![]() In the end, it was BOEM that was forced to agree. “We hope that, on reflection, NMFS will concur with our conclusion,” wrote one BOEM official in a private letter to NMFS, according to a Reuters report in July 2019. BOEM, the lead agency for the permitting, chafed at its rejection. Its clout was on display last year when, as Vineyard Wind 1 was seeking one of several permits it needs from the federal government, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) refused to sign off, saying that the concerns of the fishing industry had not been fully addressed. INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY, OFFSHORE WIND OUTLOOK 2019 Wind turbine manufacturers like Siemens, MHI Vestas and GE Renewable Energy continue to build larger … Earlier this month, fishing groups applauded when Trump signed an executive order to lift commercial fishing limits at a marine sanctuary off New England. Under President Donald Trump, it has also enjoyed greater political influence. New England and the Atlantic states created around $2 billion in economic value and provided tens of thousands of jobs in 2017, according to a 2018 report by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In the East, the fishing industry is a heavyweight. Instead, they now face more discussions with the fishing industry. “It’s widely expected that whatever approach BOEM takes here, it could take across the board” for wind farms seeking a federal permit.ĭevelopers might have hoped that the BOEM study would allow them to focus on other obstacles to future wind development, such as ensuring that states stick to their promises to buy generous amounts of electricity from future offshore wind farms. “Everybody in the industry has been holding their breath to see how BOEM is going to treat those ‘cumulative effects’ for Vineyard,” said Julia Wood, a partner at law firm Van Ness Feldman. It was a blow not just to Vineyard Wind 1 but to the many other projects that hope to follow. The report also noted that climate change will be a contributing factor. “Major cumulative effects could occur on commercial fisheries,” the report warned, largely due to the potential for boat traffic congestion and lack of space for boats towing large trawling nets. With likely spacing of one nautical mile between each turbine, the turbines would sprawl across 160,000 acres - nearly the size of New York City.īut last week, in a long-awaited study, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) re-characterized the likely adverse effects of future offshore wind farms on commercial fisheries as “major.” It was a sign that the developers of Vineyard Wind 1 - a joint venture called Vineyard Wind that consists of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and renewables company Avangrid - will need to work harder to appease the East Coast’s fishing industry. Its 57 to 100 turbines will each stretch nearly 700 feet in the air. The very first of these projects, called Vineyard Wind 1, is in some respects a larger, higher-tech successor to Cape Wind. Vineyard … ĪMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION (AWEA), MARCH 2020 Names of some of the offshore wind projects companies plan to build along the East Coast. Democrat-led states in New England have championed offshore wind as a way to take advantage of the high wind speeds off the coast and save space along crowded waterfront towns and cities while providing zero-carbon electricity. The costs of offshore wind plummeted by 64% between 20, mainly thanks to the invention of ever-larger turbines and deepening supply chains tied to Europe. It seemed the US was destined to lag behind its peers.īut now the playing field has changed. ![]() Energy Management declared it dead in December 2017.Ĭape Wind’s historic failure, even as Europe and Asia add more offshore wind farms every year, has become an infamous cautionary tale for the wind development industry. Facing relentless opposition from wealthy homeowners on Nantucket Sound, including the billionaire industrialist William Koch and the late Democratic senator Edward Kennedy, it drowned in a sea of lawsuits over 16 years. This is where a Boston-based company called Energy Management planned to build 130 Statue of Liberty-sized turbines, enough to supply power to 200,000 homes.īut the project known as Cape Wind never made it beyond the planning stages. On a windy stretch of ocean ten miles northeast of Martha’s Vineyard lies the watery grave of America’s first major offshore wind farm.
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