Saving Seafood

European developers build out dominance in US offshore wind race

October 8, 2020 — Utilities and oil majors from Europe are slicing up the Eastern Seaboard when it comes to the burgeoning U.S. offshore wind industry, with fewer domestic-owned developers so far putting money into a sector that is expected to balloon over the coming decade.

BP PLC became the latest company to enter the fray in September, when it bought into two offshore wind developments owned by Norway’s Equinor ASA, the Beacon Wind and Empire Wind projects, which between them have development potential of 4,400 MW, including an 816-MW state contract already awarded for Empire Wind. The joint venture between the two oil and gas firms follows a host of deals and leasing rounds that have seen the major players of Europe’s own offshore boom take the lead in the sector’s next big market.

Denmark’s Ørsted A/S, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and the BP-Equinor joint venture now own just over 11,600 MW of planned projects along the coast, while Dominion Energy Inc. and Eversource Energy — the next two top owners — are sitting on a combined 4,500 MW of projects, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

Read the full story at S&P Global

NEW YORK: Trustees on Board With Offshore Wind Plan

October 2, 2020 — The East Hampton Town Trustees unanimously approved signing on to the joint proposal submitted two weeks ago by Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy to the New York State Public Service Commission in support of the proposed South Fork Wind farm, to be situated approximate-ly 35 miles off Montauk Point.

Before the vote during their virtual meeting on Monday, the trustees, in consultation with outside counsel retained for navigating their role in the wind farm proposal, emphasized that the approval they were codifying supports “only those provisions that address the public need for the project and the construction, operation, maintenance, repair, and decommissioning of those portions of the project that are proposed to be located within” trustee jurisdiction, specifically the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott, where the developers intend to land the wind farm’s export cable.

By signing on to the joint proposal, which details elements of the project from construction to its decommissioning 25 years later, the trustees are not addressing issues such as the wind farm’s impact on utility rates, for example, said Daniel Spitzer of Hodgson Russ L.L.C., counsel to the trustees. “You’re not offering an opinion that New York State needs this particular wind farm,” he said. That determination, rather, is the role of the Public Service Commission, which in order for the project to proceed must issue a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need under Article VII of the Public Service Law.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

NJ legislators call to suspend offshore wind approval

September 16, 2020 — A trio of New Jersey legislators who have promoted offshore wind energy development have called for suspending state approval of Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project, alleging the company has so far “failed to deliver” on its promises of new jobs and economic development in the state.

In a Sept. 9 letter to state utility regulators, New Jersey state Senate president Steve Sweeney and Assembly members John Burzichelli and Adam Taliaferro, all Democrats with strong ties to construction and industrial union labor, cited pledges by Ørsted to hire all union labor, provide grants to spur business owned by minorities and women, and build monopile foundations in the state.

“We are starting to speak with our colleagues throughout the Northeast about their experiences with wind energy companies, including Ørsted,” they state in the letter. “We are asking if these companies, including Ørsted, have made the same representations in other states and have equally failed to deliver.”

The state Board of Public Utilities, which in June 2019 approved use of renewable energy credits for the Ocean Wind project, should ask regulators in other states if wind developers’ economic guarantees have borne fruit yet, say the legislators, who sponsored a 2010 law requiring that wind developers provide certain economic benefits to the New Jersey economy.

“If these concerns are validated, we request that you terminate the award and immediately commence a new and more transparent process for offshore wind project applicants,” they wrote. “This is of the utmost importance given the significant amount of public money being utilized to fund this project.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

RHODE ISLAND: Ratepayers On Hook for Portion of Block Island Wind Farm Cable Mess

September 15, 2020 — National Grid and Deepwater Wind, now Ørsted, were given a break by Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) when the agency granted the use of a cost-saving method for burying the Block Island Wind Farm power cables at a New Shoreham beach. Both companies now likely regret that decision.

National Grid, which owns the high-voltage power line from Block Island to Narragansett, expects to pay $30 million for its share of the reconstruction, which will require horizontal directional drilling. The state’s primary electric utility will recover the expense through an undetermined surcharge on ratepayers’ bills.

“While exact bill impacts won’t be available for some time, we don’t anticipate major fluctuations to those charges with these needed repairs,” National Grid spokesperson Ted Kresse said.

The power line from the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm reaches shore at Fred Benson Town Beach and leaves New Shoreham for Narragansett at Crescent Beach to the north. But keeping portions of the cable buried at Crescent Beach has been a struggle.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Here’s What 99 Wind Turbines Will Look Like Off the Jersey Shore

September 3, 2020 — Massive turbines, with blades as long as football fields, will one day spin in the Atlantic Ocean off the Jersey Shore.

The first wind farm off New Jersey is expected to begin generating clean energy by 2024, according to Ørsted, the Danish company that received New Jersey’s initial permit for an 1,100-megawatt project last year. It will generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

The company has released a first look at what the farm’s 99 turbines will look like from the beaches of Atlantic City and Stone Harbor once they are up and running. The “virtual reality tour” also provides a view from one of the turbines, which will be roughly 15 miles out to sea and in an area off southern New Jersey between Cape May and Atlantic City.

Read the full story at NBC 4

Ørsted Establishes Virtual Port Access Hours for Mid-Atlantic Fishing Community

July 23, 2020 — With traditional face-to-face meetings and individual forms of contact reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind has been offering virtual port hours to answer questions and field comments from the recreational and commercial fishing community about the company’s offshore wind projects in the Mid-Atlantic region.

According to a release, interested parties may reach a member of the Ørsted marine affairs team by calling 1 (213) 458-8466 ID: 5690795#, on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. 

Ørsted has assembled the largest and most proactive marine affairs team of any offshore wind developer in the U.S. The company seeks to minimize disruption of fishing activities during all phases of development while focusing on access and safe navigation for vessels during wind farm operations.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

Wind temporarily taken out of Ørsted project’s sails

June 17, 2020 — The $720 million Skipjack Wind Farm, the center of the controversy for a deal to make landfall at Fenwick Island State Park, has been pushed back until 2023.

Ørsted, the Danish company developing the wind farm, announced the project is moving at a slower pace due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) prolonging its study on the impact of offshore wind buildouts. In turn, that delays the Notice of Intent, a milestone toward receiving final approval.

“Our projects are moving forward, although at a slower pace than originally expected … it is no longer realistic to receive the Notice of Intent from BOEM in due time to meet the commissioning date in late 2022,” Henrik Poulsen, Ørsted president and CEO, said in an April earnings call.

The Skipjack project, proposed to be 19 miles off the Maryland-Delaware coast, would include 12 megawatt turbines about 800 feet tall. It would generate enough electricity for 35,000 homes in the Delmarva region.

Read the full story at the Delaware Business Times

Coast Guard backs wind industry on turbine layout

June 1, 2020 — The offshore wind power industry cleared one of its last remaining bureaucratic hurdles Wednesday with the release of a long-awaited report from the Coast Guard that essentially agrees with an industry proposal on turbine layout.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study has concluded that turbines should be spaced 1.2 miles apart and oriented in the same direction across seven offshore wind lease areas totaling around 1,400 square miles south of Nantucket.

Concerned with vessel safety and the ability to maneuver while fishing, some fishermen and industry groups sought larger lanes, as wide as 4 miles, to transit to fishing grounds, but the five wind power companies holding the leases said that would force them to crowd turbines outside the travel lanes, making it less safe to navigate and fish.

The offshore wind leaseholders — Equinor, Mayflower Wind, Orsted/Eversource and Vineyard Wind — had been concerned that some of the layouts proposed by other stakeholders could reduce the number of turbines and power generation. The increasing efficiency and power capacity of newer turbines have alleviated some of that concern.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

A ‘monumental day’ for US offshore wind as first turbine is installed in federal waters

May 28, 2020 — Thomas Brostrøm, President of Ørsted North America announced on LinkedIn that the first offshore wind turbine was installed in U.S. federal waters on Tuesday, May 26. He called it a “monumental day for the U.S. offshore wind industry.”

The Siemens Gamesa 6-MW turbine was installed 27 miles offshore near Virginia and is one of two turbines that will make up the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, a pilot project being developed by Ørsted and Dominion Energy.

The project is also noteworthy because it is the first to receive approval for the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM), which is the agency that oversees energy projects in federal waters. The only other U.S. offshore wind project, known as the Block Island Wind Farm, is located in state waters of Rhode Island and didn’t need approval from BOEM.

Read the full story at Renewable Energy World

NEW JERSEY: Wind Farm Surveying Begins Again Off South Jersey Coast

May 7, 2020 — Surveying ships are beginning operations in a massive area of the Atlantic Ocean miles off the New Jersey coast as a leading bidder for the state’s second wind farm ramps up work again.

Two vessels began May 1 exploring “potential export cable route corridors towards Atlantic City” from a 183,000-square mile section of the ocean leased by Atlantic Shores LLC. The company is a joint venture between Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables US.

Another off-shore wind project, led by Danish clean energy giant Ørsted, received the first approval from New Jersey and the federal government last summer to move ahead with a wind farm. It will be built about 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and Cape May.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia