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NEW JERSEY: Orsted scraps 2 offshore wind power projects in New Jersey, citing supply chain issues

November 1, 2023 — Danish energy developer Orsted said Tuesday night it is scrapping two large offshore wind power projects off the coast of New Jersey, adding uncertainty to a nascent industry the Biden administration and many state governments are counting on to help transition away from the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.

The company said it is canceling its Ocean Wind I and II projects in southern New Jersey, citing supply chain issues and rising interest rates.

Orsted CEO Mads Nipper said in a statement the company was disappointed to be halting the projects because it believes the United States needs wind power to reduce carbon emissions.

“However, the significant adverse developments from supply chain challenges, leading to delays in the project schedule, and rising interest rates have led us to this decision,” Nipper said.

Orsted stands to lose a $100 million guarantee it posted with New Jersey earlier this month that it would build Ocean Wind I by the end of 2025. That money could be returned to ratepayers.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Dominion wind farm gets key green light in U.S. environmental review

November 1, 2o23 — A federal environmental review gives a green light to Dominion Energy‘s $9 billion offshore wind farm, located about 25 miles into the Atlantic from Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront.

 Dominion calls for more solar facilities, including Powhatan, Hanover sites

The approval includes requirements aimed at reducing harm to the endangered North American Right Whale and at easing the impact of construction and operation of the wind farm on fisheries and ship traffic in and out of the world’s biggest Navy base and one of the nation’s busiest ports.

The review “weighed all concerns in making decisions regarding this Project and has determined that all practicable means within its authority have been adopted to avoid or minimize environmental and socioeconomic harm,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said.

It said pulling the plug on the wind farm “would still be expected to result in moderate, long-term, adverse impacts on regional air quality because other energy generation facilities would be needed.”

Those plants would be powered by fossil fuels which would emit pollutants and contribute to climate change.

Read the full article at Richmond Times-Dispatch

NEW JERSEY: ‘David defeats Goliath!’: South Jersey officials celebrate end of Ørsted offshore wind projects

November 1, 2023 — From anger in Trenton to disappointment in Atlantic City to celebration in Cape May County, Ørsted’s decision to end development of its Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects off the Jersey Shore delivered a mix of emotions.

In announcing the move Tuesday evening, executives with the Danish energy company cited high inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain issues.

“We are extremely disappointed to have to take this decision, particularly because New Jersey is poised to be a U.S. and global hub for offshore wind energy,” said David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO Americas for the Danish energy company.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, Cape May County officials called Ørsted’s announcement a win for local shore communities.

“Anyone thinks that they’re going to walk and put their footprints on our beach better beware that they’re not coming into Cape May County, no way, no how,” said county Commissioner Director Leonard Desiderio.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City

VIRGINIA: Feds approve Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind; first foundations arrive

November 1, 2023 — The Biden administration announced its approval Tuesday of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest to date in U.S. waters with a planned maximum rating of 2,600 megawatts.

Eight steel monopile foundations arrived in Portsmouth, Va., Oct. 19, the first components for the planned 176 turbines in an $9.8 billion array starting 23.5 miles east of Virginia Beach, Va. It’s the fifth utility-scale wind project approved through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, following the Vineyard Wind 1, South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects off southern New England, and Ocean Wind 1 off New Jersey.  Together the projects will collectively generate more than 5 gigawatts of maximum potential.

But the CVOW approval also arrives amid broader turmoil in the renewable energy industry, beset by rapidly escalating costs and financial losses for developers and turbine manufacturers. Most recently four developers that sought bigger subsidies for projects off New York were rejected by New York State energy regulators, leaving the future of their plans in doubt.

Biden administration officials and CVOW developer Dominion Energy portrayed the approval Tuesday as a milestone. The project “is expected to provide about 900 jobs each year during the construction phase and support an estimated 1,100 annual jobs during the operations phase, generating vital economic development for Virginia’s Hampton Roads area and supporting investments in the Virginia coastal region as a hub for offshore wind development and support,” according to a prepared statement from BOEM.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Wind industry deals with blowback from Orsted scrapping 2 wind power projects in New Jersey

November 1, 2023 — Wind energy developer Orsted is writing off $4 billion, due largely to the cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey whose financial challenges mirror those facing the nascent industry.

It added fresh uncertainty to an industry seen by supporters as a way to help end the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels, but derided by opponents as inherently unworkable without massive financial subsidies.

The Danish company said Tuesday night it is scrapping its Ocean Wind I and II projects off the coast of southern New Jersey due to problems with supply chains, higher interest rates, and a failure to obtain the amount of tax credits the company wanted.

“These are obviously some very tough decisions,” Mads Nipper, Orsted’s CEO, said on an earnings conference call Wednesday.

He said the company, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, decided “to de-risk the most painful part of our portfolio, and that is the U.S.”

That statement went straight to the heart about concerns over the financial viability of the offshore wind industry in the northeastern U.S., which is in its infancy but has extensive plans from New England to the Carolinas.

Some projects already have been canceled, and many offshore wind developers are seeking better terms from governments with whom they have already contracted. New York rejected such a request two weeks ago.

New Jersey approved a tax break for Orsted in July, letting it keep federal tax credits that otherwise would have gone to ratepayers.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Biden administration moves toward more wind energy in Gulf of Mexico

October 31, 2023 — The Biden administration took a step Friday to advance the development of more wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department finalized four new “wind energy areas” where it can auction off the right to set up wind power.

Together, electricity produced at the four areas could be enough to power as many as 3.23 million homes combined, according to the administration.

Three of the locations are off the coast of Texas, while one is off the coast of Louisiana.

Elizabeth Klein, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said in a written statement that her agency is pursuing more offshore wind in the Gulf because of “continued industry interest and feedback from our partners and key stakeholders.”

Read the full article at The Hill

 

VIRGINIA: First Monopiles Arrive for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Wind Farm

October 30, 2023 — After a seemingly endless stream of bad news for the U.S. offshore wind energy industry, elected officials, executives from Dominion Energy, the Port of Virginia, and their partners, gathered today to mark a key step forward for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. The wind farm, which is still waiting for its final approvals and permitting, is already the largest offshore wind project under development in the U.S. and is gearing up for construction to begin after years of planning.

The first eight monopile foundations, built in Germany, arrived last week in Virginia at the staging site at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The massive steel constructions, each weighing around 1,500 tons, took nearly two and a half weeks by ship to reach Virginia. They are the first of the foundations for a total of 176 wind turbines that are planned for CVOW.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

Avangrid avoids $1 billion write-off after ending plans to build CT’s Park City Wind farm

October 28, 2023 — Avangrid reported Thursday that in canceling its Park City Wind farm for Connecticut, it sidestepped more than $1 billion in write-offs as projected costs outstripped revenue it expected under a power purchase agreement with the state.

Avangrid, a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola, has its headquarters in Orange. Avangrid’s subsidiaries include United Illuminating, which owns power lines that provide electricity in the Bridgeport and New Haven metropolitan areas. UI sued the state in September after regulators denied a rate increase it had sought.

Avangrid also owns Central Maine Power, which has its headquarters in Auburn where officials issued a “shelter in place” advisory after the overnight mass shootings in adjacent Lewiston. Just after 9 a.m. on Thursday, CMP alerted customers it would coordinate with local law enforcement in responding to any outages Thursday morning.

“We have many Central Maine Power employees in Lewiston and all over Maine who are likely severely impacted by this horrible act of senseless violence,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra, speaking Thursday morning on a conference call with investment analysts. “We are monitoring the situation very closely and we are prepared to provide every resource available to our employees and our affected communities. Our hearts and thoughts from all of us at CMP, Avangrid and Iberdrola are with the Lewiston community in this difficult time.”

Avangrid unilaterally pulled the plug on the Park City Wind farm several weeks ago, as the cost of construction outstripped revenue projections from a power purchase agreement with the state of Connecticut. The companies had aimed to start construction by 2026.

In August, Avangrid restarted construction of a transmission line through Maine to feed electricity to the New England grid from hydropower plants in Canada, after a court decision in its favor. At 1,200 megawatts, the New England Clean Energy Connect lines would deliver 50 percent more power than Park City Wind at optimal wind conditions.

Read the full article at Stamford Advocate

NEW JERSEY: Former coal-fired power plant razed to make way for offshore wind electricity connection

October 26, 2023 —  For decades, tourists heading to the New Jersey beach resorts of Ocean City and Cape May saw the towering smokestack of the B.L. England Generating Station as they zipped past it on the Garden State Parkway.

The 463-foot-tall (141.1-meter) stack was a local landmark and even a weather forecaster for some residents who glanced outside to see which way emissions from its top were blowing, and how fast, as they decided what to wear for the day.

But the power plant, which burned coal and oil over the decades, closed in May 2019, a casualty of the global move away from burning fossil fuels.

And the smokestack, the last major remaining piece of the plant, was imploded Thursday morning, brought down by 350 pounds of explosives strategically placed by a demolition company known in the area for razing the former Trump Plaza casino in nearby Atlantic City in 2021.

Read the full article at the the Associated Press

MARYLAND: BOEM Hosts Offshore Wind Meeting; Public Comments Accepted Through Nov. 20

October 26, 2023 — Community members came out in droves this week to share their comments regarding an offshore wind project near Ocean City.

On Tuesday evening, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) hosted the first of two in-person public meetings regarding a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on US Wind’s offshore wind project. Lorena Edenfield, environmental protection specialist for BOEM, said the federal agency will continue to collect comments through Nov. 20.

“Tonight, we really are here because we want to hear what we need to be including in the EIS,” she said. “We did do some scoping last year to determine what we needed to include in the draft EIS, and that really informed the process. So now we want to know how we did.”

Read the full article at the Dispatch