Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Bay State’s offshore wind prices about to reset

September 26, 2024 — Massachusetts residents already pay some of the highest electricity prices in the country and the state is going to need a lot more power as it tries to make a big shift away from fossil fuels. So how much will it cost to generate cleaner electricity with offshore wind?

The pricing details for the state’s latest slate of offshore wind projects won’t be available until contracts are put on file this winter and it is clearly a sensitive topic for the industry and its boosters in state government. The projects chosen this month are widely expected to cost ratepayers more than previous projects, and the Healey administration would only say that they will be cost effective when compared to the cost of building other power generation projects in the future.

Boston area electricity prices were 64 percent above the national average last month, federal data show, and Massachusetts abandoned its attempt at forcing a declining cap on offshore wind power prices in 2022 when it eliminated the legal requirement that each new project selected charge a lower price than the previous one.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

HAWAII: Oahu offshore wind farm plan gets blowback

September 26, 2024 — A company partly backed by the government of France is working to advance an Oahu offshore wind energy project as a federal agency prepares to possibly auction an ocean lease for such use in 2028.

Aukahi Energy LLC, a joint venture involving a subsidiary of French utility giant EDF Group, in recent months has publicly shared its vision to put 22 to 30 floating wind turbines — each taller than a football field — between Oahu and Molokai to supply about 25% of the electricity used on Oahu at an estimated cost of over $1.8 billion.

Read the full article at the West Hawaii Today

After Broken Blade, GE Vernova Could Lay Off Hundreds

September 26, 2024 — The manufacturer of Vineyard Wind’s offshore wind turbines could cut 900 jobs worldwide after facing heavy financial losses due in part to the aftermath of several blade breaks at key projects.

GE Vernova, the company behind the 853-foot tall turbines being built to the Island’s south, last week proposed the cutbacks to deal with inflation, supply chain challenges and the delays in power production following three separate blade breaks.

“The proposal reflects industry wide challenges for wind and aims to transform our offshore wind business into a smaller, leaner and more profitable business within GE Vernova,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The announcement comes about two months after one of the 107-meter blades at the Vineyard Wind project broke, scattering fiberglass and styrofoam into the ocean. The broken blade has halted power production at the wind farm and delayed construction for weeks in the prime summer construction period.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

MARYLAND: More questions than answers in proposed commercial fishing deal with wind company

September 26, 2024 — Beyond that, the process, plan and the particulars of the commercial fishing “Compensatory Mitigation Fund” that US Wind has pledged to create remain adrift in a sea of unfinished business.

Speaking before roughly two dozen commercial operators at the Ocean Pines Library, Carrie Kennedy, of DNR’s Data Management & Analysis Division, and Catherine McCall, of its Coastal and Ocean Management office, invited watermen to suggest services and forms of assistance that could be included in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be executed between the DNR and US Wind by January.

The MOU would spring from a July 8 letter of intent between the department and US Wind in which the company agrees “to provide financial compensation to eligible Maryland fishermen for mitigating direct losses/impacts to commercial and for-hire (charter) fishing from and caused by the construction, operation and decommissioning of the Project in federal waters.”

The project entails planting up to 114 wind turbines in an 80,000-acre offshore tract about 11.5 miles east of Ocean City, according to the company’s letter of intent and BOEM documents.

Read the full article at Ocean City Today

Right whales and offshore wind: reflections on an uneasy coexistence

September 26, 2024 — Michael Moore has spent decades studying North Atlantic right whales. He’s seen somewhere around 150 of them. It’s a feat, given that now there are just about 360 left in the world.

But the veterinarian, author, and scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had never seen an offshore wind farm up close — until last week.

“Look at them. All out in neat little rows,” he said, standing at the rear of a 53-foot charter boat that offered a closeup view of construction on Vineyard Wind, 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

About half of the planned 62 turbines are fully constructed, reaching more than 250 meters into the sky. When the boat slowed down to pass beneath one of the turbines, Moore was awestruck by the length of a blade.

“Right whales are 40 to 50 feet,” he said. “So you can stretch seven right whales along the length of one of these blades.”

Read the full article at CAI

Nantucket Group Takes Challenge Of Vineyard Wind To U.S. Supreme Court

September 26, 2024 — Three years after the Nantucket-based group ACK For Whales first sued to stop the Vineyard Wind project, its legal challenge of the offshore wind project is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After its arguments were rejected by lower courts, ACK For Whales on Monday formally petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.

The petition asserts that the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals wrongly allowed the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to ignore the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) requirement to use “the best available scientific and commercial data available” when it ruled in April against ACK For Whales’ challenge of Vineyard Wind.

“I have hope,” said Val Oliver, the founding director of the non-profit ACK For Whales, formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines. “In light of the recent Chevron decision, we think we have a really good chance. That was about government overreach and that is what this (Vineyard Wind) has felt like since the beginning: go, go, go, and we’ll figure it out as we go. That’s just not responsible.”

Read the full article at Nantucket Current

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA report sends mixed message on wind power and risk to whales

September 26, 2024 — Federal agencies have reauthorized a controversial permit for Vineyard Wind’s final phase of construction, allowing the wind farm developer to continue pile driving with some impact on endangered whale species.

The permit allows Vineyard Wind to finish pile-driving the foundations for its wind turbines in proximity to whales. It does not declare that the industry will not harm whales. It calls it “extremely unlikely” that it will hurt any North Atlantic right whales. But it says a small number of whales of other species may experience temporary to permanent hearing impairment as a result of the noise from pile-driving.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

There are too many unknowns about offshore wind

September 26, 2024 — Dale Witham of Bremen has been a commercial fisherman for more than 50 years.

The Green New Deal was developed and implemented to address climate change, as well as, create jobs, economic growth and reduce economic inequality. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times wrote in 2007, “If you have to put a windmill in your yard or some solar panels on your roof, bless your heart. But we will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid — moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables.”

Maine’s offshore fishing grounds have provided for the people of this state for generations. In 2021, Maine’s commercial fishing value for all species was more than $890 million. The state’s population was 1.37 million people, equating to $649.18 in generated wealth for every resident.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MARYLAND: Debate Over Offshore Wind Farms Continues at Ocean City BOEM Meeting

September 26, 2024 — Ocean City residents voiced strong opposition Tuesday night at a public meeting hosted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regarding potential offshore wind farm developments along the Maryland coast. The meeting discussed areas that could be leased for wind energy projects, which has been raising concerns among residents.

The town of Ocean City encouraged residents to attend the meeting in opposition after BOEM recently approved plans for wind turbines 10.7 miles off the coast. The latest discussion centered on additional potential wind energy areas, though no specific projects are confirmed.

BOEM is seeking public feedback as Maryland aims to generate 8.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2031, a key part of the state’s clean energy goals.

BOEM presented a map showing a large stretch of ocean from New Jersey to North Carolina that could be considered for wind energy projects, with some areas as close as three miles off Ocean City’s coast. However, BOEM emphasized that only about 10% of the area would likely be leased for wind development.

Read the full article at WBOC

RHODE ISLAND: R.I. regulators resume review of SouthCoast Wind transmission lines

September 24, 2024 — A proposal to run underwater power lines from a Massachusetts offshore wind farm through Rhode Island waters is back before state regulators, following a 14-month pause.

The Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board voted unanimously Monday to resume consideration of SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC’s application to run transmission lines from its wind farm 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard up the Sakonnet River, over Portsmouth and out Mount Hope Bay to reach land in Somerset.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current