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“Steel in the Water” for Next Two Large U.S. Offshore Wind Farms

May 16, 2024 — Two of the larger offshore wind farms planned for the U.S. East Coast have each gotten underway with their offshore installation. Coming just months after the commissioning of the first commercial-scale U.S. offshore wind farm it is the latest demonstration of the building momentum in the sector after the challenges in 2023.

Located roughly 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast and 32 miles southeast of the Connecticut coast, the Revolution Wind project is adjacent to Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind, America’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm. The project also highlights that it will be the first multi-state offshore wind farm in the United States supplying power to both states.

First steel was achieved for Revolution Wind pounding in the first of the 65 turbine foundations that will hold the turbines. The project is expected to be in operation in 2025. Once in operation, it will generate 400 megawatts of offshore wind power for Rhode Island and 304 megawatts for Connecticut, enough clean energy to power more than 350,000 homes across both states.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Why U.S. Offshore Wind Power is Struggling

May 13, 2024 — America’s first large-scale offshore wind farms began sending power to the Northeast in early 2024, but a wave of wind farm project cancellations and rising costs have left many people with doubts about the industry’s future in the U.S.

Several big hitters, including Ørsted, Equinor, BP and Avangrid, have canceled contracts or sought to renegotiate them in recent months. Pulling out meant the companies faced cancellation penalties ranging from US$16 million to several hundred million dollars per project. It also resulted in Siemens Energy, the world’s largest maker of offshore wind turbines, anticipating financial losses in 2024 of around $2.2 billion.

Altogether, projects that had been canceled by the end of 2023 were expected to total more than 12 gigawatts of power, representing more than half of the capacity in the project pipeline.

So, what happened, and can the U.S. offshore wind industry recover?

I lead UMass Lowell’s Center for Wind Energy Science Technology and Research WindSTAR and Center for Energy Innovation and follow the industry closely. The offshore wind industry’s troubles are complicated, but it’s far from dead in the U.S., and some policy changes may help it find firmer footing.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

Offshore wind sparks new lawsuits

April 18, 2024 — A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and three other federal agencies for an offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island.

Non-partisan, Rhode Island-based Green Oceans has filed the lawsuit, claiming the bureau has broken the law by giving Danish energy company Orsted permits for their South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects.

Dr Lisa Quattrocki Knight, the president and co-founder of Green Oceans, said their lawsuit is about where these wind farms will be located — at Coxes Ledge off the Rhode Island coast.

“It is an incredibly biodiverse marine ecosystem that NOAA designated in November as a habitat of particular concern because it is one of the last remaining spawning grounds for southern New England Cod,” Quattrocki Knight said. “And is a winter foraging region for five endangered whale species. Nothing should ever have been developed on Coxes Ledge and yet they have gone ahead and permitted these two projects.”

Read the full story at WSHU

 

Revolution Wind Facing Legal Turbulence

April 14, 2024 — As Danish Energy developer Ørsted is preparing to start work on its Revolution Wind offshore energy farm, a lawsuit may create problems before construction can get underway for the 65-turbine project that is expected to power homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The agency that granted Ørsted the permit for the project, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is being challenged in federal district court by two Rhode Island non-profits, The Preservation Society of Newport County and The Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, who claim the agency is flouting the law and ignoring the rights of historic organizations as well as indigenous tribes. The nonprofits also claim that the turbines will spoil the uncluttered view of the ocean for residents and tourists and as such threaten their communities’ livelihoods.

In November 2023 the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners filed lawsuits against BOEM for both South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind (appeals one and two), alleging that BOEM ignored the National Historic Preservation Act, which was legislation intended to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the United States. The act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices.

The lawsuits also allege that the BOEM ignored The National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.

Read the full article at CT News Junkie

CONNECTICUT: Ørsted pitches offshore wind project for State Pier in New London

March 28, 2024 — NEW LONDON — Ørsted, the Danish energy company staging offshore wind projects at State Pier, announced Wednesday it has pitched a proposal for its biggest U.S. wind farm to date with New London as its base.

Ørsted submitted a proposal for the 1,184-megawatt Starboard Wind to both Connecticut and Rhode Island as part of a three-state wind solicitation in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island that was due Wednesday.

The Danish wind giant was one of four companies to announce bids in the tri-state solicitation. Avangrid, SouthCoast Wind and Vineyard Offshore also made proposals as part of an auction in which the three states combined could enter power purchase agreements of up to 6,800 megawatts of offshore wind power.

Vineyard Offshore, partnered with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, submitted a proposal to all three states for the 1,200-megawatt Vineyard Wind 2. That project would be located 29 miles south of Nantucket in Massachusetts, and would be staged in Salem, Mass., and have a grid connection in Montville by way of New London, the company said in a statement.

Avangrid, a member of the Iberdrola Group, has two proposals totaling 1,870 megawatts: the 791-megawatt New England Wind 1, formerly known as Bridgeport-based Park City Wind, and the 1,080-megawatt New England Wind 2. Avangrid is spearheading the development of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, which is currently under construction and will deliver power to the Massachusetts grid.

Read the full article at Yahoo! Finance

Strong Interest in NE Wind Solicitation as Ørsted, Avangrid, CIP Bid

March 28, 2024 — Experts are predicting strong participation in the New England regional offshore wind energy solicitation due to close today. Announced in October 2023, the program coordinated the next phase of wind energy projects between Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and was designed to counter some of the pressures that slowed the industry’s progress in 2023.

Where companies including Ørsted were moving to withdraw from projects and canceling power purchase agreements in 2023, the same companies are now aggressively bidding for the next round of projects. Ørsted, Avangrid, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners each announced their entries citing a long list of regional benefits and planned investments.

Reuters was quoting experts saying that other companies were likely to enter bids today. Engie is expected to make a proposal according to Reuters. Both BP and EDP are also in a position to possibly submit proposals. The regional, multi-state solicitation calls for as much as 6.8 GW of wind energy capacity.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Ørsted Greenlights Seventh US Offshore Wind Farm as it Gets BOEM Approval

March 27, 2024 — The U.S. continues to push forward with its efforts to develop renewable offshore wind energy with the Biden administration highlighting that it has approved the seventh offshore wind farm. This comes as the latest in the series of rapid developments as the efforts reach the conclusion of the long permitting process and the administrations seek to add more opportunities into the pipeline.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today issued the Record of Decision for the Sunrise Wind project to provide power to New York State. It is a key hurdle for the project that was first auctioned in 2013. BOEM’s issuance of the Record of Decision formally concludes its National Environmental Policy Act review process and precedes the anticipated approval of Sunrise Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan, expected this summer.

The lease area is located approximately 16.4 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and approximately 26.5 nm east of Montauk, New York. The project calls for a capacity of 924 MW which they report will provide power for the equivalent of 600,000 homes in New York State.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

South Fork Wind’s 12 turbines completed

March 15, 2024 — The last of 12 turbines in the South Fork Wind project 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y., were completed March 14.

South Fork Wind, an array of 12 turbines 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y., became the first fully operational offshore wind energy project in U.S. federal waters on March 14. This milestone for the U.S. industry was one of its earliest and most bitterly fought projects.

With a maximum nameplate rating of 132 megawatts, South Fork Wind was first approved by the Long Island Power Authority in 2017. Partners Ørsted and Eversource began construction in February 2022, and completion was announced Thursday.

“When I broke ground on the South Fork project, I made a promise to build a cleaner, greener future for all New Yorkers,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. With more projects in the pipeline, this is just the beginning of New York’s offshore wind future, and I look forward to continued partnership with the Biden Administration and local leaders to build a clean and resilient energy grid.”

The Hochul administration aims to have 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and recently announced two new project awards, Empire Wind I, and Sunrise Wind, for over 1,730 MW.

Read the full article at Workboat

NEW YORK: New York Completes First Utility-Scale Offshore Wind Farm in the U.S.

March 15, 2024 — Elected officials in New York State joined with industry leaders and Ørsted and its partners to mark the completed construction of South Fork Wind. The 132 MW project is considered to be the United States’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. The offshore work was completed in approximately nine months with 12 turbines and is being hailed as a symbol of what is going to be coming to the U.S. clean energy industry.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate the completion of the South Fork project,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Today is further proof that America’s clean energy transition is not a dream for a distant future – it’s happening right here and now.”

With all 12 of South Fork Wind’s turbines installed, the wind farm is delivering power to the local Long Island electric grid while commissioning is in its final stage. At full capacity, the wind farm, which is located roughly 35 miles off the coast of Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island will generate enough renewable energy to power approximately 70,000 homes and will eliminate up to six million tons of carbon emissions over the 20-year life of the project.?

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

NEW JERSEY: Better days ahead for offshore wind, advocates argue

February 26, 2024 — New Jersey’s offshore wind industry is beginning to see brighter prospects ahead, after stumbling through a series of setbacks over the past several months.

On Halloween, clean-energy advocates were stunned when Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind projects, abruptly walked away from its state-backed plan to build two wind farms off the New Jersey coast.

The decision came after a few brutal months for the offshore wind industry. Dead whales, dolphins and seals washed ashore on beaches. Critics blamed vessels working to prepare sites for offshore-wind installations for their deaths. The pandemic crashed the sector’s supply chain, pushed borrowing costs much higher and sparked the steepest inflation in years. Critics argued the projects were too costly for customers.

Earlier this month, Ørsted announced it was also pulling out of projects in Norway, Portugal and Spain, once again citing supply-chain disruptions and high interest rates.

Read the full article at New Jersey Spotlight News