New York State on Friday stalled three main offshore wind-energy initiatives after General Electric Vernova GE.N modified the turbine design, which the state mentioned “materially altered” the plans.
New York provisionally permitted the initiatives in October 2023. They are Attentive Energy One being developed by TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power and Corio Generation; Community Offshore Wind, which is backed by RWE and National Grid Ventures; and Vineyard Offshore’s Excelsior Wind.
But since then, GE Vernova determined to maneuver from its 18 megawatt Haliade-X turbine platform to a smaller turbine.
This induced “technical and commercial complexities” for the builders, the New York State Research and Development Authority mentioned in an announcement that introduced it will not signal ultimate contracts.
“Given these developments, no final awards will be made,” NYSRDA mentioned, including it is going to “look to advance a future competitive solicitation.”
The downside is the newest hit to U.S. offshore wind power improvement, which is a crucial part of local weather plans by President Joe Biden and quite a few U.S. states.
Supply chain issues and rising rates of interest over the previous yr have compelled mission cancellations and billions of {dollars} in writedowns by main builders.
Vineyard Offshore spokesperson Andrew Doba mentioned the developer deliberate to proceed to bid on new initiatives.
GE Vernova mentioned it aimed to proceed working with New York, offshore builders and others to shortly scale offshore wind, and touted its different.
“…We consider our know-how will higher place the business to create jobs, and strengthen the availability chain for the following chapter of offshore wind in New York and past,” the company said in a statement.
Offshore wind industry group Oceantic said the news was disappointing, but it “is not going to influence the market’s general fundamentals.”
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said: “Is it a bump within the highway? Yes,…however we’re nonetheless going to get there.”
(Reuters – Reporting by Nichola Groom, Laila Kearney, Timothy Gardner and Nicole Jao; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
