The federal government announced its final approval of the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm Tuesday.
The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project, south of Martha’s Vineyard near Cape Cod, would be the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters.
Vineyard Wind, a joit venture between a Danish investment firm and the Basque utility Iberdrola, indicated it could be sending electricity to Massachusetts’ grid as soon as 2023.
Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen called the approval “not about the start of a single project, but the launch of a new industry.”
The project could generate as many as 3,600 local jobs, according to Pedersen — many of them geared toward the assembly and installation of turbines whose parts are manufactured in Europe.
Vineyard Wind plans to assemble its turbines on a terminal built with public funds on New Bedford’s waterfront. Pedersen says manufacturing could eventually move to the U.S. if the federal government approves more offshore wind farms.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said he’s been waiting for the project’s approval for ten years. He called the experience a “classic American approach to a new thing.”
“We are sometimes slow to pick up on an opportunity but once once we get our arms around it, we really make things happen,” Mitchell said. “I think what we’ll see here in the next 10 years is a ramp up of the industry that will be far faster than what the Europeans were able to pull off in the ’90s and the earlier part of this century.”
The nearly $3 billion project is a critical part of the Biden administration’s plan to grow renewable energy in the U.S.
“It will create jobs that will support families, boost local economies and address climate injustice,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said. “More importantly, it will create a new generation of clean energy jobs and leave a livable planet for future generations.”
The approval of the project, which could be completed within two years, came after decades of debate about the sustainability of U.S. offshore wind.
Vineyard Wind follows the scrapped Cape Wind project, which failed after opposition from high-profile conservatives and liberals alike, including Bill Koch and former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. Supporters of Vineyard Wind have said the newer project is better situated than Cape Wind, which would’ve been closer to shore.
The Trump administration threatened to delay the project by several years in order to reconsider the proposed wind farm’s environmental impacts, including the potential effect on the fishing industry.
The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a fisherman’s advocacy group, condemned the Biden administration’s decision this week. The group characterized the approval as a sellout to multinational corporations, at the expense of fishermen who could see reductions in the amount of scallops and lobsters they harvest in the area.
“For the past decade, fishermen have participated in offshore wind meetings whenever they were asked and produced reasonable requests only to be met with silence,” said Anne Hawkins, executive director of the group.
Vineyard Wind indicated it has set aside $16 million to reimburse fishermen whose catch is affected by the project.
— With reporting by The Associated Press.
