The light yellow section is the lease area for Sunrise Wind. —Courtesy Town of Aquinnah

Updated Dec. 13

Federal officials are recommending a smaller amount of wind turbines for a major offshore wind farm planned for waters about 16 nautical miles south of the Island.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced in a press release today that it completed the environmental review of the proposed offshore wind project. Instead of the 94 turbines originally proposed, BOEM is recommending 84 turbines to prevent habitat loss for some species. 

“We carefully considered input from our government partners, key stakeholders and the public for the final environmental impact statement for Sunrise Wind,” BOEM director Elizabeth Klein said in the release. “This document represents a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the project and is another milestone in achieving President [Joe] Biden’s ambitious clean-energy goals.”

The Biden-Harris administration has a goal of developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. 

After receiving comments from various stakeholders over Sunrise, BOEM developed a “preferred alternative,” Monday’s release states. The alternative reduces the number of turbines to “accommodate geotechnical feasibility of the project, reduce impacts to benthic habitat and Atlantic cod, and meet the energy needs of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.” 

Sunrise Wind was also one of several offshore wind projects negotiating compensation with Aquinnah for the impact the turbines are expected to have on the community. One of the possibilities was potential maintenance funding from Sunrise Wind for the Aquinnah shops.

Aquinnah Climate and Energy Committee chair Bill Lake told The Times that negotiations for Sunrise Wind occurred with those for Revolution Wind, both of which are owned by Danish energy company Ørsted. Lake said the deal got Aquinnah several hundred-thousand dollars for repairs to several properties, including Gay Head Lighthouse. Although there are still other wind projects where negotiations haven’t taken place, Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind were the closest to the Aquinnah Cliffs, according to Lake. 

“So, they were the major projects for us,” he said.

Sunrise Wind is planned for a lease area around 86,823 acres, with onshore connections in Holbrook, New York. It was originally expected to produce approximately 924 megawatt of power and power more than 320,000 homes.

The 741-page environmental impact statement and its appendices are available on the BOEM website, alongside other pieces of information regarding Sunrise Wind, at https://bit.ly/46V7I42. 

22 replies on “Feds recommend fewer turbines for Sunrise Wind”

  1. This and South Fork Wind absolutely have no, zero, regards for the environment. Their only interest is to line their pockets from this disaster. Best hope is for a major hurricane to destroy it at there expense to clean it up. Might be one step better if the island got total free power.

    1. How will they harm the environment?

      Should the Island be totally free of having the means of the power it consumes visible, keep that kind of thing where poor people live?

      You’re OK with destroying the ‘environment’ as long as your power is totally free, how selfish.

        1. Please reread. My last sentence clearly asks if you are ‘OK with windmills’ so long as your power is free, with no concern for the environment.

          “regards for the environment.” Burning hydrocarbons has no regard for the environment.

          How will windmills harm the environment?

    2. Yes, let’s stop this silliness
      and put up more offshore oil
      rigs ( somewhere else of course).
      We have seen that over the past hundred
      years or so, the oil industries’ top concern
      is for the environment. There has never been a drop
      of oil released into the environment because
      of their desire to make money. Every possible
      measure has been taken to make sure no oil
      is ever released.If you actually believe
      the fake news stories about platforms
      blowing up, ships sinking, pipelines
      breaking, train derailments and the so called
      “greenhouse effect” you have some kind of
      “derangement syndrome”. Not to mention that
      they bring their products to market at the
      cheapest possible price– they make just
      enough profit that their executives can
      barely afford 400 ft yachts, and 8 seater
      Lear jets.
      And of course– the best thing to do now
      is to pray that a major hurricane that is
      strong enough to blow them over —
      that’s cat 4 to possibly take off some
      blades and about 300 mph winds
      to actually get them to lilt more than 10
      degrees— comes up here.
      Great ideas you got there, boss.

      1. No, no, no!!! Drill rigs/production platforms are God awful ugly. And those big helicopters and supply ships coming and going all hours of the night and day, not mention the dancing flare stacks.
        Please don’t let this happen to our beautiful Martha.
        Keep this kind of thing behind the curtain, where the poor people live.

    3. Have you seen the flashing red lights from South Beach. It’s only the beginning of this industrial park on our waters and it’s already looking like a floating city. Shameful.

      1. Oh the horrors of the war on “affluent” privilege.
        We should just do more drilling for oil in places where poor people live. And be able to leave our floodlights on all night and our cars running all day.
        We are after, all the privileged affluent people.
        Wealthy people should NEVER have to see a blinking light 15 miles away.
        Unless of course, they are Christmas lights. Then we should have millions of them right in our faces on every road we drive down. It’s Jesus’s birthday after all. Except of course for the biblical descriptions of the shepherds tending their sheep, which of course in late December would have been fatal to the sheep and the shepherds, due to the fact that there would likely have been a few feet of snow on the ground.

      1. Donald
        Martha is obviously not complimenting
        your intelligence for THAT comment.
        You are,after all, hoping for a major
        hurricane that would cause billions
        of dollars in damages to Nantucket,
        the Vineyard and the cape, as well as
        leaving thousands of people homeless
        as possibly killing dozens of people.
        I’m not sure I would use the word
        “hypocrite” to describe what she is
        saying, as that word has no rational
        meaning in this context.
        I would think “sarcastic” might
        be a better word. My last comment
        to you had some sarcasm, for example.
        But a hypocratic statement might be one
        where someone is strongly opposed to
        something unless they get some personal
        benefit.

  4. Ok so this suggests that if YOU were to no longer receive an electric bill you’d be willing to overlook the “ no, zero, regards for the environment “ ?
    What would be your preferred source of energy ?
    I can understand sentiments regarding “sacred” views, marine and bird life concerns… but what is the lesser evil amongst energy alternatives?

    1. You really believe windmills in any location will really supply all of your electricity. News Flash the wind does not blow 100% of the time. If it blows too much they turn the windmills off to prevent damage. There is no thing as net zero. While Biden is trying to get back to the stone age China is polluting more than ever.

      1. F.S
        No one is suggesting that wind will supply
        ALL of our needs. That’s a ridiculous statement.
        And you are incorrect about the wind not blowing
        100% of the time. It just might not be in your
        neighborhood, but the power grid takes power
        from a wide area. The wind in indeed blowing
        100% of the time somewhere in New England
        (I’ll keep it regional) In fact right now, as I
        wrote this (4:56 pm Dec 13 ) the new England
        power grid is doling out 903 mwh of wind
        generated electricity to you and me — 6.59 %
        https://www.eia.gov/dashboard/newengland/overview
        You are correct about China. They are polluting
        more than we are– They are the #1 polluter, we
        are # 2.
        But per capita, we are producing double what
        they are. You can look it up—-
        But because we actually do care about the
        environment (some of us anyway) we can actually
        see these windmills on clear days. Not so in
        China.
        China burns a lot of coal you know.
        https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-
        smog-covered-north-highest-pollution-alert-
        visibility-drops-2023-10-31/
        But If you want to compare our “stone age”
        standard of living to theirs, fine–
        But I would rather have clear enough
        air be able to see those windmills 15 miles away.
        The moon too , and yes even the milky way.

        But really, if your neighbor has 3 junk
        cars, never mows the lawn and has trash
        all over their property, do you think you
        will follow their example ?

      3. News flash, the wind is blowing 100% of the time somewhere. Our windmills will be tied into grid that covers three billion square miles. It’s the average output that counts, not their highs and lows.
        Most cars have 300 horsepower, under way most car engines average 30 horsepower, hard to believe.

  5. I was hoping not to see these from the Vineyard, but the first 5 are plainly visible, especially at night, with their bright red strobe lights blinking all night. Only 300 more coming.

    2. I drive by South Beach several times a day and can’t believe how visible these towers are. We were sold a bill of goods when these huge power companies said the towers would be out of sight.

  6. Were you hoping to never see the source of power you consume? Do you now feel like you live in a place like Sandwich or Plymouth.
    Could you see the smoke stacks and cooling towers in Somerset, before they were dropped , under the Trump Administration?

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