U.S. Offshore Wind: The Struggle Continues

By Kennedy Maize -- August 21, 2024

This post updates the financial troubles of Denmark’s Ørsted, recent BOEM auctions, and pushback against Maryland governor Wes Moore. Today, operational offshore wind capacity is less than 50 megawatts versus the Biden-Harris Administration goal of 30,000 MW by 2030.

Ørsted

Denmark’s Ørsted, the worldwide leading offshore wind developer, recorded a $575 million loss in the second quarter. In part, the loss is the result of disappointing developments in the U.S.

The company has delayed commercial operation of its 704-MW Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut from 2025 to 2026. Ørsted’s ambitious U.S. offshore wind program has been lagging, despite solid support (subsidies, permits) from the Biden administration.

A year after an Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auction for Gulf of Mexico leases failed to attract significant interest, BOEM continues to delay another attempt to find adequate bidders off the east coast.

Reuter’s summarized Ørsted’s issues:

Ørsted’s impairment losses also related to its Ocean Wind project in the United States whose development it halted last year, an increase in U.S. interest rates, and its decision to cease development of its green e-methanol FlagshipOne project, which was due to open in Sweden next year. Shares in Ørsted, once a green investor favourite, ended down 7.2%, having fallen as much as 9.3% earlier. They remain at less than one-third of their value since peaking in early 2021.

BOEM Auctions

In March, BOEM solicited interest in another Gulf of Mexico auction, which resulted in industry yawns. The agency stated on July 26th that it

received 25 comments in response to the March 2024 [Proposed Sale Notice], with one company expressing interest in participating. As a result, BOEM is cancelling this sale due to a lack of competitive interest. BOEM may decide to move forward with a lease sale at a future time, based on industry interest.

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BOEM last week (Aug. 14) held a lease sale for the Mid-Atlantic region, off Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia with takers.

Norway’s Equinor Wind won a provisional lease for 101,443 acres some 26 nautical miles off Delaware for $75 million. Dominion Energy’s Virginia Electric and Power subsidiary won a provisional lease for 176,505 acres 35 miles off the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay for $18 million. Six companies participated in the auction.

The Equinor lease is not far from where Baltimore-based US Wind has a federal lease for a proposed two-phase, 2-GW project off Maryland’s Ocean City. BOEM last month (July 29) issued a final Environmental Impact Statement for the Maryland project. Maryland has also issued renewable energy certificates for the US Wind project.

US Wind, reports BOEM,

proposes to install up to 114 turbines, up to four offshore substation platforms, one meteorological tower, and up to four corridors for offshore export cables, which would make landfall in Delaware Seashore State Park. The lease area is approximately 8.7 nautical miles offshore Maryland and approximately 9 nautical miles offshore Sussex County, Delaware, at its closest points to shore.

US Wind, in partnership with Spain’s Haizea Windgroup, is also developing a plant to make monopile foundations for wind projects at Baltimore’s Sparrows Point, once the home of Bethlehem Steel when it was the world’s largest steel mill. According to the company

“Sparrows Point Steel is poised to become the best offshore wind heavy logistics and fabrication yard on the East Coast. Haizea’s depth of knowledge and expertise will cement Maryland’s role as a hub of offshore wind manufacturing in the U.S.”

MD Gov. Wes Moore vs. Critics

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore last week (Aug. 16) faced opponents of his aggressive push for offshore wind in Ocean City. Local TV station WBOC spoke to Moore about growing local opposition on the eastern shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Earlier in the month, Moore signed a memorandum of understanding with BOEM to open up more offshore federal land to wind development. Last year, Maryland passed a new law expanding the state’s goal for offshore wind development to 8.5 GW.

Moore told WBOC, “You’re talking about being able to power three million homes in the state of Maryland and turn us into a net exporter of clean energy. That’s exciting, it’s new jobs, it’s new opportunities.”

Many people on the Eastern Shore, particularly those who depend on the Chesapeake Bay for a living, see burgeoning wind farms as a potential disruption to their ways of life. Jimmy Hahn, an Ocean City area commercial fisherman, told the TV station, “They’re trying to steal our grounds, they’ve stolen our bottom, they’ve stolen the area that we fish in, their last resort is to buy the place where we sell our fish at and once they accomplish that we have nowhere else to work.”

Moore responded, “All those conversations have to happen with local leaders, it has to happen with local communities. There has to be measures of both transparency and accountability as to what we’re hoping for and what we’re going to achieve.”

Vineyard Wind: Yellow Flag

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has given Avangrid a yellow flag to continue limited work on its Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast.

BSEE shut down the 804-MW project last month following the failure of a 351-foot blade on one of its turbines, spreading debris widely to beaches on nearby Nantucket Island and as far as mainland beaches on Cape Cod. Reuters reported that the Interior Department agency last week (Aug. 13) confirmed the updated shutdown order, while Avangrid and blade maker G Vernova continue to investigate the cause of the massive blade failure.

“The updated suspension order still does not allow further blade installation or power production at this time, the companies said,” according to Reuters. Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova said they are removing portions of the damaged blade that remained on the wind turbine to remove risks of further ocean debris.