Posts Tagged ‘offshore wind’

MMS issues lease for met towers off NJ Coast

Written by Mike Pisauro on June 28th, 2009 in Federal, Ocean, Renewable Energy, Wind | No Comments »

Last week, MMS announced they would be issuing leases to the three proposed wind farm developers so that they could begin the process of installing their meteorological towers. Bluewater Wind NJ Energy, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey, and Deepwater Wind will all be placing met towers off the coast of NJ. These towers are a necessary first step to the eventual development of shore wind. Once the met towers are in place, they will be recording data for at least 12 months or mid to late 2010.

Back in October 2008 the State issued its Energy Master Plan. The Plan sets a goal of having 1000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2012. I have always thought that time table was very aggressive and was unlikely to occur. Assuming the developers do not begin the NEPA process at the same time as they collect the data from the met towers, that process will begin late 2010 or early 2011. The NEPA process of obtaining information, analyzing the information, etc will take a significant period of time. For example, the Cape Wind project, which began around 2001, took almost three years from the very beginning of the NEPA process to the issuance of the draft EIS. It then took another four+ for MMS to issue its final EIS on the project.

Now, a lot has changed from the time Cape Wind started their project. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed. The State of New Jersey has convened a Blue Ribbon Panel on Wind; evaluated the issues and set forth its recommendations. MMS has interim rules for renewable energy developed on the OCS. The nation as a whole has hopefully progressed towards acceptance of wind generation. (I question how far we have progressed on this score). Also, the State is in the process of doing performing their own biological studies off the coast of NJ. All of these things may help move the process along so that the planning of these projects is not a decade long process. The NJ developers will have a framework to follow that Cape Wind did not.

Hopefully, the fact that there is a legal framework in place will shorten the legal wrangling over the project. I do believe that there will be many lawsuits challenging these projects. Local, county and some legislators have expressed concern over off shore wind development. Local property owners will certainly band together to challenge these projects. There may also be an environmental group or two who may challenge the projects in Court.

In short I believe after the NEPA process has been engaged and the lawsuits resolved one or more of the proposed wind projects will go forward. What I am fairly certain of is that no project will be in the water and generating electricity by the end of 2012. The State will have to adjust their energy master plan to account for the revised time table.

Grays Harbor's application is dismissed

Written by Mike Pisauro on May 13th, 2009 in Federal, Ocean, Renewable Energy, Wave & Tidal, Wind | No Comments »

I saw a post, at RenewablesOffshore regarding the memorandum of understanding between FERC and MMS.  As I noted previously these agencies have entered into a memorandum of understanding on the handling of offshore renewable energy projects.  As a result of the MOU, FERC has dismissed Grays Harbor’s application for a preliminary permit for a wave project off the coast of Atlantic City.  I wrote about Grays Harbor’s application here.   The dismissal at least deals with the objects filed by NJ Board of Public Utilities, EPA, Interior, several of the wind energy companies, and the New Jersey Environmental Lobby.  This clears the way to an organized way to move NJ’s goals of offshore renewable energy forward.

Also, this MOU opens the way for the final MMS’ rules to be adopted to regulate the offshore renewable energy projects.

Offshore wind, renewable energy and carve outs

Written by Mike Pisauro on November 18th, 2008 in Clean Up, Ocean, Politics, Renewable Energy | 1 Comment »

New Jersey, as does many other states, has a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS).  This requires utilities to either generate a certain percentage of the energy used in the state from renewable sources or to pay others to generate that electricity from renewable sources.  This payment is in the form a renewable energy credits (RECs).  People and companies that have wind turbines or solar panels (among other sources) create RECs for each megawatt of electricity that is generated.  These RECs are then purchased by the utilities to fulfill their RPS obligations.

Currently NJ requires that 22.5% of electricity comes from renewable sources by May 31, 2021.  Because the BPU and the State of New Jersey want to encourage the development of solar energy, the RPS has a carve out for solar energy.  By May 31, 2021 2.12% of our electricity must come for solar systems.  The remainder of the 20.38% is required to come from Class I and Class II renewables.  Wind and solar are examples of Class I.  Hydro and resource recovery facilities are examples of Class II systems.

Two things are occurring that will change this landscape.  First, the energy master plan seeks to increase the RPS requirements.  The RPS will be increasing to 30% once BPU proposes new regulations to implement the EMP.  Again, there will be a carve out for solar energy.  Under the EMP the state is expecting 2,120 gwh of solar energy which is an increase of gigawatts.  The State is also seeking 3000 MW from offshore wind by 2020.

The second new event is that the BPU is considering a carve out for offshore wind.  This would make two class I carve outs.  BPU is looking to see whether it is feasible or advisable for there to be a carve out to encourage offshore wind farms so that the EMP’s goals of 1,000 MWs can be reached by 2012 and 3,000 by 2020.  BPU is setting up a stakeholder process to determine whether if to set up a carve our; how to set up a carve out, what the schedule for the RPS should be and other factors.  A copy of the BPU’s order is here.

The solar carve out is probably a major factor in NJ being the second in the nation in energy generated from solar systems.  California is number one.  The question is can a carve out for offshore wind accomplish the same thing.   Also, is a carve out even necessary?