Saving Seafood

Glauconite forcing changes to wind farms off East Coast

December 24, 2023 — Glauconite, a tricky green mineral, has complicated another offshore wind project along the East Coast. Its presence will likely force wind developer Ørsted to build fewer turbines in its Sunrise Wind project south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Sunrise Wind may be capped at 80 to 87 turbines, instead of as many as 94, according to the project’s final environmental impact report, released last week. Ørsted cites “glauconite feasibility issues” with installing turbine foundations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s report.

The Sunrise Wind project, about 40 miles south of New Bedford, will connect to the New York power grid. It’s the second confirmed offshore wind project along the East Coast that has rejected proposed turbine layouts due to the presence of glauconite. Empire Wind, off Long Island, has also had to do so, The Light reported in October.

BOEM, the U.S. ocean energy bureau, appears to be taking steps to address glauconite’s challenge to offshore wind development, its report last week signals.

“BOEM is developing further guidelines for developers to avoid these issues in the future,” read an agency response to a comment on the Sunrise Wind project. The comment was critical of the later timing of geological surveys, which can identify whether glauconite is present and might create an issue with certain turbine layouts.

BOEM did not provide a response to emailed questions on the agency’s comment about developing guidelines to avoid further issues.

The NOAA Fisheries Atlantic office, which cooperates with BOEM in reviewing projects, has also expressed concern with geological surveys occurring “late in the process.” In the case of Sunrise Wind, the fisheries agency said the timing reduced the government’s options for avoiding or minimizing impacts on marine resources.

Glauconite’s presence caused BOEM to reject a proposed wind turbine layout, preferred by NOAA Fisheries, that would have excluded Sunrise Wind’s turbines from a key area of Atlantic cod spawning habitat.

In response to a request for comment, a Sunrise Wind spokesperson said by email, “Impacts due to glauconite are not expected to affect this project.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

VIRGINIA: As other wind projects stall, Virginia’s approach keeps Dominion’s on track

December 24, 2023 — Back in 2011, Dominion Energy sent Diane Leopold, then a senior vice president for generation, to Greater Gabbard wind farm, 14 miles off the English coast in the North Sea, to look at a new-to-the-U.S. way of making electricity: offshore wind farms.

She came back with news that they could work in Virginia — wind conditions were similar, turbines could be anchored in deep and choppy seas and, key for this engineering graduate of England’s Sussex University, there was a clear path from the 3-megwatt turbines she saw to the larger ones that would make wind an affordable way to generate electricity.

“The biggest issue at the time was what’s the cost going to be for the customers,” said Leopold, who is now Dominion’s chief operating officer. “The technology fully proved out … but the ability to go from 3-megawatt turbines to 6-megawatt turbines to 11 to now almost 15 helps the economies of scale really get that cost down for the customers,” she said as she recalled Dominion’s first steps toward what became a $9.8 billion plan for an offshore wind farm capable of powering up to 660,000 homes.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Researchers poised to study the joint effects of climate change and offshore wind energy development on U.S. West Coast fisheries

December 21, 2023 — Offshore wind energy is just around the corner for the United States’ West Coast, in an effort to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy generation. As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) begins to issue leases for several offshore wind energy projects off the West Coast within the next decade, potential conflicts arise. How will offshore wind development affect the fishers who use the same stretch of the Pacific? How will climate change affect these uses?

These are the questions before researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Markets Lab (emLab), who work to align environmental objectives and economic incentives in support of sustainable livelihoods and a resilient planet. The installation of floating wind turbines is expected to generate complex issues of space and safety between all users of the offshore region. In previous research, emLab scientists investigated the potential effects of offshore wind infrastructure on West Coast fish stocks and fishers. Armed with a new $1.1 million grant from BOEM, emLab is ready to add climate change to the mix, incorporating climate model projections of ocean warming along the U.S. West Coast.

Read the full article at UC SANTA BARBARA

DELAWARE: Delaware to again explore offshore wind proposal

December 20, 2023 — Another offshore wind farm plan off the Delaware coast will be examined by the state.

Governor John Carney’s office announced the start of formal negotiations with US Wind that could bring two projects to the area off of Delaware Seashore State Park by the end of 2028.

The tentative plan would send power from US Wind’s proposed “MarWin” and “Momentum” wind farms to the 3Rs parking lot south of the Indian River Inlet, with US Wind leasing the land at $350,000 per year, with annual increases of 3%.

The cables would cross land, before then going through the Indian River Bay to the Delmarva Power & Light substation in Millsboro at the inlet edge of the bay

Read the full article at WDEL

Wind farm off New Jersey likely to ‘adversely affect’ but not kill whales, feds say

December 19, 2023 — The lone remaining offshore wind project in New Jersey with preliminary approval is likely to “adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, but its construction, operation and eventual dismantling will not seriously harm or kill them, a federal scientific agency said.

In a biological opinion issued Monday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the Atlantic Shores project, to be built off the state’s southern coast, is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any species of endangered whales, sea turtles, or fish.

Nor is it anticipated to destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat, the agency said.

Jennifer Daniels, the company’s development director, called NOAA’s decision “the next step forward” for the project.

It’s “a testament to the five years and 40-plus environmental assessments completed to ensure we are delivering safe, reliable, renewable power in a way that prioritizes responsible ocean development,” Daniels wrote.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Wind farms will be 15 miles away. But Preservation Society says they will spoil their ‘viewshed’ | Opinion

December 19, 2023 — Bill Fitzgerald lives in Newport.

I read that the Preservation Society of Newport County is filing a lawsuit to stop or alter the wind farm being developed 15 miles out to sea. I was a little dumbfounded. How is this going to help them? Perception is everything in the tourism business and it makes the Preservation Society look like a NIMBY poster child for the fossil fuel industry.

I guess that is what the rich and powerful do if they don’t like something.

In the complaint, the Preservation Society argued that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management improperly approved the wind farms that will damage historic resources in the City of Newport, which is heavily dependent on heritage tourism. Federal law, it claimed, “makes clear that the ‘viewsheds’ of historic resources are as important as bricks and mortar. These appeals seek to preserve historic and pristine views from industrial-scale development.”

Read the full article at the Providence Journal

Scientists to study how offshore wind construction off Virginia Beach impacts fish

December 18, 2023 — Researchers with the Nature Conservancy and federal government are embarking on groundbreaking research off the coast of Virginia Beach to see how driving offshore wind turbines into the seafloor impacts fish behavior.

The research will provide guidance for how the government should craft environmental regulations for offshore wind development, which is increasing as the U.S. transitions from fossil fuel generation to renewable energy sources.

“The renewable energy sector is really critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kate Wilke, a marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy. “There really is a lot of scrutiny on this industry, and therefore we hope that that truly leads to better outcomes as the industry is developing and built out.”

While offshore wind has been slower to develop in the U.S. than in Europe or Asia, states along the East Coast have been racing to propose projects in recent years, especially after President Joe Biden announced a goal of having 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. That’s enough to power roughly 10 million homes.

Virginia set its own goal of developing 5.2 gigawatts of offshore wind as part of the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act, which seeks to decarbonize the state’s electric grid by 2050. Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest electric utility, is currently building a 2.6 gigawatt project that is expected to be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm when it’s complete.

The $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, also known as CVOW, will construct 176 turbines about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. While other projects along the East Coast have stalled because of economic pressures, Dominion has said CVOW is “on-time and on-budget.”

As the utility prepares to begin the drilling needed for the turbines, the Nature Conservancy is taking the opportunity to see how all the earth-shaking activity will affect fish.

“We are going to tag animals in such a way that it gives us the opportunity to observe behavior and gain an understanding of how that behavior may or may not change before versus during that construction activity,” said Brendan Runde, another scientist with the Nature Conservancy.

Read the full article at Virginia Mercury

BOEM intends to lease more wind farm area off Delaware coast

December 18, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced a proposal of another offshore wind lease sale, this time in ocean waters about 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay.

“We are taking action to jumpstart America’s offshore wind industry and using American innovation to deliver reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses, while also addressing the climate crisis,” said Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a prepared statement.

According to the announcement, the new areas have the potential to power more than 2.2 million homes with clean energy.

Read the full article at the Cape Gazette 

 

Blowing bubbles: Offshore wind’s new strategy to save whales

December 14, 2023 — The waters off the coast of New England have gotten noisier in the last year as the nation’s first-ever large-scale offshore wind farms began pile driving steel turbines into the ocean floor.

But developers say they have a way to blunt the deafening sound for whales, dolphins and the endangered species of the northern Atlantic: blowing bubbles.

“Pile driving in the ocean is very, very noisy,” said Richard Hine, whose maritime company ThayerMahan Offshore is the first U.S. firm to pilot “bubble curtains” for wind turbine construction. The walls of air bubbles help absorb sound energy. “You can knock out about 80 to 90 percent of the acoustic energy and get it below levels where they’re harmful to marine mammals,” Hine said.

Read the full article at E&E News

Opponents say Dominion’s offshore wind farm endangers whales. Scientists reject the claim.

December 11, 2023 — A series of whale deaths along the East Coast early this year has spurred an ongoing dispute over the burgeoning offshore wind industry.

Several of the deaths happened in Virginia Beach and Cape Charles. Two were humpbacks; one was a critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, later determined to have been struck by a vessel. Another right whale was also caught entangled in fishing line off the Outer Banks.

Around the same time, more than a dozen humpback whales were found dead along the coasts of New Jersey and New York over the span of a few months – the latest in what scientists call an “unusual mortality event” stretching back to 2016. Warming waters driven by climate change are bringing humpbacks closer to shore, while cargo shipments carried on big ships are also on the rise.

Scientists later said most of the deaths were caused by ship strikes.

But some local politicians and national conservative pundits pointed the finger somewhere else: offshore wind development.

More than a dozen offshore wind projects are in various stages of permitting along the East Coast. The Biden administration considers the nascent industry a key part of its climate policy, setting a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of electricity generated from offshore wind farms by 2030, or enough to power more than 10 million homes.

In January, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused offshore wind projects of killing “a huge number of whales” on his show. Fox News also linked the right whale death in Virginia Beach to Dominion Energy’s project.

Thirty mayors in New Jersey called for a moratorium on offshore wind activity until further investigation into the whale deaths. The uproar also fueled a few “save the whales” rallies, including in New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Read the full article at WHRO