On the final enterprise day of the Biden administration, a federal company introduced its approval of the development and operations plan for a giant offshore wind undertaking.
“We are proud to announce BOEM’s final approval of the SouthCoast Wind project, the nation’s eleventh commercial-scale offshore wind energy project, which will power more than 840,000 homes,” U.S. Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration Director Elizabeth Klein mentioned in an announcement.
In September, Massachusetts chosen 1,087 megawatts of energy from the 1,287 MW SouthCoast Wind undertaking, with the remaining 200 MW going to Rhode Island.
The undertaking will probably be positioned about 26 nautical miles south of Martha’s Winery and 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket, an space the place builders with federal leases are planning to arrange main industrial operations.
The authorized undertaking consists of the development of as much as 141 wind generators, as much as 5 substation platforms, and as much as eight offshore export cables positioned in corridors that would make landfall in Brayton Level or Falmouth.
Owned by OW Ocean Winds, the SouthCoast Wind undertaking was beforehand chosen by Massachusetts however the developer canceled the contract amid escalating prices. The developer has pledged to allocate $93 million to initiatives like native workforce growth, fisheries and marine science analysis, environmental justice, and ratepayer assist. Venture officers estimate energy may circulate from the undertaking onto the grid in 2030.
Utility officers in Massachusetts this week notified state regulators that undertaking contract negotiations with SouthCoast Wind and one other offshore undertaking didn’t result in executed contracts by a Jan. 15 deadline, and the execution of the contracts is now anticipated by March 31.
Rep. Justin Thurber of Somerset instructed the Fall River Reporter on Friday that Italian firm Prysmian Cable Manufacturing “will not be building the Offshore Wind cable plant on Brayton Point.” The corporate introduced plans in reference to an finally unsuccessful wind farm bid to construct a subsea transmission cable manufacturing plant on land in Somerset that final decade hosted a coal-burning energy plant.
State officers have for years celebrated Prysmian’s dedication as an indication that offshore wind was gaining a foothold within the U.S. and particularly in Massachusetts.
President-elect Donald Trump, an offshore wind opponent and fossil fuels energy manufacturing advocate, is about to be sworn in on Monday and has forecast his personal plans to place the squeeze on offshore wind power. There’s an ongoing debate over doubtlessly totally different impacts on initiatives with permits, versus these nonetheless within the pipeline.
Winery Wind 1, an offshore energy undertaking that began producing electrical energy in early 2024, stays a piece in progress. It was shut down final summer time after a blade shattered however has resumed building operations.
After requests courting again to December about whether or not the undertaking is producing energy once more, a Winery Wind 1 spokesman mentioned late Friday that energy is being generated once more, by a single turbine.
