Saving Seafood

Wondering about wind farm plans east of Cape Cod? There’s a public meeting coming up

July 16, 2024 — Federal plans to open up the Gulf of Maine for offshore wind production — including in ocean areas directly east of the outermost Cape towns — will be the topic of discussion at a public information session in Eastham on Wednesday.

The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and the state Division of Marine Fisheries are hosting the session with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management at the Four Points by Sheraton, 3800 State Highway, Eastham, 6-8 p.m.

A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokesperson said the event will be in-person only, but noted there are recordings of recent virtual meetings with the same information at tinyurl.com/gulfofmainewindinfo for those unable to attend.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

NEW JERSEY: Previous bidder tries again with new offshore wind proposal in New Jersey

July 12, 2024 — A partnership that proposed an offshore wind farm in New Jersey last year but was not selected by state utility regulators to move forward with it is trying again.

Community Offshore Wind said Thursday it had submitted a bid a day earlier to build a wind farm off the state’s southern coast. It would generate 1.3 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power 500,000 homes.

Its project would be located 37 miles off Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island. The companies involved did not say how many wind turbines would be included.

The project is a partnership between Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid. They previously applied to build a project in roughly the same area, but were not chosen by the state Board of Public Utilities to proceed with it.

Read the full article at WHYY

NEW JERSEY: Up to two new offshore wind projects are proposed for New Jersey. A third seeks to re-bid its terms

July 11, 2024 — Up to two additional offshore wind projects were proposed for the New Jersey coast Wednesday, and the developers of a third project that already has preliminary approval sought to re-bid its terms.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities received three bids by Wednesday’s deadline in the state’s fourth round of solicitations for offshore wind farms.

At least one would be a new project, and one was a request by Atlantic Shores to rebid half of its previously announced two-phase project, which has already received preliminary state and federal approvals. No information was available regarding the third bid.

Attentive Energy, which also has preliminary approval for a wind farm 42 miles (67 kilometers) off Seaside Heights, said Wednesday it is proposing a second project in New Jersey, but did not immediately give details.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Wind power group foresees delay of Biden administration 30 GW goal

July 10, 2024 — Offshore wind market analysts forecast 14 gigawatts of capacity in U.S. waters by 2030 – halfway to the Biden administration’s goal 30 GW, but with $65 billion of investments on track to achieve it in 2033.

The American Clean Power Association (ACP) on July 9 released its 2024 Offshore Wind Market Report, predicting the renewable power industry iwill support 56,000 jobs in the United States. The report counts 12 GW of capacity to come from projects with active offtake agreements. Those include 4 GW now under construction: Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind off southern New England, and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

“Across 37 leases in the U.S., there are now 56 GW (56,363 MW) of capacity under development, enough electricity to power the equivalent of 22 million homes,” the report states. “Market analysts forecast that there will be 14 GW of offshore wind deployed by 2030, 30 GW by 2033, and 40 GW online by 2035. These outlooks build on the 7.6 GW of offshore wind projects seeking to be operational by the end of 2027.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

NORTH CAROLINA: Dominion Energy to acquire offshore wind lease in $160M deal near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

July 10, 2024 — Dominion Energy is set to acquire an offshore wind lease from Avangrid, Inc., near Kitty Hawk, N.C., for approximately $160 million providing another potential option to meet the growing demand for electric use.

Virginia Electric and Power Company, a subsidiary of Dominion, announced the agreement this week.

If approved by regulators and constructed, the offshore facility would have a capacity of 800 MW, enough capacity to serve 200,000 homes and businesses, and the project would connect to the company’s transmission grid.

Read the full article at Augusta Free Press

NEW YORK: Fishing Industry Remains Concerned with Offshore Wind Power

July 10, 2024 — East End residents will soon be another step closer to wind power and away from fossil fuel; but local commercial fishermen are raising objections. And, East Enders are waiting to hear how much this wind power project will mean for new utility rates.

The federal government earlier this spring approved what it calls a “record of decision” for a Denmark-based company, Orsted, to build one of the largest offshore wind farms planned for Nassau and Suffolk counties. The decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior is among the last steps to build the windfarm, known as Sunrise Wind, an 84-turbine plant, before actual construction can begin.

Orsted said in a news release that the final permit, a construction and operating plan, is expected this summer from the federal government. Orsted recently completed a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind. Orsted said Sunrise Wind is expected to be completed in 2026.

Both Sunrise Wind and South Fork Wind are in the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island. South Fork Wind’s cable comes ashore in Wainscott. Sunrise Wind has a power cable running more than 100 miles to Smith Point County Park, before beginning a 17 mile trip through Brookhaven Town to a substation in Holtsville.

Read the full article at Dan’s Papers

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey’s first offshore wind project approved by federal government

July 9, 2024 — The Biden administration has approved New Jersey’s first offshore wind project, but the plan faces pushback — and the likelihood of legal challenges — from critics who say it will ruin the state’s storied coastline.

The Atlantic Shores South project, given a green light by the U.S. Department of the Interior last week, calls for installing 200 towering wind turbines less than nine miles off the coast — providing enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes. It’s the ninth offshore wind project approved by President Joe Biden as part of his efforts to aggressively expand the green power industry.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and environmental groups praised the project’s approval, saying it will help reduce the state and nation’s reliance on fossil fuel energy sources.

Read the full article at The Center Square

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Projects Make Headway

July 9, 2024 — Offshore wind energy projects continue to progress in the waters south of the Vineyard, with two new wind farms approved and construction starting on a third.

Revolution Wind reported “steel-in-the-water” in an area about 12 miles southwest of Aquinnah. This project was approved last August by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Headed by Orsted and Eversource, the wind farm is planned to have up to 65 turbines and generate power for Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The company estimated it would start operating the project in 2025. The turbines will be visible from Aquinnah and the town will receive mitigation money.

Revolution Wind will be joined by New England Wind and Sunrise Wind, a pair of projects that recently were approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

NEW YORK: Fishing Industry Remains Concerned with Offshore Wind Power

July 9, 2024 — East End residents will soon be another step closer to wind power and away from fossil fuel; but local commercial fishermen are raising objections. And, East Enders are waiting to hear how much this wind power project will mean for new utility rates.

The federal government earlier this spring approved what it calls a “record of decision” for a Denmark-based company, Orsted, to build one of the largest offshore wind farms planned for Nassau and Suffolk counties. The decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior is among the last steps to build the windfarm, known as Sunrise Wind, an 84-turbine plant, before actual construction can begin.

Orsted said in a news release that the final permit, a construction and operating plan, is expected this summer from the federal government. Orsted recently completed a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind. Orsted said Sunrise Wind is expected to be completed in 2026.

Both Sunrise Wind and South Fork Wind are in the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island. South Fork Wind’s cable comes ashore in Wainscott. Sunrise Wind has a power cable running more than 100 miles to Smith Point County Park, before beginning a 17 mile trip through Brookhaven Town to a substation in Holtsville.

Read the full article at Dan’s Papers

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New England Wind bid now has federal approval. What could that mean for New Bedford?

July 8, 2024 — Avangrid, Inc. — one of the entities connected to the offshore wind farm project known as Vineyard Wind 1 — announced this week that its Construction and Operations Plan, or COP, for the New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore projects now has “full federal approval.” If one or both are selected to move forward, Avangrid has plans to bring an industry-first to New Bedford, according to the company.

In its announcement, Avangrid, Inc. called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval “a critical milestone” that “largely completes the federal, state, and local permitting process for Avangrid’s 791 Megawatt New England Wind 1 project.” New England Wind 2 is contingent upon a version of the plans in which New England Wind 1 also moves forward. Another version accounts for New England Wind 1 moving forward alone. Decisions on proposals for the next round of wind projects involving Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut should be made by state officials sometime in August, according to Avangrid’s release.

“New England Wind 1 is the only project in the solicitation that has all federal, state, and local permits; the ability to start construction in 2025; and deliver power by 2029,” the release reads.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times