Saving Seafood

Second Wind Developer Moves to Terminate its Contracts

September 6, 2023 — Another offshore wind developer took a major step Tuesday toward scrapping its initial plans for an installation in waters off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

SouthCoast Wind, whose pair of successful bids represented a combined 1,200 megawatts of anticipated offshore wind power, agreed to pay utility companies $60 million to terminate contracts the parties previously struck for the clean energy.

The penalty would be divided into $32.4 million for Eversource, $27.3 million for National Grid, and $591,000 for Unitil, according to contract amendments filed with the Department of Public Utilities.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

NEW JERSEY: Early Indicators of Offshore Survey Work Raise Concern for Seafood Production

September 6, 2023 — Beachgoers spent their summer enjoying a reprieve from scorching temperatures, frolicking in the Atlantic Ocean, but marine life had a more difficult summer in the water as seismic testing related to offshore wind surveying is believed, by some, to have caused stress to certain species.

Kirk O. Larson, who has spent more than five decades on the water as a commercial fisherman while serving as Barnegat Light mayor for more than 30 years, said scallops, calamari (squid) and sea bass were among the species to experience stress and disturbance.

In fact, every time seismic testing occurs, sea bass “are hoppling up, scared to death on the bottom of the ocean. They probably won’t spawn this year, like the scallops and the squid. The ramifications down the road, in my mind … You can fact check me next year,” he told a crowd of more than 300 people at Bay Breeze Pavilion in Barnegat Light on Aug. 27.

Read the full article at the Sand Paper

RHODE ISLAND: R.I. fishing panel resigns en masse over offshore wind approvals

September 5, 2023 — Fed up with state coastal regulators’ perceived “deference” to offshore wind developers, all nine members of an advisory panel of Rhode Island fishing industry representatives have quit.

In a letter sent Thursday, Aug. 31, to Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) Executive Director Jeff Willis, the entire Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board (FAB) declared its members were resigning effective immediately. The decision comes amid mounting tension between offshore wind developers and fishermen over the slew of offshore wind projects planned in and around Rhode Island waters.

“We will not allow our names to be connected in any way to Council approvals now amounting to wholesale ocean destruction,” the letter, which was obtained by Rhode Island Current, stated. “Rhode Island is supposed to be the Ocean State, not the Windmill State.”

Laura Dwyer, a spokesperson for the CRMC, said in an emailed response Friday that the agency was “disappointed” by the news.

“The FAB has provided valuable information and insight to the CRMC for its federal consistency reviews of offshore wind energy projects,” Dwyer said. “While unfortunate, these resignations do not affect the CRMC’s review scope, obligations and timelines as contained in the federal [regulations]. The CRMC remains hopeful that the Rhode Island fishing community will continue to participate in the public process for reviewing offshore wind energy projects, as well as any other projects affecting the fishery resources of the State.”

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current

East Coast offshore wind farm delayed due to supply chain issues, high interest, and lack of tax credits

September 5, 2023 — Global wind energy developer Ørsted has announced its planned offshore wind farm off the coast of New Jersey will be delayed until 2026 due to several reasons including supply chain issues.

The company, which is based in Fredericia, Denmark, has several offshore wind farms planned off the coasts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

The Associated Press reported that the Danish company exposed the delay during an earnings call on Wednesday, admitting it could be forced to write-off about $2.3 billion in U.S. projects worth less than earlier projections.

Read the full article Fox Business

MASSACHUSETTS: Healey launches offshore wind procurement at risky time

September 5, 2023 — GOV. MAURA HEALEY launched what she described as the region’s largest offshore wind procurement this week. “With our top academic institutions, robust workforce training programs, innovative companies, and support from every level of government – Massachusetts is all-in on offshore wind,” she said.

But what her press release failed to mention was that this procurement comes at a very risky time for offshore wind, with the industry battered by economic and supply chain challenges and developers responding by pushing for higher prices for the electricity being produced.

In July, Rhode Island’s largest utility opted not to move forward with a wind farm deal because the cost “was deemed too expensive for customers to bear.”

A new study released this week indicates the developers of four proposed New York wind farms are seeking revisions to previously approved power purchase agreements that would boost the price anywhere from 27 percent to 66 percent, with a weighted average increase across all four wind farms of 48 percent.

The study, by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), raises questions about some aspects of the wind developers’ proposed price increases, but overall it says the market conditions that have engulfed the industry are legitimate and real.

“These market conditions, driven in large part by increased demand for raw materials, an increased demand for large-scale renewable energy caused primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as well as supply chain constraints and bottlenecks, are unprecedented in recent history, outside of reasonable developer control, and were unforeseeable at the time of each bid,” the study says.

Read the full article at CommonWealth Magazine

NEW JERSEY: Activist Group Opposes New Jersey Offshore Wind Project

September 2, 2023 — In the seemingly mad rush to achieve the nation’s climate goals and maximize the renewable energy opportunities presented by the Inflation Reduction Act, offshore wind farms are, or will be, cropping up near many miles of U.S. coastline. Activist groups, new and old, continue to mobilize and make their voices heard.

MOVE ’EM OUT, a New Jersey nonprofit organization devoted to preserving the unique charm and ecological balance of the state’s beaches, recently announced its opposition to proposed wind projects, underscoring the detrimental impact on New Jersey’s southern shoreline ecology, local and statewide economy and its vibrant communities.

Read the full article at North American Wind Power

NEW JERSEY: Orsted delays 1st New Jersey wind farm until 2026; not ready to ‘walk away’ from project

September 2, 2023 — Orsted, the global wind energy developer, says its first offshore wind farm in New Jersey will be delayed until 2026 due to supply chain issues, higher interest rates, and a failure so far to garner enough tax credits from the federal government.

The Danish company revealed the delay during an earnings conference call Wednesday, during which it said it could be forced to write off about $2.3 billion on U.S. projects that are worth less than they had been.

It also said it had considered simply abandoning the Ocean Wind I project off the southern New Jersey coast.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

Blow to Biden as offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico fails to stir interest

September 2, 2023 — The Biden administration on Tuesday held the first ever auction for the right to develop offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico, with just one of the three available leases provisionally awarded and only two bidders.

The historic sale fell on the anniversaries of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2021’s Hurricane Ida, climate crisis-fueled disasters that devastated Gulf communities. It also comes the day after the Gulf cities of New Orleans and Houston saw their hottest temperatures in recorded history, and as the largest wildfire in state history ravages Louisiana.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held auctions on one lease area off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two others off the coast of Galveston, Texas, which together have the capacity to power almost 1.3m homes. Last month, officials said the sale would show that the Gulf – currently the nation’s primary source of offshore oil and gas – can become a key player in a new green economy.

But the result was anti-climatic, with neither of the two lease areas off the Texas coast receiving bids. The German developer RWE was provisionally awarded the third area off Louisiana, beating out just one other bidder.

Several factors may have put a damper on developer interest, the newsletter Heatmap reported last week. Gulf wind speeds are often lower than other coastal areas’, requiring the use of specific turbines for which a robust supply chain must be developed. No Gulf states’ energy policies specifically require the use of offshore wind. And analysts say building out offshore wind in the Gulf will be more expensive than in the north-east, making it harder for wind projects to compete in local energy markets, where existing energy prices are lower.

Read the full article at the Guardian

Offshore wind is here, but who’s really getting the work?

September 2, 2023 — As a golden sunrise lights up New Bedford’s commercial fishing fleet, an unusual passenger ship is steaming out of the harbor toward Vineyard Wind.

The vessel is painted all over in a single color — battleship gray — though it’s not military or law enforcement.

Seated at the helm, Captain Fred Spaid says the look is deliberate.

“We were coming around Cape Hatteras this spring and came up on a catamaran sailboat. He calls us up on the radio, … and he said, ‘Are you guys with the Navy or the Coast Guard?’ I said, ‘Neither one,’” Spaid says, laughing. “But we do have that impression, and that is intentional, absolutely.”

Read the full article at CAI

MASSACHUSETTS: SouthCoast Wind Will Pay $60 Million To Terminate Power Purchase Agreements

September 2, 2023 — While Vineyard Wind’s turbines are rising in the waters off Nantucket, another offshore wind energy developer seeking to build an even larger wind farm south of the island is facing a major setback.

SouthCoast Wind, which hopes to construct 149 offshore wind turbines 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket, is attempting to back out of the power purchase agreements it had signed with three Massachusetts utility companies.

In a petition filed this week with the state Department of Public Utilities, SouthCoast Wind stated it would pay dearly to terminate those agreements. The offshore wind company – which is a joint venture of the petrochemical giant Shell and Ocean Winds North America – agreed to pay $60 million to rip up its deals with Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil.

Read the full article at South Coast Today