Against headwinds of criticism from those who feel offshore wind is developing too fast and without sufficient consideration of impacts on the environment and fishing industry, another project off the Vineyard’s coast has been approved by the federal government.
With President Joe Biden facing less than one month in the White House, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced in a press release Friday that it has given the greenlight to the SouthCoast Wind project; if fully approved, 141 more towering turbines would be erected.
Located 26 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, SouthCoast Wind — formerly called Mayflower Wind — is a 2.4-gigawatt project that the Interior Department states will generate enough electricity to power 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Pushback locally comes from leaders of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) who have said in correspondence with the federal government that the project, and offshore wind in general, is moving too quickly; Nantucket officials on Monday indicated that they are considering appealing the latest approval.
Developers expect to have up to 141 wind turbines in a lease area covering 127,388 acres of the ocean. Up to eight export cables will potentially make “landfall in Brayton Point [in Somerset] or Falmouth,” some traveling east of the Island.
The turbines are anticipated to be up to 1,066 feet in height, which are taller than the Vineyard Wind’s over-800-foot tall turbines. A SouthCoast Wind spokesperson told the Times they have not decided who will manufacture the turbines.
The approved iteration of the project is a slimmed-down version compared with what developers originally intended, according to the Interior Department.
“Compared to SouthCoast’s original proposed project, the selected alternative removes up to six wind turbine positions in the northeastern portion of the Lease Area to reduce potential impacts on foraging habitat and potential displacement of wildlife from this habitat adjacent to Nantucket Shoals,” the Interior Department release reads.
SouthCoast Wind is owned by Ocean Winds, a Madrid-based international wind company. The company was founded through a 2019 joint venture between EDP Renewables, a subsidiary of the EDP Group, Portugal’s largest utility company, and ENGIE, a French multinational electric utility company.
This is the 11th commercial scale offshore wind project approved under Biden. And it may be the last large-scale offshore wind project approved under the Biden administration before power transitions to a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump in less than a month. Trump has vowed to put a stop to offshore wind development, although it is not yet certain how this would be implemented.
“When we walked in the door of this administration, there were zero approved, commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in the Friday release. “Today, I am proud to celebrate our 11th approval, a testament to the commitment and enduring progress made by the hardworking public servants at the Department of the Interior. With President Biden’s leadership through the Investing in America agenda, we are addressing the climate crisis, creating jobs, and building an enduring economy that supports all communities.”
The approval follows a rise in mounting public challenges against the offshore wind industry in the past months, including lawsuits and questions about benefits agreements signed by some Massachusetts municipalities. Recently, Martha’s Vineyard Commission Executive Director Adam Turner sent a letter requesting that Gov. Maura Healey consider providing better electricity subsidies to Vineyarders to compensate for the impact of the offshore wind projects south of the Island.
On the same day of the SouthCoast Wind announcement, State House News Service reported that Vineyard Offshore, a developer of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, decided to pull back on Massachusetts’ 800-megawatt share of the Vineyard Wind 2 project, saying it was contingent upon Connecticut buying the remaining 400 megawatts. Connecticut selected new solar and battery storage projects in its latest round of procurements, but no new offshore wind projects.
Public comments on regulations.gov show SouthCoast Wind received a mixed review from various organizations and individuals. While some highlighted the necessity of the project as a way to combat climate change and bring economic benefits, others argued against the projects because of fears over impacts to the marine environment and wildlife.
The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe protested the permitting process of SouthCoast Wind and other projects, expressing worry in a 2023 letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management about the potential cumulative impact of the various offshore wind projects planned south of the Island.
“The speed at which the individual projects are moving forward has resulted in a massive undertaking for the tribe to review and comment on the projects individually,” Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chairwoman of the Aquinnah tribe, wrote in the letter. “This has resulted in a lack of true, meaningful government-to-government consultation, and has effectively marginalized and silenced the voices of tribal nations, whose waters, natural resources, traditional lifeways and submerged cultural sites, once again, face destruction in the name of progress. Our tribe has paid it forward with the lives of our ancestors, our lands and waters, and our natural resources.”
Meanwhile, Nantucket officials, whose island town is located 20 nautical miles north of the project, announced on Monday they “will consider all legal options, including an appeal of SouthCoast’s permit in federal court.” The town cited the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies endorsing a “flawed review process” for why they’re challenging the project. The town has also stated the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management provided inadequate mitigation efforts, no legitimate plan for future turbine failures, and insufficient turbine-decommissioning funding.
SouthCoast Wind was jointly owned by Ocean Winds and Shell New Energies, a subsidiary of the British oil and gas company Shell PLC. Ocean Winds acquired full ownership of the project in March.
Ocean Winds’ North American office is headquartered in Boston. The company is also pursuing the offshore wind projects Bluepoint Wind, off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, and Golden State Wind, off California’s coast.
