SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Developers of the South Fork Wind Farm are hoping that upping their payout to local fishermen and cutting the number of turbines in the project will pass muster with Rhode Island coastal regulators.
Developers Orsted A/S and Eversource Energy have agreed to adjust their proposal from 15 to 12 turbines, while setting up a $12 million compensation fund for local fishermen, Meaghan Wims, a project spokesperson, said on Tuesday. The changes come ahead of the R.I. Coastal Resources Commission’s scheduled vote Tuesday night on whether to certify the project, which would provide electricity to Long Island, N.Y.
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The CRMC through its Ocean Special Area Management Plan gets a say in the federal certification process for wind farm projects within a certain distance of the state coastline. Compensation is intended to offset losses from the construction and operation of the projects to the fishing industry.
Negotiations over the South Fork Wind Farm, which is slated for a portion of federal waters southeast of Block Island known as Cox Ledge, stalled after many months of failed negotiations between the CRMC, developers and the Fishermen’s Advisory Board. Among the sources of contention is differing analysis of how construction and operation of these massive wind turbines will hurt the local ecosystem.
The amount of compensation the developers should pay local fishermen to offset losses to their industry was also disputed, with each side putting very different price tags on their proposals. The latest figure put forth by Orsted and Eversource represents an $11 million increase over what their consultant suggested as initial impacts, and was made “in the spirit of negotiations to move this first Ørsted-Eversource project forward,” Wims said.
The decision holds implications not just for this project, but for others in federal waters that will also be subject to CRMC review, including another Eversource-Orsted proposal known as Revolution Wind that will bring power to Rhode Island.
Based on ecological and industry concerns and the still largely unknown science behind how these projects will affect fish and marine environments long-term, the CRMC in its original staff report recommended that the council deny the South Fork Wind Farm certification unless specific changes were made.
Among the recommendations was cutting the number of turbines to reduce disruption to the vast array of marine species that have made their home in this area of rocky debris from leftover glaciers, known as glacial moraine. Indeed, Cox Ledge is considered a “crown jewel” for biodiversity and the go-to fishing spot for commercial, charter and recreational fishermen up and down the East Coast, the CRMC report stated.
The staff report proposed using 11 turbine foundations and 12 total turbines, to minimize disruption. Whether changes to the number of turbines would impact power generation – proposed at 132 megawatts – is unclear.
The CRMC on Tuesday posted on its website an addendum to its staff recommendation which suggested the developers’ latest changes to turbine numbers and fishermen compensation met the necessary requirements for approval. Laura Dwyer, a CRMC spokeswoman, declined to comment beyond what was in the staff report.
The council, which is a group of politically appointed representatives separate from the agency’s staff, is slated to consider the requested certification at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
