Saving Seafood

BOEM Delays Vineyard Wind Until 2020

September 10, 2019 — Construction of the country’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm off Massachusetts’ coast will be delayed until at least next year while the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management determines the cumulative effect of construction of multiple wind farms in the region, the agency said in a recent update.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Copenhagen Investment Partners and Avengrid Renewables, is developing the 800-MW, $2.8 billion project. Five other offshore wind projects are planned adjacent to the site.

The developers had expected to begin construction before the end of the year to take advantage of a significant federal tax credit for renewable energy that expires on Dec. 31.

BOEM’s original timeline was to release a final environmental impact statement in July, but that timeline was delayed when BOEM said stakeholders and cooperating federal agencies requested “a more robust cumulative analysis.” It anticipates completing the supplement to its draft EIS “late this year or early next year,” with a public comment period and public meetings to follow.

Read the full story at the Engineering News-Record

Vineyard Wind Delays Hold Up Other Offshore Projects

September 9, 2019 — The Vineyard Wind project is a major test of the offshore wind industry. The 84-turbine project is hailed as the first large utility-scale power source, after the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm went on-line in December 2016.

As a pilot project, Block Island showed that the United States can profitably produce and deliver offshore wind energy, and create jobs. More than a dozen other proposals have followed, and new federal wind-lease areas are expected along the East Coast.

Vineyard Wind, with 800 megawatts of electric capacity, is presumed to clear the way for more than 10 gigawatts of power coming from the waters off southern New England.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Offshore wind farm stuck in limbo

September 3, 2019 — Plans for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm remain on hold, and state leaders and environmental groups are calling on the Trump administration to speed it along.

Vineyard Wind, a $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm planned 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, was delayed last month by federal regulators amid concerns about the impact on commercial fishermen. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said additional review is needed in light of the concerns raised by “stakeholders and cooperating agencies.”

Vineyard Wind would generate enough energy to power more than 400,000 homes, representing about 20% of electricity consumed in the state, according to its designers. A law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016 requires the state to have at least 3,200 megawatts of electricity provided by offshore wind by 2035 as part of a shift to renewable energy sources.

Baker, who recently met with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in Washington, D.C., to push for the project’s movement, told reporters Wednesday that he remains confident about its future. The Republican said he believes the federal government is committed to a March 2020 deadline to wrap up its review.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

An Uncertain Future For Vineyard Wind

August 30, 2019 — The Vineyard Wind project is a proposed 800 megawatt offshore wind farm just south of Martha’s Vineyard. The future of Vineyard Wind, however, is in limbo since the federal government put its review of the project on hold. WGBH Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu talks with WGBH’s Cape Cod bureau reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan about where the project currently stands and what it could mean for the state of Massachusetts. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Joe Mathieu: Let’s start with the basics. You’ve really taken a deep dive on this. Explain the proposal — how many turbines are we talking about?

Sarah Mizes-Tan: So Vineyard Wind is proposing to build an 84-turbine wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, just a couple miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Eighty-four turbines is a sizable amount of turbines, and they say when this is fully running this should generate enough power for 400,000 homes. That would be more than what Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant created when it was fully operational.

Read the full story at WGBH

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Charlie Baker: Not concerned by Trump’s wind comment

August 29, 2019 — The future of Vineyard Wind is on hold amid a longer-than-expected federal review and President Donald Trump dismissed wind power as costly “dreams” this week, but Gov. Charlie Baker said he is not concerned that the government has any plans to block the offshore wind project.

Federal regulators, who have been auctioning off ocean tracts to wind energy developers, jolted the offshore wind industry this month when they announced that a key environmental impact statement Vineyard Wind needs to advance, originally expected by March 2020 at the latest, would be paused to allow for a broader study of the effects that such turbines would cause.

Baker, who moments earlier touted the implementation of a statewide partnership to enact a climate-resiliency plan, told reporters Wednesday that he remains confident about the project’s future, describing his conversations with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and officials at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as productive despite the uncertainty.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

5 East Coast governors push feds on offshore wind power

August 29, 2019 — The governors of five East Coast states are urging federal regulators not to put any additional roadblocks in the way of the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.

The governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia said in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that offshore wind power will help strengthen America’s energy independence while creating thousands of jobs.

The group, including Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, said they’re disappointed by a recent decision to delay final permitting of the planned 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Bay State Wind submits second proposal for wind farm in Martha’s Vineyard

August 27, 2019 — Bay State Wind, a joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource, has submitted a proposal for offshore wind energy generation in Martha’s Vineyard.

The proposal was submitted on Aug. 23 in response to the commonwealth’s second Request for Proposals.

A previous bid was made by Vineyard Wind, a joint venture by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables.

Gov. Charlie Baker had previously shown his support for the project, meeting with the Interior Secretary, David Bernhardt, who oversees the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at MassLive

Connecticut offshore wind may face some rough seas

August 27, 2019 — As Connecticut races to get its first offshore wind projects on track for construction, a collision of factors appear to be working against them.

To start with, the timing couldn’t be worse.

The state and its offshore-wind-loving neighbors all face a year-end expiration of a federal tax credit that helps finance these projects – the first major attempts in the U.S. But in Connecticut some problems – including at least one self-inflicted one – could mean forgoing that money.

Most critical are two issues. The first is the controversy at the Connecticut Port Authority (CPA), which has placed the quasi-public agency under audit and so far sent three people to the exits. The CPA runs the state-owned Pier in New London – now angling to be the premier staging area for offshore wind construction in the state, if not the region.

Read the full story at the Hartford Business Journal

Vineyard Wind submits bid No. 2

August 26, 2019 — Vineyard Wind is bidding for another wind farm.

The company submitted a bid Friday for Massachusetts’ second solicitation for commercial offshore wind. Bay State Wind announced a bid earlier in the day.

Both companies made the announcements on their own initiative; the state plans to keep the names of bidders confidential until at least Aug. 30.

Vineyard Wind said it has proposed the required 400-megawatt option, plus two options for an 800-megawatt project.

“Vineyard Wind is very excited to submit these proposals, which offer significant job creation and port infrastructure investment opportunity for the region, while ensuring an attractive, fixed price for electric ratepayers,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said in a news release. “We look forward to announcing additional details on this exciting project in the weeks ahead.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

VINEYARD WIND: Notice to Mariners and Fishermen No. 16

August 23, 2019 — The following was released by Vineyard Wind:

We wanted to let you know that the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) are coordinating a lobster ventless trap survey in the northern section of the Vineyard Wind lease area as well as a control area to the east.

The survey is ongoing through October 2019.

View the full notice here.

Trawls are set in East/West direction and are configured in 8 pot strings approximately 1,200 feet long marked with double highflyers and double large Go Deep buoys labeled MLA/SMAST, DA19-017.

We encourage fishermen who may be working in the survey area to contact the captains directly or contact the following:

Beth Casoni – MA Lobstermen’s Association, Phone: 508-738-1245

Crista Bank – FL Vineyard Wind, Phone: 508-525-0421

Vineyard Wind is committed to communicating and working with the local fishermen in the region during all stages of development of the proposed offshore wind farm.

Read the full release here