Resources

Release of U.S. Offshore Wind Energy: A Path Forward

The U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative (USOWC) announces the release of U.S. Offshore Wind Energy: A Path Forward, a resource for government, industry, and non-governmental stakeholders that offers a snapshot of U.S. offshore wind energy activity in 2009.

June Convention provides useful resources

Offshore Renewable Energy: A Regulatory Primer
The National Sea Grant Law Center is pleased to announce the availability of "Offshore Renewable Energy: A Regulatory Primer." The Regulatory Primer provides basic information on regulatory authorities with respect to offshore wind, wave, tidal, and ocean thermal energy conversion projects. It also briefly discusses state authority, local concerns, and an emerging alternative management framework - marine spatial planning. Its brevity and straight-forward explanations should help Sea Grant extension agents, communicators, local decision-makers and anyone else struggling to understand the complex regulatory framework. Download the primer >>

Great Lakes Wind Collaborative
2nd Annual Meeting
June 10-11, 2009
Change is in the Wind

LIPA-ConEdison Offshore Wind Farm project

This report summarizes the findings with respect to a critical aspect of a recently
announced joint initiative to investigate the potential of renewable energy. Engineers
from Con Edison and LIPA combined forces to determine the feasibility of their
transmission systems to connect with and support a large source of new wind power to
be located off the south shore of Long Island. Read more >>

Minerals Management Service

ACTION: Final rule; Notice of Availability of the Final Environmental Assessment.
SUMMARY: The MMS is publishing final regulations to establish a program to grant
leases, easements, and rights-of-way (ROW) for renewable energy project activities on
the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), as well as certain previously unauthorized activities
that involve the alternate use of existing facilities located on the OCS; and to establish the
methods for sharing revenues generated by this program with nearby coastal States.
These regulations will also ensure the orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible
development of renewable energy sources on the OCS. Read more >>

Final Proceedings of DOE Wind Workshops Now Available

The final proceedings from the Department of Energy's (DOE) Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program (WHTP) 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Workshop and the Wind Manufacturing Workshop are now available. Click here for the pdf. The DOE sought additional input on these proceedings from the public through a Request for Information (RFI) February 26 through April 3, 2009. Almost 80 comments were received from various entities including developers, investors, industry, other federal and state governments, renewable energy equipment suppliers, electric utilities, independent power producers, environmentalists, academics, and public, private, or non-profit entities. Download >>

Department of Energy

Comments submitted from the USOWC to DOE in response to their
request for information on R & D priorities Read more >>

DOE's Wind Powering America Priority States Outreach
November 2008 | A report for download
On October 6-7, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program hosted a workshop focused on achieving 20% of the nation's electricity from wind by 2030. Held in Arlington, Virginia, the workshop brought together participants from industry, government, nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholder groups to develop a National Wind Energy Roadmap for boosting U.S. wind power generation to 300 GW.

The National Wind Energy Roadmap will be developed over the coming months using the stakeholder input gathered at the workshop. It will also incorporate the results of the U.S. Wind Manufacturing Workshop, held August 27-28, 2008, which identified specific priorities for the manufacturing sector.

Using DOE's recent report 20% Wind Energy by 2030 as a starting point, the National Wind Energy Roadmap will assist DOE planning and decision making in support of a major scale-up of domestic wind energy resources. The Roadmap will verify the most significant barriers to deployment and the strategies to overcome them, and will identify pathways to build a sustainable industry with broad stakeholder involvement. It will prioritize research and development needs, establish timeframes, and consider the respective roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders to support the achievement of 20% wind energy.

Click here for Offshore Wind Technologies and Siting Strategies PDF

Past Conference Presentations

EBC Wind Energy Seminar: The Emerging Regulatory Environment for Offshore Wind Energy Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Federal Offshore Alternative Energy Program
Maureen Bornholdt, Minerals Management Service Offshore Alt. Energy Program

Cape Wind Project – The FEIS and Status of State Approvals
Mark Rodgers, Communications Director, Cape Wind

Permitting Under the MMS Interim Policy - Experience from the Mid-Atlantic
Doug Pfeister, Regulatory Manager, Bluewater Wind

Click here for Offshore Wind Technologies and Siting Strategies - Peter Mandelstam Panel PDF

******************

On September 9, 2008, the Steering Committee of the US Offshore Wind Collaborative convened a meeting of coastal and Great Lakes states actively involved or interested in offshore wind energy planning and development, during the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) Offshore Wind Workshop in Wilmington Delaware.
Click here for a summary of the event.
Click here for a summary of state offshore wind related initiatives.

Projects

Cape Wind

Cape Wind Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
The FEIS assesses the physical, biological and social/human impacts of the proposed project and all reasonable alternatives, including a no-action alternative (i.e., the project is not built), and proposed mitigation. The analysis is conducted in an objective fashion in order to determine if the proposal is environmentally sound. Read more >>

Southern Winds

Summary Project Report 2007
A study of wind power generation
potential off the Georgia coast. Read more >>

Bluewater Wind Delaware

Deepwater Wind RI

Read Governor's press release >>

Reports

Wind Energy for a New Era
Developed for the new President and Congress, Wind Energy for a New Era presents the wind energy industry's federal policy agenda.

US Offshore Wind Collaborative

Frequently Asked Questions | July 2008 Update

*****************************

A Framework for Offshore Wind Energy Development in the United States
The Framework identifies the technical, environmental, economic, and regulatory needs required for the responsible development of our nation’s offshore wind energy potential, as well as strategies for addressing them.

Other Resources

American Wind Energy Association http://www.awea.org/
Bluewaterwind http://www.bluewaterwind.com/
Cape Wind http://www.capewind.org/
Clean Energy States Alliance http://www.cleanenergystates.org/index.html
Deep Water Wind http://www.dwwind.com/
US Department of Energy http://www.energy.gov/
Great Lakes Collaborative http://www.glc.org/
Mass Audubon http://www.massaudubon.org/
MMS http://www.mms.gov/
MTS http://www.mtsociety.org/
NREL http://www.nrel.gov/
www.Offshorewind.net
Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/

Minerals Management Service (MMS)

Guidelines for the Minerals Management Service Renewable Energy Framework July 2009

Survey of Available Data on OCS Resources& Identification of Data Gaps
Executive Summary
OCS Report MMS 2009-015

The United States Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS), has prepared a final programmatic EIS in support of the establishment of a program for authorizing alternative energy and alternate use (AEAU) activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), as authorized by Section 388 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), and codified in subsection 8(p) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). The final programmatic EIS examines the potential environmental effects of the program on the OCS and identifies policies and best management practices that may be adopted for the program. The Final Programmatic EIS is now available for downloading or browsing online.

OWC Pilot Projects

In order to demonstrate serious intent to develop the Offshore Wind Collaborative (OWC), initiate work in key known areas of interest and engage the Massachusetts institutions in the development of the Framework, MTC, GE and the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to fund a set of pilot projects representative of the kinds of initiatives OWC would undertake once established. The Massachsuetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Massachusetts (UMass), and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) worked cooperatively to develop 6 pre-proposals which: 1) emphasize joint work among the institutions; and 2) demonstrate the broad intention of OWEC to target areas beyond fundamental questions of engineering to include important environmental and public policy concerns.

The final reports of the funded pilot projects can be accessed below:

Geotechnical Considerations for Offshore Wind Turbines
Zachary J. Westgate and Jason T. DeJong
August 1, 2005

This report focuses primarily on the site condition assessment and
foundation modeling, design, and to a lesser extent, the installation aspects required for successful development of an offshore wind farm.

Economic and Environmental Performance of Potential
Northeast Offshore Wind Energy Resources
Michael Berlinski and Stephen Connors
Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives
Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
December 31, 2005

This project focused on gathering and assessing offshore wind resource
information along the Northeastern United States coast, and evaluating the
potential economic and environmental performance of these resources.

This project addresses fundamental economic and environmental issues related to
the costs and benefits of deep-water offshore wind for New England. It identifies
key performance thresholds including cost, and quantifies the variability of the
offshore wind regime. It also highlights areas for further research needed to
refine and extend these and other performance metrics.

Offshore Wind Farm Layout Optimization (OWFLO) Project: Preliminary Results
Christopher N. Elkinton, James F. Manwell, and Jon G. McGowan
University of Massachusetts Amherst

The objective of the project is to pinpoint the major economic hurdles present for
offshore wind farm developers by creating an analysis tool that unites offshore turbine micrositing criteria with efficient optimization algorithms. This tool will then be used to evaluate the effects of factors such as distance from shore and water depth on the economic feasibility of offshore wind energy.

Wind Turbine Underwater Noise and Marine Mammals: Implications of Current Knowledge and Data Needs
P. T. Madsen, M. Wahlberg, J. Tougaard, K. Lucke, andP. Tyack

This paper reviews the existing literature and assesses zones of impact from different noise-generating activities in conjunction with wind farms on representative shallow-water species of marine mammals.

Legal And Regulatory Framework for Siting Offshore Wind Energy Facilities
P. Hoagland, M.E. Schumacher, H.L. Kite-Powell, and J.A. Duff

This study is designed to help clarify national and local decisions about the siting of wind
power generating facilities in the US coastal ocean.