Winds of change are blowing
And in Washington, the Biden administration says it wants to start a slate of environmental reviews, make more money available to ports and developers, and offer new areas for lease off the coast of New York and New Jersey. The goal is to open the spigot on projects that promise to spur the economy while slashing harmful carbon dioxide emissions.
The nation’s first and only completed commercial wind farm came online four miles off Block Island in 2016. Its five turbines generate a modest 30 megawatts of power for the popular tourist destination.
In contrast, Vineyard Wind will erect 62 stateof-the-art General Electric Haliade-X turbines to supply Connecticut with 804 MW of electricity — about 14% of the state’s electric supply — when it plugs into the New England electric grid in 2025. Vineyard Wind, which will use port facilities in Bridgeport, is a project of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables.
“Things are going to start happening fast,” says Sylvain De Guise, who runs the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton. He likens the recent developments to the coming of spring: “A couple of buds, next thing you see are some flowers and trees blooming. When it starts happening, it happens pretty fast.”
To be sure, the projects face some headwinds. Commercial fishermen say wind farms threaten their livelihoods. The State Pier project is a target of critics who cite poor oversight, cost overruns and a lack of transparency.
Still, Connecticut has signed two deals to buy electricity generated offshore. And a lot of people see a huge potential for well-paying new jobs.
“It’s not for the faint of heart to try to figure out how to do this. But I think the rewards are worth the effort,” says David Hardy, a former U.S. Navy submariner who runs Ørsted’s North American offshore wind operations.
The Day sifted through hundreds of pages of regulatory filings to take a look at where and how these massive turbines will rise from the seabed. In the coming months, we’ll follow the wind farms’ progress and examine their impact on Connecticut consumers, fishermen, workers and communities.
Meantime, companies like Groton-based ThayerMahan are ready to jump in. ThayerMahan’s cadre of young, whiz-kid engineers are developing cutting-edge technology to help the industry monitor offshore waters and marine mammals living there. The company already has signed on with Revolution Wind Farm, an Ørsted/Eversource project, where as many as 100 giant turbines could be turning 20 miles east of Block Island by 2023.
“We don’t mine coal or drill for oil,” says Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat. “This is just completely turning that on its head, so that now we’re going to be instrumental in terms of developing global energy.”
“We’re suddenly becoming the new Oil Patch,” he says, “even though it’s not oil.” s.ritter@theday.com