Saving Seafood

Traffic lane, habitat alternatives for South Fork offshore wind project

February 18, 2021 — A draft environmental impact statement for the South Fork Wind Farm project off southern New England includes alternatives for a fishing vessel traffic lane and protecting ocean bottom habitat for fisheries.

Both could potentially displace preferred locations for up to 15 wind turbines of 6 to 12 megawatt capacity planned by project partners Ørsted and Eversource. The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is considering the companies’ construction and operations plan for the project 19 miles southeast of Block Island, R.I., and 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y.

The developers propose to lay out the array with one nautical mile spacing between turbine towers, consistent with plans for adjacent wind power developments south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

A series of three virtual public hearings online followed BOEM’s January release of the draft environmental statement. The last proceeding Feb. 16 attracted project supporters from New York State labor, industry and environmental groups, and skeptics of its potential effects on the region’s fisheries, which the impact statement broadly summarizes as “negligible to moderate.”

A public comment period on the document is open until Feb. 22. Agency officials say they anticipate publishing a final version in August 2021, followed by a record of decision in October that could clear the way toward construction.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Some worry N.J. offshore wind project will affect views, fishing, and tourism

February 16, 2021 — A half-dozen people stood on an oceanfront deck with a million-dollar view, asking a hundred questions about what’s on the horizon. On this clear, winter afternoon, it was the Atlantic as far as the eye can see.

By 2024, nearly 100 of the world’s largest, most powerful wind turbines could be spinning 15 miles off the coast. With blades attached, the windmills could reach as high and wide as 850 feet, and simulations created by Orsted, the Danish-based power company behind the Ocean Wind project, show the turbines are visible, faintly, from beaches in Brigantine, Avalon, Stone Harbor, and Joe and Tricia Conte’s deck in Ocean City.

“Some of those pictures are deceptive, though, because they were taken on a cloudy day,” Joe Conte said. “The pictures they have of a clear day give you a much more vivid view of what it’s really going to look like.”

The project will power a half-million homes in New Jersey and, according to Orsted, create thousands of jobs, both offshore and on during the initial construction process, which could begin this year. It has the support of both Gov. Phil Murphy, who has actively pushed for alternative energy in the state, and President Joe Biden.

Murphy’s office did not return a request for comment for this story, but Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter, said there was talk of offshore oil wells under past administrations.

Read the full story at The Philadelphia Inquirer

NEW YORK: Cable Landing Simmers While Federal Wind Farm Review Is Just Heating Up

February 11, 2021 — While the public debate over the South Fork Wind Farm cable landing in Wainscott has shifted to court filings and the village incorporation effort, the public stage of the federal application for the wind farm itself is just getting started — and advocates for local fishermen say that the most important aspects of the project have yet to be settled.

Whether turbine foundations will be hammered into the heart of one of the most fabled fishing regions off Montauk and whether commercial fishermen will be compensated for lost fishing time or damaged fishing gear are both still up in the air as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and a dozen other federal agencies continue their examination of the project as proposed by Danish wind farm developer Ørsted and it’s American domestic partner, Eversource.

The federal regulators on Tuesday held the first of three public comment sessions on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the 800-plus-page main outline of the project and the various considerations for its design. The will be additional comment sessions on February 11 and 16. The meetings are being held via Zoom and registration and the full details of the project are available at www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/south-fork-wind-farm-virtual-meetings.

Read the full story at the Sag Harbor Express

RHODE ISLAND: Fishermen, developers reach impasse over offshore wind farm

February 3, 2021 — Members of the state Fishermen’s Advisory Board say they’ve hit an impasse in negotiations with Orsted and Eversource over compensation for the impact of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm.

The 130-megawatt project would be built in Rhode Island Sound and supply power to Long Island, the Providence Journal reported.

Lanny Dellinger, chairman of the board, declined to go into detail on the offer from Ørsted and Eversource. The board advises the Coastal Resources Management Council on offshore wind development.

Read the full story at the Caledonian Record

Atlantic Shores, Ørsted apply in new round of offshore wind contracts

December 11, 2020 — Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind and Ørsted said Thursday they have applied to the state in the second round of competition to supply up to 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind power to New Jersey.

In September, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced it would open the application window for the state’s second solicitation of offshore wind development. The window closed Thursday, and a decision is likely to take months.

The current solicitation will award between 1,200 and 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind energy, the BPU said, “potentially tripling the state’s committed capacity from 1,100 MW to 3,500 MW.”

It is part of the board’s work to achieve Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal of creating 7,500 MW of offshore wind energy in the state by 2035, to power 3.2 million homes, the board has said.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

First major R.I. offshore wind project faces further delays, with no clear completion date

November 25, 2020 — The 12-year saga of efforts to build a utility-scale offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island has been extended again, with no clear end-date in sight.

International developer Orsted A/S, which has a national hub in Providence, has pulled back on its previously estimated 2023 completion date for the Revolution Wind project slated for federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island. In an October earnings call, Orsted President and CEO Henrik Poulson said it was “highly likely” that the 50-turbine project, along with several others currently under federal review, will be delayed beyond anticipated construction years. Poulson cited uncertainty in the permitting process, which involves comprehensive review by the  U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, as reason for the expected delay.

BOEM recently pushed back its approval timeline for Vineyard Wind, an 84-turbine project slated for the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Industry leaders have largely viewed the timeline and outcome of Vineyard Wind, slated to be the first large-scale wind farm to come online, as a direct indicator of when and if other offshore wind projects will move forward.

Exactly what this means for a new timeline for Revolution Wind is unclear. With BOEM’s decision to delay its environmental impact statement on Vineyard Wind until December, pushing off a final ruling until January, Orsted cannot “re-baseline our construction schedules,” Poulson said on the call.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

World’s Biggest Offshore-Wind Company Sees U.S. Projects Lagging

October 29, 2020 — Orsted A/S, the world’s biggest offshore wind developer, expects four of its projects constituting about 2.8 gigawatts to be delayed beyond the expected 2023 and 2024 construction years, according to its interim financial report. Orsted’s explanation: it’s still waiting for clarity on the projects’ federal permitting process.

“We had expected to have received the notices of intent for the most progressed projects, but we can now see that will not happen before the election,” said Marianne Wiinholt, Orsted’s chief financial officer, on a call with reporters Wednesday. “We have to stand still for a period.”

The delay comes as offshore-wind proponents warn that limited resources at the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are constraining development. But funding decisions — including whether to hire more staff to work through a backlog of wind project applications — fall to Congress, not the U.S. Interior Department agency.

Read the full story at MSN

South Fork Wind Farm delayed until 2023

October 29, 2020 — Developers of the South Fork Wind Farm say the project isn’t expected to be operational until the end of 2023, a “significant” delay that is a year from LIPA’s contractual start date.

In a conference call Wednesday, the company cited the expectation that federal permitting delays that have stalled projects across the northeast will continue into 2021. Developer Orsted said federal regulators overseeing the project also have yet to confirm the company’s plan to farther space out turbines for the project at one nautical mile apart, in part to accommodate fishing and shipping interests.

The $2 billion-plus project, rated at 130 megawatts, is proposed for federal waters off Massachusetts/Rhode Island.

Federal regulators are expected to provide needed permitting approvals by October 2021, according to Orsted.

“Given the updated permitting schedule, we now expect South Fork Wind to be in operations by the end of 2023 rather than 2022 as initially expected,” spokeswoman Meaghan Wims said in a statement.

Read the full story at Newsday

NEW JERSEY: New CEO vows Ørsted will fulfill jobs promises with offshore wind farm

October 26, 2020 — Ørsted Offshore North America, the Danish company that won the right to build an offshore wind farm about 12 miles southeast of Atlantic City in the Atlantic Ocean, has a new leader with New Jersey roots.

David Hardy, a 49-year-old American and Navy veteran, said Thursday he will make sure the company fulfills all of its promises to create jobs in offshore wind equipment manufacturing and supply chain services.

Hardy was born in the Fort Monmouth/Eatontown area of Monmouth County, but moved around the country growing up as his father was in the military.

He has replaced Thomas Brostrøm, the Dane who has been with the company 11 years and led its U.S. offshore wind efforts since 2015. Brostrøm will soon move back to Europe to become the leader of a global energy company, according to Ørsted.

Hardy has spoken to State Senate President Steve Sweeney about Sweeney’s concerns that Ørsted hasn’t worked fast enough to set up manufacturing and supply chain businesses in New Jersey.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

NEW JERSEY: Wind Conference Goes Virtual

October 26, 2020 — Hundreds attended the first in a series of virtual open houses about a wind farm off New Jersey’s southern coast, which proponents expect to be the start of a new clean energy industry in the region.  

Construction is expected to begin in the early 2020s, with the first project expected to provide power to a half-million New Jersey homes.   

The event was held remotely because of the pandemic. Kris Ohleth, senior stakeholder relations manager for Ørsted, the Danish company that won the contract for the first round of wind farm construction, in New Jersey, said they would’ve preferred to meet with the public face to face, but said that option is not practical.  

Participants in the Oct. 20 event signed up in advance and were emailed a link to the conference room. Before the event started, the link led to an image of a conference room much like any in the world, down to the lines of white folding chairs at a podium set at the front of the room.  

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald