- By Doug Struck Contributor
- Alfredo Sosa Staff photographer
Northeast wind projects notch a win, despite industry struggles
- By Doug Struck Contributor
- Alfredo Sosa Staff photographer
January 17, 2024|NEW BEDFORD, MASS.
For full story in The Christian Science Monitor, read here.
The long slender blades, like the claws of a giant wolverine, are stacked in the port of New Bedford, ready to be barged out to sea and assembled onto turbines that believers say will help power America’s future.
At 11:52 p.m. on Jan. 2, the first of what will be 62 wind turbines in the Vineyard Wind project off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, began sending electricity ashore. This and South Fork Wind, a smaller project off Long Island, New York, that cranked up its first turbines Dec. 6, are the first commercial-scale offshore wind power farms to begin operations in the waters of the United States.
“I felt a lot of weight come off my shoulders,” says Klaus Møeller, the CEO of Vineyard Wind, who was monitoring the startup while in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the holidays. “We’ve had a ton of important steps, but when you do send electrons to the cable, that’s when you know the whole thing is working.”
When Mr. Møeller got the news, he ordered cake for all the Vineyard Wind offices – a company tradition. But he also says bluntly, “There’s a lot of work ahead.”
Indeed, the task before the offshore wind industry is daunting, and many companies are stumbling. President Joe Biden and many East Coast states are counting on a massive and hurried expansion of offshore wind power. But just as the first electricity begins flowing, major companies have canceled some projects and put others on hold.
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