The two developers vying for the third Massachusetts offshore wind development are each dangling the promise of economic development and renewal at a Massachusetts port if their project is selected — Mayflower Wind in Fall River and, announced Thursday morning, Vineyard Wind in Salem.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano outlined plans on Thursday for a $10 million job training program and long-term borrowing effort to fuel an offshore wind energy boom assisted by a Biden administration friendly to clean energy.
The first commercial-scale offshore wind power development in U.S. history is edging closer to approval, federal officials said Monday.
New Bedford’s whaling industry thrived in the 19th century, when whale oil was an important source of energy. Now, in the 21st century, it’s positioned to return to the sector as the staging area for offshore wind turbine projects.
President Donald Trump’s animosity to wind power has gone beyond words in some states. Now, wind industry leaders and supporters fear that the federal government, under Trump, may be pulling back from what had been years of encouragement for climate-friendly wind.
The governors of five East Coast states are urging federal regulators not to put any additional roadblocks in the way of the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.
Vineyard Wind on Monday vowed that it will move forward with its $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm project despite a new delay caused by the federal government, though the project will take shape on a new, yet-to-be-determined timeline.
Vineyard Wind, the $2.8 billion, 800 megawatt wind power project planned for the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, has been delayed and will not move forward on the timeline it has been anticipating due to a federal agency’s decision to undertake a broad study of the potential impacts of offshore wind projects planned up and down the coast.
The Baker administration is on board with pursuing additional renewable energy procurements that would double the amount of possible offshore wind power in Massachusetts, enough to provide roughly a third of the state’s electricity demand.
In a city still feeling the weakening remnants of the former Hurricane Hermine, Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday visited New Bedford where his top energy advisor planned to tour a research vessel owned by a company that’s hoping to fill the state’s energy needs under its new offshore wind power law.
