Rhode Island's Approval Of A Second Offshore Wind Farm Reflects A Growing East Coast Trend. Here's Why Some Are Concerned

Dr. Kevin Stokesbury shows a map of scallop surveys and proposed offshore wind farms in the Mid-Atlantic. Photo by Nadine Sebai for The Public’s Radio

Rhode Island led the way in 2016 by building the country’s first offshore wind farm. It was a pilot project, five turbines off the coast of Block Island. Then, just last month, Massachusetts approved a contract to build what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

And now, with approval from the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, Danish-based Ørsted and Eversource are poised to build up to 50-turbines roughly halfway between the Vineyard and Montauk, New York. The news marks another milestone for Rhode Island’s growing wind industry. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo has been one of its biggest boosters.

“That 50 turbine project,” Raimondo says, “will generate enough electricity to power about half of the homes in Rhode Island.”

Rhode Island is not alone. Over the last several years, there’s been a stampede of wind farm proposals, spurred by federal tax incentives, all along the New England coast and as far south as the Carolinas.

While it’s a big moment for green energy, wind development is not without its environmental and economic concerns. Kevin Stokesbury, professor of fisheries oceanography at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, says the wind industry and federal regulators haven’t done enough in the last several years to truly understand how wind turbines will impact fishermen and the ocean’s ecosystem. So now, there’s been a rush to do as much research as possible before development begins.

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Posted in Environment, Stories, Sustainability