Bay State Wind Reconfigures Proposed Turbine Layout Based on Fishermen Input
Offshore wind developer collaborates with New England communities to revise plans for offshore wind farm
Boston, MA (August 6, 2018) - Bay State Wind today announced a significant change to its proposed layout for a New England offshore wind farm. In response to feedback from fishermen and community members, Bay State Wind has revised its turbine layout pattern. The change demonstrates Bay State Wind’s commitment to being a good neighbor, and it will accommodate historical fishing patterns, and help to provide greater ease of fishing within, and transiting through, the wind farm.
Bay State Wind’s Engineering and Layouts team incorporated as many suggestions as possible from fishermen and local stakeholders, while keeping in mind the need to balance safe navigation, fishing concerns and clean energy production.
“We are committed to being strong partners with New England’s fishing industry and our neighbors in local communities,” said Thomas Brostrøm, President of Ørsted North America. “As we continue to design sustainable energy for the state, we have taken steps to make the layout of wind turbines more fishing friendly while maintaining energy optimization. We will continue to work with agencies, stakeholders, and other developers towards a clean energy future.”
“With local roots that go back more than 100 years, we’re proud to serve New England and understand the importance of the fishing industry to ports in the region,” said Mike Auseré, Vice President of Business Development at Eversource. “We’re happy to collaborate with a company like Ørsted that shares our commitment to being responsive to the needs of local communities.”
The new plan realigns the wind turbine layout so that the turbines are located in rows running East-to West, the preferred orientation for fishing. The updated layout also includes an average of one nautical mile between turbine rows to create distinct fishing corridors while continuing to optimize wind utilization and energy production.
Feedback from the local fishing community indicated that the irregular pattern of the previous plan could make fishing in and transiting through the wind farm area difficult, especially in bad weather or while towing or setting gear.
Bay State Wind is a partnership between Ørsted, the world’s leader in offshore wind development, and Eversource, New England’s premier electric transmission company. The partners will submit a construction and operations plan to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in early 2019, which will include the updated turbine layout.
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About Ørsted
Ørsted (NASDAQ OMX: ORSTED) is one of Northern Europe's leading energy groups headquartered in Denmark. Around 6,200 employees develop, construct and operate offshore wind farms, generate heat and power from power stations as well as supply and trade in energy to wholesale, business and residential customers. In addition, we produce oil and gas, and a process has been initiated to divest this business unit. The continuing part of the Group has approximately 5,800 employees and generated a revenue in 2016 of DKK 61 billion (EUR 8.2 billion). For further information, see https://orsted.com/ and follow us on twitter (@OrstedNA).
About Eversource
Eversource (NYSE: ES) transmits and delivers electricity and natural gas and supplies water to approximately 4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Recognized as the top U.S. utility for its energy efficiency programs by the sustainability advocacy organization Ceres, Eversource harnesses the commitment of its more than 8,300 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of safely delivering reliable energy and water with superior customer service. For more information, please visit our website (www.eversource.com) and follow us on Twitter (@EversourceCorp) and Facebook (facebook.com/EversourceEnergy). For more information on our water services, visit www.aquarionwater.com.
Media Contact
Ørsted North America
Lauren Burm, 617-309-8730