Brakes come off New York ambitions
New York State is seeking to increase procurement of offshore wind from 2.4GW by 2030 to 9GW by 2035.
Authorities can now issue further solicitations following approval from the New York State Public Service Commission.
The expansion of the state’s Clean Energy Standard also allows for an increase in the use of renewable energy from 50% to 70% of total generation by 2030.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “We are further accelerating the state’s historic efforts to grow our renewable capacity and create thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs for New Yorkers that will power our economic recovery while also ensuring a large share of the benefits go to communities and workers that have been historically disadvantaged.”
New York has already issued two solicitations for offshore wind, most recently in July for 2.5GW.
Deadline for submissions for proposals closed on 20 October with winners expected to be named and contracts executed by the end of the year. Equinor’s 816MW Empire Wind and Orsted and Eversource’s 880MW Sunrise Wind joint venture won contracts in the first round of solicitations last year.
There are concerns, however, that there may not be sufficient available lease areas to reach the ambitious targets.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has come under fire for refusing to commit to a timescale for identifying and issuing fresh lease areas for the New York Bight.
Kathleen Rice, Representative for the 4th district of New York, wrote to
BOEM last month calling for it to designate the final offshore wind lease sites for the area, originally slated for 2019, and hold auctions by the end of this year.
In addition, the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency has hired WSP to carry out its own geotechnical studies in a bid to open the area for development.
However, without a politically appointed director in post, some in the sector believe the BOEM does not have the resources to keep up with the east coast state’s push for offshore gigawatts.
Speaking at the American Wind Energy Association’s offshore wind summit last week, Mayflower Wind director of permitting and development Seth Kaplan said: “It is a void that needs to be filled.
“We need objectively to be building gigawatts of offshore wind every single year starting in the very near future.”
Renews: October 2020
TRUMP PUTS CAROLINAS LEASES OUT OF BOUNDS
The US Department of Interior will not lease any further wind acreage off the coasts of North and South Carolina after an executive order by President Donald Trump banned all energy auctions in the area.
The ruling will come into effect from 1 July 2022 and lasts for 10 years. No further lease auctions are planned by the DoI’s Bureau for Ocean Energy Management in the region before this date.
Avangrid’s Kittyhawk site off North Carolina, the only project granted a lease so far, is expected to be unaffected by the ruling.
It does, however, throw into doubt the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s plans to transform the state into an offshore wind industry hub.
National Ocean Industries Association president Erik Milito said the decision “casts tremendous uncertainty on the outlook for wind offshore North Carolina”.
RENEWS: OCTOBER 2020
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LEAVING LITTLE ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE OFF CALIFORNIA
US Department of Defense-designated offshore wind development zones in California’s Morro Bay are nowhere near large enough to meet the state’s climate goals, according to local environmental groups.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, National Audobon Society, Environment Defense Center and the Surfrider Foundation said the locations “would be wholly inadequate to meet the goal of creating a responsible and viable commercial offshore wind industry for California”.
The comment echoes an earlier American Wind Energy Association submission to an ongoing California Energy Commission consultation, which is due to close at the end of this month.Military concerns have stopped the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from issuing leases in Morro Bay, neighbouring Diablo Canyon and Humboldt Bay in northern California.
AWEA-California offshore wind programme director Molly Croll said the areas identified by DoD in Morro Bay total 205 square kilometres of non-contiguous sea space while 260 to 310 square kilometres would be needed per project.
“We are looking for sea space to develop multiple projects,” she added. AWEA would like to see a larger area identified in Morro Bay alone as the region is limited by a national park to the north and a sloping sea floor to the south. However, the association has been unable to discuss the plan with DoD.
Croll said AWEA is hopeful that once discussions around the proposed DoD areas are finished developers could return to talking about the original call areas. “We have really got to start now. We cannot wait another three years.”
EnBW and Trident Winds joint venture Castle Wind intends to bid for a lease area in Morro Bay.
Chief executive Alla Weinstein said decisions on lease areas need to be made soon if California is to meet its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2045. “At the end of the day they have to do the auction. The question is where is the space to make this work,” Weinstein added.
RENEWS: SEPTEMBER 2020
NEW JERSEY SENATE TRIO CALLING FOR FREEZE ON OCEAN WIND CONTRACT
New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has called for Orsted’s 1.1GW Ocean Wind contract to be suspended and the Danish developer to be investigated.
Sweeney, along with assemblymen John Burzichelli and Adam Taliaferro, wrote to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) claiming the company has not kept its promises about economic development in their districts.
Concerns centre around a lack of progress towards building a monopile factory at Paulsboro port.The politicians have called for an investigation into whether the developer misled the regulator when it won the state’s first round of solicitations last year.
Ocean Wind will be sited 24km off Atlantic City and the wind farm is expected to go live in 2024.An NJBPU spokesman would not confirm whether it is investigating the concerns but said Orsted remains a “critical partner”.
The developer said it did not agree with the letter’s claims.“We are disappointed by this unexpected turn of events but remain focused on the jobs, economic development and environmental benefits of offshore wind in New Jersey,” a spokeswoman said.
“We are still in the early stages of developing the state’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.
“The process from start to finish is about seven years and we are well on our way and working hard with our partners toward carefully and mindfully delivering on our $695m in-state spend commitment,” the spokeswoman added.
The utilities board has meanwhile officially launched its second solicitation for up to 2.4GW of offshore wind.
The successful bidders will be named in spring 2021 with an expected operational date of 2027. NJBPU will vote in 2022 to open a third solicitation for at least 1.2GW of capacity with further tenders expected every two years until 2028.