Spanish company wins bid to build offshore wind farm near North Carolina

[thackney]

Spanish company wins bid to build offshore wind farm near North Carolina
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2017/03/17/spanish-company-wins-bid-to-build-offshore-wind-farm-near-north-carolina/
March 17, 2017

The U.S.-based subsidiary of a Spanish utility company has offered $9 million in a bid to develop an offshore wind farm off the coast of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The company, Avangrid Renewables, bid for rights to the project during a U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auction, the culmination of five years of public meetings to gather community input on a potential offshore wind farm.

Now that it has secured rights to the project, Avangrid must find a buyer for its electricity before construction can begin, according to a news release from the American Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group.

The first American offshore wind farm started generating power off the cost of Rhode Island late last year.

[thackney]

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/north-carolina-offshore-wind-auction-winner-announced

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed the nation’s seventh competitive lease sale for renewable wind energy in North Carolina. The winning bid of $9,066,650 for an area of 122,405 acres offshore Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was received by Avangrid Rewewables.

BOEM announced the Kitty Hawk auction in January 2017, and the award represents the first federal offshore wind lease sale under the Trump administration.

The six earlier lease sales generated $58 million in high bids for more than one million acres in federal waters, including a lease sale for 79,000 acres offshore New York that generated a winning bid of $42.5 million. BOEM also recently marked the operational launch of the nation’s first commercial offshore wind farm – the five-turbine, 30 megawatt Block Island Wind Facility developed by Deepwater Wind at a cost of $290 million.

Also participating in the Kitty Hawk lease sale were Wind Future, Statoil Wind US and wpd offshore Alpha.

The lease area, designated OCS-A 0508, begins about 24 nautical miles from shore and extends 25.7 nautical miles in a general southeast direction. Its seaward extent ranges from 13.5 nautical miles in the north to 0.6 of a nautical mile in the south.

Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s estimates of three megawatts (MW) per square kilometer, the lease area has a potential generating capacity of 1,486 MW, enough energy to power more than 500,000 homes. The actual size of the wind energy project will be determined by the developer.

Following various planning requirements and an environmental review, the lessee will have 25 years to construct and operate the project.

[thackney]

The bidding:

https://www.boem.gov/ATLW-7-NC/

[Joe Wooten]

How much of a federal construction subsidy are they getting?

[thackney]

How much of a federal construction subsidy are they getting?

Is there a construction subsidy in addition to the Production Tax Credit?

Fortunately the PTC is being phased out.  How much they get depends on how soon they start construction.

https://energy.gov/savings/renewable-electricity-production-tax-credit-ptc

Systems Commencing construction prior to January 1, 2017:
Wind, Geothermal, Closed-loop Biomass, and Solar Systems not claiming the ITC: $0.023/kWh

Systems Commencing construction after December 31, 2016:
Wind: $0.0184/kWh for first 10 years of operation
All other technologies: Not eligible

The tax credit is phased down for wind facilities and expires for other technologies commencing construction after December 31, 2016. The phase-down for wind facilities is described as a percentage reduction in the tax credit amount described above:

For wind facilities commencing construction in 2017, the PTC amount is reduced by 20%
For wind facilities commencing construction in 2018, the PTC amount is reduced by 40%
For wind facilities commencing construction in 2019, the PTC amount is reduced by 60%

[thackney]

https://www.boem.gov/Offshore-Wind-Energy/

[IsailedawayfromFR]

https://www.boem.gov/Offshore-Wind-Energy/

This is an excellent map for reference.  I continue to be amazed what you can readily bring to the table, @thackney

What I see on this map are the opportunities for the West Coast to bring in wind energy into its power generation grid.
1. They are power deficient at present
2. they have a lot of offshore wind.
3. they love renewables.

I also bet it will not happen with any substance as those expensive homes along the coast do not wish their unspoiled view to be taken up with windmills.

[thackney]

This is an excellent map for reference.  I continue to be amazed what you can readily bring to the table, @thackney

What I see on this map are the opportunities for the West Coast to bring in wind energy into its power generation grid.
1. They are power deficient at present
2. they have a lot of offshore wind.
3. they love renewables.

I also bet it will not happen with any substance as those expensive homes along the coast do not wish their unspoiled view to be taken up with windmills.

Why California is lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to offshore wind farms
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-offshore-wind-20160703-snap-story.html

...Why is the Golden State, a place so proud of its renewable energy record, lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to offshore wind?

Blame the Pacific Ocean and its underwater terrain.

Unlike the Atlantic Ocean, where offshore wind farms can be bolted into the seabed in relatively shallow water, the West Coast's continental shelf plunges quickly and steeply.

That leaves just one other option: floating wind farms.

"You have to talk about floating wind because the ocean floor is too deep to fix a turbine to it," said Nancy Sopko, manager for advocacy and federal legislative affairs at the American Wind Energy Assn.

Floating wind projects are tethered to the ocean floor by cables rather than the massive steel pilings used for conventional offshore wind turbines. And the technical know-how required to build a floating city of wind turbines is still at an early stage, Trident acknowledged in its lease application.

Offshore wind farms are common off the coast of European countries such as Denmark, but Sopko said she's not aware of any commercial floating wind projects operating at utility scale....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Why California is lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to offshore wind farms
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-offshore-wind-20160703-snap-story.html

...Why is the Golden State, a place so proud of its renewable energy record, lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to offshore wind?

Blame the Pacific Ocean and its underwater terrain.

Unlike the Atlantic Ocean, where offshore wind farms can be bolted into the seabed in relatively shallow water, the West Coast's continental shelf plunges quickly and steeply.

That leaves just one other option: floating wind farms.

"You have to talk about floating wind because the ocean floor is too deep to fix a turbine to it," said Nancy Sopko, manager for advocacy and federal legislative affairs at the American Wind Energy Assn.

Floating wind projects are tethered to the ocean floor by cables rather than the massive steel pilings used for conventional offshore wind turbines. And the technical know-how required to build a floating city of wind turbines is still at an early stage, Trident acknowledged in its lease application.

Offshore wind farms are common off the coast of European countries such as Denmark, but Sopko said she's not aware of any commercial floating wind projects operating at utility scale....

That article is BS.  Blaming the deep water and floating wind farms is not to blame.

There are a number of fixed leg platforms off the coast already.  No reason why wind farms cannot be fixed as well.

[thackney]

That article is BS.  Blaming the deep water and floating wind farms is not to blame.

There are a number of fixed leg platforms off the coast already.  No reason why wind farms cannot be fixed as well.

True.  But stronger winds are farther offshore.  It is a cost issue, but one I'm surprised has not been funded by leftists.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

True.  But stronger winds are farther offshore.  It is a cost issue, but one I'm surprised has not been funded by leftists.

How far offshore can one see?  That is the only funding am confident they will consider.

[geronl]

I occasionally see large wind blades (longer than a regular tractor trailer) being moved on I-35, so either these things are built around here or there is some giant wind turbines going up.

[geronl]

addendum-

I don't think they are made here. (yet)

Must be passing through to the wind farms out in west Texas.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I occasionally see large wind blades (longer than a regular tractor trailer) being moved on I-35, so either these things are built around here or there is some giant wind turbines going up.

Lots of them move from the Houston ports to West Texas.

They are built in China mostly.