Category Archives: Offshore

PORTSMOUTH Siemens Gamesa announced Monday that it plans to build the United States first offshore wind turbine blade facility at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, notching a major win for Virginia as it strives to become a hub for the nations fledgling offshore wind energy industry.

The announcement was made Monday at the terminal by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

The Spanish-German wind engineering company said it plans to invest more than $200 million in the Portsmouth Marine Terminal facility, which will produce blades for offshore wind projects throughout North America, per Northams office.

The facility is expected to create over 300 jobs.

Virginias largest electric utility, Dominion Energy, previously selected Siemens Gamesa as the turbine supplier for its 2.6 gigawatt Virginia Coastal Offshore Wind project being developed 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. A 12 megawatt pilot constructed by Dominion became the nations first offshore wind installation in federal waters and began delivering energy to customers in January 2021.

Offshore wind is increasingly becoming a critical component of both electric power producers plans to transition away from fossil fuels and state and federal aspirations to develop renewable energy that can replace coal and natural gas while driving economic growth.

Earlier this month, President Joseph Bidens administration laid out an ambitious plan to develop offshore wind along much of the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf of Mexico. In March, the administration set a target of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.

Virginia has also set an aggressive goal under the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act of developing 5.2 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2034. Dominions CVOW project, which would produce half of that power, is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management.

But even as states race to develop wind projects, turbine components continue to be produced overseas, with major manufacturers including Siemens Gamesa telling Reuters earlier this year that they need to see a reliable pipeline of projects moving forward in the U.S. before putting down roots stateside.

Shipping turbine components across the Atlantic for U.S. projects, however, comes with special challenges.

Under the federal Jones Act, any vessel carrying goods between two points in the U.S. must be built and registered in the United States. Despite that restriction, no such vessels with the capacity to transport turbine components currently exist in the U.S. Dominion is building the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind installation ship in Texas, which has been christened Charybdis after a sea monster in The Odyssey and is expected to be completed by late 2023.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Robert Zullo for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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Siemens Gamesa chooses Virginia for offshore wind turbine blade factory - Energy News Network

NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer pose in their SpaceX flight suits at launch pad 39A during a dress rehearsal Thursday night. Credit: SpaceX

NASA and SpaceX managers in Florida decided early Saturday to delay the launch of the next crew to the International Space Station from Sunday to Wednesday, when high winds and rough seas are expected to subside along the Falcon 9 rockets flight path across the Atlantic Ocean.

Officials tracked weather and sea conditions in downrange abort zones throughout the week in hopes the forecast would improve enough to fall within safety criteria. SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft could splash down along the flight path northeast from the launch site at NASAs Kennedy Space Center if the capsule needs to escape its Falcon 9 rocket in an emergency.

The weather forecast for the launch site at Kennedy was nearly perfect, with a 90% chance of acceptable conditions for liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT) Sunday.

But the abort zone conditions were another story, with winds and waves exceeding limits for a safe splashdown of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX managers were particularly focused on a part of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic states, where the Crew Dragon might splash down in the event of a rocket failure during staging a few minutes after liftoff.

The offshore conditions are forecast to improve in time for the backup launch opportunity Wednesday at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT). The weather team at Cape Canaveral predicts an 80% chance of favorable weather at the launch site Wednesday morning.

The mission, known as Crew-3, is SpaceXs third operational crew rotation flight to the space station under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA.

NASA commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, mission specialist Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer are heading to the space station for a nearly six-month mission.

Their Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the space stations Harmony module around 22 hours after launch Wednesday.

After docking at the space station, Chari and his crewmates will be greeted by the seven astronauts and cosmonauts currently living on the outpost. The Crew-3 astronauts will replace an outgoing team of four space fliers who arrived at the space station April 24 on SpaceXs Crew-2 mission.

Crew-2 commander Shane Kimbrough, pilot, Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will brief the new crew on life and work at the space station during a handover period lasting a few days.

Kimbroughs crew is scheduled to undock from the space station in their Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in early November, targeting a splashdown off the coast of Florida after nearly 200 days in orbit, a record for a SpaceX crew capsule.

That will leave behind Chari, Marshburn, Barron, and Maurer at the space station with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who flew to the orbiting lab on Russian Soyuz spaceships.

NASA announced the Crew-3 launch delay announced early Saturday, hours after officials met for a Launch Readiness Review Friday night to verify the Crew Dragon capsule, Falcon 9 launcher, ground system, and engineering teams are ready for the mission.

The review concluded with a go to proceed with launch preparations, following NASAs sign-off on two technical concerns associated with the Crew Dragons toilet system.

During a Flight Readiness Review meeting Monday, NASA engineers said they wanted more time analyzing information from SpaceX on a modification to the Crew Dragon spacecrafts waste system after running into a problem with the unit on the most recent Dragon crew flight, the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission.

A glued joint in the toilet became disconnected during the three-day Inspiration4 mission, causing urine to leak into a fan system, instead of flowing into a waste tank. The issue caused no significant problem during the Inspiration4 flight, but SpaceX found contamination from the leak under the floor of the spacecraft after it returned to Earth.

For the Crew-3 mission about to launch, SpaceX changed the design of the waste system to go with a welded joint in the urine line, instead of a glued connection. The Crew Dragon spacecraft currently docked to the space station Crew Dragon Endeavour still uses the glued joint design, and astronauts found similar contamination under the floor during on-orbit inspections, indicating it had a similar leak as the Inspiration4 capsule.

The Crew-2 astronauts used the Dragon toilet from the time they launched in April until they docked with the space station about 24 hours later. The Crew-2 mission is scheduled to return to Earth next week, a few days after the Crew-3 mission arrives at the station.

NASA this week formally cleared the toilet systems on the Crew-2 and Crew-3 capsules for the upcoming crew rotation.

One was the final review of the upgrade to the system that was done for Crew-3. And we have fully reviewed those data. That system was fully signed off, and that exception closed a couple of days ago, saidNicole Jordan, manager of the spacecraft office in NASAs commercial crew program, in an interview Friday.

And the second one was the final review of all of the flight rationale for the Crew-2 return and specifically the concern with the weldment and any kind of material might have gotten on it from the operation of that system on Crew-2 ascent to dock. And that closed last night.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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SpaceX crew launch delayed due to high winds and waves offshore Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

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Englewood Beach Waterfest is on track for offshore speed - yoursun.com

Sapote-1, ExxonMobil's third well in the Canje Block offshore Guyana, has, after the first two wells, Bulletwood-1 and Jabillo-1, failed to unearth evidence of commercial hydrocarbon volumes, too.

Westmount Energy, an indirect partner in the Canje Block through its stake in JHI Associates, the Sapote-1 well on the Canje Block was drilled in 2,549 meters of water by Stena Drilling's Stena DrillMAX drillship to a total depth of 6,758 meters.

The Sapote-1 well was designed to test Upper Cretaceous reservoirs in a stratigraphic trap. The well, spudded in August, is located some225 km northeast of Georgetown.

"The well encountered non-commercial hydrocarbons in one of the deeper exploration targets," Westmount Energy said.

The Canje Block is operated by ExxonMobil (35%), with TotalEnergies (35%), JHI Associates (17.5%), and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc. (12.5%) as partners. Westmount holds a 7.2% interest in the issued share capital of JHI.

Eco Atlantic, also an indirect partner in the block through its a 6.4% interest in JHI, said the Sapote-1 well recorded hydrocarbon shows while drilling, and in the logging sequence, in a deeper interval than anticipated, but had no shows in the upper primary objective horizon.

"With sidewall coring and wireline logging complete, ExxonMobil will now work to define the reservoir properties, including porosity and permeability, and the cored samples will be analysed for hydrocarbons," Eco Atlantic said.

Gerard Walsh, Executive Chairman of Westmount, said: "Sapote-1 is the sixth well, offshore Guyana, that Westmount has participated in via our investee companies, since 2019.

"This portfolio of drilling outcomes has yielded 3 oil discoveries, but no standalone commercial success to date. While this outcome from the Westmount portfolio is below expectations the results to date provide encouragement and must be viewed in the context of initial 'large step-out' wells, in a frontier setting, evaluating giant stratigraphic prospects while seeking to establish the perimeter of the multiple play fairways both to the northeast and southwest of the prolific Stabroek Block."

"The immediate focus of the Canje Joint Venture group now switches to synthesis, analysis, and regional integration and modeling of the extensive multi-play data suite acquired during the 2021 drilling campaign with a view to high-grading and selection of the potential follow-on drilling targets on the block. In this regard, we note that the operator of the Canje Block, has already submitted, to the Guyanese Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an application for environmental authorization with respect to a new 12 well drilling program on the block from 2022.

The Sapote-1 well is located in the southeastern section of Canje, about 50 km north of the Haimara discovery in the Stabroek Block which encountered ~207 feet (63 meters) of high-quality, gas-condensate bearing sandstone reservoir and approximately 60 km northwest of the Maka Centraldiscovery in Block 58 which encountered ~164 feet (50 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir.

The 2021 exploration program on the Canje Block seeks to test the extension of the prolific hydrocarbon system which has resulted in 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable resources discovered so far by ExxonMobil and its partners Hess and CNOOC in the adjacent Stabroek Block since 2015.

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Guyana: ExxonMobil's Third Well in Canje Offshore Block Disappoints - Offshore Engineer

by Mirpuri Foundation 31 Oct 07:34 PDT 2-10 July 2022

A 1,000 miles offshore Atlantic race and two new official race records are among the exciting additions to the 2022 Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy, which will take place from 2-10 July next year in Cascais, Portugal.

In addition to launching one of the longest annual offshore races of the year, the organisers of the event have revealed plans for a week-long festival of racing for multiple classes including Maxi Yachts, NHC, ORC, Classics and Optimist, ILCA and 420.

The headline "A Thousand Miles Race" event will follow a challenging course through the Atlantic Ocean from the port of Cascais around Porto Santo Island in the picturesque Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, with the fleet then racing back towards Cascais where crowds of spectators will be waiting to see who will win the spectacular official trophy, crafted from solid gold and silver by the prestigious Leito & Irmo, jewelers of the Portuguese crown since the 18th century.

Two new race records have also been announced, with prizes and a place in the record books ready to be claimed by the pioneering racers of this first edition - an overall race record for the fastest completion of the full circuit, and an official 12 hour speed record.

Now in its third year, the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy is growing rapidly in scale and ambition, following last year's spectacular event that featured the fleet of foiling IMOCA 60s and one-design VO65s joining the racing as part of The Ocean Race Europe.

Cascais is a historic and cosmopolitan seaside resort on the edge of the Tagus estuary between the Sintra mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. Cascais is known to be one of the best spots for yacht racing in Europe, owing to the reliable, constant wind direction, and a moderate breeze where the Azores High pressure meets the low pressure of the Iberian Peninsula, causing the wind to accelerate where this two systems meet, along the Portuguese coast.

Organised in partnership with the Clube Naval de Cascais, the annual Sailing Trophy is quickly becoming a premier event of the summer sailing calendar, thanks to the combination of its famously reliable wind direction and the internationally-renowned surfing and golf facilities, and easy access from the vibrant capital city of Lisbon, just 30 km away.

The festivities will get under way with an opening ceremony at the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy Race Village on July 2. Racing will be opened officially by Mayor of Cascais, Carlos Carreiras when a symbolic battery of cannon fire from Fort Santo Antnio da Barra will signal the start of the day's racing, in view of the fleet assembled below.

Sustainability is at the core of the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy. The plastic-free event was founded to raise awareness and important funds for marine conservation projects around the world. The event also celebrates the innovation and creativity of the scientific community, with a number of sustainability-forward initiatives fundamental to the event, including the Mirpuri Foundation Ocean Award which celebrates companies or individuals who present a project that has a beneficial impact on the health of our oceans.

Paulo Mirpuri, Founder of the Mirpuri Foundation said: "We are proud to launch the new "A Thousand Miles Race" as part of the growth of the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy and to set a brand-new annual challenge for racers to relish. We are excited to see which sailors will come here and stamp their name on the Trophy. With more than a week of activities confirmed, the 2022 edition of the Sailing Trophy is going to be the biggest and most ambitious yet, a significant step forward for the long-term life of this event. We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to Cascais and to kicking off one of the premier events of the 2022 European sailing calendar."

Mr Gonalo Esteves, President of Clube Naval de Cascais said: "We are glad to see and be part of the evolving process of the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy. This event is already established on the Portuguese sailing calendar and we believe with the new "A Thousand Miles Race" event this championship can become one of the most important offshore races in europe."

Cascais Marina has previously played host to numerous high profile sailing events, including the America's Cup World Series, the World Match Racing Tour, the Audi MedCup and The Ocean Race Europe. The Clube Naval de Cascais has been an institution of Portuguese sailing since it was founded in 1938 and is home to the biggest sailing school in the country. Cascais is also the team base of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, victors of The Ocean Race Europe earlier this year.

Pre-registration for the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy is now open.

More information and links to pre-register can be found at http://www.mirpurisailingtrophy.com.

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Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy announces 1,000 miles offshore race as part of biggest event yet - Sail World

The clusters purpose is to raise awareness of the East of Englandscapability and innovation in order to win new investors, develop expertise,and export homegrown skills and services to the rapidly expanding internationalmarket.

One of the Clusters first actions will be to attract businesses to participatein a work experience programme, starting early in 2022. It aims to showcasethe diverse, varied, career and work experience opportunities to attractmore people into the industry.

The clusters first report, supported and published by Vattenfall, definesthe purpose of the cluster to place the region at the forefront of theskills development for the global offshore wind industry.

More than 160 people joined the first cluster event in Lowestoft in September,organised by offshore wind developer Vattenfall (who are developing

Voting is under way now for the clusters first Chair and Vice Chair,who will be announced next month (12|November). The new appointees willbe tasked with creating a long-term strategy and plan to attract furtherinvestment and opportunity.

Danielle Lane, Vattenfalls UK Country Manager and Co-Chair of the OffshoreWind Industry Council said: Offshore wind is a globally competitiveindustry and we want the East of England to be recognised as a centre ofexcellence, attracting investment and demand for the skills and innovationwhich the region offers. For this to happen, we need a strong, unifiedvoice which can bang the drum for East Anglia to attract investment, boostskills, and create jobs.

Martin Dronfield, Chairman of the East of England Energy Group and formerBoard Member of Renewable UK said:The East of England has achievedincredible progress in the offshore wind industry and has enormous potential,but is often accused of hiding its light under a bushel, getting on withthe job rather than shouting about its innovation, excellence, expertiseand knowledge.

It has built on its heritage from maritime and offshore oil and gas tobe at the forefront of this exciting renewable sector since it began whenScroby Sands offshore wind farm was built off Great Yarmouth in 2007.

The cluster will grasp this opportunity to put the region in its rightfulplace as a global leader, to entice investors and take skills honed hereacross the world to developing markets, like the US and Taiwan.

Denise Hone, Training Director at Hexis Training, another member of thesteering group for the first event, said:Offshore wind presents huge opportunity for us. We have been at the forefrontand now it is time to collectively create one voice to maximise on thepotential and draw in businesses and individuals that are not even awarethat their technology has a part to play in keeping the industrys paceof progress on track, like robotics and mechanical innovations.

We are so proud of what we have achieved, what we are achieving and whatwe could achieve, and creating a cluster will build on that.

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East of England launches offshore wind Cluster Forum - 4C Offshore

rsted and Eversource, the developers behind the Sunrise Wind project in New York who awarded Siemens Energy and Aker Solutions with a contract to deliver the offshore wind farms high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system, said that this would be the first offshore wind project in the US to use the HVDC system.

While HVDC technology is being used in the US, it has not been introduced to offshore wind energy until now, the two companies said.

Sunrise Winds transmission system will comprise a subsea export cable that will have a length of 100 miles (161 kilometres) to connect the offshore wind farms offshore substation to the grid connection point on land in Holbrook, New York.

The HVDC system consists of two converter stations, one offshore and an onshore substation.

The offshore converter station will collect the 66 kV alternating current (AC) power generated by the wind turbines through an inter-array cable system and transform it to 320 kV DC for transmission through the subsea export cable to the onshore converter station at Holbrook on Long Island. The onshore substation will then convert the power back to AC to feed it into the distribution grid.

The HVDC system will be delivered by a consortium between Siemens Energy and Aker Solutions, with Siemens Energy responsible for delivering the system on a turnkey basis and providing onshore civil work in partnership with local companies, and Aker Solutions contracted to deliver for the offshore platform which consists of a steel jacket substructure, and a topside platform deck housing the electrical equipment.

With portions of the HVDC work, including the onshore converter stations, to be performed by local companies, the projects HVDC system will help create jobs and provide additional offshore wind experience to the regions workforce that can support a growing industry for decades, according to rsted and Eversource.

In total, Sunrise Wind will provide up to 800 direct jobs during construction, as well as up to 100 permanent full-time jobs servicing the wind farm during operations. In addition, Sunrise Wind is estimated to create up to 2,000 indirect jobs, the developers said.

The 924 MW Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm, which is currently undergoingfederal permitting process, is located more than 30 miles (approx. 48 kilometres) east of Montauk Point and will generate enough clean energy to power nearly 600,000 New York homes every year, once operational in 2025.

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Sunrise Wind First US Offshore Wind Project to Use HVDC Transmission Technology - Offshore WIND

Oregon State University researchers were awarded a $2 million grant earlier this month to study the distribution of marine mammals and seabirds as the Biden administration moves forward with a proposal to develop wind farms off the Oregon coast.

The grant, one of four handed out by the U.S. Department of Energy, comes as the Biden administration continues an aggressive push to move the countrys electricity production away from fossil fuels, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said.

Harnessing the incredible potential that exists within offshore wind energy is an essential piece of reaching a net-zero carbon future, Granholm said in a statement. In order for Americans living in coastal areas to see the benefits of offshore wind, we must ensure that its done with care for the surrounding ecosystem by co-existing with fisheries and marine life.

Lisa Ballance, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State and lead researcher on the project, said the grant money will help fund visual and acoustic surveys for seabirds, whales, dolphins and porpoises in a region stretching from Cape Mendicino in California to the mouth of the Columbia River at Oregons northern border.

A solid understanding of what species occur where, how often and in what numbers is critical to informing human use of the marine environment, Ballance said in a statement. We are proud to be part of this blend of strong science informing industry in the context of sustainable use and stewardship of our oceans.

Earlier this month, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the administration planned to develop up to seven wind farms and hoped to hold lease sales by 2025 for projects off the coasts of Oregon, Maine, New York and the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Carolinas, California, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department is laying out an ambitious road map as we advance the administrations plans to confront climate change, create good-paying jobs and accelerate the nations transition to a cleaner energy future, Haaland said.

Electricity production is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., accounting for 25% of the greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 60% of electricity production in the country comes from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas.

Biden has set a goal to have 100% of electricity production in the U.S. carbon free by 2035 and to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power, enough to power roughly 10 million homes, in the U.S. by the end of the decade. Meeting the target could mean jobs for more than 44,000 workers and for 33,000 others in related employment, according to the White House.

Offshore wind presents a key piece of a greener future, and Im thrilled that OSU has earned this federal investment to apply its top-notch research in Newport to this clean energy source, Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement. Im glad the Energy Department has recognized Oregon State can provide the research and data to ensure the development of this clean and sustainable energy source doesnt hurt our states world-renowned coastal fisheries and wildlife.

The four-year project at Oregon State, which is expected to get underway in the spring of 2022, will also incorporate historical data and data currently being collected as part of other projects, the university said.

We are excited about this opportunity, Ballance said. This funding will support strong basic science that will undoubtedly lead to new discoveries. Equally important, our science will be used to inform the wind energy industry.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale

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Federal grant to fund OSU wildlife research ahead of offshore wind farm development - OregonLive

NASA and SpaceX mission managers have decided to delay launch of a Crew Dragon astronaut ferry flight to the International Space Station, pushing liftoff from Sunday to Wednesday because of rough weather in the crew's abort landing zone.

Crew-3 commander Raja Chari, pilot Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer had planned to blast off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:21 a.m. ET Sunday, kicking off a 22-hour rendezvous with the space station.

But just a few hours after a launch readiness review tentatively cleared the crew for blastoff, a meeting to discuss the weather along the Crew Dragon's northeasterly trajectory to orbit concluded with a "no-go" recommendation based on predicted rough seas where the capsule might have to splash down in an abort.

As a result, launch will be delayed until 1:10 a.m. Wednesday, the next available opportunity based on the location of the station in its orbit and the Crew Dragon's ability to carry out a rendezvous. The forecast calls for an 80% chance of good local weather and much calmer seas along the path to orbit.

Docking about 22 hours after launch will kick off a hectic few days of handover activity as four departing astronauts, launched to the lab complex last April, bring their replacements up to speed on station operations before returning to Earth aboard their own Crew Dragon.

With the launch delay for the Crew-3 astronauts, Crew-2 commander Shane Kimbrough, pilot Megan McArthur, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide now plan to come home a few days later than planned. Mission duration will be nearly 200 days, a record for a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

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Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia."

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Crew Dragon flight to space station delayed by offshore weather - CBS News

The Biden administrations Department of the Interior yesterday announced new actions to build offshore wind farms in the Atlantic, off the coasts of Massachusetts and the Carolinas, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

This latest action is part of the Biden-Harris administrations goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by 2030 in order to address the climate crisis.

The Department of the Interior is proposing an offshore wind auction in a 127,865-acre area off the coast of the Carolinas. The area could be divided into three leases. It has the potential to unlock more than 1.5 GW of offshore wind energy that could power more than a half-million homes.

[The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] BOEM will publish a Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) in the Federal Register on Nov. 1, 2021, which will kick off a 60-day comment period ending on 11:59 p.m. ET on Jan. 3, 2022.

Any prospective bidders wishing to participate in a Carolina Long Bay lease sale must submit qualification materials postmarked no later than Jan. 3, 2022.BOEM will host an auction seminar to discuss the auction format for prospective bidders.

The administration will kick off an environmental review in November for Mayflower Wind, off the coast of Massachusetts, around 30 miles south of Marthas Vineyard. The wind farm will operate up to 147 turbines and up to five offshore power substations. It will be able to generate more than 2 gigawatts of power, which is enough to power more than 800,000 homes. It will create 14,000 jobs over the projects lifetime.

Mayflower Wind is a joint venture between Ocean Winds and Shell New Energies US LLC, and a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE.

Read more: First major US offshore wind farm approved today

From November 1 for 45 days, BOEM is inviting the public to weigh in on possible commercial wind energy leasing in a proposed area in the Gulf of Mexico. The area consists of almost 30 million acres just west of the Mississippi River to the Texas-Mexico border. Reuters explains:

The move is an early-stage effort to consider offshore wind in the Gulf, which is home to the nations biggest offshore oil and gas drilling industry. Before deciding on whether to lease in the Gulf, BOEM would have to conduct an environmental review and seek input from the public and a government task force set up to consider offshore wind in the region.

We at Electrek think these steps forward by the US government to grow US offshore wind are super exciting. Its doable, and were optimistic this is going to happen, but it will likely be a bumpy (boat) ride.

There will be the expected NIMBY and fishing industry objections in all regions. Indeed, Mayflower has had plenty of that already from Marthas Vineyard residents. And the Gulf of Mexico is going to get very interesting, seeing how the fossil-fuel industry has been drilling there since the mid-20th century.

The thought of more wind power, and thus clean energy, and less oil spillage, like the mess that occurred as the result of Hurricane Ida in September or how about no oil spills one day? is a compelling prospect indeed.

Photo: rsted

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US to expand offshore wind in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico - Electrek.co