Category: Off_Shore_Wind_MN

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said it plans to issue two Calls for Information and Nominations on April 29, a move seen as crucial in developing projects in the federal waters.

Block Island, 15 miles off the coast at its farthest point, has always been at the mercy of the four winds. Raging winter gusts have been known to rip porches off houses and knock stones off the rock walls that lattice the island’s meadows and pastures. More regularly, breezes delivered to residents the drone of enormous diesel-burning generators, the Rhode Island community’s sole source of power. No one liked it, “but that was just part of island life,” a local real estate agent tells me. People got used to the noise, and those who lived near the power plant—less than half a mile from downtown—resigned themselves to frequently scrubbing soot from their windows and sills.

In April 2021, the United States set an ambitious climate target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, a 100 percent carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, and a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.1 To reach these lofty climate goals, U.S. leaders should look to the ocean for climate solutions. The ocean is an important part of addressing climate change: It already absorbs 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the additional heat generated from those emissions.2 With climate impacts becoming ever more present, the ocean will serve as a key source of drinking water through desalination and food as supplies become scarcer.3 The ocean will also provide clean, renewable energy, including wave, tidal, floating solar, and—most notably—offshore wind. Stronger and more consistent than onshore wind, offshore wind has huge potential to make up a significant portion of the U.S. clean energy mix.4 In fact, offshore wind could provide more than 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of energy in the United States—two times the present generation of the entire U.S. electric grid.5

The United States government netted a record $4.37 billion on Friday from the sale of six offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, a major step in the Biden administration’s goal of ushering in a future powered by renewable energy.

The federal government on Friday announced a record $4.37 billion sale of six offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, moving forward the Biden administration’s goal to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

Governor Kathy Hochul today, alongside United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and other elected officials, celebrated the start of construction of South Fork Wind, New York’s first offshore wind project, jointly developed by Ørsted and Eversourceoff the coast of Long Island. Building on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) January issuance of the Final Sale Notice for the New York Bight, the recent key offshore wind contract milestone, and the State of the State announcement of a nation-leading $500 million investment in offshore wind ports, manufacturing, and supply chain infrastructure to accompany New York’s next offshore wind solicitation, New York continues to advance the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035.

The United States currently produces almost no electricity from wind farms in ocean waters. That’s about to change—fast. State leaders have spent years laying the groundwork: requiring their utilities to purchase set amounts of offshore power by certain dates, investing in ports and transmission infrastructure and setting up workforce training programs.

South Fork Wind, New York’s first offshore wind farm, has received approval of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is the final decision needed from the agency to move the project toward the start of construction.

The Ørsted/Eversource project will power New York homes, but the turbine foundations are being fabricated in Rhode Island.

President Biden’s administration greenlit a major offshore wind project to supply power to New York, arriving as part of a broader push to build out renewable energy and tackle climate change.