Multi-energy in the United States: discovering the Attentive Energy offshore wind project

Damian Bednarz, Attentive Energy Managing Director

"We’ve been working on developing this project here in New York for over four years.

And we’re just proud every day to be a part of it because we’re setting off a path for not only this state but the country to transition and transition the right way.

TotalEnergies’ Attentive Energy project started back in 2018 and progressed ever since.

We’re building out a team, making the key milestones here, in the NY-NJ area, to actually make a difference with the offshore wind effort.

And 2022 is when we won very historic federal auction that took place, where we acquired 84,000 acres out there in the ocean.

It’s an incredible opportunity to build out over 3,000 MW of clean energy here.

If you think about it, it’s the equivalent of over a million homes being powered here in a massive major city in the United States.

It’s important to remember that we spent years doing pre-development work.

It’s critical to understand exactly what is in our lease area to develop that understanding and then build out our future technical efforts in the lease area and our opportunity to export that power directly on shore."

"I’m going to show you some of the work that we do. Today, we’re on a vessel here in Connecticut. This vessel is going to go and complete a benthic survey.

This sample is a critical part of the puzzle. It’s used in conjunction with the geophysical and geotechnical work to basically inform the project development on the design, the layout of the turbines to avoid sensitive environments and to make sure that the project is designed appropriately."

"You’re going to add that data on top of what we find?"

"Absolutely, yes."

"It’s also good because we’ve been able to hone in a little on the export cable routes.

So it’s a little bit more accurate on the positioning for this sample."

"The diversity of background and experience is really unique, I think, to this project.

We have veterans, environmental specialists, permitting specialists...

It is that kind of deep experience that we really believe in and is one of our core values.

Everyone on the team is focused on how to make this a community project.

A major difference.

It’s always been about understanding what the communities need.

The idea that you’re bringing power on shore but with that, a lot of opportunity.

We got an opportunity to learn more about the Billion Oyster project last year, when we first got engaged in our lease area."

"I think it’s just a natural overlap for our project, a natural fit to help partner with them on their research and expand their ability to bring New Yorkers out into their environment.

We’ve committed to doubling the required investment into fisheries and environmental research.

Part of that is looking at the overall environment, the regional environment of where our project is going to impact."

"You’ve seen that with the Billion Oyster project.

This can be a huge pathway to real environmental impacts, but also, not just the science behind it, we want to be good neighbors and be here for a long time.

It’s going to take all the resources, all the ideas and everyone to get involved to make a difference.

Being with a Company like TotalEnergies that sets an ambitious target

I think is a key part."

That’s the opportunity to make something that exists on a spreadsheet a reality.