Saving Seafood

Final approval for South Fork Wind project

January 21, 2022 — The South Fork Wind energy project 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y., won final approval Jan. 19 to begin construction, lining it up to be the second offshore wind turbine array in federal waters.

The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management signed off on the construction and operations plan for South Fork, setting out a 1-nautical mile spacing between a dozen 11-megawatt Siemens-Gamesa turbines and some areas set aside in the federal lease area to preserve bottom habitat for marine species.

Installing monopile foundations and turbines is scheduled for summer 2023. The 132 MW project by developers Ørsted and Eversource is seen as a keystone by New York State energy planners for bringing future power to Long Island – potentially for 70,000 homes by the end of 2023 – as they look to even bigger projects offshore to feed the New York City metro area.

“This milestone underscores the tremendous opportunity we have to create a new industry from the ground up to drive our green energy economy, deliver clean power to millions of homes and create good jobs across the state,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement after the BOEM approval. “As we tackle climate change head on and transition to a clean economy, these are the projects that will power our future.”

BOEM and wind developers continue to face fierce resistance from the Northeast commercial fishing industry. In December the Texas Public Policy Institute filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of fishermen in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, charging that BOEM bypassed requirements for environmental review when it approved the construction and operations plan for Vineyard Wind, the first wind project in federal waters to be built east of the South Fork tract.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

EPA Approves Permit for Wind Farm Off Martha’s Vineyard

January 20, 2022 — The final air quality permit was approved for an offshore wind project by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday, paving the way for full project approval that was granted this morning.

South Fork will be a 130-megawatt wind farm off the southwest coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The EPA permit restricts air pollution during the construction and operation of the wind farm.

Construction is set to kick off with cable being laid on the sea floor, the company stated last week.

Final approval for the project from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was announced this morning.

Read the full story at WBSM

Construction to begin soon on new US offshore wind farm

January 20, 2022 — Construction will soon begin on the second commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project to gain approval in the United States, the developers said.

The U.S. Department of the Interior approved it in November, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued its approval letter for the constructions and operations plan Tuesday, a major step in the federal process before construction can start.

Orsted, a Danish energy company, is developing the South Fork Wind project with utility Eversource off the coasts of New York and Rhode Island. They now expect the work onshore to begin by early February and offshore next year for as many as 12 turbines.

President Joe Biden has set a goal to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes. In November, work began on the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, the Vineyard Wind 1 project off the coast of Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the AP at ABC News

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

BOEM approves South Fork Wind ‘habitat alternative’ plan

November 26, 2021 — The South Fork Wind project design will be reduced from 15 turbines to 12 under a modified construction and operations plan, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management confirmed in a record of decision Wednesday.

The agency adopted a “habitat alternative” turbine layout as its preferred plan out of the environmental impact study for the project, planned for 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y., by wind developers Ørsted and Eversource.

Originally leased by Rhode Island wind power pioneers Deepwater Wind – the startup later absorbed by Ørsted – the South Fork tract is about 19 miles southeast of Deepwater Wind’s five-turbine, 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, the first U.S. offshore commercial wind installation.

On track to start construction in January 2022, South Fork with about 130 MW capacity would follow the 800 MW Vineyard Wind project underway off southern Massachusetts.

Named for the southeast corner of Long Island, the South Fork project is touted as one answer to the island’s growing power supply needs and New York State’s goal of 9,000 MW or renewable energy.

Skeptics dispute the project’s real power potential, and New York and Rhode Island commercial fishermen are fighting against the disruption looming for their industry.

Read the full story at National Fisherman