The governor spoke at the first meeting of a tri-state federal wind task force Thusday at the University of New Hampshire.
The event, which was open to the public, drew nearly 200 people, including stakeholders from local governments, the fishing industry, nonprofits, and private companies.
Sununu says those groups will need to work together as the years-long federal process of wind development moves forward.
“We want to make sure everyone has input,” he says, “but at the end of the day, if we don’t get a result, if we don’t get a product out of this, then we’ve all wasted our time.”
New Hampshire business commissioner Taylor Caswell says the growing wind industry could let the state combat climate change at an unprecedented scale.
“Part of the complexity of the policy issue has been the sheer size of what we need to be able to accomplish to displace fossil fuels,” he says, “and here we have an opportunity to start talking about renewable energy in gigawatts.”
The tri-state task force is led by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, where Jim Bennett is head of renewable energy. He tells NHPR that offshore wind could transform the region’s grid.
“A wind farm offshore is on a scale that’s similar to an onshore nuclear power plant,” Bennett says. “When you’re talking about multiple offshore wind farms, that adds up.”
Federal leasing for offshore wind farms is already underway in Southern New England and down the East Coast, but the development process won’t be simple. It will have to account for fishery concerns and other environmental conflicts.
“Commercial fishing interests, navigation concerns, safety issues, potential visual impacts – these are the things that help define where we would pursue activities offshore,” Bennett says.
It’ll likely take years before there’s potential for what Bennett calls “steel in the water” – and the possible onshore economic impacts of a new industry – in Northern New England.
This story comes from the New England News Collaborative, eight public media companies, including The Public’s Radio, coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
