can do so in harmony with the environment and existing users of the ocean, including commercial and recreational fishermen.

Federal and state law mandate a long list of checks and balances that must be satisfied before we can begin construction. In addition to those requirements, our company holds that it is important to engage, communicate with and listen to key stakeholders, like members of the fishing community, because their input will help us to build a better project and to help establish a better, more sustainable local industry.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Dominion planning large wind farm off Virginia coast

September 20, 2019 — Dominion Energy announced plans Thursday to seek approval to build what it says would be the largest offshore wind project in the United States off the Virginia coast.

The company told The Associated Press ahead of a public announcement that the project would include about 220 wind turbines in federal waters it has already leased 27 miles (43 kilometers) off Virginia Beach.

If approved as proposed, Dominion says, the approximately $7.8 billion project could produce more than 2,600 megawatts of energy during peak wind by 2026, enough to power 650,000 homes.

“This is, to us, big news. It’s a big step for us to accomplish our carbon reduction goals,” Mark Mitchell, vice president of generation construction for Richmond-based Dominion, said in an interview.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Fishing concerns color N.J. offshore wind hearing

September 19, 2019 — A House Natural Resources subcommittee field hearing in New Jersey yesterday highlighted the conflict between fisheries and offshore wind development.

The Energy and Mineral Resources panel’s focus was the burgeoning industry’s potential benefit to the state and its crucial role in a warming planet.

“Time is not on our side,” said subcommittee Chairman Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) about the need to promote clean energy to address climate change.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who represents Atlantic City and surrounding areas, said he is not opposed to offshore wind but argued that there is a need for greater respect toward people affected by it, particularly fishermen.

Fishing is a growing challenge for wind developers that has checked the sector’s growth in the United States recently. Even though coastal states are investing heavily in wind – with state commitments representing about 20 gigawatts of offshore wind power – the first expected offshore wind farm is on hold until fishing impacts are figured out (Climatewire, Sept. 6).

Van Drew, a conservative Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent in 2018, said fishing operations large and small have expressed confusion or ignorance about a major project from Danish firm Ørsted A/S. The congressman suggested that the firm has not properly engaged with all sides.

Read the full story at National Wind Watch

Trump move to delay Mass. wind farm concerns NY officials

September 19, 2019 — New York State is “watching closely” the federal government’s decision to stall a Massachusetts offshore wind project to review environmental and fishing impacts, a top state official said Wednesday, adding there’s no sign yet that the scrutiny will affect New York’s ambitious offshore wind plans.

“That concern does exist,” Alicia Barton, president and chief executive of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, told business leaders at a Long Island Association meeting in Melville Wednesday. She called the federal review a “significant setback” in the permitting schedule for that project, called Vineyard Wind.

Vineyard Wind in August said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the federal Bureau of Energy Management’s decision to scrutinize the “cumulative impacts [of offshore wind] driven by rapid growth of the industry beyond our project.”

For now, Barton said she had “no reason to believe” New York projects, which are slated to be in service in 2024, would be affected by the federal review. Nor does it appear to delay her expectation that additional leasing areas off New York will be offered by the federal government soon.

Read the full story at Newsday

Fishermen Voice Concerns During Offshore Wind Hearing

September 18, 2019 — U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-2nd) brought the Congressional Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources to the Wildwoods Convention Center Sept. 16 to hear the concerns of the fishing industry and other shore activists regarding a proposed wind farm off the South Jersey coast.

Chaired by U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), the pair listened as fishermen and others said they felt left out of the process that could affect the local industry, natural resources, and the economy.

Van Drew emphasized bringing local fishermen to the table when wind farms are in the planning stages.

“I am an advocate of wind energy. I have a windmill on my property. However, the first rule I apply is do no harm to the environment, the ratepayers and the fishing industry. This is the livelihood of a lot of people down here. The fishermen must be consulted,” Van Drew said.

Thirteen witnesses, divided into three panels, were each given five minutes to voice their concerns before being questioned by the subcommittee.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

Federal subcommittee hearing opens lines of communication between offshore energy company and fishers

September 17, 2019 — Typically, a warm, clear September day would mean boats in the water for the dozens of fisheries and anglers in South Jersey.

However, more than 50 members of the commercial and recreational fishing community filled a meeting hall inside the city’s convention center for a congressional subcommittee hearing on the impact offshore wind turbines may have on the area’s billion dollar industry.

The hearing, organized by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, brought House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Chair U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-California, to hear the concerns of the local fishing and tourism industries that may be affected by the state’s first offshore wind energy projects.

Van Drew, who supports wind energy, wanted to create an open dialogue between Danish power company Orsted and the area’s commercial and recreational fishing industries.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Fishermen demand a say in decisions on offshore wind energy

September 16, 2019 — Fishermen insisted Monday to a congressional subcommittee looking at offshore wind energy that they be consulted when crucial decisions are being made on the development of such projects, including where they are located and the level of access to the waters near them.

Fishermen should have been brought into the planning process from the start, Peter Hughes, of Atlantic Capes Fisheries, told U.S. House members from New Jersey and California who were holding a hearing at the Jersey Shore.

“Look at these slides,” he said, referring to diagrams of where proposed wind projects would be built. “They’re right smack dab where we are fishing. This is going to put people out of business.”

The purpose of the hearing was to gather input from the fishing industry and its advocates to be considered in future regulation of the nascent wind energy market. So far, a single five-turbine wind farm off Block Island, Rhode Island, is the only operating offshore wind farm in the U.S., but states up and down the East Coast are readying plans for similar projects.

Capt. Ed Yates, a fisherman from Barnegat Light, New Jersey, said flounder, cod and other species have moved away from underground cables at a wind project off Denmark.

“How does offshore wind energy affect the fishing industry?” he asked. “The answer we get from the wind operators is ‘We won’t fully understand the impacts until the facilities are already built.’”

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance formed last year to represent the interests of the fishing industry regarding offshore wind. The group’s executive director, Annie Hawkins, said more scientific studies are needed, adding there has been virtually no public discussion of important questions like how wind energy projects would be dismantled after reaching the end of their lifespans.

The hearing was chaired by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, a California Democrat, and Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat who represents the area of southern New Jersey including the productive Cape May fishing port.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Fishermen unsatisfied with wind turbine plans

September 16, 2019 — When Rhode Island commercial fishermen sat down a year ago with offshore wind developers, they say they made it clear that for the sake of navigational safety the minimum spacing of any turbines installed in ocean waters needs to be at least one nautical mile in every direction.

That meeting in July 2018 at the East Farm Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, in South Kingstown, with Vineyard Wind and Deepwater Wind (which has since become part of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind) wasn’t the first time that fishermen say they argued their demands for spacing and for the orientation of wind farms from east to west in a symmetrical grid pattern.

But, with Vineyard Wind and Ørsted both moving forward since then with layouts that fall short of what the fishermen want, it wouldn’t be the last.

Again, on Monday night, in a meeting with Ørsted and its partner Eversource Energy to discuss the companies’ 130-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, members of the state’s Fishermen’s Advisory Board reiterated what they say is needed to allow them to fish within and transit through the project of up to 15 turbines that would be built in Rhode Island Sound.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times