Deepwater Wind is ramping up its team to develop the 120MW Skipjack offshore wind farm off the US east coast.
Joy Weber has has been hired as development manager and Whitney Fiore as environmental permitting manager for the project, which will be located in waters off Delaware but deliver electricity into neighbouring Maryland.
Weber will lead the project’s local development efforts, including building relationships with Maryland communities and companies.
She was previously a lawyer for the Maryland firm Rifkin, Weiner, Livingston, where she represented renewable energy firms, public utilities and other companies in the energy industry.
Fiore will lead the federal, state and local permitting for Skipjack, as well as manage the project’s science and data collection program.
Her prior roles include consulting work for the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on offshore wind development and environmental restoration projects.
Deepwater said the hires are the first of several planned for its Maryland team, with a development office to be opened in Annapolis in the coming months.
Deepwater Wind chief executive Jeffrey Grybowski said: “We’ve put together a first-rate team, led by Joy and Whitney, to put our plans for the Skipjack wind farm into high gear.
“Their expertise will help us launch Maryland’s offshore wind industry and bring affordable, clean energy to the eastern shore.”
The company has also assembled a local team of biologists, engineers, marine archaeologists and other researchers led by Stantec Consulting Services to conduct marine and environmental assessments to support the project’s state and federal permitting.
Chesapeake Environmental Management will provide coastal habitat surveys, while Coastal Resources will carry out benthic taxonomy, which is a study of organisms that live near the sea floor.
Both companies will also support state and local permitting development.
AKRF will carry out air quality and acoustic studies and R Christopher Goodwin & Associates will provide marine archaeological and cultural support.
Deepwater Wind is also in the process of hiring a team to collect geophysical, geotechnical, archaeological and benthic data this summer for the wind farm.
The company expects to submit its permit applications for the project in 2019.
Image: Deepwater Wind
Deepwater assembles Skipjack team
By EBS