Interior Department approves first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. [View all]

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Source: Washington Post




The Biden administration on Tuesday approved the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, a project that envisions building 62 turbines off of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and creating enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. Vineyard Wind is the first of a series of massive offshore wind farm proposals that could put more than 3,000 wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to North Carolina.

The Biden administration has committed to processing the other 13 projects currently under federal review by 2025 in an attempt to meet the administration’s ambitious goal of producing 30,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2030, powering some 10 million homes. The goal is part of the Biden administration’s effort to fight climate change by shifting away from fossil fuels. “I believe that a clean energy future is within our grasp in the United States,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a conference call on Tuesday, describing the approval of Vineyard Wind as “a significant milestone in our efforts to build a clean and more equitable energy future while addressing the climate emergency.”

Biden administration officials said that the Vineyard Wind project will create about 3,600 jobs for American workers. So far, just two offshore pilot projects are currently operational — one off Rhode Island and the other off Virginia. Together, their seven turbines produce 42 megawatts of electricity. The scope of the coming projects are far larger and have generated opposition from some coastal communities and commercial fishermen. Environmentalists have also raised concerns about the potential impact on fish, birds, and marine mammals, including the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species that migrates through swaths of ocean designated for wind farm construction.

Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a U.S. offshoot of the Spanish energy company, Iberdrola; and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners out of Denmark. Europe’s offshore wind industry is decades ahead of the United States and European firms at this point dominate the industry and its supply chain.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/11/interior-department-approves-first-large-scale-offshore-wind-farm-us/