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RHODE ISLAND: R.I. offshore wind proponents optimistic despite SouthCoast financing troubles

June 12, 2023 — A second Massachusetts wind farm developer has hit economic headwinds and decided to renege on its contracts. Could Rhode Island’s projects be next to fall?

State officials and offshore wind proponents say no.

Instead, they have brushed off the news that Massachusetts wind farm developer Southcoast Wind Energy LLC (formerly known as Mayflower Wind) wants to scrap its agreements to sell 1,200 megawatts of electricity to the Commonwealth amid rising project costs.

“It’s just part of the regular business cycle we’re dealing with,” said Patrick Crowley, a union organizer and co-chairman of Climate Jobs Rhode Island. “Construction projects are always trying to negotiate their contracts. It’s just part of the business.”

Indeed, the SouthCoast Wind farm – a joint venture by Shell and Spanish company Ocean Wind –  is hardly the only development project hurt by inflationary cost hikes and supply chain slowdowns. Another Massachusetts wind farm developer, Avangrid Renewables, ended its existing contracts with state utility companies for the Commonwealth Wind project in 2022 for similar cost concerns.

For SouthCoast, the payments from utility companies it negotiated in 2019 just don’t work anymore. A third-party analysis shows construction and operation costs have spiked more than 20%, according to Southcoast Wind Energy CEO Francis Slingsby.

“The existing PPAs will not attract the financing necessary to construct the Clean Energy Resource and Project because they are low-priced, have no indexation and thus offer no way to overcome the significant and unforeseen economic challenges,” Slingsby wrote in June 2 testimony to Rhode Island regulators.

Both Southcoast and Avangrid plan to rebid for new power purchase agreements in Massachusetts in the hopes of getting more money from the utility companies.

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current

R.I. fishermen file lawsuit notice over South Fork Wind Farm

May 14, 2023 — A group of Rhode Island fishermen are preparing to sue state and federal agencies and a private wind developer over the construction of a 12-turbine offshore wind farm southeast of Block Island.

Marisa Desautel, an attorney representing the Fisherman’s Advisory Board and individual local fishermen, sent legal notice on Wednesday of her clients’ intentions to sue the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Orsted Offshore North America and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.

The notice, which was shared with Rhode Island Current, alleges that construction work for the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm has not followed the agreed-upon plans, therefore violating federal law governing offshore development. Preliminary work laying the cables that will eventually connect the turbines to the mainland electric grid on Long Island, east of Montauk, started last fall. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

Local fishermen say that Orsted, which is co-developing the project with Eversource Energy LLC, illegally expanded the no-fishing and no-travel zone in Rhode Island Sound around the area where it was laying cables last month. The approved construction and operations plan for the project calls for a 500-meter buffer on either side of the cables, but on April 20, fishermen in the area were told, allegedly by an Orsted vessel, that they needed to stay 1.5 miles away from either side of the cable.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

R.I. fishermen threaten legal action over South Fork wind farm

May 14, 2023 — A group of fishermen in Rhode Island is threatening to sue the state’s coastal agency, the federal government, and developer Ørsted over the under-development of the South Fork wind farm in federal waters off Rhode Island.

The Fishermen’s Advisory Board and the individual fishers it represents said in a letter Wednesday that the deal to approve the South Fork wind farm did not adequately compensate them for their losses. Making matters worse, they say, a fishing vessel working on the project broadcast over a radio channel used for emergency and distress calls in April that nobody was allowed within a mile and a half of either side of recent work to construct the project’s cable.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

RHODE ISLAND: Revolution Wind offshore wind project clears CRMC hurdle. What’s next for the project?

May 11, 2023 — A large offshore wind farm aimed at helping Rhode Island meet its climate goals cleared a major hurdle late Tuesday night when state coastal regulators approved a key certification for the 704-megawatt project.

The vote by the Coastal Resources Management Council moved Revolution Wind one step closer to becoming the third utility-scale offshore wind farm to be cleared for construction in America. Onshore cable work for the 65-turbine project proposed by Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and New England electric supplier Eversource could begin as soon as this summer, when a record of decision is expected from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at the The Providence Journal

Work has started on major offshore wind farm that would power Rhode Island. What to know.

May 2, 2023 — The developers of Rhode Island’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm are still waiting on approvals for the 704-megawatt project, but that’s not stopping them from starting work on pieces of it.

Ørsted and Eversource welcomed Gov. Dan McKee, the Rhode Island congressional delegation and other officials to the Port of Providence on Monday to mark the beginning of fabrication of some of the key components of the towering wind turbines that will be installed in the waters between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard as part of Revolution Wind.

The companies set up shop a year and a half ago in the port, where they built a regional hub that is supplying parts to a host of wind farms planned off southern New England.

‘Jobs of the 21st century’

First up for the facility was the South Fork Wind Farm, a 130-megawatt, 12-turbine array already under construction that will help power Long Island. Now comes Revolution, the 65-turbine project that would deliver energy to Rhode Island and Connecticut. Sunrise Wind, an 880-megawatt proposal to also supply New York, is expected to follow. And, if all goes as planned, a second, even bigger phase of Revolution would come.

It’s all part of a long-term vision to not only generate cleaner sources of power to help meet the nation’s climate goals, but also position Rhode Island as a manufacturing base for offshore wind development.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Grow Blue Partnership offers an action plan to spark growth in R.I.’s blue economy

April 27, 2023 — Last year, Rhode Island’s effort to get a $78 million federal grant to support the blue economy – things like offshore wind power, defense, and aquaculture – came up short.

But a lot of work had gone into applying for it. The University of Rhode Island-led effort was a finalist out of hundreds of applicants, and had gotten a $500,000 federal grant just to apply for the final round. Even after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s department didn’t pick Rhode Island in the end, the people who were involved in applying decided not to take their ball and go home.

The result is now starting to emerge. This week it got a name, and a new report: The Grow Blue Partnership, which released what it’s calling “Rhode Island’s 2030 Blue Economy Action Plan.” (An executive summary of the report is available online and embedded below.)

At its core, the Grow Blue Partnership is an effort to better position the state to get federal money to support the blue economy for initiatives like training the next generation of workers and research ambitions like a full digital replica of Narragansett Bay, called a “Smart Bay.”

“There’s a tremendous amount of federal funding that’s yet to be released,” said Christian Cowan, the executive director of the URI Research Foundation. “We think there’s an opportunity for Rhode Island to leverage that federal funding.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

RHODE ISLAND: 4 hours not enough for vote on Revolution Wind proposal in R.I.

April 25, 2023 — People have a lot to say about the Revolution Wind offshore wind project proposal.

In fact, they have so much to say that even after a four-hour meeting Tuesday night, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council had to adjourn instead of voting on whether the agency should sign off on the proposal. The room in a Department of Administration building in Providence was only available until about 10 p.m., and as the clock neared that hour, the chair of the CRMC asked how many more people wanted to speak. At least a half-dozen hands shot up.

Instead of continuing to push it, the council set a new date: May 9. Public input will pick back up then.

CRMC had heard from the developer, from an advisory board for fishers who are concerned about the project and say more needs to be done to accommodate for the effects on their way of life, and then from members of the public on both sides of the divide before the meeting ended.

Revolution Wind would bring 400 megawatts of power to Rhode Island and 304 to Connecticut, the first utility-scale project to bring power directly to Rhode Island. Though it’s in federal waters, the CRMC has the authority to certify whether the project is consistent with its coastal policies, a crucial part of the regulatory process that will also have to go to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The developers have proposed a nearly $13 million fund to compensate for potential effects on fishers, which could be boosted by as much as $5 million if the effects are worse than thought. If the effects are less than thought, the developer would recoup up to $2.5 million.

Advocates said the proposal is necessary as Rhode Island tries to confront climate change, while the Fishermen’s Advisory Board, an internal panel that advises the CRMC, asked for additional mitigation measures.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

RHODE ISLAND: Fisheries Council recommends allowing more Atlantic menhaden fishing in Bay

April 8, 2023 — The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council voted Monday to recommend allowing commercial fishermen to harvest 50,000 pounds of Atlantic menhaden per vessel per week, despite the Bay possibly being closed to fishing because the population may be below Menhaden Management Area program threshold levels.

The 4-3 vote occurred despite a state Marine Fisheries Division staff recommendation for more study. When the Bay is open under the MMA program, 120,000 pounds/vessel/day are allowed to be harvested.

The MMA program uses ecosystem-based management approaches to ensure there are enough Atlantic menhaden left in the water to serve as food for striped bass, bluefish, tuna, dolphin, whales, osprey and other animals.

Read the full article at The Providence Journal 

Plans to move NOAA hub to Newport are being finalized, Reed says

March 19, 2023 — The federal government is “finalizing plans” to move a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration marine operations center from Virginia to Naval Station Newport, according to US Senator Jack Reed.

Reed said the move from Norfolk, Va., to Newport would mean a $150 million federal investment and 200 jobs in Rhode Island.

“This is a major win for Rhode Island and our Blue Economy that will help NOAA improve mission fulfillment while achieving savings through consolidation and enhancing collaboration with the Navy, URI, the Coast Guard, and leading ocean scientists and marine businesses,” Reed, a Democrat, said in a news release Wednesday touting the development, as well as his role in it.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Ørsted, Eversource propose Revolution Wind 2 project for Rhode Island

March 14, 2023 — Offshore wind partners Ørsted and Eversource submitted a proposal for an 884-megawatt project called Revolution Wind 2 in response to Rhode Island’s newest wind power solicitation, promising “unprecedented investments in port improvements and shipbuilding.”

“Ørsted and Eversource are leading the buildout of a homegrown American offshore wind industry, and Revolution Wind 2 will further advance the state’s leadership position in this growing green jobs sector,” the companies said in announcing their proposal Monday.

Revolution Wind 2 would be a second phase in the developers’ plans for their federal wind energy lease area, on a tract south of the current Revolution Wind project area that starts about 18 miles south of Point Judith, R.I.

With the 2016 installation of five wind turbines off Block Island in 2016, Rhode Island became the first base for the U.S. offshore wind industry. The 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm, built by start-up Deepwater Wind and later acquired by Ørsted, has had its share of troubles, ranging from erosion exposing sea floor cables to turbine outages. But it played a big role in establishing Rhode Island as a base for future utility-scale projects off southern New England.

Read the full article at Workboat