By Michael Kuser

BOSTON — Federal and state officials joined offshore wind developers last week in giving about 60 members of the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBCNE) an upbeat update on the nascent U.S. offshore industry.

The following is some of what we heard Oct. 22 about a burgeoning sector that has about 19 GW of projects in view, more than 80% of today’s total global installed capacity of 23 GW.

Learning the Process

“We couldn’t be more excited to be deploying a real climate change solution that also has these benefits in terms of job creation, economic development and securing a clean energy resource,” Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides said. “Offshore wind also coincides with our winter peak in terms of demand and gets us away from some of the higher-priced, dirtiest resources in our energy mix.”

The state’s strategy focuses on energy efficiency, cleaning up the energy supply and electrifying the transportation and building sectors, she said.

“While it has been a stressful summer in terms of the federal permitting side … we are learning about the permitting process and helping the rest of the industry understand what those steps are going to be,” Theoharides said.

New England renewable energy advocates in September expressed skepticism about federal officials’ claims to be acting in the public interest by delaying the final permits for the 800-MW Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. (See Renewable Backers Decry Vineyard Wind Delay.)

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Management announced in August it would delay issuing the final environmental impact statement for the project in order to conduct an expanded analysis of “cumulative impacts.”

Massachusetts officials in “a couple of weeks” will announce winners of the state’s second solicitation for up to 800 MW in additional offshore wind energy, Theoharides said.

Federal Commitment

James Bennett, program manager for renewable energy at BOEM, highlighted the “massive change” in offshore wind development caused by Equinor’s $42 million lease in the New York Bight in 2016.

“Everybody turned their head and said, ‘Oh my God, this is for real,’” Bennett said, noting that deal was followed by a lease off North Carolina and another off Massachusetts, where three areas auctioned for $135 million apiece last year after being left on the table two years earlier. (See Mass. Offshore Lease Auction Nets Record $405 Million.)

BOEM now has 15 leases up and down the East Coast, he said.

“Do we have steel in the water? No, but next year we’re going to have actual steel in the water off of Virginia and hopefully very soon after that up here in Massachusetts,” Bennett said.

“The next decade is very promising,” he said. “We are looking at additional leasing off of New York … and we’ve been working on our regulatory processes, refining them and streamlining them so we can move as quickly as possible with the lessons that we’re learning over time. And, of course, the state offshore wind procurements are phenomenal in making sure that there’s plenty of support in moving forward, and industry continues to demonstrate its commitment.”

Bennett said that while his agency has been handling offshore wind leases state by state, it nonetheless favored a regional approach. He mentioned that the Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, organized by BOEM with the participation off Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, will hold its first meeting on Dec. 12.

“We’re all committed to getting this right,” Bennett said. “The [permitting delay] is not the first bump in the road, and it’s not going to be the last. We’re going to have more over the next decade with potentially 12 projects being put in place up and down the East Coast. We’re going to run into issues like transmission, like ports, like construction vessels … and we’re going to deal with them.

“At BOEM, we’re going to work through this issue and we’re going to make it work, and we’re going to have the stakeholders and the developers and the government, both federal and state, work together to come up with solutions,” Bennett said.

Robert LaBelle, a retired associate director at BOEM, is now helping his home state of New Hampshire prepare for the three-state panel organized by the agency to pursue development of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.

“I spent a lot of years doing ocean planning, and now that I’m just a free citizen of New Hampshire, I’d like to see some ocean doing, so I’m recommending that all you folks who are in a position to make a difference reconsider your commitment to working collaboratively,” LaBelle said.

‘Great Expectations’

“I’m driven by fundamental trends [and] am concerned on behalf of my children about climate change and global warming and what it will do,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. “I have seen this industry transform from a technology-driven niche … into a big business.”

Pedersen recalled planning bids in Europe in 2012 when someone proposed aiming for 100 euros/MWh as a goal for 2020.

“We were way off: It happened much, much quicker than we thought, and it’s because the fundamentals are really good for this industry,” Pedersen said. “And, also, the fundamentals are really strong here in the Northeast. You have high winds offshore, shallow water, good seabed, a lot of people living on the coastline, and you’re transforming your energy system away from fossil and nuclear plants into renewable energies.”

Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects offshore wind costs of 64 euros/MWh by 2020 and 60 euros/MWh by 2025.

A joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Vineyard Wind in August bid for the second Massachusetts solicitation by offering several options on up to 800 MW of additional offshore wind.

The state leaders have done their job, as has the team at BOEM, but now it’s up to the industry to develop offshore wind, said Matthew Morrissey, head of New England markets for Ørsted US Offshore Wind, which also bid in the second solicitation.

“There are great opportunities that come from a new industry in America. There are great expectations,” Morrissey said. “Offshore presents a very compelling case for the development of clean energy at scale to deal with the problem we have now replacing fossil generation coming offline,” and also reinvents the old maritime ports along the Eastern seaboard, he said.

Stephen Pike, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, recounted a day in 2014 when it became apparent that the Cape Wind project would not be moving forward, and a couple state officials thought the failure set the industry back at least 10 years.

“To think that we would be standing on the statehouse lawn less than two years later watching the governor sign that first-in-the-nation path to market legislation was really remarkable,” Pike said. “Never mind that the law set up an actual solicitation that less than two years after that ended up with a project whose pricing was way below what anyone could have imagined even six months prior to that.” (See Mass., R.I. Pick 1,200 MW in Offshore Wind Bids.)

The agency is now focused on developing the supply chain and workforce training, Pike said.

Fast Enough?

“Two degrees is in the rearview mirror,” said H. Curtis Spalding of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. The former EPA regional administrator for New England during the Obama administration was referring to the temperature increase threshold (equivalent to about 3.6 F) to reaching irreversible climate change.

“There’s too much to do and too short a time to stop the temperature from rising 2 degrees,” Spalding said. “What does that mean? That means climate change is going to affect and cascade so many parts of our community going forward.”

After two major flooding events, the threat from climate change is felt more in Houston than it is in New England, he said. “The context is going to shift.”

Seth Kaplan, director of permitting and development for Mayflower Wind, came to the joint venture between Shell New Energies and EDP Renewables after working five years at the latter firm planning onshore wind and solar and before that, 16 years at the Conservation Law Foundation.

“It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the renewable energy industry isn’t aggressive enough,” Kaplan said. “If you look at the world through a climate frame, we need to build so much so quickly in order to meet our climate goals, that the strictures and barriers that are just the normal stuff of business are annoying if you’re trying to meet those goals.”