April 20, 2024 — Politico reported today that three New York offshore wind projects are being scrapped. NYSERDA, the state authority in charge of offshore wind deals, announced Friday that no final agreements could be reached with the three projects that received provisional awards in October 2023.
This decision has nothing to do with concerns raised by fishing interests, but it is good news, particularly for the scallop industry.
- The Attentive Energy One project area is in the New York Bight scallop access area, which is an important scallop ground.
- The Community Offshore Wind project has some scallop grounds in it, but it’s also adjacent to highly productive traditional grounds, so it could impact seeding of larvae.
- Excelsior Wind by Vineyard Offshore has an open bottom scallop fishing area in it.
The three bids, Attentive Energy One, Community Offshore Wind, and Excelsior Wind, were all linked to major supply chain investments by General Electric and a larger turbine it planned to build. In February, GE decided not to move forward with an 18-megawatt turbine. NYSERDA confirmed that was the main reason no final awards were made.
There has also been a limit to the degree to which state utility regulators are willing to let the rates go up, which means there’s a cap on how much the companies can earn per megawatt. The overriding question is: Could they produce this power from wind and make money at current rates, given the cost to install these turbines? Apparently, the answer was no.