LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Connecticut groups concerned wind farm project won’t maximize economic potential for state 

Credit:  By Luther Turmelle | New Haven Register | December 21, 2018 | www.nhregister.com ~~

Officials with a coalition of Connecticut labor and environmental groups say they are concerned a company scheduled to begin providing the state with wind power in 2023 is not trying maximize the economic impact that the project will have.

Representatives of the coalition, made up of more than two-dozen groups, sent a letter Wednesday to the two top executives of Orsted US Offshore Wind. In the letter, they expressed concern the company might not use a type of base that anchors the wind turbines to the ocean floor that can be mass produced in southern New England.

John Humphries, lead organizer for the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs, said comments made by an Orsted executive Dec. 12 led him to believe the company will use two types of bases that will be mass produced in Europe.

“We were both surprised and deeply disappointed when Orsted’s Ryan Chaytors told a public gathering in New London last week that gravity bases are no longer being considered for these projects,” Humphries said in a three-page letter to Jeff Grybowski and Thomas Brostrom, the co-chief executive officers of Orsted US Offshore Wind. “Since the geotechnical surveys are still ongoing, it seems like a betrayal of trust and commitment, and it presents the appearance that after the merger, Orsted is now more interested in protecting its European manufacturing and supply chain operations than it is in building a substantial presence here in New England that will maximize the benefits to local communities.”

Humphries Wednesday said the gravity bases are completely made of concrete and “are the size of a tall apartment building.” One they are constructed, they are floated out to the site of the wind farm using tugboats.

Orsted’s Revolution Wind project will produce 200 megawatts of electricity from a wind farm that will be built in federal waters about halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard

“Because of their size, they would have to be constructed near where they are to be used,” Humphries said.

Orsted has committed to investing at least $15 million in the Port of New London so that substantial aspects of the Revolution Wind project can be constructed in that city.

But Chaytors, who is a project development manager with Orsted, told an audience with the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut on Dec. 12 that two other types of turbine bases – monopiles and jackets – were the only foundations under consideration by the company.

Orsted officials were not immediately available Friday to comment on the letter.

The letter to the Orsted executives urged them to “maintain a commitment to work with local communities and stakeholders in making production decisions that put the interests of Connecticut’s workers and their communities first, rather than prioritizing the company’s existing manufacturing and supply chain operations in Europe.”

“The premature rejection of the gravity-based system prior to completion of geotechnical surveys and a thorough exploration of local partnerships that could meet the production demands would be very unfortunate and could make it more challenging for us to build the broad public support we want for expanding offshore wind in Connecticut,” the letter concludes.

Source:  By Luther Turmelle | New Haven Register | December 21, 2018 | www.nhregister.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon