Saving Seafood

New Jersey collecting $26 million in wind fees for research

January 7, 2022 — New Jersey utility regulators will collect more than $26 million in fees from offshore wind energy developers to fund research and monitoring – an assessment of $10,000 per megawatt of capacity.

The state Board of Public Utilities in mid-December approved memoranda of understanding with developers Ørsted, the Shell New Energies US/EDF Renewables North America joint venture Atlantic Shores, and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Under the agreements the DEP will administer use of the funds collected by the BPU as part of its approvals in June 2021 for the second and third wind projects now planned foff New Jersey: The 1,509 MW Atlantic Shores array off Long Beach Island and the Ørsted 1,148 MW Ocean Wind 2 project to the south off Atlantic City.

Together the developers will kick in $26,576,000 according to BPU documents.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

NJ to Receive $26 Million from Offshore Wind Developers to Pay for Ocean Research

December 17, 2021 — More than $26 million in fees paid for by developers of New Jersey’s offshore wind farms will go to the state in an agreement approved this week, and officials say the money will pay for research and monitoring of hundreds of turbines to be erected in the years ahead.

New Jersey will also soon join a multi-state organization that jointly researches the effects of the nascent offshore wind industry along the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard, according to a memorandum of understanding by the state’s Board of Public Utilities.

Both agreements approved Wednesday are the newest steps in New Jersey’s long path toward allowing construction of several wind farms miles off the coast, which eventually will provide 7,500 megawatts of renewable energy by 2035.

In June, the BPU approved the state’s second and third wind farm projects: a 110-turbine, 1,509-megawatt wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine, 1,148-megawatt farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

With federal approval of South Fork wind farm, construction could begin early next year

November 29, 2021 — A second major offshore wind farm near the Rhode Island coast has won federal approval.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week approved construction and operation of the South Fork Wind Farm, a 132-megawatt project proposed in a stretch of Rhode Island Sound between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard.

The project being planned by Danish company Ørsted and utility Eversource is only the second commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the nation to secure approval from the federal government.

The first, Vineyard Wind, received a record of decision in May and marked its groundbreaking a week ago in Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt project is being built in an area south of Nantucket, further off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts than the South Fork proposal.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

Ocean City Residents, Officials Air Concerns About Offshore Wind

November 9, 2021 — The proposed offshore wind project along New Jersey’s southern coast drew a mix of support and opposition from residents and officials during an open house in Ocean City on Saturday morning.

The Danish energy company, Ørsted, plans to construct 99 wind turbines about 15 miles off the coast from Atlantic City to Cape May. Ørsted expects the wind farm to be operational by 2024 and capable of powering half a million homes.

The wind project is part of New Jersey’s goal of achieving 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050.

A panel of Ørsted representatives fielded questions on Saturday about the wind farm’s potential impact on Cape May County’s tourism and the commercial fishing industry during a nearly three-hour forum.

“We believe in coexistence with a wide range of industries. We think that we can all productively exist,” said Maddy Urbish, Ørsted’s head of Government Affairs & Policy for New Jersey. “When it comes to tourism, Ocean Wind, PSEG and Ørsted — we really want to be good community partners.” Urbish noted that in previous projects, Ørsted has not seen an impact on tourism.

Read the full story at Patch.com

 

NEW JERSEY: Ørsted To Address Offshore Wind Farm Concerns In Ocean City

October 15, 2021 — A planned offshore wind farm off New Jersey’s southern coast will be the topic of discussion during a town hall meeting on Nov. 6 at the Ocean City Music Pier.

Ørsted plans to construct 99 wind turbines about 15 miles off the coast from Atlantic City to Cape May. Ørsted expects the wind farm to be operational by 2024, and capable of powering half a million homes.

The wind farm has drawn opposition from several southern coastal communities, citing environmental concern for marine life and its impact on fishing and tourism industries.

Ørsted’s open house will update residents of Ocean City and other communities on the status of the offshore wind farm. Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the program beginning at 10 a.m. and running until approximately 1 p.m.

Read the full story at Patch

 

New York Wind Farm Parts Will Be Built on Hudson, Float to Sea

October 12, 2021 — Orsted A/S and Eversource Energy, the companies building a big wind farm off the Long Island coast, are teaming up with construction firm Riggs Distler & Co. to build turbine parts near Albany and then float them down the Hudson River.

The companies signed an $86 million supply contract for construction of turbine components at the port in Coeymans, New York, about 140 miles north of New York City, according to a statement from Governor Kathy Hochul’s office.

The Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm is slated to generate about 924 megawatts of electricity, enough to power almost 600,000 homes, and will be located about 30 miles east of Montauk on Long Island. It’s scheduled to start generating power in 2025.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Apollo-Backed US Wind Seeks Approval for Turbines off Maryland

August 4, 2021 — US Wind Inc. has submitted a bid to Maryland regulators to build a massive wind farm off the state’s shoreline, the latest proposal for such projects off the East Coast and a potential step closer to the Biden administration’s goal of eliminating carbon emissions from power plants.

The Momentum Wind farm would include up to 82 turbines producing about 1.2 gigawatts of power at full capacity, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Baltimore, Maryland-based US Wind also plans a steel-fabrication facility near the port city to build the foundations for its offshore turbines.

State regulators are also weighing a competing bid from Denmark’s Orsted AS, the world’s biggest offshore wind power developer. Officials could award permission to build the entire 1,200 megawatts to one company or split the approval between them. Both are already building smaller projects in the area.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind opponents host energy contrarian Michael Shellenberger

July 27, 2021 — The Biden administration and coastal state governments are banking intensely on offshore wind energy as the long-term solution to reducing carbon emissions and solving the problems of siting new power facilities on shore.

Michael Shellenberger says it’s time to go back to the land – and nuclear power.

“If you really care about climate change, we’d be doing more nuclear power,” said Shellenberger, a longtime environmental writer and founder of the nonprofit think tank Environment Progress, at a July 15 speaking event hosted by opponents of offshore wind with the Save Our Shoreline group in Ocean City, N.J.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy last week signed legislation to quash Ocean City officials’ intent to block power cables coming ashore from Ørsted’s planned Ocean Wind project. Murphy and powerful Democratic leaders in the state Legislature who advocate developing that and other turbine arrays say they won’t allow local governments to derail the state’s renewable energy goals.

Shellenberger said New Jersey and other states already have options at hand to reduce carbon emissions – by maintaining and redeveloping power plants from the heyday of the U.S. nuclear industry.

“Wind uses significantly more” concrete and steel than building natural gas and nuclear power stations, Shellenberger told a receptive audience of about 150 in the Ocean City Music Pier.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

N.J. Amps Up Wind Fight, Overriding Beach Towns Balking at Farms

July 23, 2021 — Offshore wind farm developers are finding one more thing in common with the fossil fuel industry: community backlash on both sides of the Atlantic.

Much like the resistance to fracking in parts of the U.S. and the U.K., oceanfront towns have fought against power lines running ashore from wind farms, even as the massive turbines themselves are mostly out of sight. In a dramatic move Thursday, New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that strips coastal communities of the right to block buried power lines for projects like Orsted A/S’s Ocean Wind 1 off the state’s coast.

The willingness to squash local opposition highlights one of the dilemmas faced by nations that are aggressively pushing to fight climate change: How to build big clean-power projects quickly when dealing with not-in-my-backyard sentiment. Denmark’s Orsted has repeatedly come across backlash against its wind farms, as have General Electric Co., France’s Alstom SA, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and Sweden’s Vattenfall AB.

“We’re not going to let NIMBYism shut this down,” said state Senator Stephen Sweeney, a sponsor of the legislation and New Jersey’s highest-ranking lawmaker. He added that some residents of Ocean City, a hotbed of opposition in the state, told him they could kill offshore wind. “Ocean City doesn’t get to make the decision for the entire state of New Jersey on a policy initiative. They just don’t.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg

DELAWARE: A much bigger wind farm could be coming to the Delmarva coast

July 21, 2021 — The company developing a wind farm off the coast of southern Delaware and Maryland is hoping to start a second one. It could be several times the size of the first.

Ørsted’s 120-megawatt Skipjack wind farm under development off the Delmarva coast is not expected to come online for another 5 years. But the Danish renewable energy company has already submitted a bid to the Maryland Public Service Commission to build Skipjack Wind 2. At 760 megawatts, more than six times the size of Skipjack 1, the proposed Skipjack Wind 2 could power up to 250,000 homes on the peninsula.

The renewable energy credits from both projects would go to Maryland. But Ørsted’s Mid-Atlantic Market Manager Brady Walker said at a virtual open house Monday Delaware will still benefit—from things like a “supplier day” the company hosted in Bethany beach.

“That’s a great example of, whether it’s a small business or someone that wants to be employed or get otherwise involved in the industry, where you can come and meet our prime contractors and find out how you can bid for business and become part of the industry,” he said.

At this point, Skipjack 2 is just a proposal. Walker told members of the public that its size is not set in stone.

Read the full story at DPM