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MAINE: Maine, federal government reach agreement on floating offshore wind research array

August 20, 2024 — An effort to study the impacts of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine is closer to launch after the state and federal government reached a lease agreement on Monday for a floating research array.

The Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offered the research area lease to the state in late May for up to 15 square miles in federal waters about 30 miles southeast of Portland, according to a press release from Gov. Janet Mills’ office Monday afternoon. It will include up to 12 floating turbines and help inform how floating offshore wind operates and interacts with ecosystems in the water.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

Wind developers bid $93M for mid-Atlantic — blowing off Trump 2.0 threat

August 19, 2024 — The Biden administration notched a much-needed win on Wednesday in its bid to bolster the offshore wind power industry, despite the industry’s recent setbacks and the threat of former President Donald Trump’s return.

An Interior Department auction to lease federal waters for wind projects off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia drew nearly $93 million in bids — an amount that appeared to quell nerves about the industry’s ability to withstand its political and economic headwinds.

The U.S. offshore wind industry plays a central role in President Joe Biden’s targets to cut carbon emissions from the power sector and stave off the worst effects of climate change. But the nascent industry has been plagued by rising costs, supply chain constraints, worrisome accidents and the risk that Trump, who has spent years attacking wind power, could undermine its progress.

“Despite the electoral uncertainty in the future, these are strong signals of confidence and continued interest in this market,” said Sam Salustro, senior vice president of policy for the Oceantic Network, an offshore wind industry group.

Read the full article at Politico

VIRGINIA: Dominion ups investments in offshore wind energy as industry surges forward

August 16, 2024 — As President Joe Biden’s presidential term comes to a close, the administration is bearing down on its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.

As of 2021, the administration had approved two commercial-scale offshore wind projects, and seven have been approved within the past year.

As of 2023, only seven offshore wind turbines were providing power to American homes, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This year has seen the addition of the 12-turbine South Fork Wind farm off the coast of New York and initial operations from Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts.

Ten turbines delivered power to the grid until a test turbine broke and shed pieces of a 115,000-pound, 350-foot wind blade into the sea. Power generation and blade installation have been halted as debris continues to wash up on the shores of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

It’s been a busy summer for Virginia’s largest utility, Dominion Energy. This week, it announced the installation of the 50th monopile, or turbine foundation, of the long-anticipated Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and the purchase of another 176,500-acre lease area east of the project.

Read the full article at The Center Square

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind Removes Final Pieces Of Damaged Blade Hanging From Turbine

August 16, 2024 — Vineyard Wind announced Thursday that it had removed the remaining pieces of the damaged blade that had been hanging from one of its turbines since the failure event on July 13.

The hanging pieces of the blade – which once measured 351 feet and weighed 55 tons before it folded and shattered last month – were removed through a “controlled cutting operation” which Vineyard Wind had previewed in its action plan released on August 11.

“While most of the debris was collected during the operation, some entered the water column before it could be recovered,” the town of Nantucket announced on Thursday following an update from Vineyard Wind officials. “Vineyard Wind has assured the town that they will maintain teams at sea, by air, and onshore on Nantucket and surrounding areas to monitor and address any additional debris that may be found.”

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Codders protest offshore wind plans as Gov. Healey visits Barnstable ice cream shop

August 16, 2024 — Opponents of landing more offshore wind cables in Barnstable got a chance to confront Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday when she visited Cape Cod.

Members of the community groups Barnstable Speaks and Save Dowses Beach protested across the street from Four Seas ice cream in Centerville, where Healey stopped to promote the new Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail.

About 25 protesters held signs and chanted, “Protect our beaches. Say no to Avangrid.” They waited outside as the governor went in, greeted the staff, and tried the mint chip ice cream.

Read the full article at CAI

NEW JERSEY: Van Drew blasts NJ offshore wind at Brigantine hearing: ‘They’re not dependable’

August 15, 2024 — Two congressmen gathered with experts critical of offshore wind development Tuesday in Brigantine, where they blasted a plan to build power turbines miles off the Jersey Shore.

Inside the auditorium at the Brigantine Community School, Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who represents southern New Jersey in Congress, and Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, held a hearing targeting offshore wind before a crowd of roughly 100 attendees.

“It’s not just people who live at the Shore (who will be affected), it’s wherever you live,” Van Drew said during the hearing. “These things cost a fortune, and they’re not dependable, and they break down a lot.”

Critics of offshore wind have noted the recent failure of a turbine at Vineyard Wind off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The turbine’s broken blade resulted in fiberglass debris spread across beaches there in July.

“For years, the offshore wind companies … have told us that offshore wind is safe, clean, great for fighting global warming, no threat to the environment, and will cut our electric bills,” said Amy DiSibio, who sits on the board of directors for ACK for Whales, an anti-offshore wind organization based in Nantucket. “None of this is true, as we have painfully seen over the past month in Nantucket.”

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

Vineyard Wind construction resumes one month after turbine blade failure. What we know.

August 15, 2024 — Even as investigations continue into what caused the blade on Vineyard Wind turbine AW-38 to collapse last month, sending splintered fiberglass, rigid foam and balsa wood into the ocean, limited construction is resuming on the 806-megawatt offshore project.

On Tuesday, Foss Maritime‘s Prevailing Wind barge — one of only two vessels in the world capable of transporting Vineyard Wind’s massive turbine components in an upright position — left the New Bedford Marine Commerce terminal loaded with tower sections and a nacelle and headed for the project area south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Also on board was a rack of three blades, though according to the wind developer this was “solely for the purpose of ensuring safe and balanced composition for the transport,” not for installation. The company said the blades will be returned to the commerce terminal later this week.

Read the full article at The Herald News

VIRGINIA: Dominion secures another offshore wind lease — right next to Virginia Beach project

August 15, 2024 — The new lease site could yield enough electricity to power up to 1.4 million homes, according to the federal government.

Dominion Energy has snagged another offshore wind lease about 35 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced after an online auction Wednesday.

Dominion’s winning bid was just over $17.6 million for the 176,000-acre site, which directly adjoins its Coastal Virginia Offshore Project already under construction off the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

That’s more than 10 times what the company paid for its current 112,000-acre lease more than a decade ago, when the U.S. offshore wind industry was yet to fully emerge.

The new lease site could yield enough electricity to power up to 1.4 million homes, according to BOEM.

Dominion’s ongoing CVOW project will include 176 wind turbines and is expected to power about 660,000 homes. The company has installed 54 turbine foundations since construction began in May, and plans to finish by late 2026.

Read the full article at WHRO

Dominion and Equinor Win Central Atlantic Wind Leases Paying Total of $93M

August 15, 2024 — The U.S. Department of the Interior is reporting strong interest in its latest offshore wind auction completed yesterday for sites off the Central Atlantic states. A total of six companies participated in the auction for the two sites offered with the winning bids of $92.65 million from Dominion Energy and Equinor.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conducted the auction which was scheduled in June for sites located offshore from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. They highlighted that it was the first offshore sale in the region in a decade. Combined the two sites have the potential for an additional 2.2 million homes or the capacity for approximately 6.3 GW according to the Department of the Interior.

Equinor Wind provisionally won a lease for 101,443 acres located approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay. The company’s winning bid was just over $75 million. Equinor highlights the potential for around 2 GW of power from the lease area.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Feds’ offshore wind sale nets $93M

August 15, 2024 — The Biden administration scooped $93 million from offshore wind developers Wednesday in a sale off the coast of Delaware and Virginia, striking a bullish note for President Joe Biden’s offshore wind legacy despite the industry’s economic headwinds.

Just two leases were up for bid in the central Atlantic sale. A wind lease off the coast of Delaware netted $75 million, from the Norwegian energy giant Equinor, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s preliminary results.

A second lease area, off the coast of Virginia Beach, was scooped up for almost $18 million by the Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy. Dominion was the sole bidder for that lease, which lies adjacent to the 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm that Dominion is currently building.

Read the full article at E&E News