October 29, 2024 — New Bedford officials are demanding more consideration for fishermen as the offshore wind industry continues to expand.
These concerns are not new but the frustration is starting to grow.
Recently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposed a Central Atlantic 2 Call Area, showing development plans that could potentially impact New Bedford fishermen.
October 29, 2024 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of the Interior:
Today, the Biden-Harris administration completed its sixth offshore wind lease sale by offering areas in the Gulf of Maine – the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast. The sale, conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), resulted in two provisional winners on four lease areas and over $21.9 million in winning bids.
Today’s lease sale is yet another significant milestone in the Biden-Harris administration’s work to meet the President’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy by 2035.
“Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, we’ve been committed to achieving our ambitious clean energy goals. With ten approved offshore wind projects capable of powering over 5 million homes, we are well on our way to a clean energy future,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Today’s successful auction marks yet another critical step in our fight against climate change. Together, we can create good paying jobs, build a domestic supply chain, and ensure that the momentum of this offshore industry continues for generations to come”
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has:
Through today’s sale, Avangrid Renewables, LLC won Lease OCS-564 at $4,928,250, which consists of 98,565 acres and Lease OCS-568 at $6,244,850, which consists of 124,897 acres. Both lease areas are approximately 29.5 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC won Lease OCS-562 at $4,892,700, which consists of 97,854 acres and is approximately 46.2 nm from Maine and Lease OCS-567 at $5,889,000 which consists of 117,780 acres is approximately 21.6 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
Together, the leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes with clean energy.
“To ensure we got the process of bringing offshore wind to the Gulf of Maine right, we’ve engaged in over a hundred outreach efforts with local communities and connected with thousands of partners and stakeholders,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “Collaboration with partners and stakeholders is key to making progress. By working closely with states, Tribes, ocean users, and industry leaders, we are building a sustainable new industry that will meet our nation’s current and future energy needs.”
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is growing the American economy from the middle out and bottom up – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving nearly a trillion dollars in new private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating good-paying jobs and building a clean energy economy that will combat the climate crisis and make our communities more resilient. The Biden-Harris administration is harnessing these historic investments and using tools from across federal agencies to support the growing American offshore wind industry, leading to the approval and construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind projects, which has created new jobs in factories and shipyards across the country. Today’s lease sale will support development of floating offshore wind in deep water sites, and the Administration is working through the interagency Floating Offshore Wind Shot to position the United States as a leader on these new technologies.
Today’s sale resulted in over $5.4 million total bidding credits. These bidding credits represent binding commitments by companies to invest over $2.7 million in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.
In addition, lease stipulations require that the lessees make every reasonable effort to enter into a project labor agreement covering the construction stage of any project for the lease areas; develop communication plans for engagement with Tribes, agencies, and fisheries; and provide semi-annual reports on engagement activities with Tribes and communities.
The leases awarded today do not authorize the construction or operation of any offshore wind facilities. Rather, they provide the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review. BOEM will develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the specific impacts of any project proposals before making decisions on whether to approve a proposed construction and operations plan. The EIS will be prepared in consultation with Tribes and appropriate government agencies, and informed by input from stakeholders, ocean users, and the public.
BOEM is committed to workforce development and to the establishment of a durable domestic supply chain that can sustain the U.S. offshore wind energy industry. More information about today’s sale, including a map of the lease areas, requirements regarding the bidding credits, and lease stipulations can be found on BOEM’s website.
October 28, 2024 — According to a letter he wrote to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr has “grave concern” for the scallop fishing industry in the face of a potential new call area to be leased out to offshore wind projects.
The 13,476,805-acre area off of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina — dubbed the “Central Atlantic 2” call area — encompasses a large portion of key scalloping grounds, Carr wrote.
In his Oct. 21 letter, sent on the last day of BOEM’s comment period, Carr wrote that throughout New Bedford’s process of developing “the first large scale offshore wind industrial marshalling port,” the port “has been diligent in providing comments for multiple offshore wind projects underway and proposed for the future.”
October 28, 2024 — Much of the attention around what towering offshore wind turbines could mean for Jersey Shore animals has focused on whales and certain fish species.
Birds, some believe, have gotten short shrift.
As have bats.
Not that wind developers and environmentalists aren’t looking up to the skies.
During a recent tour of the Long Island South Fork wind farm — a project that could be instructive for what’s planned in New Jersey in the years to come — managers from Ørsted said they monitor for birds and bats.
How? With the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international collaborative research network.
October 28, 2024 — Even as it prepares to take down additional defective blades, repair others, and retrieve the remaining debris on the sea floor from the July 13 blade failure, Vineyard Wind is still forging ahead with the construction of its 62-turbine wind farm southwest of Nantucket.
Despite the turmoil and delays, the offshore wind company announced Saturday that the crane vessel Orion would be returning to the area this week to conduct pile driving and installation of the remaining monopile foundations within its lease area.
October 25, 2024 — The city’s Port Authority published a letter to offshore wind regulators Wednesday, raising “grave concerns” over a 13.4 million acre tract of ocean recently opened to wind farm developers in the Central Atlantic that could put up to $2 billion in commercial fishing revenue at risk.
“BOEM has painted with too broad a brush,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote in the letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). “We believe that the new Mid-Atlantic call areas must be cut back from existing scallop and other fishery access areas, which still would leave ample room for nearby states to achieve their offshore wind capacity goals.”
In August, BOEM began soliciting proposals for offshore wind developers to lease 13.4 million acres of ocean off New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. It is the second of such sales in the Central Atlantic and the fifth offshore wind lease sale held during the Biden-Harris administration. The first lease sale in the Central Atlantic was completed also in August, yielding nearly $93 million from developers Equinor Wind US and Virginia Electric and Power Company.
October 25, 2024 — Vineyard Wind officials announced Wednesday that an unspecified number of turbine blades will be removed from its lease area 15 miles south of the Island, raising further questions about the integrity of the blades.
GE Vernova, the contractors charged with the construction of the Vineyard Wind farm — through a press release and during a call with investors Wednesday — did not specify how many blades have been or will be removed, although they said that less-than ten were impacted.
“There was a manufacturing deviation at one of our factories in Canada,” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said during a quarterly call with investors on Wednesday. “We have been very systematically reviewing all of our blades in offshore wind and we can say today that a very small proportion, low single-digit proportion of our manufactured blades in totality also had a manufacturing deviation similar to the blade that we experienced the failure in Vineyard Wind.”
The latest press announcement follows recent reporting from the New Bedford Light that four blades were quietly shipped from New Bedford to a manufacturing plant in France.
October 25, 2024 — A recent proposal to outline new wind energy areas off the Mid-Atlantic coast could threaten some of the most important East Coast sea scallop fishing grounds, New Bedford, Mass. officials warned the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
“As the port where the fishing and offshore wind industry intersect more than anywhere else, New Bedford is committed to the successful coexistence of both industries,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said, in an Oct 23 statement with the New Bedford Port Authority. “We believe that the new Mid-Atlantic call areas must be cut back from existing scallop and other fishery access areas, which still would leave ample room for nearby states to achieve their offshore wind capacity goals.”
The next day Virginia-based menhaden fishermen also called for BOEM to alter its plans and provide significant setbacks from wind power development areas and fishing grounds.
October 25, 2024 — The Preservation Society of Newport County is asking a judge to halt work on a controversial wind farm located 15 miles offshore.
The Preservation Society, which owns the famed Newport Mansions, sued the federal government last year after the Revolution Wind project was approved.
Their complaint names the U.S. Department of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) as defendants.
In a new court filing, the Preservation Society asked a judge to rule in their favor before the case heads to trial. They claim BOEM broke the law by not considering the consequences the turbines would have on the Newport Mansions and other historic landmarks.
October 24, 2024 — The Vineyard Wind project must remove an unknown number of blades that have already been installed south of Martha’s Vineyard while it repairs others, the company announced Wednesday. The project also received permission from the federal government this week to resume blade installation after it removes and repairs the components in the coming weeks.
The latest announcement suggests investigations found more defective blades similar to the blade that failed in July, and comes after the project quietly delivered at least four turbine blades from New Bedford to Cherbourg, France, where GE Vernova operates a blade manufacturing plant.
Both companies had not responded to questions as to why blades were being shipped to Europe from the U.S., but on Wednesday, a GE spokesperson told The Light the repair work will occur “in the water/at the turbine, in other cases at the [marshaling] harbor and our factory in Cherbourg, France.”
The companies said they would be “strengthening” the blades “as needed to support the safety and operational readiness of this project,” but it is unclear what is meant by “strengthening” — whether it means applying more adhesive or fiberglass — or where in the blade the repair work will occur.
During an earnings call with investors Wednesday morning, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said the last few months for offshore wind have been “difficult for us.”
“We can say today that a very small proportion, low single-digit proportion of our manufactured blades in totality also had a manufacturing deviation similar to the blade” that failed at the Vineyard Wind site, Strazik said. “In those cases, we are taking action on those blades.”