Ocean Planning for a Green Energy Future

When you charge your phone or turn on your lights a decade now, where will the power come from? The answer, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, may be blowing in the wind.

Several states along the East Coast have set aggressive goals to convert from fossil fuel-based energy sources to green ones in the coming years. Offshore wind figures to be a major part of the mix, with New York and New Jersey alone planning to generate 16,500 megawatts from turbines by 2035.

The UCI has played an influential role in this transformation through its ocean planning work, notably as a member of the team developing the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal (portal.midatlanticocean.org). The free and publicly accessible site has served as a neutral source of information that is helping state and federal agencies determine where turbines can be placed while posing as little disruption as possible to traditional ocean uses (e.g. commercial fishing, maritime commerce, Naval training activities), marine life and ecosystems.

The Portal enables stakeholders to analyze offshore wind proposals by comparing project areas with the Portal’s collection of over 5,000 interactive map layers. In 2019, the UCI hosted the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Forum, convened by the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean. Over 200 people attended the inaugural ocean planning conference, which will now be held annually in cities throughout the region. The UCI’s Karl Vilacoba, project manager for the Portal, conducted nearly two dozen online and in-person trainings in 2019. Among them was a presentation for approximately 150 attendees at the New Jersey Environmental Lobby’s Symposium on Offshore Wind Energy Development and the Environment held at Monmouth. Vilacoba also provided Portal trainings for students in Monmouth classes, including a marine GIS course developed by the UCI. The UCI conducted all of this work with grant support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Monmouth-UCI New Jersey Offshore Wind Poll

Conducted February 2019

76% Favor wind farms off NJ coast 82% Offshore wind should be a priority for NJ 61% Oppose offshore drilling off NJ coast

UCI WELCOMES POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER Dr. Christopher Haak joined the UCI in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher focused on fisheries science. Haak is working with NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service researchers to develop habitat use models for commercially and ecologically important fish species throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The team’s work will predict future shifts in species distributions due to factors like environmental change and create map products that can be added to the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal. His work is being supported with a grant from the Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation.