FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTUS EAST COAST
US offshore windpower spins into life
After decades of proposals, protests and postponements, wind energy along the US Atlantic seaboard snapped into reality late last year with two major developments on the same day.
Norwegian state energy company Statoil said it had won a USD42.5 million bid to develop an 80,000 acre (32,372 ha) site southeast of New York harbour. Ultimately it could generate a gigawatt of electricity. Onshore and offshore wind energy has
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been a staple source of electricity in Europe for many years, and onshore wind power has become such a significant source in some regions of the USA that it is the generation that sets the incremental cost for those markets. US offshore wind development, however, has lagged.
Controversies Higher costs and complexities are part of the reason, but the environmental movement has been sharply divided over the issue on matters ranging from bird flight paths to coastal aesthetics. Government subsidies for what are mostly private ventures have also been a fierce point of contention, notably in the Deepwater Wind project. However its completion, together with
the Statoil announcement, signify that offshore wind is up and running in the USA. According to the American Wind Energy Association, there are 13 offshore projects in various stages of development, spanning ten states and representing almost 6,000 MW of capacity off the east and west coasts, the Great Lakes and Hawaii. Beyond the obvious funding, planning and permitting challenges to all those
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arly on the morning of December 12 2016, the 30 MW Deepwater Wind project off Rhode Island became the first operational offshore wind farm in the country. That same day,
Gregory DL Morris, our regional correspondent in
NORTH AMERICA
projects are questions about sufficient capacity, both for insurance and for heavy lift operations. Project cargo capable facilities abound along the US Gulf Coast, as do towing and service vessel fleets to support movement and construction. These are not unknown along the other three coasts of the USA, but are certainly fewer. Existing facilities and operators were
sufficient to move and build the Deepwater Wind development, but that one is small by global standards. It was also the only one under construction at the time. Building several larger developments at the same time in different regions will be a much stiffer test. Red Hook Terminals lays claim to being
the only heavy lift and project cargo operator in New York harbour. It has facilities at two
We see huge growth in wind energy all along the Atlantic seaboard. We have bid on several projects already. – Tom Griffith, Red Hook Terminals
spots on the Brooklyn waterfront, Red Hook and the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park. It also has a facility across the harbour in Port Newark, New Jersey, and runs a cross-harbour barge service.
Outlook “We have handled wind turbine blades in the past and hope to do a lot more,” said Tom Griffith, director of operations. “We see huge growth in wind energy all along the Atlantic seaboard. We have bid on several projects already. Nothing has been secured as of yet, but we are close on a couple of things.” In the meantime, Red Hook is
demonstrating its expertise with work on the large ferris wheel under construction on Staten Island, New York. Griffith said that most of the turbine
blades Red Hook has handled in the past came in from South America or southeast Asia, and that there is no shortage of vessel operators capable of moving such components. The blades have mostly moved on to their destinations by road or rail, but it is likely that components for Atlantic offshore developments will move to the
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Existing facilities and operators were sufficient to move and build the Deepwater Wind development, but that one is small by global standards.
Deepwater Wind
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