World Shipping Council tilts at US-mandated windmills

A NEWLY created US agency plans to lease sites for coastal wind farms next to high vessel traffic areas are "hurried" proposals, which do not take into account ocean management policies, says the World Shipping Council, which represents 90 per cent of global tonnage.

The new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), is proposing the lease of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf off Maryland's Coast, and a further site off the southern coast of Massachusetts.

The Ocean City, Maryland site will house more than 2,500 wind structures across 27 nautical miles to the east. "The environmental costs and damage of a single collision between a ship and a wind turbine, as well as the potential loss of life and property could easily exceed any benefits of such turbines," said the WSC in a statement to the agency.

Previously, BOEMRE has noted that the "Smart from the Start" initiative, which selects suitable sites for wind farms, will take into consideration commercial shipping lanes and such leases will not necessarily be approved in these areas.

With ocean trade routes already navigational hazards it "would be made much more dangerous by the presence of wind turbines" affecting this commercial shipping lane into the Port of Philadelphia via the Delaware Bay.

The site proposed off the coast of Massachusetts follows President Barack Obama's top priority of renewable energy development and reduction of GHG emissions and is to house 4,000 megawatts of wind energy to power about 1.7 million households.

WSC proposes that navigational safety exclusion zones be ruled out before the request begins and potential lease bidders "not waste their time considering bids for lease areas that will later be excluded for navigational safety reasons."

The speeding up of selection, leasing and construction of offshore wind farms has left out integration with alongside the US Coast Guard who regulate high-density navigational areas.

The BOEMRE agency is to collect track movement patterns in proposed areas by gathering Automated Identification System data transmitted by vessels.

The AIS data should be reviewed for primary analysis by the US Coast Guard who jointly can develop guidelines on leasing activity and where offshore blocks be applied on the grounds of navigational safety and traffic volume, said the WSC.
(Source:www.schednet.com)