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Starter’s ordersKeynote speakers at the opening of AWEA Offshore Windpower 2017 include Danish Energy Minister Lars Christian Lilleholt and AWEA CEO Tim Kiernan.Tuesday, 9.15 am to 10.45 am, Grand Ballroom
New York aims to take US top billingNew York is “open for business” for offshore wind and is finalising plans to issue a first solicitation next year, according to New York State Energy Research and Development Authority president and CEO Alicia Barton (pictured).
Speaking ahead of AWEA Offshore Windpower 2017, she declared: “New York is the most exciting offshore wind market in the US in light of the bold steps we are taking to move forward towards Governor Cuomo’s goal of 2400MW (installed capacity) by 2030.
“We are undertaking a lot of work to advance that goal as quickly as possible.”
The authority is putting the finishing touches to a procurement framework and expects to submit a proposal to regulators this fall. “Our goal is to put ourselves on a path where we could see a first solicitation by the end of 2018,” she said.
“We are looking at 2024 as a realistic first in-service year for the first generation project.”
Norwegian developer
Dominion step up to 8MW turbines off VirginiaDominion Energy has ditched plans to deploy two 6MW turbines at its Coastal Virginia offshore wind demo project and is now eyeing a pair of 8MW machines. p2
Supply and installation bids roll in for IcebreakerFred Olsen is “deep into” procurement and detailed design at the proposed 20.7MW Icebreaker demonstration wind farm off Ohio, according to local partner Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation. p3
BOEM looks to take the pain out of permittingThe Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working on plans to simplify and speed up the permitting process for offshore wind developers in the US. p4
INSIDE STORY: Alicia Barton will speak during the ‘First Look into the New York Offshore Wind Master Plan’ session at the conference on Wednesday
Photo: Courtesy of NYSERDA
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LiVESHOW HIGHLIGHTS
The social networkEnd day one with a networking reception. It is your chance to meet the great and good of the US industry and make your mark.Tuesday, 5.45 pm to 6.45 pm, Terrace/Palm Room
Greet and eatShare a bite with exhibitors at the lunch reception on day two. Food will be provided to attendees in the exhibit area.Wednesday, 12.15 pm to 1.30 pm, Terrace/Palm Room
BOEM brains trustA chance for delegates to give the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management their thoughts on emerging issues and priorities. Limited seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.Wednesday, 1.00 pm to 2.00 pm, Hudson Suite
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Turbine pick to open contracts floodgates at 248MW MarylandDevelopment is in top gear at US Wind’s 248MW Maryland project, the country’s first utility-scale offshore project. p5
US foundation selection leaves lump in the throatLocal seabed conditions in the US Northeast may cause headaches for developers when it comes to selecting turbine foundations, according to an expert. p6
Statoil paid a record high price for rights to the New York wind energy area and other leaseholders along the Eastern seaboard are keen to sell offshore wind power to the state.
“We are following the New York market very closely,” said Orsted Americas chief Thomas Brostrom. The developer already holds
leases off New Jersey and Massachusetts.
New York plans to hold regular solicitations and “provide a pipeline that will really send a strong market signal (and) a strong investment signal to the industry”, said Barton.
NYSERDA recently asked federal regulators to lease at least four new 800MW areas south of Long Island.
“That is a really significant step toward addressing one of the issues that we have faced, which is access to enough lease areas that will drive competition and competitive pricing as we build the most cost-effective offshore wind market that we can.”
Another New York federal lease auction is expected in late 2019. NYSERDA participated in the 2016 tender but does not intend to bid in future sales.
Offshore wind offers New York the chance to be a first mover and capture the jobs and economic investment that come “with building an entirely new industry in the US”, Barton said.
Ocean Planning: New Data and Stakeholder Engagement Tools for Advancing Offshore Renewable EnergyPanellists will discuss how ocean planning, along with the new data available to ocean users and industry professionals, will advance renewable energy development in the US. Speakers include Aileen Kenney, vice president for permitting and environmental affairs at Deepwater Wind.Tuesday, 10.45 am to 11.45 am
Realising the Supply Chain and Jobs Potential of the East CoastA panel of speakers including representatives of Siemens Gamesa, NYSERDA and MassCEC discuss how offshore wind can be an employment boon for the US.Tuesday, 2.25 pm to 3.45 pm
Keynote AddressLieutenant Governor of the state of New York Kathy Hochul will give a keynote address on Wednesday. Wednesday, 9.15 am to 09.30 am
Preparing Ports and Vessels for Offshore Wind DeploymentWhat needs to be done to ensure the US sector has access to the right onshore facilities and vessels for building wind farms. Speakers include NYSERDA senior advisor Greg Matzat and GustoMSC senior engineer Karel Wagner.Wednesday, 10.45 am to 11.45 am
Dominion step up to 8MW kit off Virginia
US seed-corn for foreign projects
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Conference Highlights
Dominion Energy has ditched plans to deploy two 6MW turbines at its Coastal Virginia offshore wind demonstration project and is now eyeing a pair of 8MW machines.
The beefed-up 16MW project was originally based on two GE Haliade 150 units. A spokesman declined to discuss specifics around hardware choice but confirmed “two 8MW turbines” are now in the frame.
The demo, which had been on hold due to spiralling costs, has been resurrected after Danish developer Orsted, the recently renamed Dong Energy, joined as an engineering, procurement and construction partner earlier this year.
“We are still exploring the right turbine for the project,” said Orsted Americas chief Thomas Brostrom. Dominion
The US Trade and Development Agency has awarded grants to support offshore projects in the Caribbean and Asia.
The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica has secured cash to hire US outfit Keystone Engineering for a feasibility study into a wind farm off the island nation.
Vietnamese outfit Power
Engineering Consulting Joint Stock Company 2 has also been awarded funding to support development of the two-stage, 100MW Tan Thuan project off Ca Mau province.
US engineering consultancy DNV GL will carry out project design and feasibility studies into the near-shore wind farm.
plans to install the machines in federal waters about 40km off Virginia Beach, on 864 hectares leased by the state Department of Mines Minerals and Energy.
The developer has yet to confirm foundation design, although initial plans were based on twisted jackets. Late 2020 remains the target date for start of operations, a spokesman said.
Brostrom added: “It will probably be three to four
years to have them (the turbines) up and spinning. We are working to nail down the execution plan”.
The pilot project is a stepping stone for Orsted as it now holds exclusive rights to pursue a strategic partnership for Dominion’s neighbouring 2GW commercial lease area.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is reviewing a site assessment plan for the 45,650-hectare site.
Supply and installation bids flow in for Icebreaker demo
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IN BRIEFn Global Marine Systems is to buy Dutch subsea specialist Fugro’s trenching and cable-lay services business for around $73m, acquiring 23 employees located in Aberdeen, Scotland, multi-purpose vessel MV Symphony, two Q1400 trenchers and two remotely operated vehicles.
n French engineer Ideol has inaugurated a Floatgen floating wind turbine at the port of Saint-Nazaire and has begun towing the structure to the Sem-Rev experimental test site off Le Croisic. The project features a 2MW Vestas V80 turbine atop a floating steel hull and is scheduled to be installed before the year-end.
n Innogy has issued an €850m green bond to refinance four offshore wind farms in Germany and the UK, as well as an onshore project in the Netherlands.
n Fugro and Taiwanese surveying outfit International Ocean Vessel Technical Consultant have teamed up to deploy a floating lidar buoy off the Asian country’s coast to collect wind data.
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TURBINE TEMPLATE: Icebreaker is set to deploy MHI Vestas V126-3.45MW units, sister hardware to the V112-3.45MW machines currently being erected at Eon’s Rampion wind farm off southern England Photo: Eon
Fred Olsen is “deep into” procurement and detailed design at the proposed 20.7MW Icebreaker demonstration wind farm off Ohio, according to local partner Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation.
A total of six bids for the supply and installation of array and export cables were received this month by the Norwegian developer, said Leedco president Lorry Wagner.
A further three companies submitted proposals for supply and installation of the onshore substation. Winners of both contracts will be named by the year-end.
Fred Olsen has also issued a preliminary tender to about 15 potential candidates for the installation of turbines and foundations.
A formal tender will be issued to pre-qualified bidders in early 2018 followed
by final selection by June 2018.
Most potential bidders are forming partnerships, said Wagner. “US contractors have looked for European support and European contractors have looked for US support.”
The Icebreaker team is also working on verification and detailed design of the Universal Foundation steel mono-bucket foundations that will feature at the project.
Four US fabricators have been short-listed and are expected to bid when the contract goes to tender in the third quarter of 2018.
Fred Olsen is planning to erect six MHI Vestas V126-3.45MW turbines with the Danish manufacturer expected to ship components from Europe. Discussions about potentially using a US tower supplier are underway, said Wagner
The total cost of the build
has been estimated at $126m but the final price will be set when firm bids are in hand.
Permitting for the project, including federal, state and local agencies, is ongoing with several key processes at final review stages. Full approvals are hoped for by the year-end.
Wagner said commissioning of the project 13km off Cleveland is scheduled for 2019. “But if permitting gets pushed into 2018 that makes
it kind of challenging.” The freshwater demo has off-take agreements for two-thirds of the output with Cleveland Public Power and discussions are continuing to place the final third.
The pilot project is on track to meet an end-2018 deadline to reach the shovel-ready milestone required to receive $40.7m in funding from the US Department of Energy, added Wagner.
BOEM looks to take the pain out of permitting
Pre-assembly onshore ‘leads to big savings’
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Assembling foundations and turbines onshore could significantly reduce costs and halve construction times at offshore wind farms, according to a study by the University of Delaware.
The research, which used 10MW turbines and suction bucket jackets as a base case, concluded it is possible to assemble complete units in port before transporting to site for installation.
Principal investigator Willett Kempton said: “Instead of today’s method, carrying out parts separately and individually assembling each in the ocean, we have an assembly line onshore. We spend more money in the port but we spend far less money at sea.”
Researchers said the approach could cut average installation time from three days to 10 hours and can reduce the acoustic impact on marine mammals.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working on plans to simplify and speed up the permitting process for offshore wind developers in the US.
As part of its work, BOEM is studying the so-called ‘design envelope’ approach that it hopes will streamline consenting by future-proofing late-stage project changes.
Currently, developers must spell out all design specifications in their permit applications. Any changes to take advantage of the latest technology must be reviewed by authorities.
BOEM said the move will give developers flexibility and allow them to make project design decisions at a more commercially advantageous time later in the development process.
The new approach will also let BOEM reduce or eliminate subsequent environmental
and technical reviews when developers revise their plans.
The design envelope practice is already standard in several European countries.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in August ordering federal agencies to streamline the review and permitting of infrastructure projects throughout the country.
“In my view, offshore wind farms are major infrastructure projects,” BOEM acting
director Walter Cruickshank (pictured) said.
Developers such as US Wind have been working with BOEM and industry stakeholders
to accelerate the approval process, according to the company’s project
management director Paul Rich.
US Wind expects the tweaks to be in place when it submits a construction and operations plan application in 2018 for the 248MW Maryland project (see page 5).
BOEM is also reassessing and potentially modifying the site assessment plan requirements for meteorological buoys to facilitate less costly and more efficient deployment, it said.
n For more on this topic at AWEA Offshore Windpower 2017, attend the ‘continuing the permitting and leasing momentum’ session on Wednesday, 25 October, 08.15-09.15.
Speakers include Renewables Consulting Group director Steve Freeman and Michael Olsen, senior director of business development for Statoil Wind US.
IN BRIEFn An unnamed developer has joined three other interested parties to build floating offshore wind projects in a lease area off Hawaii. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will name the company after it completes a review to determine if it is qualified.
Statoil has already declared its interest in the area but has yet to reveal project details while Progression Energy is planning a 400MW project and Alpha Wind Energy is eyeing two 408MW wind farms.
n Politicians, utilities, academics, labor representatives and wildlife groups have been appointed to an offshore wind working group established by Delaware Governor John Carney to study the development of the sector.
An initial report is due to be issued by 15 December.
n US outfit Berger Geosciences is expanding its services to cover the offshore wind industry in the country after identifying demand for qualified geologists and engineers to handle site assessment work.
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Turbine pick to open contracts floodgates at 248MW Maryland
More irons in the fire along Atlantic seaboard
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IN BRIEFn Vattenfall has named Anna Borg as its new CFO, effective 1 November. She is currently a senior VP in the company’s markets business area and will replace Stefan Dohler, who is to become CEO of German energy company EWE.
n LM Wind Power has unveiled a new 75.1-metre blade in China for Goldwind’s 6.7MW offshore wind turbine platform. The LM 75.1 P is the longest blade in the Chinese market and was produced at the company’s Jiangyin plant, LM Wind said.
n The bidding window for the 700MW Hollandse Kust Zuid 1&2 offshore wind farm tender in the Netherlands will open 15 December, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Applications for the zero-bid auction will close 21 December.
n DNV GL is collaborating with five local stakeholders in Taiwan to help develop offshore wind testing and certification. The initiative aims to facilitate knowledge transfer and provide technical cooperation, the company said.
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US Wind is advancing two other developments along the Atlantic coast, including its 1.5GW New Jersey lease area.
“We are going to be patient on that until we have a new administration in New Jersey and see what their path forward is going to be,” said Rich. A new Governor is to be elected in November. The
New Jersey project could also supply power to neighbouring New York State, said director of project management Paul Rich.
“We are following closely the New York request for proposals process so we will see how that plays out,” he added.
In South Carolina, US Wind
is a ‘developer of interest’ for the Grand Strand call area.
The state this year halted construction of two nuclear power plants, which “perhaps has turned the tide on making offshore wind a really positive alternative”, added Rich. It is too soon to pencil in a construction date “but mid-2020s is the target at this point”.
US Wind is on track to build the 248MW Maryland wind farm, the country’s first utility-scale offshore project.
Development is in top gear despite some permitting delays that are likely to push back commissioning to 2021.
“A lot of the loose ends are coming together,” said US Wind director of project management Paul Rich.
“We are seeing tangible forward progress in all aspects of project development, whether it is project finance, fabrication, or construction and permitting.”
The developer is in final talks with turbine manufacturers GE and Siemens Gamesa for the supply of hardware. A supply deal is expected to be nailed down before the year-end, said Rich.
Contracts for the fabrication of towers, jacket foundations and an offshore
substation will follow, likely by the second quarter of 2018.
US fabricators Ventower and Heavy Metal remain preferred suppliers but the likes of Gulf Island, Salzgitter and EEW remain in the hunt, said Rich.
Under the state Offshore Renewable Energy Credit program, at least $76m must be invested in a steel fabrication plant in Maryland.
A construction and operations plan for the wind farm will be submitted to
federal regulators in the third quarter next year and approval could come in early 2020.
“The fabricator is going to need to be developing their facilities in advance of that permit but with the knowledge that it is going to happen,” said Rich. “So I would imagine fabrication happening in 2020 and installation starting late in that year with in-service in 2021.”
US Wind, a subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Toto Holding Group, also expects
to select marine surveyors by year-end for another round of geophysical and geotechnical studies in 2018.
Meanwhile, the developer is wrapping up contracts for fabrication and installation of a meteorological tower at the project site to be installed next spring.
The mast will likely be manufactured outside Maryland. However, the developer hopes to procure the electronics and installation packages locally.
US foundation selection leaves lump in the throat
Lease deal puts 1.5GW Kitty Hawk on runway
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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has finalised the lease for the 1.5GW Kitty Hawk wind zone off North Carolina with developer Avangrid Renewables.
The Iberdrola subsidiary said the milestone starts the formal process of studying the 49,730-hectare site in more
detail. Avangrid won the lease auction for Kitty Hawk with a bid of $9,066,650 in March.
BOEM has also affirmed the commercial wind lease for Energy Management Inc’s 468MW Cape Wind project off Massachusetts.
The agency has reviewed additional data gathered by
the developer and agreed the project design is suitable for turbine construction given the seabed conditions.
The decision has also affirmed the construction and operations plan to build up to 130 turbines in an area between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island.
Local seabed conditions in the US Northeast may cause headaches for developers when it comes to selecting turbine foundations, according to an expert.
Cameron Dunn, an energy specialist with global infrastructure consultancy Arup, said most of the
seafloor in the area is so-called glacial till.
The sand and gravel mixture includes giant boulders hidden beneath the surface, which are difficult to locate and can damage monopiles or prevent pile penetration.
US projects will likely need to use other solutions than the monopile, which is commonly deployed across much of the silty soils found in the North Sea in Europe, Dunn said at a recent webinar organised by the American
Wind Energy Association.Buried boulders were a concern for Deepwater Wind at the 30MW Block Island project in Rhode Island, said Dunn.
The developer of the first commercial US offshore wind farm used a type of radar to see at least 10 metres below the surface in a bid to locate any significant boulders.
In the end, Block Island used jacket foundations, which require much smaller piles. Several US developers are also designing projects
with jackets. “There has been a lot of focus on bringing the same kind of technical solutions from Europe but there is a big challenge in the Northeastern part of the US
TREADING CAREFULLY: installation operations at the 30MW Block Island project Photo: Deepwater Wind
with those boulders,” said Dunn. “Another solution that is being actively considered for the East Coast of the US and maybe for a bit of a resurgence in Europe is gravity base structures.”
About 300 gravity base structures were installed in the early days of European wind farm construction.
“The beauty of gravity base is there are no piles,” said Dunn. The latest designs are also self-installing, which eliminates the need for some offshore installation vessels, he added.