Equinor, Mayflower Wind, Orsted-Eversource and Vineyard Wind have submitted a uniform turbine layout proposal to the US Coast Guard (USCG) for all projects being developed within their New England lease areas.
The developers have proposed one nautical mile spacing between wind turbines in projects, which are being developed off states that include Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The companies issued the following joint statement: “In response to feedback from key stakeholders, we have proposed to adopt a uniform turbine layout across our adjacent New England lease areas.
“This uniform layout has subsequently been proposed to the USCG for its review.”
According to the developers, the uniform layout is consistent with the requests of the region’s fisheries industry and other maritime users.
The proposed layout specifies that turbines will be spaced one nautical mile apart, arranged in east-west rows and north-south columns, with the rows and columns continuous across all New England lease areas.
In addition, independent expert analysis provided to the USCG confirmed that this uniform layout would provide for “robust navigational safety and search and rescue capability” by providing hundreds of transit corridors to accommodate the region’s vessel traffic.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the USCG, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, coastal states, the fisheries industry, and other stakeholders involved to ensure continued coexistence of every ocean user in the region, including offshore wind,” the developers added in their joint statement.
The 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 project already submitted a 1×1 nautical mile layout which has been analysed in BOEM’s draft environmental impact study for the project.
According to the developers, a uniform layout reflects considerable written and oral public comments from New England maritime stakeholders and will allow mariners to safely transit from one end of the New England wind energy area to the other without unexpected obstacles.
The five New England offshore wind leaseholders’ proposal to the USCG addresses four principal concerns.
The first is navigation safety, the second is the fisheries community’s request for uniform and consistent spacing between turbines throughout the New England wind energy are.
The third is creation of “distinct” transit corridors and the fourth is the facilitation of search and rescue operations conducted by both vessel and aircraft.
The New England offshore wind leaseholders also submitted a report prepared by WF Baird & Associates USCG that analyses the uniform layout using international vessel safety guidelines. WF Baird & Associates is a vessel and port safety consultant and the analysis was based on automatic identification system (AIS) data between 2017 and 2018.
A key finding in the report suggests that most traffic in the general region is transiting around, or along the outside edges, of the New England wind energy area.
It also found that most of the transiting vessels are fishing vessels, and they follow a wide range of transit paths through the New England wind energy area, as they are coming from several different ports and heading to a variety of fishing grounds.
The report states: “The uniform turbine layout would create 231 corridors of uniform width that cross from east-west (E-W), north-south (N-S), NW-SE, and SW-NE. These 231 corridors will be available for mariners no matter where they cross into the New England wind energy area.
“The corridor width in the E-W and N-S direction would be one nautical mile. In the NW-SE and SW-NE directions the corridors would be 0.7 nautical mile-wide for the purpose of maintaining a constant heading, however the closest distance between any two turbines on either side of a vessel using a NW-SE or SW-NE corridor would be 1.4 nautical miles.”
The developers added: “Given the many advantages of the proposed 1×1 nautical mile regional layout, the New England lease holders are proud to be working together to present a collaborative solution that they believe accommodates all ocean users in the region.
“The proposal is a result of the distinct solution and response to specific challenges in New England and would not be applicable to offshore wind leases in other geographies where challenges are different.”