From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
We already know that some developers have pulled out of offshore wind projects off the US NE coast, as they are not viable.
Here is more news on developments off the New York coast:
The developers of four offshore wind farms in New York are seeking average price rises of almost 50% on their offtake agreements.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) calculated how the companies’ requested adjustment would impact strike prices, and found the average across all four was 48%.
The projects involved are Orsted and Eversource’s 924MW Sunrise Wind project, along with Equinor and bp’s 816MW Empire Wind 1, 1260MW Empire Wind 2 and 1230MW Beacon Wind.
Sunrise Wind previously agreed a price of $110.37 per MWh, and is now seeking a $139.99 price instead, a 27% increase, according to NYSERDA.
Empire Wind 1 requested increasing its strike price from $118.38 to $159.64, a 35% increase, while Empire Wind 2 asked for its $107.50 original price to be increased to $177.84, a 66% increase.
Meanwhile, Beacon Wind wants its $118.00 previously agreed price ramped up to $190.82, 62% more.
The three Equinor and bp projects combined have an average price rise of 55%.
The four projects are seeking a number of reliefs, including retroactively applying an inflation-adjustment mechanism similar to one included in New York’s recent third offshore wind solicitation, along with interconnection cost adjustments, though the exact specifications differ between the developers.
According to NYSERDA, including the inflation adjustment mechanism alone would raise prices for the four projects by an average of 31% (25% for Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1, 37% for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind).
So we are looking at a range of prices demanded between $139 and $190/MWh.
In UK terms, that’s £114 to £155/MWh.
Do we need any further proof that offshore wind is not as cheap as made out?