From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary'' in GoLocal24.com
Avangrid Renewables, a U.S. unit of the Spanish company Iberdrola Group, and Vineyard Wind have formed a partnership to jointly develop a large wind-energy project about 15 milessouth of Martha’s Vineyard. Avangrid is acquiring a 50 percent ownership interest in Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind-energy developer that’s part of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners portfolio.
The sea south of New England has some of the most reliable offshore wind in the world.
The project follows last summer’s enactment of a Massachusetts law requiring utilities to obtain 1,600 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy within the next decade. The 1,600 MW would mean homegrown energy to power the equivalent of more than 750,000 Massachusetts homes (with a total of over 2 million people) every year.
Three companies to date have acquired lease rights to build projects off the coast, including Vineyard Wind.
Vineyard Wind plans to begin building its project in early 2020.
It’s possible that renewable energy could provide southern New England with all its electricity needs within a couple of decades, in a huge boon for its economy and environment.
The area eyed for development is presumably far enough offshore to avoid the sort of opposition by rich summer people that blocked the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound. However, siting it so far offshore will also make it cost a lot more than Cape Wind would have cost.
