Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Three companies submit bids for offshore wind power

December 21, 2017 — Three offshore wind energy developers bid Wednesday on contracts to sell electricity to Massachusetts power companies, taking the next big step in a process that could set turbines spinning south of Martha’s Vineyard within the next five years.

“It’s in the hands of the utilities,” Vineyard Wind Chief Development Officer Erich Stephens said.

By April, Vineyard Wind, Bay State Wind and Revolution Wind will hear whether their bids have been selected for negotiation by the handful of electric distribution companies that will buy the wind energy. By the end of July, the utilities and offshore wind energy companies are expected to finalize long-term contracts and hand them over to the state Department of Public Utilities for review and approval.

Depending on the wind energy company, construction of anywhere from 50 to 100 turbines in federally leased, submerged areas could begin within two to five years. In addition to securing contracts to sell their energy, the companies face federal and state permitting requirements, including through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“The critical path is the federal permit,” said Bay State Wind representative Michael Ausere, who is also vice president of business development for Eversource, which distributes electricity on Cape Cod and the Vineyard and is one of the utilities that would buy power from the wind farms. “This will be the first large-scale offshore wind farm.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford meeting brings wind, fishing industries together

October 5, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jim Kendall painted the city’s streets with snow when he articulated how fishermen may feel about offshore wind during a meeting Wednesday that brought both sides together.

As a child on SouthCoast, Kendall spent his snow days sledding on the streets.

“You just can’t do stuff like that anymore,” he said.

He’s seen the same influx in traffic on the ocean in his evolution from fisherman to fishermen representative for Vineyard Wind. Time has added stock limits, marine monuments and the latest is offshore wind. More traffic equates to more difficulty fishing.

“That’s part of the problem,” Kendall said. “There’s constraints now where there never were earlier.”

Both offshore wind and commercial fishing understand neither is leaving the ocean. So John Quinn chaired a New England Fisheries Management Council habitat committee meeting in New Bedford, which invited offshore wind representatives.

“My general policy view is I’m viewing wind as complementing not replacing fishing,” Quinn said. “That balance is why we’re having meetings, seminars and symposiums about it.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times