Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2020)

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Protecting the Future of Offshore Wind

Hurdles ahead are lowering ... slowly

Photos: © Federico Rostagno/AdobeStock he American offshore wind outlook is bright. Coasts ports that are tasked with building the offshore wind in-

Regulatory and technological questions re- dustry. While companies are spending millions of dollars up- garding offshore wind are clearing up. Atlantic grading and expanding existing East Coast port facilities, there

T states are offering to purchase more and more is no one single port that can handle every type of project needed gigawatts of wind-produced energy. Wind pro- to build an entire offshore wind industry. Wind developers, and ducers have demonstrated that they are will- their vendors, will utilize a network of East Coast ports to meet ing to make substantial fnancial commitments to the industry. their various needs. The complexity of orchestrating such a lo-

With all this progress, however, one cloud stubbornly remans: gistical network, means that if there is a “stacking effect” at one the Vineyard Wind permitting delay. port, there could be ripples of delays at virtually every other East

Offshore Massachusetts, the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind Coast port. is supposed to be the frst offshore, utility-scale wind project. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the fed-

In August 2019, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management eral regulator with authority over offshore wind leasing, under- (BOEM) announced a delay of the Final Environmental Impact stands these risks. BOEM delaying Vineyard Wind, shows, al-

Statement (FEIS). In February 2020, BOEM updated the permit- most counterintuitively, how invested the government is in the ting timeline for Vineyard Wind, saying the FEIS will be out by success of offshore wind. Getting it right is more important than mid-December 2020. getting it frst. This means fnalizing an environmental analysis

Delays, especially regulatory delays, are disappointing and that can be used to support and streamline approvals for vast worrisome for supporters of any type of project. But for offshore offshore wind projects that are being planned throughout the At- wind supporters, the Vineyard Wind delay doesn’t just impact lantic. one project or one company. The Vineyard Wind delay could Cape Wind is a warning of what can happen to a new industry. have a ripple effect throughout the entire America offshore wind Vineyard Wind was not always supposed to be the frst offshore sector and impact the ability of wind producers to provide a new American wind project. Cape Wind owned that distinction. The energy source of millions of onshore consumers. $2.6 billion project with 130 turbines would eventually power

The Vineyard Wind delay could create bottlenecks at the East 200,000 along Cape Cod. But onerous regulations and short- 14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2020