FILE – Giant wind turbine blades for the Vineyard Winds assignment are stacked on shelves at the harbor, July 11, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. The co-owners of the Vineyard Wind assignment, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, announced on Wednesday: Jan. 1. On December 3, 2024, the first electric power will be generated through a turbine in what will be a 62-turbine wind farm 24 kilometers off the coast of Massachusetts.
Charles Krupa / AP
Danish wind power developer Ørsted and app Eversource announced last month that their first turbine would send electric power from what will be a 12-turbine wind farm, South Fork Wind, 56 kilometers east of Montauk Point, New York. Today, a total of five turbines have also been there.
Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said 2023 is a historic year for offshore wind with “steel in the water and other people at work, and today we open a new bankruptcy and welcome 2024 by offering the first blank offshore wind force to the Massachusetts grid. “is an energy company headquartered in Orange, Connecticut. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is a leading and world-leading fund manager in renewable energy investments.
“We have reached a watershed moment for climate action in the United States and a dawn for the American offshore wind industry,” Azagra said Wednesday.
Nearly 200 countries agreed last month at COP28 to move away from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming — the first time they made such a commitment in decades of U. N. climate talks. The agreement calls for tripling the use of renewable energy and offshore wind will be used to achieve this goal.
But lately the sector has been going through difficult times. Developers canceled several projects along the East Coast because they were no longer financially viable.
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On Wednesday, Equinor and BP announced a “restart” of Empire Wind 2, a 1,260-megawatt offshore wind allocation off the coast of New York, posing an industry-wide upgrade under economic circumstances. The allocation is not cancelled, but more time will be needed to continue moving forward and participate in a long-term offshore wind tender. They did not change the first phase of the proposed progression of an 800-megawatt wind farm in the same lease area, Empire Wind 1.
FILE – The ship UHL Felicity, carrying parts for offshore wind turbines, arrives to dock May 24, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass.
Rodrique Ngowi/AP
Vineyard Wind would be significantly farther offshore than Cape Wind and the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters.
In what could have been a fatal blow, federal regulators delayed Vineyard Wind by delaying the release of a key environmental impact in 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Keating said at the time that the Trump administration was looking to thwart the renewable energy order just as it was coming to fruition.
Related: Oregon Agencies Support Floating Offshore Wind Project, But Call for Greater Federal Commitment
The Biden leadership signed it in 2021. The structure began on land in Barnstable, Massachusetts. This spring, huge sections of towers from Portugal arrived at the port of New Bedford to be assembled in the water.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said Wednesday’s announcement was “a wonderful way to kick off 2024. “
The 800-megawatt wind farm will power more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said it is a clean, affordable force made possible by the many advocates, public servants, unionized staff and business leaders who have worked for decades toward this goal.
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