Contractors are about to dig up a beach to install transmission lines for an offshore wind farm. What happens to the beach? Will it be destroyed? What happens to the ecosystems surrounding it? This is an urgent concern at Dowses Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the community is worried about the effect of routing transmission lines for offshore wind farms to the electricity grid through their beach.
The Environmental League Massachusetts (ELM) is a nonprofit organization that serves as an intermediary between communities, other organizations, and companies planning on building offshore wind farms, as a founding member of the New England for Offshore Wind coalition. ELM works to bring together policy, lobbying, and coalition groups to support statewide and regional policies for clean energy. For the situation on Dowses’ Beach, NE4OSW helps its members communicate with the local community about minor impacts from the cable installation.
ELM has a broad agenda, from combating climate change and protecting land to dealing with water safety and public health. A small branch of the organization is dedicated to promoting and supporting the emerging offshore wind energy sector.
People like Jennifer Delony and Zahra Saifee are crucial to this work. In their roles as Regional Director of Offshore Wind Communications and Coalition & Advocacy Coordinator respectively, they help ELM advance its mission of communicating between different entities such as labor organizations, offshore wind construction companies, and communities. Delony’s role focuses specifically on communications within the New England for Offshore Wind Coalition (NE4OSW) and Saifee’s role focuses on connecting coalition groups. Delony and Saifee advance to ELM’s commitment to growing the offshore wind industry.
“There are so many ways to understand the [offshore wind] industry and be involved in it. Not getting a job in it, but just as a citizen, understanding what it is and how it affects your community,” says Delony, as she passionately explained offshore wind. There is a lot of confusion about offshore wind, but not enough people are actively educating the general public about it.
Offshore wind is a source of renewable energy that harnesses strong consistent winds offshore, especially during the winter. It is an alternative to fossil fuels. The potential for offshore wind is especially high on the east coast of the US, just offshore from places like Dowses Beach.
Few people appreciate the important differences between onshore wind and offshore wind. There is a lot of onshore wind in the US already. Currently, the 70,800 onshore wind turbines add up to 135 megawatts of capacity. On the other hand, the offshore wind industry “or what we want to call an industry” as Delony says, is still very new. Only 42 Mega-watts are installed.
Since offshore wind is still a very new industry, there are lots of misconceptions relating to impacts on wildlife and ocean habitats. This can slow down permitting. Organizations like ELM play an important role in developing offshore wind by helping to debunk misconceptions and address concerns that arise during the permitting process.
Both Delony and Saifee have worked as journalists and editors of several environmental magazines. This background helps them communicate successfully with different types of audiences.
Delony’s transition from being a journalist to the regional director of offshore wind communications was inspired by her desire to be a stronger advocate for renewable energy. As she explains, a journalist has to write about both sides of an issue and give everyone’s point of view. That didn’t allow her to advocate for the environmental issues she cares about. She is now able to get information on offshore energy behind the scenes at ELM. With her background in communication and business, she is able to share information between businesses and the general public, educating them on the exciting hopes for the future of energy.
Saifee was drawn to ELM because she also wanted to further advocate for clean energy. With her strong foundation for writing from her background in environmental science and communications, she was able to join ELM to guide overarching visions for what needs to be said for offshore wind. She wrote for the Daily Utah Chronicles, her college newspaper, writing about topics ranging from electric vehicle registration to the consequences of poor air quality. After graduating, she was interested in doing more work surrounding environmentalism and communication, leading to her position at ELM where in a team setting, “communication and how we talk about issues is key to finding solutions.”
In the example about Dowses’ Beach, Avangrid, an sustainable energy company, plans to install three power cables from its offshore Commonwealth Wind project. Although impacts from the cable installation will be minimal,, the community worries about the process of installment affecting the beach and nearby marine ecosystems. NE4OSW tries to help local advocates communicate with the public to identify the effects of the installment. ELM is not only fighting for the development of offshore wind but also for the community. This process not only looks at connecting the electricity generated from offshore wind farms to land, but also other community concerns.
A major challenge for offshore wind energy are high upfront construction costs. While costs have been falling, Covid, inflation, and the war in Ukraine have halted the supply chain, causing a delay in offshore wind to be developed, and ultimately increasing the costs of construction again.
In addition to the construction costs, delays in permitting can increases costs too. Advocates, like NE4OSW, can play a significant role in lowering these costs by serving as the liaison between local communities and construction companies. As the offshore wind industry continues to expand, the long-term goals of offshore wind development will ultimately reduce the costs for constructing offshore wind farms.
The need to transition to renewable energy is urgent and Delony and Saifee see increased education about offshore wind as critical to supporting the transition. They hope that people will spread awareness and information about offshore wind to help communities understand and accept offshore wind and also help further develop offshore wind.
“This coalition brings the right people in the ring together to get work done,” Saifee says “and the best part of being a part of ELM is how people lend their expertise to people who need it.” Offshore wind has huge potential, “so it’s up to people like you and me to talk about it at parties and begin to spread that message because there is so much to learn and understand,” Delony explains, “and I think it really is an eye-opening experience when you just sit down with someone and talk about it for real.”