On Monday, the US Department of the Interior (DoI) gave approval to a plan to build 84 wind turbines in a huge offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. The decision could pave the way for offshore wind power generation along the nation’s 95,000 miles of coastline.
The Interior Department says its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed its environmental review on the impacts of building a huge wind-power generation facility off the southern coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The decision allows the vast majority of the plan to move forward, with limitations placed only on the northernmost parts of the proposal.
The 84 wind turbines of the Vineyard Wind project would be placed 1 nautical mile apart and face either east-west or north-south, according to the preferred alternative presented in the report. Together, they would generate 800 megawatts of electricity, making it by-far the United States’ largest offshore wind farm.
The report found, however, that the project could still have a light-to-moderate impact on recreational and fishing activities in the area; fishing companies have been some of the staunchest opponents of offshore wind proposals.
"This is the day the US offshore wind industry has been anxiously awaiting for years. Today's announcement provides the regulatory greenlight the industry needs to attract investments and move projects forward," Liz Burdock, head of the non-profit group Business Network for Offshore Wind, told Politico.
Under the prior administration of US President Donald Trump, regenerating the nation’s fossil fuel industries was given top priority, so renewable industries like wind faced significant headwind. Trump lambasted wind power, falsely claiming the turbines cause cancer and that electricity would flicker out on calm days.
Although Trump’s Energy Department gave renewables intermittent support, the DoI withheld funding for the Vineyard Wind project. As Sputnik reported at the time, Shell New Energies, a division of the petroleum giant formed to penetrate the renewables market, had its own designs on the patch of ocean.
Despite this, in May 2020, the Trump administration extended renewable energy companies an important olive branch by delaying the deadline for an important tax credit due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advocates believe America’s windy shores hold vast electrical potential: one DoE study from 2015 estimated that 86 gigawatts of potential electrical power could be generated by US offshore wind power using existing technology, or roughly double the nation’s total electrical consumption at the time.
US President Joe Biden, who took office in January, is considerably more amenable to renewables, setting a goal of completely weaning the nation off fossil fuels by 2035. At present, renewables provide just one-sixth of US electrical power. However, the project is still provoking considerable resistance from conservatives in Congress.
A final decision from the DoI on the Vineyard Wind project is expected later this year.
