Saving Seafood

Support for 1-mile offshore wind turbine spacing in BOEM’s first ‘virtual’ public hearing

June 29, 2020 — Supporters of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project came out online June 26 to call on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to approve the 800-megawatt plan in southern New England waters, with spacing turbine towers in a 1 nautical mile grid.

“Vineyard Wind 1 is the most significant step we can take” for reducing carbon emissions in Massachusetts, said Tom Soldini of Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., adding that the company will provide 40 to 50 permanent jobs to the island community.

Friday’s public hearing – staged using the Zoom virtual meeting app with public comment by telephone – was the first step in a 45-day public comment period on BOEM’s new supplemental environmental impact statement on the Vineyard Wind project, and its broader look at the cumulative impacts of 15 more offshore wind projects planned along the U.S. East Coast.

The agency plans to arrive at recommended alternatives for Vineyard Wind in November and finalize those with a formal record of decision by Dec. 18.

BOEM is looking at one scenario for four-mile-wide vessel transit lanes through wind energy leases off southern New England – referred to as alternative F in its supplemental environmental impact statement. That concept was proposed in January by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of commercial fishing groups.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New England looks to Europe to assess environmental impacts of offshore energy facilities

June 24, 2020 — Rhode Island is still the only state in the country with an offshore wind farm, but that will change in the coming years as wind farms are built along the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Virginia all the way up to Maine.

Now five years old, the Block Island wind farm, consisting of just five turbines, has been the subject of considerable study as scientists determine what impacts, if any, the construction of the facility and the turbines themselves are having on the ecosystem. Researchers are also looking to the future, when thousands of wind turbines will be coming online.

At the second of four webinars in the 17th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium, scientists from the University of Rhode Island and elsewhere heard from researchers in Europe, where offshore wind power has been commonplace for decades.

Entitled “Offshore Renewable Energy — Changes in Habitats and Ecosystems,” the June 15 symposium focused on the impacts of individual turbines and larger-scale wind energy installations on the diversity and interactions of marine species.

Emma Sheehan of the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom and Jan Vanaverbeke of the Royal Institute for Natural Sciences in Belgium presented some of the findings of their research on the environmental impacts of large-scale commercial wind and wave energy farms.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

Offshore Wind Companies Are Racing To Develop America’s East Coast. First They Must Appease The Fishermen.

June 18, 2020 — On a windy stretch of ocean ten miles northeast of Martha’s Vineyard lies the watery grave of America’s first major offshore wind farm.

This is where a Boston-based company called Energy Management planned to build 130 Statue of Liberty-sized turbines, enough to supply power to 200,000 homes.

But the project known as Cape Wind never made it beyond the planning stages. Facing relentless opposition from wealthy homeowners on Nantucket Sound, including the billionaire industrialist William Koch and the late Democratic senator Ted Kennedy, it drowned in a sea of lawsuits over 16 years. Energy Management declared it dead in December 2017.

Cape Wind’s historic failure, even as Europe and Asia add more offshore wind farms every year, has become an infamous cautionary tale for the wind development industry. It seemed the US was destined to lag behind its peers.

Read the full story at Forbes

Wind temporarily taken out of Ørsted project’s sails

June 17, 2020 — The $720 million Skipjack Wind Farm, the center of the controversy for a deal to make landfall at Fenwick Island State Park, has been pushed back until 2023.

Ørsted, the Danish company developing the wind farm, announced the project is moving at a slower pace due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) prolonging its study on the impact of offshore wind buildouts. In turn, that delays the Notice of Intent, a milestone toward receiving final approval.

“Our projects are moving forward, although at a slower pace than originally expected … it is no longer realistic to receive the Notice of Intent from BOEM in due time to meet the commissioning date in late 2022,” Henrik Poulsen, Ørsted president and CEO, said in an April earnings call.

The Skipjack project, proposed to be 19 miles off the Maryland-Delaware coast, would include 12 megawatt turbines about 800 feet tall. It would generate enough electricity for 35,000 homes in the Delmarva region.

Read the full story at the Delaware Business Times

New Jersey aims to lead nation in offshore wind. So it’s building the biggest turbine port in the country.

June 17, 2020 — New Jersey wants to be known for more than just its shores and casinos.

It aims to be the hub of the nation’s nascent offshore wind energy industry.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is set to announce the construction of what he calls the country’s first port dedicated to constructing the colossal turbines that may one day dot the East Coast horizon as Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states rush to build more renewable energy.

For New Jersey, it is about more than just tackling climate change. Just as Texas is the de facto capital of the U.S. oil and gas industry, New Jersey wants to be an economic engine for offshore wind.

“We have a huge opportunity,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. “Somebody’s going to get to be the Houston of American offshore wind.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Delaware River site chosen for New Jersey offshore wind port

June 17, 2020 — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state will develop a dedicated offshore wind energy port on the lower Delaware River, spending up to $400 million to support the state’s ambitious goal of developing 7,500 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2035.

Located adjacent to the Hope Creek nuclear power station in Lower Alloways Creek Township in rural Salem County, the site of 200-plus acres is close to the deep-draft ship channel from Philadelphia to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic – and downstream from highway bridges over the river. That eliminates the constraints of air draft at other East Coast ports like New York, where even bridge clearances of 200 feet will not be enough to accommodate the size of next-generation turbine components carried on barges and installation vessels.

“Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only protect our environment but also greatly expand our state economy in a way that has immediate impacts and paves the way for long-term growth,” Murphy said Tuesday in announcing the site selection. “The New Jersey Wind Port will create thousands of high-quality jobs, bring millions of investment dollars to our state, and establish New Jersey as the national capital of offshore wind.”

Murphy’s announcement came at a pivotal moment for U.S. offshore wind, days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a supplemental draft environmental impact statement that looks at cumulative impacts of more than a dozen proposed turbine arrays off the East Coast.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: MCFA’s Statement on today’s Climate Council Meeting

June 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association:

“Today, the Energy Working Group proposed the development of offshore wind as a solution to address our state’s energy needs,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “The industrialization of the Gulf of Maine, through the development of offshore wind, is something the fishing community is increasingly concerned about. We hope that a real and robust outreach effort to fishermen is undertaken before any decision is made as to how to achieve our state’s goals for carbon reduction.”

Martens added, “Fishermen have been stewards of Maine’s marine environment for generations and they want to be included in discussions that have the potential to impact not just their livelihood but the environment that they love and depend on. Because of the lack of industry representation on the council and because of the poor precedent set by Aqua Ventus, we are worried that once again Maine’s fishermen will be last to be invited to the table.”

Vineyard Wind’s Major Environmental Study Finished

June 15, 2020 — The long-awaited supplemental draft environmental report for the Vineyard Wind project was recently released, setting the stage for numerous offshore energy projects planned for the waters off the East Coast.

The draft environmental impact statement (EIS) was initially issued in December 2018. BOEM planned to complete the EIS by August 2019 but delayed it after the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called for a supplemental report to take into account the upsurge in offshore wind proposals. At the start of the federal review, 130 megawatts of construction plans had been submitted, but that figure quickly escalated to 22 gigawatts of offshore wind-energy potential.

“This expanded cumulative scenario is intended to better understand future impacts of the offshore wind industry while being responsive to the concerns of other ocean industries,” said Walter Cruickshank, acting director for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The new report considered the cumulative impacts on fishing and coastal habitats of the proposed 84-turbine Vineyard Wind 1 project. Sea turtles, finfish, marine mammals, and bird and bats were included in the large geographic analysis. Other issues given consideration included environmental justice, recreation and tourism, and air and water quality.

Read the full story at EcoRI

BOEM Releases Long-Awaited Offshore Wind Review

June 15, 2020 — The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released its long-anticipated update to its environmental impact statement (SEIS) for the Vineyard Wind offshore windfarm, including an analysis of the cumulative effects of offshore wind development off the U.S. East Coast.

BOEM predicts that developers will eventually  install up to 2,000 wind turbines producing up to 22 gigawatts of power off the Eastern seaboard. The first significant project in the permitting pipeline is Vineyard Wind, an 800 MW, 57-turbine development off the coast of Rhode Island.

The 420-page supplemental EIS acknowledged that under all scenarios, Vineyard Wind will have a moderate impact on commercial fishing, and concluded that the cumulative effect of multiple windfarms will have a “major” adverse impact on East Coast fisheries. In all but one scenario, the cumulative effect on navigation would be a “major” adverse impact. (“Major” indicates that the affected community would have to adjust to significant disruptions and may see measurable effects indefinitely.)

In a statement, BOEM said that it “recognizes that fishing is an important use of federal waters that will be considered in its decision-making.” The agency said that it will work with commercial and recreational fishermen and will solicit input from the fishing community.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

BOEM report points to strict conditions for Atlantic offshore wind projects

June 12, 2020 — A new environmental assessment of offshore wind power projects issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could lead to stricter conditions for developers seeking to build new facilities off the Northeast coast.

BOEM’s new supplement to the draft environmental assessment for the Vineyard Wind facility, planned off the coast of Massachusetts, found the project posed potentially “major” adverse impacts to sea life and other industries, particularly commercial fishing.

The document is an update to the draft Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard that BOEM issued in 2018. Last year, the agency announced it would extend the permitting process for the 800 MW facility so it could assess the impacts not just of that wind farm, but others planned by Northeastern states to meet clean energy targets.

The report released Tuesday assesses an array of construction scenarios for Vineyard and 22 gigawatts of other facilities planned in New England waters. It considers the creation of a transit lane for fishing and other sea traffic, as well as changes to the project’s turbine layout and the siting of a substation to connect the project to the onshore power grid.

Read the full story at Politico