News
Offshore Wind: Time for a Market Take-off?
Offshore wind activity is experiencing significant growth now in terms of capacity installed. However, the industry is struggling with the costs of development, which have more doubled in 5 years. Read more >>OFFSHORE WIND: States sharing the sea for new industry
September 9, 2009 | ClimateWire
BOSTON -- Plans are brewing to promote a network of offshore wind farms all along the East Coast connected by a transmission "spine" and shared shipping ports where local turbines will embark for deepwater power fields over the horizon. Read more >>
Several companies want to be the first to develop an offshore wind farm in the U.S.
August 16, 2009 | Providence Journal
For months, Rhode Islanders have been hearing sometimes breathless claims from government and business leaders that the Ocean State will have the first offshore wind farm in the nation. Governor Carcieri has led the refrain, repeating his catchphrase, “Spin, baby, spin,” at green energy events across the state. Read more>>
Snowe Secures $5 Million for the National Deepwater Offshore Research Center at the University of Maine
July 29, 2009
| Office of U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today announced $5 million in federal funding for the National Deepwater Offshore Research Center at the University of Maine has been included in the Energy and Water Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which passed the Senate today by a vote of 85 to 9. Read more>>
Texas grants largest offshore wind concessions in the USA
Friday, Jul 17, 2009
| Your Industry News
Baryonyx Corporation, the Texas based, innovative energy company, was the high bidder in the July 14th Texas General Land Office lease sale for two offshore State wind concessions. Additionally, a further State lease was granted for a prospective wind energy development in the Texas Panhandle. Read more >>
Deepwater Wind to get permits for data-collecting equipment
July 15, 2009 | The Providence Journal, R.I.
An avian radar has been set up on Block Island by Deepwater Wind to monitor bird-migration routes. In the background is the Southeast Light. Read more >>
R.I. offshore wind farm would probably be far from sight
May 24, 2009 | The Providence Journal, R.I.
Because of stronger winds and a sea floor with fewer obstacles to construction, the most favorable places for wind turbines in Rhode Island coastal waters appear to be far offshore, where the turbines will be all but invisible from the mainland. Read more >>
Wind-farm developer opens R.I. office
May 19 | The Providence Journal, R.I.
State leaders joined representatives of Deepwater Wind LLC at the opening Monday of the alternative-energy company's Rhode Island office. Read more >>
LIPA and Con Edison Form Collaborative for Major Offshore Wind Initiative
Presidents Burke and Law Also Seek Support for Project From Interior Secretary Salazar
Apr. 20, 2009 | By: Marketwire Read more >>
U.S. to clear way for offshore wind farms
April 22, 2009
WASHINGTON— The Interior Department has finalized sweeping rules that clear the way for the first offshore wind turbines to be erected along the Atlantic Coast, the most aggressive move yet from an administration that hopes to shift the nation's offshore energy goals from oil to wind power. Read more >>
NY wants offshore wind projects in Great Lakes
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) A New York state utility is exploring whether it is possible to put electricity-generating wind turbines in the Great Lakes, rather than inland or along the shoreline. Read more >>
Bluewater’s R.I. wind farm mulled in Vt.
Utilities consider contracts with firm opposed by Carcieri
Providence Business News | April 8, 2009
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont’s two largest electric utilities are examining whether to sign long-term contracts to buy power from an offshore wind farm that Delaware-based Bluewater Wind hopes to build in Rhode Island Sound. Read more >>
Wind turbines could more than meet
U.S. electricity needs, report says
The Interior Department report, which looks at the potential of wind turbines off the U.S. coast, is part of the government's process to chart a course for offshore energy development.
Los Angeles Times | April 3, 2009
Reporting from Arlington, Va. -- Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday. Read more >>
Interior, FERC end feud on offshore renewable projects
New York Times | Greenwire
March 17, 2009
The Interior Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to work together to settle a longstanding conflict over which agency oversees offshore alternative energy, the Interior Department announced today. Read more >>
Massachusetts Energy Board Votes to Approve Cape Wind 'Composite Certificate'
Friday, March 13, 2009 2:57 PM
Business Wire
In a unanimous vote, the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (Siting Board), the agency created by the Legislature to ensure the siting of needed and least environmental impact energy facilities, voted yesterday to grant Cape Wind a Certificate of Environmental Impact and Public Interest (Certificate) that effectively rolls up all nine state and local permits related to the electric cables into one 'composite certificate'. Read more >>
Environment
U.S. boosts Ocean SAMP budget to $3.9M
Annual spending plan includes $666,050 for offshore research
March 12, 2009 | Providence Business News
WASHINGTON – The $410 billion annual spending bill signed yesterday by President Barack Obama includes $666,050 to support Rhode Island’s landmark Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) project, the office of U.S. Sen. Jack Reed announced. Read more >>
South Carolina to Begin Offshore Wind Study
March 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
GEORGETOWN, S.C., -- Officials with Santee Cooper, Coastal Carolina University and the South Carolina Energy Office today announced the launch of weather buoys that will measure wind off the coast of Georgetown and Little River, a significant step that positions South Carolina as a leader in the rapidly developing national wind energy landscape.
Read more>>
Deepwater Wind's proposal for a wind farm off the Rhode Island coast could create as many as 1,200 jobs
3/12/09 | Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE — Deepwater Wind’s $1.5-billion proposal for a wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island could create as many as 1,200 jobs in state to design the project, assemble its components and install them, and, in the longer term, could lead to thousands more jobs manufacturing turbine parts, the company’s chief operating officer told Governor Carcieri and the state’s Economic Policy Council yesterday. Read more >>
URI researchers continue their search
offshore wind farm zoning
1/23/09 | Student Newspaper of the University of Rhode Island
01/23/09 - Researchers at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography and the Rhode Island Coastal Research Management Council are surveying the state's coast to establish areas for the nation's premier offshore wind farm. Read more >>
Feds: Cape wind farm OK for environment
Associated Press | January 17, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) Plans for the nation's first offshore wind farm got a boost Friday when a federal agency rejected high-profile opponents' arguments that the giant turbines would damage the environment off Cape Cod. Read more >>
First Offshore Wind Farm is Meeting Stiff Resistance
WASHINGTON -- The fate of what would be the nation's first offshore wind farm is calling attention to the political obstacles facing renewable power, despite President-elect Barack Obama's determination to greatly expand its use.
Read more >>
REpower assembles 6-MW offshore turbine
CompositesWorld| December 22, 2008
REpower Systems AG (Hamburg, Germany) announced on Dec. 19 that it has completed the assembly of the first three REpower 6M turbines in Bremerhaven. The wind turbines, which each have a rated output of 6 MW, are expected to be erected at the Westre civic wind farm on the German-Danish border. There, they will undergo a comprehensive testing program and checks for certification according to the DIBT classification. Read more >>
Can Offshore Grids Solve Our Wind Power Woes?
pOPULAR MECHANICS | December 11, 2008
The race is on for offshore wind power. The U.S. Department of Energy says that wind power, including offshore wind farms, could account for up to 20 percent of America's electricity generation by 2030. But while the United States scrambles to construct its first offshore wind farm, Europe has over two dozen farms already and is considering implementing huge interconnected offshore power systems to compensate for dying winds or overwhelming storms. Could a similar system work for the United States' huge coasts? PM asked the experts. Read more >>
Offshore Wind May Power the Future
Scientific American | October 20, 2008
The waters of the Jersey Shore may soon become home to the nation's first deepwater wind turbines. New Jersey officials recently announced the state would help fund an initiative by Garden State Offshore Energy to build a 350-megawatt wind farm 16 miles (26 kilometers) offshore. Read more >>
Wind over water
Some see giant wind farms on horizon
for the vast, breezy Great Lakes
jsonline.com | dECEMBER 7, 2008
Madeline Island - Tom Nelson is mostly bald but maximizes the hair he does have by sporting a ponytail. Nelson likes to use what he's got. Read more >>
Little city is at center of a great debate
jsonline.com | dECEMBER 7, 2008
Pipes link the Great Lakes with massive oil reserves in friendly Alberta. They may bring jobs, energy and pollution. And it's all happening as the century of oil gives way to the century of water.
Read more>>
Garden State Offshore Energy Wins
Bid for NJ Offshore Wind Farm
PRNewswire | Oct. 3, 2008
NEWARK, N.J. 350 MW wind farm will generate clean energy and jobs for New Jersey
Located 16 to 20 miles from NJ coast, project expected to have little impact on environment or ocean views. Read more >>
RI awards offshore wind farm rights to NJ firm
Boston Globe | Oct 7, 2008
Rhode Island has granted a New Jersey-based renewable energy firm the right to develop a wind farm miles off the coast that would generate 15 percent of the state's electricity needs in the coming decade, officials said. Read more >>
Off-shore wind farm to be N.J. business’s first
Providence Journal | September 26, 2008
NORTH KINGSTOWN –– The company selected to build a $1.5-billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island has never constructed an offshore project. Read more >>
N.J. firm picked to build Rhode Island’s wind farmProvidence Journal | September 25, 2008
Deepwater Wind, a New Jersey-based firm, has been selected by state officials to finance and build a massive wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, Governor Carcieri plans to announce today. Read more >>
MMS Proposes Offshore Alternative Energy and Alternate Use Regulations
Public review and comments accepted through September 8, 2008
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) today published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that will regulate alternative energy production activities and alternate uses of existing facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The proposed rule is accompanied by a draft environmental assessment analyzing the potential environmental effects of the rulemaking in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
In November 2007, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a Programmatic Environmental Impact Study (PEIS) for alternative energy activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The PEIS establishes a formal Alternative Energy and Alternate Use Program (as opposed to, for example, handling requests on a case-by-case basis). The PEIS also examines the potential environmental effects of covered activities and identifies policies and best management practices that may be adopted. The next step will be proposed regulations to govern the issuance of leases, environmental management, and safety protocols.
Also in November 2007 the MMS issued a Request for Information and Nominations of Areas for Leases to authorize installation of meteorological and marine data collection facilities. This will allow developers to begin data collection at specific locations but will not grant priority rights for subsequent development.
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