The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed Maryland Offshore Wind Project and is seeking public comment on the statement.
The wind project could generate up to 2,200 megawatts of renewable energy for Delmarva, powering up to 770,000 homes, according to BOEM. The proposal comes as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy goal by 2030.
“Today's announcement represents another milestone under this Administration’s commitment to promoting clean energy production and fighting climate change, while ensuring our efforts are done in a transparent and inclusive manner,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “We value the knowledge we receive from Tribal nations, other government agencies, environmental organizations, local communities, ocean users, and others. Working together, we can reduce conflicts and establish a strong foundation for offshore wind energy projects moving forward.”
US Wind, Inc. has proposed the installation of up to 121 turbines, up to four offshore substation platforms, up to four offshore export cable corridors with landfall in Delaware Seashore State Park, and one meteorological tower, according to BOEM. The proposed area is just under 9 nautical miles off Maryland’s shore and about 9 nautical miles from Delaware’s Sussex County.
The project’s approval will rely on the findings of BOEM’s final Environmental Impact Statement. The draft EIS is available here.
BOEM says a 45-day public comment period on the EIS will commence on October 6th, with comments informing the preparation of the final statement.
Two meetings have been scheduled for the public to learn about BOEM’s review process as well as the potential impacts of the offshore wind project. Those meetings are planned as follows:
Tues., Oct. 24 - 5:00 p.m. Ocean City Elementary, 12828 Center Dr, Ocean City, MD 21842
-Thu., Oct. 26 - 5:00 p.m, Indian River High School, 29772 Armory Rd, Dagsboro, DE 19939
Two virtual meetings have also been planned, one on October 19th at 1 p.m., and another on October 30th at 5 p.m.
No, just no. Offshore wind power is even worse than onshore wind power.
WUWT, Update On Offshore Wind Projects Off The Mid-Atlantic and New England
Robert Bryce has an update on his Substack post from yesterday, October 4. The headline is “Wind Blows.” Here is the lede:
The only thing dumber than onshore wind energy is offshore wind energy. The good news for ratepayers, taxpayers, birds, bats, landscapes, viewsheds, and the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, is that both sectors are getting hammered by market forces that make their projects uneconomic.
And then there is a litany of essentially all the developers paying massive cancellation fees to walk away from what seems like every existing contract for offshore wind development in New England:
On Monday, Avangrid, a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola, announced that it was abandoning the 804-megawatt Park City Wind project offshore Connecticut. . . . In August, Shell and Ocean Winds North America agreed to pay $60 million to cancel contracts to sell power to Massachusetts from the proposed 2,400-megawatt SouthCoast Wind project. In July, Avangrid agreed to pay $48 million to cancel its contract with Massachusetts to sell power from the proposed 1,200-megawatt Commonwealth Wind project. Also in July, Rhode Island Energy announced it was canceling a power purchase agreement with Ørsted and Eversource on the 884-megawatt Revolution Wind project. . . .
Will any of these wildly uneconomic offshore wind projects actually ever get built? Let’s hope not.
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