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Archive for the ‘Offshore Wind’ Category

RODA follows through on threat to sue the Federal government over Vineyard Wind 1 approval

Posted in Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , on February 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

On October 19, 2021, RODA issued the government agencies a 60-day Notice of its Intent to Sue if they did not comply with the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and other federal environmental statutes. “The Alliance received no reply, and the environmental violations were not remedied,” Hawkins stated. “The decisions on this project didn’t balance ocean resource conservation and management, and must not set a precedent for the enormous “pipeline of projects” the government plans to facilitate in the near term. So we had no alternative to filing suit.”

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance

Vineyard Wind 1 is a 62-turbine offshore wind project to be built 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, and is the first commercial-scale wind project approved for US offshore waters.

download here

Of particular interest to the offshore industry, RODA’s court filing raises concerns about the structural integrity of the 13 MW Haliade-X turbines during Atlantic hurricanes, ice shedding in the winter, radar interference, pile driving noise, Jones Act violations, and failure to consider decommissioning issues.

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More on the Lease Sale 257 decision

Posted in CCS, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The judge correctly dismissed the unfounded claim that new oil and gas leasing would preclude wind development in the Gulf. BOE comments:

  • The number of GoM platforms is down 75% from its peak and continuing to decline.
  • Most new production is in the deepwater GoM and is accomplished with very few, remote and widely dispersed facilities. There are currently only 57 deepwater platforms across the entire Gulf.
  • The wind industry appreciates the synergy between offshore oil and gas and offshore wind operations. Indeed the oil industry has been very supportive of offshore wind, and some of the same operating companies and contractors are major players in both industries.
  • t has been 17 years since the enabling legislation was passed, yet we are still awaiting the first commercial wind project in the US Atlantic. You can’t blame the oil and gas industry for that delay. To the contrary, one can make the case that the presence of oil and gas operations would have accelerated Atlantic wind development.
  • The enabling legislation for offshore wind was drafted by the agency that managed the offshore oil and gas program and recognized the compatibility of oil and wind development. Wind development is clearly a high priority for BOEM, the current OCS land manager.

Will the Administration appeal the court decision to vacate the lease sale or does the decision assist them by reinstating their leasing pause? How will the conflict between the DC court decision and the injunction invalidating the leasing pause (Federal Court for the Western District of Louisiana) be resolved?

What does this mean for the 94 leases that were to have been acquired for carbon sequestration purposes? Will BOEM have a proper CCS sale after conducting an environmental assessment, determining bidding terms and evaluation criteria, and publishing a Notice of Sale? Or will there be a legislative end run that authorizes the issuance of the leases without these steps?

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Interesting offshore energy storage concept

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , on January 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

See the video below. The size and durability of the bladders could be issues at locations where there are other seafloor activities (e.g. trawling), but this and other pumped hydro-storage concepts are promising. Onshore testing of this concept is scheduled for 2023 in the Netherlands. Energy storage and stable, reliable power supply will be critical to the long-term success of offshore wind projects.

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For those who thought offshore wind would be a breeze…

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , on January 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Vineyard Wind false start?

Nearly 17 years after the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (incorporating language drafted by Minerals Management Service staff) authorized wind energy projects in Federal offshore waters, commercial offshore wind power is not imminent. Despite enthusiastic political support and promised State and Federal subsidies, no commercial scale offshore wind development has commenced. The groundbreaking ceremony for Vineyard Wind I (pictured above), the first project approved by BOEM, may prove to have been premature. The project faces multiple lawsuits from commercial fishing organizations and an organization concerned about possible impacts to the endangered right whale.

North Atlantic right whale - Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA
North Atlantic Right Whale

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BOEM approves 2nd North Atlantic Wind Project

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , , , on November 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

  • South Fork Wind: 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island
  • 12 or fewer Siemens-Gamesa’s 11-megawatt turbines
  • BOEM approved the larger (62 turbine) Vineyard Wind 1 project on July 15, 2021. Those turbines will be located approximately 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. On Oct. 19, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue the Federal Government over violations of lease management and environmental statutes.
Vineyard Wind

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Green Hydrogen and the Great Rick Carrier

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , , , , , on September 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Rick Carrier with life partner Lynn Ramsey, in Poland, following the 2012 March of the Living. Photo courtesy Lynn Ramsey.
Rick Carrier with life partner Lynn Ramsey, in Poland, following the 2012 March of the Living. Photo courtesy Lynn Ramsey.

The growing interest in green hydrogen inspired me to write a post about Rick Carrier, a war hero and visionary who is largely unknown to the offshore energy community. Rick’s plan for a Mid-Atlantic wind-hydrogen demonstration project was the first offshore wind proposal submitted to the Minerals Management Service, the bureau that initiated the offshore wind program in the U. S.

Rick Carrier lived an amazing life – WWII hero, artist, playwright, diver, conservationist, green hydrogen pioneer, and more. Perhaps most noteworthy were his military accomplishments. He was among the first Americans to land on Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion. He subsequently became the first allied soldier to discover the Buchenwald concentration camp. The next day, April 11, 1945, he marched into the camp with Patton’s Third Army and liberated the prisoners. Rick is pictured above at the 2012 March of The Living, an annual walk down the 3-kilometer path from Auschwitz to Birkenau.  In June of 2014, Rick returned to Normandy for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Later that year, the President of France awarded him the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor — France’s highest honor.

Rick founded the USA Bald Eagle Command in 1975 to protect the endangered American Bald Eagle. The organization’s efforts played a role in President Reagan’s declaration of June 20, 1982 as National Bald Eagle Day. Through the efforts of this and other conservation groups, the Bald Eagle was removed from the Endangered Species list in 2007.

Rick’s green hydrogen proposal was yet another patriotic venture. Through his non-profit, Bald Eagle Energy, he sought to demonstrate the commercial potential for using offshore wind energy to produce hydrogen from sea water. Unfortunately, the framework for permitting such projects had not yet been established. While we tried to find a way to make the project possible, the obstacles were too great.

RIck passed away peacefully on December 12, 2016, at his home in New York City. It was an honor to have met him and worked with him on his green hydrogen initiative.

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RODA sues BOEM on Vineyard Wind I approval

Posted in Offshore Wind, Uncategorized, Wind Energy, tagged , , , on September 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Vineyard Windmap 9 10 19 01

Washington, D.C. (9/13/2021) — Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a broad membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing companies, filed a Petition for Review today in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding the Secretary of the Interior’s July 15, 2021 decision approving the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind energy project. This action is the culmination of many years of conscientious participation by fisheries professionals only to see their expertise and value summarily ignored by decision-makers during the leasing process.

The RODA statement is quite strong. While the new administration understandably wants to advance offshore wind development, they would have been wise to accept input from RODA and other interested parties before approving Vineyard Wind I. The fishing industry certainly has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this and other offshore wind projects.

A group of Nantucket residents had already sued BOEM over concerns about the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Concerns have also been expressed about the wind farm’s proximity to shore:

Fifteen miles was not OK in North Carolina or Long Island; then why is it OK for Nantucket? It’s just wrong.

David Stevenson, Caesar Rodney Institute

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Block Island Wind Farm

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , on August 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

For the better part of two months now, four of the five wind turbines at America’s first offshore wind farm haven’t been spinning. 

Workers at the Merkur wind farm in the German North Sea found signs of stress fatigue on the support structures of the “helihoist” platforms on some of the project’s GE Haliade turbines. 

The Providence Journal, 8/14/2021

Comments:

  1. Ørsted was prudent to shutdown the turbines to conduct precautionary inspections.
  2. Press reports imply that Ørsted was slow to advise the public about the reasons for the shutdown.
  3. The shutdown raises questions about the reliability of wind-centric regional power grids.
  4. Given the questions that have arisen regarding the regulation of offshore wind projects (this wind farm is in Rhode Island State waters), the absence of any comments from State and local officials was noteworthy. It’s unclear what, if any, role the State had in the shutdown decision.
  5. Hurricane Henri may give the wind farm a bit of a test this weekend.

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UK: Climate Committee Prefers Onshore Wind Turbines

Posted in Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , on May 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In a report into the future of energy, the influential Committee on Climate Change calls on the Government to scale back plans to build thousands of turbines off the coast of Britain.

Instead, the report calls for hundreds more wind turbines to be built onshore at a lower cost over the next eight years.Daily Mail UK

On the other hand, offshore locations have stronger, more consistent winds, and minimal aesthetic and noise impacts. Is the public going to accept massive onshore wind development?

I continue to be intrigued by the concept of offshore energy units which integrate natural gas and wind projects to ensure consistent power supply. (See slide below from a presentation by George Hagerman, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute)

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Another Missing Accident Report

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, Wind Energy, tagged , , , , on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

 

Liftboat Russell Peterson, May 12, 2008

 

Malcolm Sharples reminds us that the Coast Guard still hasn’t completed the investigation of the tragic liftboat accident in May 2008. The boat was conducting research for a proposed offshore wind project.  Why the delay?

Here is more information from Malcolm:

Liftboat  Russell W. Peterson damaged in storm, 1 person died, 1 person injured ; “One dead, one rescued as research vessel sinks off Rehoboth”.  One crewman died today after gale force winds pounded a specialized research ship that was launched in March to study Delaware’s offshore wind power resources, forcing the Coast Guard to pull two crewmen from the sinking vessel. Coast Guard Petty Officer Nick Cangemi said one of the two crew members of the RV Russell W. Peterson did not have any vital signs when a helicopter arrived on the scene this morning. “We took both people to the hospital in Maryland, where the hospital declared one of the gentlemen deceased,” Cangemi said. They were taken to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD.  The ship was left adrift and ran aground at Bethany Beach.

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