Nova Scotia to prioritise offshore wind in jointly-managed waters
Nova Scotia to prioritise offshore wind in jointly-managed waters | Windpower Monthly
Tory Rushton, the province’s minister of natural resources and renewables, said: “Offshore wind is an important part of our clean energy plan, and we are working with our federal partners to ensure a clear path for sustainable development of this new sector. We’re pausing any consideration of waters within provincial jurisdiction until the framework for jointly-managed offshore areas is in place.”
The province has a goal of offering licences for 5GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Earlier this year, it published the first module of the Offshore Wind Roadmap, setting out Nova Scotia’s vision for offshore wind.
The second module of the roadmap will be released in the spring and it will reflect the shift in focus, towards jointly-managed waters.
Nova East Wind contractor
Meanwhile, Nova East Wind, a joint venture between DP Energy and SBM Offshore, has re-appointed HiDef Aerial Surveying.
The contractor has been carrying out monthly aerial surveys for Nova East Wind since October 2022 and this will now continue for a second year. The partners are planning to develop a 300-400MW floating offshore wind farm, 20-30km off Goldboro, Nova Scotia.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.