offshore wind energy

BP buys 50 percent interest in Equinor U.S. offshore wind projects

BP is buying a 50 percent share in Equinor's Empire Wind project near New York Harbor and its Beacon Wind lease off Massachusetts. NYSERDA image.

Energy major BP is spending $1.1 billion to acquire a 50 percent ownership with Norway-based offshore wind developer Equinor in its two Northeast U.S. waters projects, for what the companies call “a strategic partnership for future growth.”

The deal commits BP and Equinor to share in developing the Empire Wind lease area outside the New York Harbor approaches, and the Beacon Wind lease located south of Massachusetts.

Equinor acquired one of the earliest U.S. East Coast wind power leases in 2017...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/bp-buys-50-percent-interest-in-equinor-u-s-offshore-wind-projects/

ABS approval for new 30-meter offshore wind vessel

A new 30-meter crew transfer vessel design for the emerging East Coast offshore wind energy industry has won preliminary approval from the American Bureau of Shipping, in what the designers call “a further stepping-stone towards an advanced, class-certified, Jones Act-compliant fleet of offshore wind support vessels for the U.S. market.

Naval architects BAR Technologies and Chartwell Marine announced the award of an  Approval in Principle (AiP) from ABS Aug. 18 for the design and construction of...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/abs-approval-for-new-30-meter-offshore-wind-vessel/

Offshore wind job fair set for Aug. 18

The wind turbine installation vessel Vole au Vent installs the first wind turbine in U.S. federal lease waters, as part of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, June 20, 2020. Dominion Energy photo.

Offshore wind energy developers will be recruiting at a first-ever U.S. job fair for the industry, an Aug. 18 virtual event hosted by the Business Network for Offshore Wind.

It’s part of the non-profit group’s International Partnership Forum, an annual conference that this year moved to online as a result of covid-19. The OSW CareerMatch Job Fair will feature companies leading the emerging U.S. offshore wind market, including Dominion Energy, Principal Power, Siemens Gamesa, MHI Vestas and Avangr...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/offshore-wind-job-fair-set-for-aug-18/

Offshore wind advocates, fishermen push last arguments for BOEM study

The Rhode Island-based fishing vessel Virginia Marise near the Block Island Wind Farm. Deepwater Wind photo.

With the public comment period closing near midnight, advocacy groups for the offshore wind and commercial fishing industries marshaled their supporters for a last push to influence federal regulators.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is closing the 45-day comment period on its supplemental environmental impact statement for the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project proposed off southern New England. With the clock ticking to 11:59 p.m. Monday, a coalition of East Coast fishermen and seafood...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/offshore-wind-advocates-fishermen-push-last-arguments-for-boem-study/

Coast Guard challenged on offshore wind traffic study

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management's supplemental environmental impact statement for the Vineyard Wind project considers a proposal for four nautical-mile-wide vessel transit lanes. BOEM image.

A Coast Guard study that recommends against designated vessel transit lanes through New England offshore wind turbine arrays “contains serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction,” commercial fishing advocates say in a formal objection to the findings.

The Coast Guard’s Massachusetts and Rhode Island Port Access Route Study endorsed wind power developers’ proposal for a uniform grid layout of 1 nautical mile between turbine towers on their neighboring federal leases off...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/coast-guard-challenged-on-offshore-wind-traffic-study/

Offshore wind developers, designers size up first U.S. SOVs

The 269'x59' VARD 4 04 SOV design will be capable of accommodating up to 40 offshore wind technicians with all their equipment at sea for sustained work periods. Vard Marine US image.

With Dominion Energy’s completion of the first two offshore wind turbines on a federal lease, the Virginia-based power company and its partner Ørsted are looking to have the first U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel – essential to building offshore wind turbine projects – designed and built for a planned 2.6 gigawatt array off Virginia.

“It would be an option for our project, particularly when we get to these larger turbines,” said Mark Mitchell, vice president of generator construction...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/offshore-wind-developers-designers-size-up-first-u-s-sovs/

Support for 1-mile offshore wind turbine spacing in BOEM’s first ‘virtual’ public hearing

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management's supplemental environmental impact statement for the Vineyard Wind project considers a proposal for four nautical-mile-wide vessel transit lanes. BOEM image.

Supporters of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project came out online June 26 to call on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to approve the 800-megawatt plan in southern New England waters, with spacing turbine towers in a 1 nautical mile grid.

“Vineyard Wind 1 is the most significant step we can take” for reducing carbon emissions in Massachusetts, said Tom Soldini of Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., adding that the company will provide 40 to 50 permanent jobs to the...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/support-for-1-mile-offshore-wind-turbine-spacing-in-boems-first-virtual-public-hearing/

Delaware River site chosen for New Jersey offshore wind port

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state will develop a dedicated offshore wind energy port on the lower Delaware River, spending up to $400 million to support the state’s ambitious goal of developing 7,500 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2035.

Located adjacent to the Hope Creek nuclear power station in Lower Alloways Creek Township in rural Salem County, the site of 200-plus acres is close to the deep-draft ship channel from Philadelphia to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic – and downstream...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/delaware-river-site-chosen-for-new-jersey-offshore-wind-port/

‘Superfeeder’ design offers Jones Act solution for offshore wind developers

A Louisiana-based offshore services firm and naval architects plan to build a new “superfeeder” class of vessel to provide offshore wind energy developers a Jones Act-compliant system for transporting turbine components from U.S. ports to installation sites.

The 408’x131’x16.4’ “SuperFeeder” will be a fully DP-2 dynamic positioning vessel, propelled by three diesel-electric 2,500-kW Z-Drives and two 1,200-kW tunnel bow-thrusters, and capable of 10 knots cruising speed while fully loaded with...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/superfeeder-design-offers-jones-act-solution-for-offshore-wind-developers/

BOEM issues new draft environmental statement on Vineyard Wind

urbines at the Deepwater Wind array off Block Island, R.I. Department of Energy photo.

A long-anticipated Bureau of Ocean Energy Management study of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind offshore energy project – broadened to examine potential impacts of similar projects from Maine to Georgia – has been released for a 45-day public comment period.

The draft supplemental environmental impact statement acknowledges Vineyard Wind and other planned wind turbine arrays will have major impacts on the commercial fishing industry. That aspect was flagged as a failing of an earlier impact...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/boem-issues-new-draft-environmental-statement-on-vineyard-wind/

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