Page 23: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2019)

M

MARKET: OFFSHORE WIND

The build-out schedule after that is still up to 5 years. Again, to take advantage ing ASAP. If NY cannot take advantage For a big project, the end of 2019 is evolving. One big-picture goal is to de- of wind tax policies, people are going to of the ITC, how does that change project close. New York’s big challenge is to velop 2,400 MW of offshore wind ener- have to be working some overtime, start- economics? maintain its great momentum.

gy by 2030. Again, NY of? cials believe that the sooner they start, the lower the total costs and New York will be steps ahead of other east coast states seeking the same economic bene? ts. The PSC authorized NYSERDA of? cials to spend almost $20 million between now and 2023 to cover related development costs.

Another pressing, timely issue is that the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) ramps down and expires in 2019. In its

July Order, the PSC makes note of this, writing that “immediate action is needed to take advantage of hundreds of mil- lions of dollars in potential savings.”

The ITC provides a credit for 30% of investment costs at the start of a project.

It is especially signi? cant for offshore wind because such projects are particu- larly capital intensive making up-front bene? ts important. Projects qualify if construction starts before the credit ex- pires.

Project siting is still another unknown.

Siting is a time-consuming process even if everything goes smoothly. (See time- line, previous page.)

In its RFP, NY writes that a prospec- tive developer “must hold an irrevocable right or option to develop the entire Off- shore Wind Generation Facility site foot- print within a federal Bureau of Ocean

Energy Management (BOEM) commer- cial wind energy lease area.”

Innovation | Safety | Performance

BOEM and east coast state of? cials are in the process of identifying WEAs

REGULATORY STABILITY ASSESSMENT SOFTWARE – wind energy areas, an effort that might be completed soon. (The process was slowed by this year’s government shut- down.)

Still, BOEM’s graphic makes clear that many steps remain even after a lease is granted. These steps take time, mea- sured in years in BOEM’s timeline.

Interestingly, there is one leased area in the New York Bight, an area leased to

Equinor (used to be Statoil, the Norwe- gian petroleum/wind energy giant) and,

HECSTAB Ofshore recall from above, Equinor is one of the four companies that responded to NY-

USER DRIVEN | ENDORSED WORLDWIDE: HECSTAB

SERDA’s request for proposals.

is a versatile tool for the Naval Architect involved in

Equinor signed a 31-year lease with design and regulatory evaluation of non-ship shaped

BOEM in March 2017, paying $42.4 million. Annual rent is $238,050, which assets. In addition to traditional fxed-axis free-to-trim changes when the site generates power. calculations, HECSTAB can perform variable heeling

The lease has a 1-year “preliminary axis (free twist) calculations, greatly reducing the number term” (passed now) and a 5-year “site of calculated conditions. assessment term.” Then a 25-year “op- erations term.”

Site assessment is a critical part of the

BOEM process. But note that it can take www.herbert-abs.com www.marinelink.com 23

MR #4 (18-25).indd 23 4/2/2019 11:45:48 AM