WINDPOWER NEWS
New York advances offshore wind with fourth round procurement awards
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that the state has selected two projects to deliver 1700 MW of offshore wind generation in its fourth offshore wind solicitation round. Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project (810 MW) and Eversource and Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project (924 MW) were awarded contracts.
These projects had previously canceled contracts with the state but reached viable power purchase agreements in this latest round. The two projects will invest $2 billion in economic development across New York and create 800 near-term jobs. They’ll be supported by the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal assembly and staging port, the construction of which is expected to create 400 jobs this year.
Renewable UK: 15 GW onshore wind capacity achieved in the UK
RenewableUK has announced that 15 GW of onshore wind capacity is now fully operational throughout the country – enough to power 9.9 million homes all year round. The project which enabled the UK to cross the 15 GW threshold is EDF Renewables UK’s West Benhar onshore wind farm in North Lanarkshire, with a capacity of 30.1 MW, consisting of seven turbines.
It brings the UK’s onshore wind capacity to 15.002 GW across 2631 projects. This represents significant progress since the UK’s first commercial wind farm, Delabole in Cornwall, opened in 1991 with a capacity of just 4 MW. Onshore wind now provides 11% of Britain’s electricity a year.
Fish To Frolic Among Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
The rise of the offshore wind industry has sparked a new movement to piggyback other maritime activities onto offshore wind farms. This multi-use approach could help defray the cost of constructing wind farms, helping to accelerate the pace of the energy transition. In the latest development, a new wind farm featuring unique two-headed floating wind turbines has been tapped to host a commercial fish farm.
Virginia could make almost $5B from this 3.5 GW offshore wind farm
The 180-turbine Kitty Hawk Wind is an offshore wind project proposed in federal waters over 36 miles from Virginia Beach.
It will be capable of generating enough renewable power for more than 1 million homes and businesses annually and reduce emissions by more than 1.5 million metric tons – equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the road annually. Avangrid estimates that Kitty Hawk would create more than 12,000 jobs in Virginia, 9,500 of which would be located within Hampton Roads.
New Resources Spotlight Distributed Wind Energy’s Local Value
Increased reliability and affordability, combined with funding and incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, have given rise to an unprecedented opportunity for distributed wind energy deployment.
Making it easier for businesses, farmers, homeowners, and communities to turn this opportunity into on-site energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has launched the new National Distributed Wind Network and complementary Distributed Wind Energy Resource Hub.
Launched by NREL in partnership with PNNL, the National Distributed Wind Network is an inclusive convening place for U.S. distributed wind stakeholders to collaborate with and learn from peers and leading experts on issues that matter to them.
Florida has no wind turbines but it’s going to ban them anyway
The Florida state legislature wants to ensure that its nonexistent offshore wind power industry stays nonexistent. It’s about to pass HB 1645, which will ban wind turbines in state waters. Drilling in state waters was banned in 2018 after the BP oil spill.
Florida HB 1465 (39-page PDF)
The bill then prohibits wind turbines within 1 mile of the Florida coastline or Intracoastal waterways. It will also ban them within all state waters, extending three nautical miles from shore on the Atlantic Ocean and nine nautical miles on the Gulf of Mexico side.
This might make a smidge of sense if someone wanted to develop wind farms there. But they don’t. Because there isn’t sufficient wind. Speaking of climate change, HB 1645 will also delete the majority of references to the words “climate change” in current state law.
EU, Azerbaijan Ink Wind Energy Cooperation Agreement
The European Union and Azerbaijan have signed a memorandum of understanding on wind energy cooperation at the second Ministerial Meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan Green Energy Advisory Council, held in Baku.
The agreement “will pave the way for European renewable energy companies to tap the huge wind power potential of Azerbaijan, to help push forward the clean energy transition in the region, and to potentially generate new renewable energy supplies for Europe”, the European Commission’s Directorate-General of Energy said in a news release.
Avangrid Releases Kitty Hawk Wind Economic Impact Report
Avangrid has released its Kitty Hawk Wind: Economic & Fiscal Impact report, finding that the project will deliver approximately $4.8 billion in economic impact across Virginia, where the site is located.
Economic & Fiscal Impact Kitty Hawk Wind Projects in Virginia (29-page PDF)
The offshore wind project is being proposed in federal waters 36 miles from the Virginia Beach coast and is expected to generate up to 3,500 MW. The report calculates that the City of Virginia Beach, which would serve as the host community for the interconnection of the project to tthe power grid, would realize $275 million in property tax revenue over the estimated 40-year, development, construction and operation of the project.
The Energy Age 