Monthly Archives: June 2014

The Cape Wind project in Massachusetts , which has been in development for over a decade, is the closest that the US is to developing Offshore Wind Energy. Although many states have put bids in for offshore development, the Cape Wind Project still stands as the only project in later stages of development.

The U.S Government announced on June 17th that they are allowing for a new area of wind to be auctioned for developed: 742,000 acres of it. For comparison, that's larger that Rhode Island. This more than doubles the current area for Offshore Wind development in Massachusetts. The new area is shown in green in the figure below.

RI_and_MA0730

The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal.

This is really exciting news for the Offshore Wind Energy industry. Honestly, it's been a little disheartening how slowly the industry has developed in the United States, especially compared to other countries such as Denmark and the UK who rapidly developed offshore wind. This additional lease area, as well as a few others that have been designated this past year, show that there is a slightly more positive outlook by the state and federal governments to develop offshore wind. We can only hope that one of these projects will finally move past the permitting phase.

 

Sources:

http://www.boem.gov/State-Activities-Massachusetts/

http://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/u-s-unveils-massive-auction-for-offshore-wind-development/