Saving Seafood

Why Is New York Paying So Much for Wind Power?

August 26, 2024 — New York state signed a contract in June to buy electricity generated by two large wind farms, Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind, off the coast of Long Island. The projects are expected to begin in 2026 and 2027, with power delivered to Brooklyn (Empire) and Long Island (Sunrise). The state will pay $155 and $146 per megawatt-hour, respectively. These prices are steep, at least four times the average grid cost paid over the past year. New Yorkers should be asking why.

States agree to pay wind-power operators—known as the “offtake price”—based on a project’s “break-even cost,” the estimated bill for building and operating the wind farm over its useful life. That is undoubtedly part of the problem. The offshore wind business off the East Coast is in turmoil. Operators have canceled projects from Massachusetts to Maryland that were due to be constructed in the next four years. Some have been delayed, while others have renegotiated their contracts at prices 30% to 50% higher than originally promised.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal

New turbine blade failure in North Sea, as fishermen protest at Vineyard Wind

August 26, 2024 — AGE Venova Haliade turbine suffered a blade failure Aug. 22 on the Dogger Bank A offshore wind project in the North Sea, about six weeks after a fractured blade shut down the Vineyard Wind project off southern New England.

The Dogger Bank incident is the second blade failure on that project after one in May. All three involve Haliade 13-megawatt generators, marketed by GE Vernova as an industry standard as wind developers go big in a quest for efficiency.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

A boat flotilla in protest of Vineyard Wind

August 28, 2024 — A group of approximately 15 to 20 boats descended on the Vineyard Wind project site on Sunday afternoon in a show of peaceful protest against the offshore wind industry.

The group, composed of commercial fishermen and concerned citizens, have been energized by the recent failure of a turbine blade that fractured and fell into the ocean, washing ashore debris including fiberglass and foam on Nantucket and Island beaches.

The “flotilla,” as it was called, was organized by the New England Fisherman’s Stewardship Organization (NEFSA), a fishing industry alliance that has said its frustrations and concerns surrounding offshore wind have not been answered by Vineyard Wind or local officials.

Vineyard Wind is building the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind project, and has been met with significant resistance by both commercial fishermen and locals who are wary about the potential effects of large wind turbines on marine life, fisherman’s livelihoods and on the impacts to their views. The turbines stand as high as 837 feet, with blades as long as a football field. Following the recent blade failure, Vineyard Wind has been forced to halt construction while federal officials conduct an investigation.

Construction on the project has resumed, though Vineyard Wind is not allowed to generate power. GE Vernova, the renewable energy subsidiary of General Electric that manufactures the turbines, has been conducting extensive examinations of the blades to determine the root cause of the failure, and says it will use new algorithms to monitor the health of blades in real-time.

Read the full article at MV Times

Off The Coast Of England, Another GE Haliade-X Wind Turbine Blade Failure On Thursday

August 23, 2024 — A wind turbine at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm off the coast of England suffered a blade failure Thursday morning as it was being commissioned. It was the second blade failure at Dogger Bank involving GE Vernova’s Haliade-X turbine, the same model that is being installed by Vineyard Wind in the waters southwest of Nantucket.

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm – slated to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm when it is completed – disclosed the incident Thursday evening on its website, stating “We are aware of a blade failure which occurred this morning on an installed turbine at Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm, which is currently under construction. In line with safety procedures, the surrounding marine area has been restricted and relevant authorities notified. No one was injured or in the vicinity at the time the damage was sustained. We are working closely with the turbine manufacturer, GE Vernova, which has initiated an investigation into the cause of the incident.”

For GE Vernova, it was the third known blade failure involving its Haliade-X turbine model in 2024, including the Vineyard Wind blade failure on July 13 that sent thousands of pieces of fiberglass and styrofoam onto Nantucket’s beaches and beyond.

Tim Brown, the media relations leader for GE Vernova, notified the town of Nantucket about the incident Thursday at 7:42 p.m. Select Board chair Brooke Mohr said the town would be issuing a statement about the incident Friday morning.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

Fishermen organizing ‘flotilla’ protest against offshore wind

August 23, 2024 — In response to recent concerns over offshore wind and with debris washing up on Nantucket and Island beaches from a fractured turbine blade, the New England Fisherman’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) has organized a “flotilla” for this Sunday, bringing fishing boats together to peacefully protest in unison against the offshore wind industry.

Boats will be joining together in a “boat parade” from various areas of the east coast, said NEFSA founder and CEO Jerry Leeman, including the Vineyard, Nantucket, parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and potentially New Jersey.

Read the full article at MV Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Final Offshore Wind Discussion Centers on Ethics, Economics

August 23, 2024 — Newport’s Energy & Environ­ment Commission concluded its three-part series about offshore wind on Aug. 15, with moderator Avery Robertson leading panelists representing Climate Action Rhode Island’s Yes to Wind campaign, the Iron Workers Local 37 union, and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management in a discussion about the ethics and economics of offshore wind devel­opment.

Nick Horton, a volunteer with Cli­mate Action Rhode Island, opened his remarks by asking the audience to raise their hands if they con­sidered themselves environmen­talists, whether they cared about whales, and if they cared about the health of Rhode Island’s fisheries now and in the future. Most people raised their hands to all three. He then asked the room to raise their hands if they planned on cutting their personal energy usage by 90 percent within the next few years. Nobody raised their hand.

He proceeded to make the point that Rhode Island’s grid is largely dependent upon the fracking of natural gas in other states as its main power source. Horton said he supports the industrial scale devel­opment of offshore wind not only because it provides an alternative to modes of fossil fuel production, such as fracking, which negatively impact the environment, but also because the pollution caused by fracking and coal-fired power plants increases cancer rates and other health issues in other com­munities.

Read the full article at Newport Daily News

Offshore wind’s first ‘spill’

August 22, 2024 — Renewable energy advocates used to joke that unlike offshore oil production, the worst that could happen with turbine arrays would be a “wind spill.”

No more. The July 13 turbine blade failure on Vineyard Wind’s machine AW38 dropped parts of 57 tons of fiberglass, balsa wood and resin coatings into the sea, with fragments washing up on beaches – first from Nantucket, then onward to from Cape Cod to Montauk, at the height of summer tourism.

One month after the fracture, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued an “updated suspension order” to allow some work to resume on the planned 62-turbine, 806-megawatt rated array. The order continued to block new blade installation or power production at the 24 GE Vernova turbines installed before the break.

Reports of broken blade pieces drifting across southern New England waters were cited by opponents off the Atlantic Shores project off New Jersey as proof of their fears that building turbine arrays starting 8.7 miles off their beaches will endanger their own tourism industry.

Read the full article at Workboat

NEW YORK: Turbine blade debris from Nantucket wind farm may wash up on Long Island

August 22, 2024 — Pieces of a 300-foot blade that broke off a wind turbine south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, a month ago may soon begin washing up on Long Island beaches, according to an alert today from the Town of East Hampton.

The turbine debris is from Vineyard Wind, a wind farm located in the ocean about 22 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Parts of the shattered blade that broke off its turbine on July 13 soon turned up on the shores of Nantucket, temporarily closing beaches. Now, officials anticipate debris is honing in on Montauk.

“We have been made aware that debris may wash up on the shores of Montauk,” reads the alert posted on Instagram by the Town of East Hampton. “The debris has been described as ‘non-toxic fiberglass fragments.'”

Read the full article at the Greater Long Island

NEW JERSEY: NJBPU terminates Ocean Wind offshore wind farms

August 22, 2024 — Last week, Cape May County announced that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities formally vacated all of its orders that approved the Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects that were under development by Danish offshore wind corporation Ørsted.

The BPU’s actions follow the filing of lawsuits by Cape May County in the New Jersey Appellate Division as well as in the Federal District Court.

The county challenged the BPU’s orders, all of which have now been vacated and deemed of no force or effect, according to a news release it issued Aug. 14.

The state of New Jersey agreed to let Ørsted keep $175 million in escrow funds in exchange for vacating the BPU orders, according to the release. Cape May County’s actions before the Appellate Division and the Federal District Court remain active.

“Today is a very important day in our ongoing opposition to these environmentally destructive offshore wind projects,” Cape May County Board of Commissioners Director Len Desiderio stated in the release. “The vacation of these orders by the BPU means that it will be much more difficult for Ørsted or any other Big Wind company to utilize these lease areas just a few miles off Cape May County beaches.”

Read the full article at the Ocean City Sentinal

NEW JERSEY: Opponents call ocean wind plan ‘ill thought out’

August 22, 2024 — On Monday, Aug. 19 Stop The High-Risk Power Cables, a citizen group concerned about plans to run what they call “high risk” power cables through Sea Girt, Manasquan and Wall Township, held a community meeting before a large, online Zoom audience.

After gaining traction in the local community since the group’s formation, the group held the meeting before a virtual audience of over 1,000 attendees about a proposed turbine plan off the East Coast. The meeting was attended by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, Assemblyman Paul Kanitra and six other panel members, including an environmentalist, local mayors and citizen advocates who shared their opinions and called for project transparency.

Read the full article at Star News Group