October 10, 2024 — Three months after a blade from an offshore wind turbine near Martha’s Vineyard fell, Nantucket is addressing the failure’s economic and environmental impact.
“While our community is committed to doing our part to address climate change, we have had to confront the very real and lasting adverse impacts of offshore wind development,” the Nantucket Select Board wrote in a letter to the Cape island’s residents on Wednesday.
October 10, 2024 — While a local grassroots organization expressed disappointment over the federal government’s approval of the construction and operations plan for two wind farm projects planned off Long Beach Island, the developers and their supporters are elated at reaching the milestone.
“Atlantic Shores is thrilled to receive approval to build our first two projects and deliver sufficient clean power to serve one third of New Jersey households,” said Joris Veldhoven, chief executive officer of Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind. “Securing these critical approvals enables New Jersey’s first offshore wind project to start construction next year and represents meaningful progress in New Jersey achieving 100% clean energy by 2035.”
The company has until roughly the middle of November to pay the first year’s rent of $13,090 for Project 1’s easement and $112,040 for Project 2’s easement. Moving forward, the annual rent for the lease area and the project easement zone will be due on March 1, the lease anniversary, according to BOEM’s letter to company officials.
The leases, unless otherwise renewed, have a 25-year lifespan from the date of the approval of COP, according to the conditions of construction and operations plan approval issued by BOEM. The document also outlines the time frame for notification prior to construction activities on the outer continental shelf, including seabed preparation such as boulder relocation and pre-lay grapnel runs, and export cable installation among other items.
October 9, 2024 — Citizens group Save Long Beach Island has notified federal agencies of its intent to sue offshore wind developer Atlantic Shores under the Endangered Species Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Act.
The notices give the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 60 days to resolve issues raised in the filings before the group pursues litigation, according to a news release from Save LBI.
An Atlantic Shores spokesperson said the company cannot comment on active litigation.
October 9, 2024 — Gov. Janet Mills’ plan to make Maine an international leader in ocean wind power is reaching a critical juncture.
State officials argue that harnessing wind power can deliver a tremendous amount of clean energy, and that Maine is specially positioned to capitalize on the potential industrial boom.
The governor is leading a state delegation to Norway and Denmark this week to get a firsthand view of those countries’ offshore wind industry and to drum up interest in Maine’s plan to become a major player in the business on this side of the Atlantic.
The trip comes on the heels of the federal government’s lease to Maine of the nation’s first floating offshore wind research array. The 15-square-mile plot about 30 miles off the Maine coast will host 12 turbines built on structures developed by the University of Maine and its private sector partner, Diamond Offshore Wind.
Meanwhile, the state is set on building a specialized port on Sears Island in Searsport to construct and deploy floating wind. A 2023 bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Mills set a goal for Maine to produce 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2040.
In just a few weeks, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold a lease sale for eight Gulf of Maine wind sites. If every lease was fully developed, the lease area could potentially generate enough wind energy to power 4.5 million homes.
It will take years for floating offshore wind to become a reality in the Gulf of Maine. But off the coast of Cape Cod, America’s first commercial-scale ocean wind farm offers a glimpse into the future.
Maine Public’s climate desk, along with colleagues from the New England News Collaborative, had a rare opportunity to get an up close and personal view of Vineyard Wind 1, a 62-turbine project under construction south of Martha’s Vineyard.
Read the full article at Maine Public
October 8, 2024 — For more than a year, big, blue heavy lift vessels have carried gargantuan GE Vernova wind turbine components into the Port of New Bedford, where, soon after, a barge carries them out as a set: three blades, two tower pieces, and one nacelle.
But on Friday, one of the delivery vessels, the Rolldock Sun, was seen carrying at least two blades out of New Bedford. It was not headed for the Vineyard Wind site, according to vessel tracking websites, but to France: specifically, the Port of Cherbourg, where GE Vernova has a blade manufacturing facility.
The Rolldock Sun had come into port from Cherbourg a few days earlier with four blades visible on deck. Blades for the project have been shipped from factories in Canada and France, but it is unclear how many have come from each.
Friday’s transit raises the question of why the wind project — which spends considerable time and money shipping major components from Canada and France into the U.S. — would ship blades overseas from New Bedford.
October 7, 2024 — To Courtney Krossman and Jesse Beers, the windswept view off Gregory Point offers more than just postcard-perfect scenery.
The majestic cape juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of Coos Bay, its sharp sandstone cliffs ringed by dark water.
“When you look in that direction, the view is essentially the same as what our ancestors saw when they were standing here. It has not altered,” said Krossman, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.
The headland was once home to a village of Miluk-speaking Coos people. Officially returned to the coastal tribes just a decade ago, the site is home to first salmon ceremonies, remembrances for the dead and prayers for ancestors – traditions that Krossman and Beers, the tribes’ cultural stewardship manager, are working hard to preserve.
The tribes’ leaders say the view, the land, the fish and other marine life – fundamental to their cultural and spiritual legacy – could in the coming years be marred by massive floating wind towers and their turbines.
October 7, 2024 — More than 100 protesters who oppose a plan to connect offshore wind power cables through this beachfront community descended on the area Sunday during a visit by Gov. Phil Murphy, urging him to stop the project and claiming it’s a health hazard.
Murphy was in town attending the New Jersey National Guard’s annual military review at its training center located just blocks from the Sea Girt beach.
Supporters of the group Stop The High-Risk Power Cables, which represents homeowners in Sea Girt, Wall, Manasquan and Howell, chose the event to let Murphy know of their objections.
“It’s a high-rise power cable,” said Kimberly Paterson one of the organizers. “People are upset.”
October 7, 2024 — For most of his life, Paul Kujala has called himself a fisherman. The Warrenton local owns and operates a small bottom-trawling vessel that he uses to catch sole, sablefish and rockfish — but over the last few years, he’s had his eye on a new technology he fears could threaten that work: floating offshore wind.
Kujala isn’t the only one.
For months, fishermen and others who work in the fishing industry have been calling on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to slow down its process for two proposed wind energy lease areas — a 61,204-acre site 32 miles offshore in Coos Bay and a 133,808-acre site about 18 miles off the coast of Brookings — citing economic and environmental concerns for communities up and down the coast. Those concerns were amplified last month after the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians filed a lawsuit against the bureau and Gov. Tina Kotek sent a letter urging the bureau not to move forward with a long-anticipated Oct. 15 lease auction of the two sites.
Read the full article at The Astorian
October 4, 2024 — This fall, Community Offshore Wind is partnering with local fisheries and hunger relief organizations to provide thousands of fresh, locally-sourced seafood meals to families from disadvantaged communities, helping to alleviate food insecurity while supporting New Jersey’s fishing industry.
“We are so thankful for the seafood donation from Community Offshore Wind,” said Jennifer Apostol, Executive Director of Replenish. “It’s a top priority here at Replenish to get nutritious, local, and fresh food to our neighbors in need. The pan-ready porgies and clam chowder were a delicious and protein packed way to do so.”
Approximately one in nine people in New Jersey face food insecurity. To help address this need, Community Offshore Wind donated 4,080 pounds of porgy (scup) and 3,600 cans of clam chowder from seafood processors like Lund’s Fisheries Inc. in Cape May, NJ and other regional suppliers to Replenish Food Bank in East Brunswick, Fulfill in Neptune, Lunch Break and the Vin Gopal Civic Association in Tinton Falls, and Grace Pointe Seventh Day Adventist Church’s Food Pantry in Montclair, NJ.
October 2, 2024 — The federal government gave a key approval Tuesday to an offshore wind farm in New Jersey, even as residents in the town where its power cable would come ashore worry it could go through underground toxic waste that’s still being cleaned up.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Atlantic Shores’ plan to construct and operate an energy facility, a major milestone in moving the project forward. The project still requires a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and several state permits, the company said.
The project, consisting of two phases, would be built between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island in southern New Jersey. It would generate 2,800 megawatts from 197 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.