First Big U.S Offshore Wind Farm Approved by Biden Administration
May 18, 2021
The $2.8B – 800 MW offshore wind power project by Vineyard Wind is to become the first large-scale wind farm in the U.S coast as it was approved by the Biden administration last Tuesday. Generally, projects of this type face a large amount of push back from communities and become delayed. This event has been praised by many other large wind projects which have been patiently waiting approval given the U.S has lagged in offshore development compared to Europe and Asia. This will be an opportunity for other developers to streamline future projects, build additional infrastructure, and collect data on impacts.
The Vineyard Wind project is expected to power 800,000 homes by 2023 and marks an important step in achieving 30,000 MW of offshore wind by the end of the decade. It will be located 12 miles off Martha’s Vineyard and composed of 84 individual turbines. The federal authorization follows numerous marine and fishing impact studies that have seen many critics from those communities.
