Saving Seafood

MAINE: We hopped on a boat off Massachusetts to see what Maine’s offshore wind future could look like

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

 

MASSACHUSETTS: GE sends two turbine blades from New Bedford to France

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.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

OREGON: Tribes slow Oregon’s offshore wind plans to ask ‘the big questions’ on cultural, environmental impacts

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.

Read the full article at The Chronicle 

NEW JERSEY: ‘He knows we’re here’: Wind power critics protest Murphy to keep cables out of Sea Girt

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.”

Read the full article at app.

OREGON: With offshore wind on hold, fishermen want a more rigorous evaluation

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

 

NEW JERSEY: Community Offshore Wind Donates Fresh Seafood Meals to New Jersey Families in Partnership with Local Fisheries

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.

Read the full article at TAPinto East Brunswick

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey offshore wind farm clears big federal hurdle amid environmental concerns

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.

Read the full article at Associated Press 

Construction approval for NJ Atlantic Shores wind

October 2, 2024 — The first New Jersey offshore wind project moved forward Tuesday with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approving the Atlantic Shores construction and operations plan. With up to 197 turbines and offshore substations, the two-phase project within 8.7 miles of Long Beach Island and Brigantine, N.J., would have a maximum nameplate rating of 2,800 megawatts.

BOEM issued its record of decision on Atlantic Shores in July, setting the stage for approval of the construction and operations plan for the joint venture by Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development, LLC.

“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,” said Joris Veldhoven, CEO of Atlantic Shores.

“We are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration, our agency partners at the U.S. Department of the Interior and BOEM, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and all our federal and state agency partners who helped deliver this moment for Atlantic Shores.”

Atlantic Shores is the target of ferocious opposition from Jersey Shore groups against offshore wind development. The coalition of beachfront property owners, municipal governments and commercial fishermen have focused their legal and public-relations fire on Atlantic Shores since wind developer Ørstedabruptly withdrew from its planned 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind project in late 2023.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Conservative Delaware think tank sues to stop Maryland offshore wind farm

October 2, 2024 — A lawsuit filed in Delaware’s Superior Court on Monday aims to stop electric cables from being buried under Delaware-controlled waters and coastline for a controversial offshore wind project.

US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project off the Delmarva coast has proposed running power transmission cables from its wind farm three miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean to 3Rs Beach at Delaware Seashore State Park. The cables would run beneath Delaware-regulated wetlands, state waters and the Indian River Bay and connect to a substation near a former power plant.

Gov. John Carney announced the start of formal negotiations with US Wind late last year, with the company proposing to lease the cable landing at 3Rs Beach for $350,000 a year with annual increases. Delaware would also get $76 million in renewable energy credits and $40 million for the community benefits projects over 20 years.

Former judge and GOP party chair Jane Brady filed the case on behalf of the Caesar Rodney Institute, a Delaware think tank that has connections to the fossil fuel industry and has promoted misinformation about the connection between offshore wind and whale deaths. The suit also names two commercial fishermen as plaintiffs — Wes Townsend and George Merrick.

Read the full article at WHYY

Ørsted Has New U.S. Wind Partner as Eversource Exits and GIP Enters

October 2, 2024 — Institutional investors continue to show interest in the developing offshore energy sector demonstrated by the closing of a deal that rearranges the partnership for Ørsted in its U.S. offshore wind energy projects. Global Infrastructure Partners, which was acquired by famed group BlackRock, completed the previously announced deal to buy Eversource Energy’s 50 percent interest in two wind farms with Ørsted.

Eversource had previously announced its intent to exit the offshore wind sector to focus on operations as a pure-play regulated pipes and wires utility. They agreed earlier this year to sell their share of the planned Sunrise Wind project to Ørsted and yesterday completed the sale of its shares in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). While Eversource has exited its offshore wind investments, the company remains a contractor on the ongoing onshore construction scope for Revolution Wind, and a tax equity investor in South Fork Wind.

The final price for the 50 percent shares of the two U.S. offshore wind farms was $745 million, which was reduced by approximately $375 million from the original value of $1.12 billion on the deal. Eversource cited increased construction costs and delays for Revolution Wind. With a $370 million gain on the separate sale of Sunrise Wind, Eversource still expects to record a loss of $520 million for the divestiture of its offshore wind interests.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive