Maryland’s nascent offshore wind energy industry suffered a major blow late Thursday when one of the two companies planning to install wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City announced that it was “repositioning” its plans, pulling out of its agreement with the state and seeking alternative financial arrangements to keep the project going.
Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind, emphasized that it was still committed to building its project in federal waters, but said it was opting out of the agreement it had reached with the Maryland Public Service Commission for financial clean energy credits intended to help fund the development. The company said that while it would still seek permits for the proposed wind farm from the federal government, and would continue to develop construction and operations plans for Maryland, the current financial realties of the offshore wind industry made it impossible to continue under the present arrangement.
Through two separate but adjacent leases known as Skipjack 1 and Skipjack 2 that had won state approval, Ørsted is ticketed to provide 966 megawatts of wind energy beginning later this decade. A company executive said Ørsted was determined to work with state officials, potential investors and other stakeholders in an effort to find a better way to finance and save the project.
“Today’s announcement affirms our commitment to developing value creating projects and represents an opportunity to reposition Skipjack Wind, located in a strategically valuable federal lease area and with a state that is highly supportive of offshore wind, for future offtake opportunities,” said David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO Americas at Ørsted. “As we explore the best path forward for Skipjack Wind, we anticipate several opportunities and will evaluate each as it becomes available. We will continue to advance Skipjack Wind’s development milestones, including its Construction and Operations Plan.”
By saying the Danish company was exploring “future offtake opportunities,” Hardy was signaling that Ørsted will be looking for new funding streams, new investors, new government programs that could potentially generate additional capital, a new rate scheme for electricity consumers — or some combination.
But it isn’t quite clear where the discussions in Maryland will go from here.
By Josh Kurtz
Jeff Hart says
Hopefully the primary developer, Orsted, didn’t make their decision to back out based on the Andy Harris meeting from last weekend. The presentation was setup and presented on the New Republican Party not wanting environmental projects and seeming to have all think that the majority of Marylanders don’t want wind energy on our shores (23 miles off shore)
Barbara Denton says
The discussions should go in the tank where they belong.
Michael Davis says
We will probably never know for sure how much Andy Harris influenced killing the project for Maryland. Previously, Andy said he objected to wind power out of his deep concerns for whales despite there being no scientific evidence whatsoever that wind turbines disturbed whales. And given Andy’s desires to slash funding for environment and other domestic programs, it is a bridge too far to claim Andy cares a rodent’s derrière about whales.
Back when he was President, Trump falsely claimed wind turbines interfered with TV signals. What really galls Republicans is that wind generated power competes with burning fossil fuels. Republicans chant “Drill baby, drill!” as that is where their money comes from. I believe Harris would sacrifice anything that helped Marylanders in order to support Trump and his financial supporters from the petrochemical industry in Texas, Louisiana, and other red states.
Jerry McConnell says
Our intellectually challenged congressional representative, Andy “Pop Gun” Harris, torpedoed this project, at least for the time being, due to his conviction that wind energy is a public health hazard and that fossil fuels are environmentally friendly. Yep, Andy’s pretty stupid. But everybody knows that.
What he did come up with that’s truly alarming is that fish would fall prey to the wind turbine blades spinning around 50-60 feet above the sea surface.
We have seen flying fish off of Ocean City before, but none have been seen flying at that altitude.
Andy has become a true ambassador for the Orange demagogue and his legion of nod-a-heads, who all share one trait—they just don’t have a clue.
James Brennan says
In the U.S., the fossil fuel industry is subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year. It is no wonder that Renewable Energy projects like offshore wind farm construction have difficulty competing for investment dollars. A company like Orsted has successfully built and profitably operates offshore wind projects all over the world. Our marketplace to rigged to exclude them. It’s no surprise they fail.
So What should we do. Any Maryland Homeowner who can afford to do so should immediately install solar panels on their home or property. A relatively modest sized solar array will eliminate your utility bill and pay for its installation in 6 to 7 years. This is my experience from installing a 5.5 KWH array in 2017. The technology is mature, there are state and federal rebates available, and lots of local companies offer the product.
I also will continue to lobby for off shore wind, but in the meantime, I am a clean energy generator and consumer.