Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2022)

INTERVIEW GREG LENNON, VP, GLOBAL OFFSHORE WIND, ABS

Greg Lennon

VP, Global Of shore Wind, ABS

New to ‘classif cation’ as of September 2021, ABS’ new head of global of shore wind delivers a powerful pedigree from the energy and of shore wind markets.

Watch the interview

By Greg Trauthwein with Greg Lennon @ bit.ly/3IXmZWa hile Greg Lennon is new to classi? cation, structure and education. Meanwhile on the west coast, Oregon

ABS’ new head of global offshore wind deliv- announced its 3GW study to commence this year, in 2022, ers a powerful one-two punch in the energy with California announcing that its mandate will be de? ned by

Wand offshore wind markets with more than 20 mid-2022, a pair of moves that promises to help fast-track the years of experience in wholesale power generating as well as concept of ? oating offshore wind.

renewables. “Speci? cally, I’ve been in the offshore wind sec- “Finally, I think the most important thing is the Bureau of tor for over 12 years,” said Lennon in his recent interview Ocean Energy Management announced its auction for six with Maritime Reporter TV. “While I was at a company lease areas off of the New York-New Jersey; the Bight Area,” called NRG, we acquired a company called Bluewater Wind said Lennon. “That has established a signi? cant commitment and they had a lease area off of Delaware. That lease area is for lease areas to be built upon that eventually could be uti- now Skipjack Wind Farm controlled by Ørsted. So, we had lized and bid into those power purchase agreements. So, it’s spent time developing that project 12 years ago. At that time, that project certainty of process, project certainty of scale and turbines were about just under 3MW in size, today we’re talk- commitment for power purchase agreements that has really ing about 15MW turbines.” led the signi? cant market signals that this is an industry that’s

Domiciled in New Jersey, Lennon also spent two years at here, and it’s (an industry) moving forward signi? cantly.” the New York Power Authority, searching for a way to move offshore wind forward south of Long Island, a lease area that Field of Dreams eventually went to auction and that’s now controlled by Equi- While the offshore wind ? eld developers continue to build, nor BP – the Empire Wind Project. plot and plan the evolution of massive offshore wind farms, questions still surround the size, shape and origination of the

A Booming U.S. Market ? eet of vessels that will be needed to install and service the

When Lennon opted to make the move to ABS, he saw a ? elds. In the U.S., implications of the Jones Act will play a horizon ? lled with opportunity, premised by the Biden admin- central role, and a key concern for many years has been the istration’s goal of 30GW of offshore wind power in develop- ability to build out the domestic ? eet and/or hire the foreign ment by 2030. The last two months, in particular, have been ? eet of ship that will play a key part in a seamless start for the busy. “Since you and I last met in November (2021, at the ABS industry, from foundation install to ? rst energy.

Offshore Wind Conference in New Orleans), 3.2GW have “These are good problems to have, and the market will been announced from Maryland and Massachusetts, making it respond,” said Lennon. “We’re going to have a number of just over 25GW of contracted certainty for the market.” projects that are going to be receiving their ? nal permits in

In addition, the State of New York announced a $500 mil- mid-2024 to 2026 or so, built based upon their progress from lion commitment for further infrastructure investments, and environmental assessments to power purchase agreement se- that can also be directly related to supply chain, port infra- curitization. And that’s going to lead to a number of projects 22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • February 2022

MR #2 (18-33).indd 22 2/4/2022 9:25:57 AM