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Offshore Wind and Coastal Communities
Community Benefits and Impacts from Offshore Wind Developments
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This project seeks to understand the perspectives of small, rural coastal communities about potential benefits and impacts from future floating offshore wind development, and about potential tools for ensuring benefits to potentially impacted communities such as Community Benefit Agreements. This project has included three stages so far:
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Case Studies of Existing Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) (2024)
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Content analysis of records of existing offshore wind related CBAs
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Interviews with communities who engaged in past offshore wind related CBA negotiations, and with developers involved in the same agreement negotiations
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Interviews with community leaders representing multiple perspectives of stakeholders and rightsholders in rural coastal communities that have been considered for future floating offshore wind energy development (Nov 2024 - July 2025)
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Six communities in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Maine
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Drop - Off Pick - Up surveys of community members in the same six communities as the interviews with community leaders (Summer 2025)
I have supported project management and student mentorship needs for the project, led the design and implementation of the research efforts for stage 2 of the project, developed and maintained community research relationships in Oregon case communities, supported the design and implementation of the surveys used in stage 3 of the project, and led efforts to disseminate research findings through publication of manuscripts and white papers and through organizing community facing presentations and the development of publicly available research projects.
Collaborating Universities:
Oregon State University, Cal Poly Humboldt, University of Washington, University of Maine, and University of Delaware
Additional Project Partners:
Pacific Marine Energy Center, Schatz Energy Center, Sea Grant (Oregon, Maine, California, and Washington), Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, Center for Research in Wind
This project was initially conducted with support from the Department of Energy (Award #DE-EE-001078), and is continuing with support from the National Wildlife Federation and the Energy Foundation.
Offshore Wind and
New England Fisheries
Fishing boat in front of wind turbines, from NOAA.gov
Fishing boat in front of wind turbines, from NOAA.gov
Map of BOEM draft wind energy area for the Gulf of Maine
Map of BOEM draft wind energy area for the Gulf of Maine
Conceptual Systems Model of offshore wind interactions with fisheries
Conceptual Systems Model of offshore wind interactions with fisheries
FishFlOW IEA:
Fisheries and Floating Offshore Wind IEA for the Gulf of Maine
In this project, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Rhode Island and as a NOAA Fisheries Affiliate with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. I supported the development of an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) for the Gulf of Maine focused on potential interactions between offshore wind and commercial fisheries.
My primary contributions included:
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Developing a conceptual model of the Gulf of Maine social - ecological system emphasizing potential pathways of impact between offshore wind and commercial fisheries interactions
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Organizing and facilitating workshops with commercial fishermen across the coastline of the Gulf of Maine to ensure the project was informed by local knowledge and stakeholder interests
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Identifying potential key indicators and data needs for conducting an IEA based on the conceptual modeling effort and fisheries workshops.
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In this role, I also supported the research and community engagement efforts of The University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center and the Rhode Island Sea Grant Extension Services team.
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