Ørsted and Eversource have signed a contract with Sea Services North America, whose partner fishermen in the US Northeast region will provide support vessels and monitoring services during construction of the Revolution Wind, South Fork Wind, and Sunrise Wind offshore wind farms.
According to the joint venture partners behind the three offshore wind projects, this is the first time an offshore wind developer and a commercial fishing consortium sign a substantial commercial contract in the history of US offshore wind.
Building on this collaboration, Ørsted has also begun discussions with Sea Services for the provision of the same services at its Ocean Wind and Skipjack Wind Farms.
Ørsted and Eversource said that the collaboration with the fishing consortium would create jobs for fishermen, increase safety standards, and provide training for participating crews. The agreement will also provide additional days at sea for the region’s fishing fleet.
Sea Services’ fishermen have already provided scouting vessels and monitoring services over the last year to assist Revolution Wind’s project research vessels in locating, identifying and avoiding fishermen’s gear during pre-construction marine surveys.
The Revolution Wind offshore wind farm, serving Rhode Island and Connecticut, Sunrise Wind off New York, and the South Fork Wind project off Long Island have a combined capacity of more than 1.7 GW.
Last month, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the Revolution Wind project, while the draft EIS for the South Fork offshore wind farm was published in January.
In March, Ørsted and Eversource signed a Host Community Agreement (HCA) with the City of New London in Connecticut for the redevelopment of the city port’s State Pier to support the construction of the three projects.
For Ørsted’s Skipjack offshore wind farm in Maryland, the developer and Tradepoint Atlantic recently completed the initial phase of the staging centre at a global logistics center in Baltimore County, while its Ocean Wind project off New Jersey started its environmental review process at BOEM this March.