Saving Seafood

Feds allow Vineyard Wind to resume partial installation

August 14, 2024 –A fully loaded feeder barge with turbine components, which for weeks has been sitting in New Bedford, left port and headed out to the Vineyard Wind site Tuesday morning. There, a vessel will offload the nacelle and tower components, but the blades will stay on and return to port.

The federal government this week updated its suspension order, allowing the project-on-pause to resume partial installation of new turbines as the parties continue to analyze the blade failure, which happened one month ago.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)’s latest suspension order continues to prohibit further blade installation or power production at this time.

In response to a request for comment, a BSEE spokesperson said the agency issued the latest suspension order on August 10. The order requires “risk analysis and mitigation approved by BSEE prior to being able to conduct any activities on the damaged turbine.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

New Study Examines How Wind Turbines May Affect Ocean Floor

August 14, 2024 — Over the next ten years, thousands of wind turbines will be installed along the Atlantic coast of North America. This will be the biggest change to the sea floor in the area since the last Ice Age ended about 14,000 years ago.

A new research study, conducted by Kevin D. E. Stokesbury, N. David Bethoney, Felipe Restrepo, Bradley P. Harris, and sponsored by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation has been conducted to:

  1. Understand the differences between the sea floor in areas where wind turbines will be built and other locations;
  2. Help scientists predict how the ecosystem might change when the turbines are installed;
  3. Provide a detailed picture of the current sea floor, so future changes can be measured accurately after the turbines are in place. 

To understand what the sea floor is like now, scientists combined two large sets of data. One set comes from underwater camera surveys done from 2003 to 2019, and the other set is from geological studies dating back to 1966. They used this information to create detailed maps of the sea floor from Virginia Beach to the Gulf of Maine, down to a depth of about 300 meters. These maps show the probability of finding different types of materials on the sea floor, like rocks or sand, in specific areas.

Background

Offshore wind energy development goals are set to bring thousands of wind turbines to the North American Atlantic coast over the next decade. Such rapid development will significantly change the underwater environment. For example, currently soft seabeds (mud, sand, etc.) will have new hard structures introduced by wind farms (towers, foundation base materials, etc.). To understand the impact of wind farm development on marine habitats, we need to gather baseline information on the current state of these underwater areas.

What We Did
We studied the ocean floor along the East Coast of the United States using historical data. This involved using data collected from 2003 to 2019 by camera surveys from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and marine sediment data from the United States Geological Survey dating back to 1966. We wanted to map the composition of the ocean floor before wind farm development began, so we looked at the percentages of mud, sand, gravel, cobble, shell, and rock in different areas. Then, we created maps to show where each of these types of substrate are found.


Photo: The six substrate types based on the Wentworth scale for the SMAST drop camera samples. Credit: Stokesbury, K. D. E., Bethoney, N. D., Restrepo, F., & Harris, B. P. (2024). Anticipating the winds of change: A baseline assessment of Northeastern US continental shelf surficial substrates. Fisheries Oceanography, e12693

What We Found
1) Across all of the areas we mapped, sand was the dominant bottom type (found in 59% of areas), followed by mud (34%), and gravel (6%).

2) Areas slated for wind farm development had different substrate types than the rest of the continental shelf. For example, wind farm lease areas predominately had a mix of sand (99% of areas) and shell (92%) as their substrates.

Looking Forward

Wind farm lease areas currently consist mainly of soft-bottom habitats with low percentages of harder substrates such as gravel, cobble, and rock. Wind farms will add a lot of hard structures to these areas, potentially altering the habitat and species that inhabit these areas, which will likely affect fisheries. The maps created in this study will help us monitor changes to the substrate after wind farm construction. This will provide a more comprehensive view of the impacts of offshore wind on ocean ecosystems.

The published paper on this research, which was led by Dr. Kevin Stokesbury. Dean of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, is available here: “Anticipating the winds of change: A baseline assessment of Northeastern US continental shelf surficial substrates.” 

Work begins to remove broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade

August 14, 2024 — One month since an incident that sent part of a turbine blade plunging into the Atlantic Ocean and littered debris across area beaches, Vineyard Wind said Tuesday that it has cut away much of what remained from the damaged blade and has been cleared to resume some offshore wind construction activities, though it still cannot produce power.

The company said “controlled cutting operations” on Sunday and Monday “removed a substantial amount of the remaining portions of the damaged blade that pose a risk for further debris falling into the ocean.” But Vineyard Wind and blade manufacturer GE Vernova are still trying to finalize plans to do more cutting if necessary, secure and remove debris that fell onto the turbine platform, remove the blade root and deal with debris that’s settled on the seabed.

GE Vernova, the company selected by Vineyard Wind to manufacture its project’s blades and turbines, said last month that it has “no indications of an engineering design flaw” that could have caused the blade failure, but instead thinks it was a result of an issue in the manufacturing process, specifically “insufficient bonding.”

Read the full article at wbur

NEW JERSEY: Van Drew uses forum to slam NJ offshore wind projects

August 14, 2024 — With no letting up in his criticism, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Atlantic) on Tuesday hosted his third public forum so far on the expansion of offshore wind off the Jersey Shore. He was joined by local officials, experts and community members to discuss the broader impacts of offshore wind energy, including costs and the wider effects on the state’s coastal environments.

Van Drew has long contended that the plans to build over 100 giant wind turbines off the coast will have a devastating effect on the environment and the economy.

“This is not the five windmills that you see coming into AC,” he said. “We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of wind turbines over 1,000 feet tall that have substances that can leach into our oceans. We are going to decimate our fishing industry which is the third largest industry in the state, but these people don’t care.”

Community members at the Brigantine event on Tuesday also voiced concern about noise and environmental impacts from wind turbines, and others said the costs will fall on taxpayers.

“They are going to cost you a lot of money,” said Van Drew. “Not a little bit, but multiple times. . . Your utility bills are going to go way up. I don’t know about you, but the people I know have a hard time paying their current utility bills before paying all the things they need to.”

Read the full article at the NJ Spotlight

High-Tech “Crawlers” Deployed to Survey Vineyard Wind’s Turbine Blades

August 13, 2024 — A month after an embarrassing incident in which one of the turbine blades broke at the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, the developer presented its recovery plan. It is working with the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, and has retained Resolve Marine to assist Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova in the recovery effort. At the same time, residents continue to report finding fragments washed up on the shoreline of Massachusetts.

The project continues to repeat the preliminary assessment that is now completed by GE Vernova which cites a “manufacturing deviation” in the bonding of the composite material used to make the blades. The companies had said it was an identifiable issue with the adhesion that should have been discovered during quality control.

The blade initially broke on July 13 while one of the turbines not in service was undergoing testing. The automated safety controls stopped the individual turbine. Parts of the blade remained attached, while some sections were caught on the base and the remainder fell into the water. Elements of the composite material and the lightweight foam began washing up before the blade broke further in the following days. Work at the wind farm both on the turbines in service and construction was suspended and remains under a stop work order from BSEE.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

MASSACHUSETTS: More Vineyard Wind turbine pieces fall in ‘controlled detachment,’ debris could hit Nantucket beaches

August 13, 2024 — More pieces of the faulty Vineyard Wind turbine blade fell in a controlled detachment early Sunday morning, and Nantucket beaches remain at risk of seeing more debris wash up in the coming days, town officials reported.

“The controlled detachment follows a series of exercises conducted late last week to pitch the blade, which, in combination with storm winds, led to the safe separation of the sections below the root of the blade,” Nantucket officials stated Sunday night.

Following the July 13 initial malfunction and collapse of the wind turbine, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova said they’ve developed a “comprehensive plan to recover the remaining AW-38 blade in incremental steps” in a presentation released Friday.

As of Sunday night, teams from the companies are assessing whether the remaining sections “pose a risk of detachment,” Nantucket officials said. The root of the blade, which has a plan in place for its removal, is still attached and being monitored.

Read the full article at The Boston Herald

Ocean City prepares federal lawsuit over offshore wind projects. Here’s why.

August 13, 2024 — The Ocean City Town Council has announced legal counsel has already been consulted over a possible federal lawsuit if offshore wind plans proceed.

What it would take for Ocean City to ‘file suit against the BOEM’

During the most recent normal legislative meeting, Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan noted he was not surprised members of the municipal government did not have all the details of the proposed offshore wind development by US Wind. He cited the planned 114 turbines would be “between 10.7 to 10.9 miles off our coast. At a minimum they will be 938 feet tall, and that’s three and half times taller than any building in Ocean City. If built on land, they would be the tallest structures in Maryland.”

The federal government leased the land on which these turbines are slated to be built according to the company’s federal permit application.

Read the full article at the Yahoo! News

MASSACHUSETTS: Can crawler robots, fiberoptic sensors prevent the next break?

August 13, 2024 — A month after a football field-sized blade on Vineyard Wind turbine AW-38 folded over and began breaking apart into the ocean, the company and blade manufacturer GE Vernova are continuing work to remove its remnants and to respond to floating and washed-up debris around the region — including the Islands and Cape Cod.

Over the weekend, an outline of the blade incident report and action plan was also released.

The latest detachment of blade portions still hanging from the turbine occurred on Sunday morning, and Nantucket officials issued an advisory Sunday night about the potential for more debris coming ashore there, depending on wind direction.

Sunday’s “controlled detachment” followed a series of adjustments to the blade’s position completed at the end of last week, which, in combination with winds from the remnants of Hurricane Debby, “led to the safe separation of the sections below the root of the blade,” according to Nantucket officials.

Read the full article at The Herald News

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind lays out cleanup plan for damaged turbine, but doesn’t say when wind farm will resume spinning

August 12, 2024 — Officials with the Vineyard Wind energy project and turbine manufacturer GE Vernova unveiled a new plan on Friday to recover from the failure of a wind turbine blade in July that scattered debris into the ocean and onto nearby beaches.

What they didn’t say, though, was when construction would resume on the massive wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard, or when the project would start generating electricity again.

The July 13 incident, which GE Vernova blamed on poor bonding and quality control at a factory in Quebec, prompted the shutdownand halt to construction of the wind farm, which would eventually generate enough power for 400,000 homes. So far, 24 of the 62 skyscraper-sized turbine towers have been installed and 11 were delivering power into the region’s grid until the blade failure promptly halted the project.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

A Lot Was Riding on This Wind Farm. Then Giant Shards Washed Up in Nantucket.

August 12, 2024 — This summer was supposed to be a breakout season for the faltering offshore wind business in the U.S. Instead it may be defined by an ill-timed break.

A large project off the coast of Massachusetts, called Vineyard Wind, remains at a standstill following an accident that dropped a massive turbine blade into the ocean last month and washed chunks of debris onto Nantucket beaches.

The blade broke at the height of summer and at a pivotal moment for the U.S. offshore wind industry, which has struggled with rising costs, political opposition and a wave of canceled and renegotiated contracts. Efforts to launch the sector in the U.S. are considered key to President Biden’s climate aspirations but would be especially vulnerable if former President Donald Trump returns to office.

Of the many clean-energy incentives and policies approved by Congress or the Biden administration in recent years, offshore wind projects and electric vehicles have been singled out repeatedly by Trump with particular ire.

“We are going to make sure that ends on day one,” Trump said at a campaign event in May, talking about an offshore wind project in New Jersey. “I will write it out in an executive order.”

The project offshore Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard is among the largest planned wind farms in U.S. waters, with the capacity to deliver electricity to around 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. It was the first U.S. commercial offshore wind installation to start delivering grid power earlier this year and has more than a third of its turbines in place.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal