Saving Seafood

Orsted, Eversource Propose New York Offshore Wind Project

January 27, 2023 — Ørsted and Eversource have submitted a joint proposal in response to New York State’s third round of offshore wind solicitations. Together, Ørsted and Eversource are building South Fork Wind, New York’s first offshore wind farm, which broke ground early last year and will be operational with 130 MW in 2023, and Sunrise Wind, a 924 MW project that will deliver clean energy to New York in late 2025.

In July 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced New York’s third competitive offshore wind solicitation for a minimum of 2,000 MW of offshore wind, which will power at least 1.5 million additional New York homes with clean, affordable energy. This third solicitation marks additional progress toward achieving New York State’s Climate Act mandate to secure 70% of the State’s electricity from renewable energy by 2030 and at least 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035.

Read the full story at North American Windpower

Unexploded bomb discovery flags growing challenge for offshore wind

July 27, 2022 — The first large offshore wind farms in the United States are unearthing unexploded munitions from World War II, representing a potentially growing challenge for both developers and U.S. policymakers as the emerging industry anchors off America’s coasts.

While surveying the seafloor in the waters of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay in recent weeks, the Danish firm Ørsted found 11 unexploded weapons, prompting a warning to mariners by the Coast Guard.

“They range from 6-inch artillery shells to a 250-pound bomb,” said Ryan Ferguson, a spokesperson for Ørsted.

Reported to federal agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and NOAA, as well as the U.S. military branches that operate offshore, the discoveries will add to an existing map of unexploded munitions up and down the Atlantic seaboard.

Known sites range from nearby hotbeds like Massachusetts’ Nomans Land island — once used by the Navy for target practice — to dumping grounds where the United States disposed of its post-war mountains of munitions after World War II. But other uncharted sites may exist, where sea and sand have moved historic hazards or unethical shippers dumped them outside established locations.

The Department of Defense in general has advised a leave-in-place policy, noting that objects have often become part of the marine ecosystem and that removal can cause harm.

Read the full article at E&E News

Simulator Helps Researchers Envision Commercial Offshore Wind Farm In Maryland

June 29, 2022 — It won’t be long before offshore wind is powering homes in Maryland, but with so few examples of completed wind farms in the United States, it’s hard to fully imagine what a completed project will look like. 

That’s why Ørsted, a Danish power company, and the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Linthicum Heights teamed up to create the Mid-Atlantic’s first offshore wind farm simulator, bringing these massive projects to life. 

“This is a brand-new industry here in the United States, said Brady Walker, Ørsted’s Head of Government Relations for Maryland and Delaware, “There is not a commercial-scale wind farm in operation here right now. “ 

That will soon change, as companies like Ørsted continue to develop projects in our own backyard. Skipjack Wind, off the coast of Delaware and Maryland, will generate enough clean renewable energy to power about 300,000 homes and businesses on the Delmarva peninsula. 

“For Maryland’s first offshore wind farm – a really impactful commercial utility-scale offshore wind farm,” Walker said.

Read the full story at CBS Baltimore

 

New York wind developers, environmental groups sign agreement on right whales

June 28, 2022 — Offshore wind developers Ørsted and Eversource say they have struck an agreement with environmental groups to improve protection of endangered north Atlantic right whales during construction and operation of the South Fork Wind project.

The companies say they will adopt monitoring measures to make sure right whales are not nearby during construction activity, and use mitigation steps to reduce underwater noise during pile driving.

They will also evaluate other new monitoring technologies, including thermal cameras, acoustic sensors, and data integration software. Developers say the findings from South Fork will be used in future projects.

A 10-knot vessel speed limit will be in place for all boats working on the project, “unless an effective adaptive speed management plan is in place,” according to the developers.

Such 10-knot limits are commonly sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service when its monitoring detects right whale movements off the East Coast, triggering announcements of special management areas to reduce the danger of ship strikes. Accidental encounters in the shipping lanes are a major cause of death for right whales, now estimated to number only around 340 animals.

NMFS whale monitoring has shown substantial overlap between right whale movements and offshore wind development areas off southern New England.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New England wind farm, environmentalists agree on ways to protect whales

June 27, 2022 — The developers of an offshore wind farm and three environmental organizations announced Monday that they have reached an agreement to further protect rare North Atlantic right whales during construction and operation of the energy-generating project.

The agreement involving Orsted and Eversource — developers of South Fork Wind off the coast of New England and New York — was signed by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Conservation Law Foundation, the groups said in a joint statement.

The agreement promotes the development of sustainable energy while protecting wildlife, said Alison Chase, a senior policy analyst at the NRDC.

“We don’t need to choose between clean energy development and wildlife protection, and this agreement shows how we can do both,” she said.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Proposed N.J. wind farm could have major impact on area fisheries, draft report says

June 20, 2022 — A proposed wind farm off the Jersey Shore could significantly affect local fisheries and boat traffic but generally have little impact on tourism and marine life while helping to move away from oil and gas, according to the draft environmental impact statement released Friday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The impact statement is the next step toward winning federal approval for Ocean Wind, a wind farm to be built by the Danish energy company Ørsted and PSEG.

The draft statement addressed concerns by officials in some New Jersey beach towns that the turbines would spoil the ocean views and discourage tourists from returning.

It said the impact of the wind farm would be moderate on tourism due to noise from construction and the new structures, but that the wind turbines could attract tourists eager to see them.

The impact on cultural artifacts could be significant as “the introduction of intrusive visual elements” could “alter character-defining ocean views of historic properties onshore” and work on the ocean floor could disturb shipwrecks or submerged archaeological sites, the statement said.

And the significant impacts on fisheries could be attributed to ongoing regulations, climate change and the disruptions to operations by the construction and installation of the turbines, the report said. Some fishing vessels would decide to avoid the area altogether.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Orsted, Eversource Host N.Y. Supply Chain Forum to Partner with Local Businesses

June 10, 2022 — Ørsted and Eversource are hosting an offshore wind supply chain forum in Albany to help New York businesses connect with Tier 1 suppliers on potential job opportunities at Sunrise Wind Farm. This the first New York forum of its kind to feature a large project supplier sharing details on opportunities for supporting vendors and subcontractors to work on the project.

The June 14 forum from 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. is the first of three that Ørsted and Eversource will host in New York; it aims to match New York businesses with near-term opportunities in the offshore wind supply chain. Eversource Energy, Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Inc., Riggs Distler, Ljungstrom, Carver Companies, Blue Ocean Energy Marine, Edison Chouest Offshore, Nexans, HeliService International, ATOS and LS Cable are scheduled to attend.

Read the full story at North American Windpower

Plans for Delaware, Maryland offshore wind projects questioned at forum

May 23, 2022 — Signs of support for offshore wind power abounded outside of Indian River High School Friday.

Inside, it was just the opposite.

Waves of skepticism and opposition followed presentations by representatives of US Wind and Ørsted, two companies that have obtained leases for proposed offshore wind projects in federal waters off the Delaware/Maryland coast.

Topics of concerns included detrimental impact on marine and migratory bird life, the local fishing industry and numerous natural resources, as well as marine safety and unobstructed viewshed.

The fishing industry – recreational and commercial – would take a huge hit, says Meghan Lapp, a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd. in Rhode Island. She addressed the panel and audience by Zoom.

“What you are looking for in wind farms from a commercial fishing perspective is essentially a complete loss of fishable areas for the next 30 years, which is going to be the career and the lifetime of the fishermen that are out there right now,” Ms. Lapp said.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, New York, said sonar from site surveying and electromagnetic frequency through cables will result in long-term migratory changes that will have a detrimental impact on marine life, including several endangered species of whales.

“It will change the ecosystem of the area,” Ms. Brady said.

Read the full story at Delaware State News

N.J. offshore wind developer faces fishing industry opposition

May 16, 2022 — New Jersey offshore wind developer Orsted recently inked a deal to use all union labor for its projects along the East Coast.

Biden Administration officials helped broker the agreement between Orsted and North America’s Building Trades Unions, as part of its goal to generate 30 gigawatts of wind energy by 2030, while simultaneously developing green energy jobs.

Opposition by fishing industry

The group Ocean City Flooding opposes Orsted’s project off the coast of South Jersey and says the labor deal doesn’t take into account potential job losses in the fisheries industry.

“We support jobs for Americans, however, it should be noted that here in Cape May County Orsted has not committed to one job and in fact there will be a loss of jobs in the commercial fishing industry at the Cape May/Wildwood port,” said Suzanne Hornick, one of the group’s founders.

She says while the deal focuses on labor, other issues remain such as threats to marine life, migrating birds, the endangered Atlantic right whale, along with potential rate hikes and declining property values.

Read the full story at the Allegheny Front

New York: Wind Farm Study Moorings Anger Fishermen

May 6, 2022 — Fishermen on the South Fork are angered by the placement in August of several dozen 500-pound concrete blocks on the ocean floor off Wainscott, moorings for the telemetry devices in use for the South Fork Wind Fisheries Study Work Plan that was a condition for the East Hampton Town Trustees’ lease agreement allowing the South Fork Wind farm’s transmission cable to make landfall on a beach under their jurisdiction.

Researchers with Stony Brook University who are conducting the five-year study required of the wind farm’s developers are at present on a regular visit to the sensor array to collect data, replace batteries, and deploy new, smaller, and retrievable moorings alongside the existing 500-pound blocks. A spokeswoman for the developers, Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy, said on Tuesday that the original moorings will be removed.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, criticized the deployment of the concrete blocks on the sea floor where dozens of boats fish. She described the area as “a really busy squid, fluke, all-of-it area,” she said on Monday. “Why would academia treat fishermen so poorly when they’ve got a body of knowledge academics can’t begin to?” For trawl fishermen, the concrete blocks are a hazard, Ms. Brady said.

Read the full story at the East Hampton Star