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NEW JERSEY: Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Mobilizes for Ocean Survey Activities, Announces Kevin Wark as New Liaison to the Fishing Community

September 3, 2019 — The following was released by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind:

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC (Atlantic Shores) ocean survey operations are planned to begin the month of September within the Atlantic Shores lease area to inform future turbine development.

Survey operations will encompass 183,000 acres located 8-20 miles off the New Jersey coast between Barnegat Light and Sea Isle City and are expected to conclude in the first half of October. The survey vessel Geosea will be utilized to characterize the seabed, collect samples and determine placement of data collection buoys, which will be deployed later this year to help measure wind, ocean and weather conditions.

Coinciding with the launch of survey operations, Atlantic Shores also announces Kevin Wark as its Fisheries Liaison Officer to help better communicate and collaborate with the recreational and commercial fishing industries as the project progresses.

“Kevin has hands-on knowledge of the maritime community in New Jersey, where he has been a resident his entire life and a fisherman for nearly 40 years,” said Doug Copeland Development Manager of Atlantic Shores. “The trust he has developed locally will be invaluable in fostering open communication and collaboration with these industries as we plan an Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm that works best for New Jersey.”

A third-generation resident of Long Beach Island, Wark began his career operating commercial boats at the age of 17 and has worked extensively in the ocean research field for institutions such as Delaware State University and Rutgers University, including nearly a decade of sturgeon sampling. Last winter he helped consult on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) strategic plan for offshore wind.

Read the full release here

Ned Lamont, other East Coast governors push feds on wind power

August 30, 2019 — Gov. Ned Lamont and the governors of four other 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, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia joined Lamont in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that said 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.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Hartford Courant

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

Why collaboration is critical to offshore wind and port success

August 29, 2019 — New York recently announced the largest procurement of offshore wind power in U.S. history: to develop 9.0 GW of projects by 2035. New Jersey has set a goal of 3.5 GW by 2030. Barely a year after Massachusetts pledged to at least 1.6 GW of offshore wind, the Department of Energy Resources released a report recommending the Commonwealth doubled that commitment. Connecticut has signed on for 2.0 GW of offshore wind. There are others.

Over the next two decades, East Coast states and California expect to develop more than two-dozen offshore wind farms. The interest in an American offshore industry is clear. Next, however, comes the how. Building a supply chain — and, specifically, port infrastructure that supports the unique requirements of offshore wind — is critical to industry advancement.

“Timing is everything and congestion could be a major problem over the next decade,” says Lars Andersen, president of K2 Management’s North American operations. K2 is an experienced owner’s engineer and lender’s technical advisor. “For example, a single port harbor facility will be overburdened if multiple projects are under construction at the same time. Therefore, developers will likely have to consider multiple facility strategies and secure their options well ahead of time.”

Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

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

NEW JERSEY: Ørsted pitches its Ocean Wind project

August 28, 2019 — Offshore wind energy developer Ørsted is introducing the New Jersey public to its Ocean Wind project – at a planned 1,100 megawatts the largest U.S. waters project to date.

“New Jersey is at the epicenter of offshore wind,” said Kris Ohleth, Ørsted’s senior stakeholder relations manager, as she opened the company’s first meeting in Atlantic City Monday evening. “We can supply the nucleus of the supply chain.”

That’s music to the ears of southern New Jersey political and labor leaders, in a region that never fully recovered from the Atlantic City casino industry’s downturn and construction recession after the 2008 financial meltdown.

Ørsted opened an office in the city last year to prepare for building the Ocean Wind project on a federal lease 15 miles offshore, and it’s expected the company could soon pick a location for its onshore support station and docks on the city waterfront.

That would represent 70 permanent jobs, beyond the 3,000 construction jobs the company predicts for its building cycle through to 2024. The company is already working with the city school system and Richard Stockton University to recruit future workers and plan for training and workforce development.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

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