Saving Seafood

BOEM Approves Construction and Operations Plan for Atlantic Shores South Offshore Wind Projects

October 1, 2024 — The following was released by BOEM:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) today announced its approval of the Atlantic Shores South project plan to construct and operate two wind energy facilities, furthering the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. This is the final approval needed from BOEM following the Department of the Interior’s July 2024 Record of Decision.

“The Biden-Harris administration is dedicated to advancing responsible offshore wind energy projects like Atlantic Shores South Wind, which will create good-paying jobs and drive economic growth, while combatting the climate crisis and making our communities more resilient,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “I am proud to announce BOEM’s final approval of Atlantic Shores South Offshore Wind Projects 1 and 2, which have the potential to generate up to 2,800 megawatts of clean, renewable energy—enough to power nearly one million homes.”

Subsequent to the Record of Decision, the original lease was divided into two separate leases, both approximately 8.7 miles offshore New Jersey at their closest points. The approved construction and operations plan includes up to 197 total locations for wind turbine generators, offshore substations, and a meteorological tower, with subsea transmission cables potentially making landfall in Atlantic City and Sea Girt, providing clean electricity to the New Jersey grid.

BOEM incorporated important feedback from Tribes, government agencies, ocean users, and other interested parties prior to making this approval decision. The feedback resulted in required measures to avoid, minimize, or mitigate any potential impacts from the project on marine life and other important ocean uses, such as fishing.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has approved more than 15 gigawatts of clean energy from ten offshore wind projects, enough to power nearly 5.25 million homes. It has also held five offshore wind lease auctions, including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and New Jersey and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Earlier this year, Secretary Haaland announced a schedule of potential additional lease sales through 2028.

For more information about the Atlantic Shores South project, visit BOEM’s website.

Lawmakers seek pause in offshore wind energy amid whale deaths

September 30, 2024 — House lawmakers are seeking a pause in offshore wind energy projects amid a string of whale deaths along the coasts of Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Maine. [FoxNews]

Last week, a deceased whale beached off Maryland’s coast, the second whale carcass discovered in the area in three weeks. In 2023, 37 humpback whales carcasses were discovered along the East Coast.

While a definite cause of death could not be determined, wind-energy proponents continue to argue the deaths have nothing to do with offshore wind farms.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) hosted a public hearing in August in which experts testified about the danger installing wind turbines poses marine wildlife. Harris called for an end to offshore wind energy in Maryland.

Read the full article at CalCoastNews.com

Nantucket group appeals to Supreme Court to end offshore wind projects and protect endangered whales

September 30, 2024 — A group of Nantucket, Massachusetts, residents are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in their challenge to the industrialization of parts of the Atlantic Ocean, where they say offshore wind farms – developed with the blessing of the federal government – are putting an endangered whale species at risk.

The group, Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, argues in its petition to the high court that “the federal government has lost sight of its statutory obligations to conserve endangered species that will be directly affected by the construction of thousands of wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean.”

They argue that the federal agencies that authorized the leasing of the water area to wind turbine companies excluded certain data in their analysis to the benefit of offshore wind development.

“Despite the agencies’ explicit statutory duty to consider all ‘best information available,’ regarding the impacts its actions might have on an endangered or threatened species and those habitats, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), did not consider the cumulative impacts of other planned projects when they authorized and issued permits to construct the Vineyard Wind 1 Project.”

Read the full article at Fox News

OREGON: BOEM drops Oregon offshore wind energy auction for now for “insufficient bidder interest”

September 30, 2024 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says today it’s delaying an offshore wind energy auction.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had planned the auction of potential lease areas for two offshore wind farms along the Oregon coast.

BOEM says today the auction delay is, “due to insufficient bidder interest at this time.”

A coalition of Oregon Native American tribes filed a federal lawsuit this month challenging BOEM’s plan.

On August 29, 2024, the Department of the Interior announced the Final Sale Notice (FSN) for offshore wind leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Oregon following engagement through the Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, including coordination with the State of Oregon on advancing opportunities for leasing that would precede a multi-year process for site assessments and subsequent review of any specific project plans if submitted. The FSN set an auction date for October 15, 2024, and included two lease areas offshore Oregon and identified the five companies qualified to participate in the sale. Following issuance of the FSN, BOEM received bidding interest from one of the five qualified companies.

Read the full article at KDVR

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey hits pause on an offshore wind farm that can’t find turbine blades

September 26, 2024 — New Jersey hit the pause button Wednesday on an offshore wind energy project that is having a hard time finding someone to manufacture blades for its turbines.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities granted Leading Light Wind a pause on its project through Dec. 20 while its developers seek a source for the crucial components.

The project, from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE, would be built 40 miles (65 kilometers) off Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.

Leading Light was one of two projects that the state utilities board chose in January. But just three weeks after that approval, one of three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not announce the kind of turbine Invenergy planned to use in the Leading Light Project, according to the filing with the utilities board.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

Vineyard Wind contractor announcing hundreds of layoffs

September 26, 2024 — The contractor hired by Vineyard Wind to install 62 turbines south of the Island is reporting significant financial losses amid damages to turbine blades in multiple projects, and most recently, they are announcing intentions to downsize while pushing forward with billions of dollars in unfinished work.

GE Vernova, who have contracts to manufacture and install turbines around the world, said last week that they plan to cut as many as 900 jobs.

“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 told The Times in an email statement.

The announcement was made in a report to the European Works Council, which represents workers. Vernova did not specify where the job losses would be felt, but a spokesperson did say that they plan to finish out existing projects, including Vineyard Wind.

Read the full article at MV Times

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