Saving Seafood

Orsted expects delays in South Fork offshore wind farm

April 30, 2020 — The South Fork offshore wind farm will “very likely” be delayed beyond its planned 2022 completion date, according to a top official for project developer Orsted, who cited a “prolonged” federal review of U.S. wind projects and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Denmark-based Orsted’s U.S. offshore wind projects were still advancing, said chief executive Henrik Poulsen in comments with the release of Orsted’s first quarter financial report, but at a “slower pace” than planned. He cited the South Fork wind farm as one of two projects that were the “most exposed to the risk of delays.”

A second project by Orsted known as the Skipjack wind farm off the coast of Maryland also will likely be delayed by about a year from its originally 2022 completion date, Poulsen said.

There are also “increased risks of delay” for another New York project known as Sunrise Wind, intended to connect to the Long Island grid in 2024, Poulsen said, as well two other East Coast projects. Sunrise Wind, awarded by New York State with a capacity of some 880 megawatts, has been hampered by an inability to complete offshore site surveys by vessels because of COVID-19 restrictions, Poulsen said. The company expects to have “more clarity” on whether the projects will meet 2023-24 completion dates “after summer,” Poulsen said.

Read the full story at Newsday

Geophysical survey underway at Virginia offshore wind site

April 28, 2020 — A pair of offshore service vessels from the Gulf of Mexico are at work off Virginia, conducting geophysical studies on a 112,800-acre federal lease where Dominion Energy and offshore wind developer Ørsted plan to build a 2,600-megawatt turbine array beginning in 2024.

Geospatial surveyors TerraSond contracted with Houma, La.-based Bordelon Marine to use the Sarah Bordelon and the Marcelle Bordelon, both 170’x36’x10’, 440.9 dwt, to start the work in mid-April in the lease area, 27 miles east of Virginia Beach.

“These surveys will provide the company with the geological, biological, and oceanographic data needed to support planning and construction in a manner that facilitates coexistence between the natural marine ecosystem and clean energy development,” Dominion Energy said in a statement issued April 27. “Ultimately, this data will support preparation of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan to be submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) later this year.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Offshore wind turbines headed to Virginia; New Jersey launches ‘WIND Institute’

April 24, 2020 — Components for the first two offshore wind energy turbines to be installed in U.S. federal waters departed from Denmark, bound for Nova Scotia and ultimately installation off Virginia, project backers said April 21.

The pair of 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa will be assembled by Dominion Energy and wind developer Ørsted for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), a pilot project 27 miles offshore for what is planned to become a much larger array on a federal lease east of Virginia Beach.

The foundations, consisting of the turbines’ monopiles, transition pieces and anode cages fabricated by metals manufacturer EEW SPC, were loaded at Rostock, Germany onto the Bigroll Beaufort, a 568-foot Netherlands-flagged flat deck cargo ship. Turbine components were loaded at Esbjerg, Denmark, before the vessel embarked in mid-April. Arrival is expected around April 25 in Halifax, according to commercial vessel tracking services.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA fish study underway on New England offshore wind area

March 12, 2020 — A three-year study of cod and other commercial fish species is underway around New England offshore wind energy sites, part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration effort to better understand how proposed turbine arrays will affect the environment and fisheries.

With universities and other partners, the agency’s National Marine Fisheries Service in December deployed a Slocum electric glider, a type of autonomous underwater vehicle that has proven highly successful in long-term oceanographic studies.

The glider’s instrument payload includes a hydrophone to detect the sounds of whales and of fish spawning, and an acoustic telemetry receiver to pick up signals from fish that have been captured and released with acoustic tags to track their movements.

Now surveying the area around Cox’s Ledge, the glider is covering an area that includes wind developer Ørsted’s planned South Fork wind energy area south of Rhode Island and east of Montauk, N.Y.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

RHODE ISLAND: Offshore Wind Takes Shape at Providence Innovation Hub

March 4, 2020 — A new glass-and-steel office space is less about the number jobs or the company that will occupy it and more about the industry taking root there.

Seven co-working desks at the Wexford Innovation Center on Dyer Street in the Jewelry District will soon be used by Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind. The Danish company is joining seven other wind-related companies already there. And judging by the 200 or so attendees at the March 2 office opening, a nascent industry is on the verge of rapid growth.

“This is a brand-new industry and it’s being born right here in the state of Rhode Island. It’s unbelievable,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said.

Twenty-two gigawatts of wind facilities are planned for federal waters between Maine and North Carolina, and undoubtedly a lot of engineers, tradespeople, boatbuilders, and more will be needed to get the turbines built and spinning.

Other port cities such as Boston, where Ørsted has its co-headquarters, New Bedford, Mass., and Norfolk, Va., are vying for the title of U.S. capital of offshore wind. But these is little doubt that Providence is part of the emerging blue economy. Ørsted, which bought Deepwater Wind in 2018, is still using its original downtown office on Exchange Terrace, where it has already doubled its staff from 30 to 60. More will work at the innovation hub on Dyer Street, where employees from Denmark and other offices will hold meetings with offshore wind entrepreneurs.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Wind-power developer opens 2nd R.I. office

March 3, 2020 — The construction of more offshore wind farms on the East Coast is on hold as federal regulators reconsider their impacts, but that hasn’t deterred the leading developer in the global industry from opening its second office in Providence.

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind’s new innovation hub is small, with only two full-time staff members and space for seven other employees of the Danish parent company to cycle through, but Orsted executives say its presence reflects confidence in the future of the American market.

“We are still pretty optimistic,” Thomas Brostrom, president of Orsted’s operations in North America, said in an interview. “We are getting anxious to move on, but nothing to make our hands shake.”

He spoke outside the new office in the Wexford Innovation Center on Monday before the official opening of the work space. In a demonstration of the importance of Orsted to the growth of Rhode Island’s “blue economy” — commercial activities centered around the ocean — Gov. Gina Raimondo joined Brostrom and others at the event.

Offshore wind alone could generate 20,000 supply-chain jobs along the Atlantic coast, said Raimondo, citing one recent report.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

NEW JERSEY: Cape May County Looks to “Co-Exist” With Wind Farm

February 26, 2020 — With the prospect of 90 turbines sitting a mile apart 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City in a wind farm project slated for 2024, a public forum Tuesday laid out some concerns about the possible impacts on tourism, the environment and the fishing industry.

The program, hosted by the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, was held at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City.

Speakers, including Joseph Fiordaliso, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Cape May County Chamber officials, County Tourism Director Diane Wieland and fishing industry experts, heard from Orsted, the company building the wind farm.

Among the dignitaries in attendance at the standing-room-only event was former Gov. Jim Florio, who did not speak about the project.

The project is touted by Orsted, which has built 26 other wind farms, as one that would supply clean renewable energy, power more than half a million New Jersey homes and create thousands of jobs.

Read the full story at the O.C. N.J. Daily

Block Island Wind Farm to go offline in fall to rebury cable

February 10, 2020 — The electric cables for the Block Island Wind Farm were supposed to be buried in trenches at least four feet below the seabed, but workers couldn’t get down as far as they wanted, and over the last four years waves have exposed portions of the transmission lines that run to and from a beach on the island.

Now, Orsted, the Danish company that owns the five-turbine offshore wind farm that is the first in the nation, plans to rebury one of the two cables starting in the fall. Orsted, which has offices in Boston and Providence, says it should be able to do all the work at Crescent Beach in the off-season and wrap up the project by Memorial Day in 2021.

But for an indeterminate amount of time during construction, the 30-megawatt wind farm, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, will have to go offline.

Orsted says it will be “solely responsible for paying for this work,” according to a statement from the company.

“Ratepayers will not bear any of these costs,” the company said.

It would not disclose the project’s price tag.

Orsted’s cable runs from the wind farm to the island. The second cable, which connects the island to the mainland electric grid, is owned by National Grid, the main electric utility in Rhode Island. National Grid is also working on plans to rebury its cable, which is expected to happen around the same time, but the company has yet to release details to the public.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Offshore Wind to Fund New Study of Right Whales

January 28, 2020 — Ørsted is funding a project to study and protect endangered North Atlantic right whale during surveys, construction, and operation of its U.S. offshore wind facilities such as Bay State Wind and Revolution Wind.

Using data collected from an aerial, unmanned glider and two sound-detection buoys, researchers from the University of Rhode Island, Rutgers University, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will examine the habitat and behaviors of right whales in the wind-lease areas awarded to Ørsted.

An estimated 400 North Atlantic right whales remain, fewer than 100 are breeding females.

The oceanographic data will help studies of additional fish species and improve forecasting for severe storms and other weather, according to Ørsted. The three-year initiative is called Ecosystem and Passive Acoustic Monitoring (ECO-PAM).

Read the full story at EcoRI

Ørsted to Brief Atlantic City Residents on New Jersey’s First OWF

January 27, 2020 — Danish offshore wind farm company Ørsted is set to host an open house in the first week of February to update Atlantic City residents on the progress of Ocean Wind, New Jersey’s first offshore wind project.

Ørsted was in June 2019 selected as preferred bidder for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm, to be located 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. Construction is expected to start in the early 2020s, with the wind farm operational in 2024.

Ørsted, formerly known as Dong Energy, will host the open house for Atlantic City residents on Thursday, February 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Avalon Conference Center at The Claridge Hotel, located at 123 S. Indiana Avenue, Atlantic City. Free, validated parking will be available in The Claridge’s parking garage, the company said. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

Read the full story at Offshore Engineer