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One in six Massachusetts homes could be running on wind power as soon as 2023.
Vineyard Wind will be the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm, providing wind energy for Massachusetts residents. Despite previously failed attempts to build a wind farm off the Massachusetts coast, this revolutionary wind farm—scheduled to come on line in 2023—will effectively transition residents away from fossil fuels, combat climate change, and promote energy independence.
Located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Cape Cod, Vineyard Wind will reside in the United States federal waters of Nantucket Sound. It will host 62 wind turbines, each producing 13 megawatts of power. In total, the whole wind farm can produce enough energy to power more than 400,000 homes.
Massachusetts has the largest potential for offshore wind of any state in the country: offshore wind could supply eight times the amount of the state’s estimated energy demand. Tapping into this resource would massively increase the sustainability of not just the state’s energy grid, but all of New England’s
Offshore wind serves as a powerful ocean climate solution. It creates jobs, lowers energy costs, and provides clean energy to tackle climate change.
Not everyone, however, is thrilled about Vineyard Wind.
Despite the comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), fishing advocacy groups are worried about the turbines limiting access to and depleting fishing stocks.
There were also concerns about potential threats to the North Atlantic right whale. Nantucket Sound is a critical habitat for these endangered mammals. To address these issues, in 2019, Vineyard Wind—along with other organizations—committed to the protection of right whales throughout their construction process and operating procedures.
Such pushback may sound familiar. In the early 2000s, such concerns derailed another large-scale offshore wind project: Cape Wind. The project would have turbines built in Nantucket Sound only five miles from the southern coast of Cape Cod. The original permit application was submitted in 2001. But, after an almost 20 year battle, the project ultimately surrendered its lease in 2017.
I grew up on Cape Cod and—though I was young at the time—remember the red and blue signs on front lawns that were seemingly everywhere: “Nantucket Sound is NOT For Sale.” People were concerned that the turbines would mar the beauty of Nantucket Sound, piercing the endless blue horizon with industrial, brutish force. Some claimed that property values would depreciate. Others remained convinced that there were unknown “environmental impacts” from having large turbines installed on the ocean floor.
Despite the support of many Cape Cod residents, such concerns were the project’s downfall.
With this complex history of offshore wind in the area, it may seem unlikely that Vineyard Wind could succeed. And yet, it’s set to do just that.
Several reasons explain why Vineyard Wind is poised to succeed where Cape Wind failed.
The turbines will be located much further offshore than the Cape Wind project proposed, posing no obstruction to the visible horizon.
The offshore wind industry has also developed over the past twenty years. Projects on the scale of Vineyard Wind may be new for the United States, however, The technology is now proven, and the growth of the European market has driven down costs of offshore wind globally.
Because of climate change, now more than ever is the time for the United States to employ and embrace offshore wind.
The project will create approximately 3,600 jobs in Massachusetts. An agreement between Vineyard Wind and the Biden administration promises that at least 1,000 of these jobs will go to union workers. Construction jobs and other opportunities will help expand Massachusetts’ middle class, while also providing them with cleaner, cheaper energy.
Wind power is also cheap. Despite the upfront costs of building new infrastructure, wind farms are much less expensive to operate and maintain than their fossil fuel counterparts. Thus, it costs consumers less to purchase offshore wind energy than the fossil fuel sources that have been historically used to power the grid. The project will ultimately cut the collective cost to all ratepayers by $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of the project.
Vineyard Wind has a wide variety of environmental advantages too. The amount of energy the wind farm is expected to produce will offset 1.68 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. That’s comparable to taking 325,000 vehicles off the road. The project would be a staggering increase in clean energy usage within Massachusetts’ energy grid.
Vineyard Wind is just the kind of project we need in the face of the climate crisis.
Projections show that offshore wind could meet 90% of the electricity demand of the United States by 2050.
This project has the potential to serve as a model for offshore wind farms across the country, laying the foundation for a thriving new ocean-based industry in the United States.