Page 41: of Marine News Magazine (September 2019)

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OFFSHORE WIND

Of shore Wind: a Freshening Breeze?

July brought news about of shore wind. T ere was something for everyone: optimism, disappointment, and construction, too.

By Tom Ewing inally, starting with Dominion Energy’s Coastal Vir- Offshore Wind: harder to install than an oil platform ginia Offshore Wind Project, a joint venture with Importantly, a lease doesn’t mean there is a project is ready

Danish wind developer Orsted is underway. True, to go. In reality, there aren’t many projects advancing within

F this is a small project – just two wind turbines to be in- most of the WEAs. There are a lot of project ideas. New stalled 27 miles east of Virginia Beach. But considering York State, for example, on July 18, announced its selection all the preceding hurdles, news about Dominion blew in of two ocean-based wind proposals, a selection in response as proverbial, hopeful fresh air. Surely, additional offshore to a high-pro? le solicitation last November. The projects, wind construction news would quickly follow; news about Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind, are planned for Atlantic a full line-up of projects ready to bust through intermi- Ocean WEAs OCS-A 512 and OCS-A 487, respectively.

nable studies and studies of studies. Except for Block Island in Rhode Island, all the work on

Indeed, there is a lot of offshore wind energy in the US offshore wind is still preliminary, really just a library. developmental pipeline. The table below shows wind Actually, the studies themselves are the projects. This in- energy areas (WEAs) from the Bureau of Ocean Energy vestigative work is quite advanced in one or two WEAs.

Management (BOEM) website, part of the Department In others, lease holders have requested extensions. In some of Interior. BOEM leads all federal offshore energy siting cases, work has stopped.

and development in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Importantly, the Atlantic isn’t the only site with emerging including wind. projects. Icebreaker Wind is a six turbine, 20.7-megawatt

Source: US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) / Notes: The lease number references location, ocean positioning and the ? ling year. SAP=Site Assessment Plan; COP=Construction and Operations Plan.

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