Vineyard Offshore Wind Farm

Just as developers of 800-MW Vineyard offshore wind farm in Massachusetts were hoping to receive their final environmental impact statement which would mean hitting crucial deadlines, the US Interior Department changed the rules.  

So instead of being able to start construction by the end of the year, and getting access to a federal tax incentive, it’ll now have to work on an analysis that hasn’t even been defined. And unless it’s altered, consumers will miss out on lower priced electricity which the developer had agreed with three power companies. It was possible only through a tax incentive which will come to an end before the farm goes online.  

The Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said it’s crucial the impacts be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s.”

Although Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind said they were disappointed not to deliver the project to the timeline, the company says it remains committed to seeing through the construction on what would be the first utility-scale project in the US and the largest in the country.

The America Wind Energy Association took a blunter tone: “Offshore wind development is expected to result in a $70 billion investment into the American energy supply chain. The clear value of offshore wind to generate large amounts of homegrown clean energy, grow tens of thousands of American jobs, and reinvigorate coastal infrastructure can’t be overlooked.”

It also raises fears about the knock-on effect for traditional offshore energy development businesses. With an estimated 21,500 jobs lost in Louisiana in recent years in the offshore sector, there are hopes that with the impetus towards diversifying, oil and gas companies would move into offshore wind offering new opportunities. It highlights how the “first and only operational U.S. offshore wind farm ordered its steel foundations from Gulf Island Fabrication, a Louisiana-based firm specializing in offshore infrastructure including oil and gas platforms.”

In a tweet, one of the leading Democratic candidates in the 2020 Presidential race, Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, called on the Trump administration to enable the project to go ahead, highlighting how it will “create thousands of jobs and generate cleaner, cheaper wind energy for families in Massachusetts.” She, along with another Democrat Presidential hopeful Cory Booker, is sponsoring the Offshore Wind Incentives for New Development (WIND) Act, which aims to extend the tax incentive to 2025.

Despite this challenge, there’s optimism in the fact that several ports – including Massachusetts’ Brayton Point, which is fully re-developing into an offshore wind hub- are shaping up to be ready for a slice of the offshore wind supply chain pie. There is also more than 20 GW in the offshore project pipeline, with New York leading the way by pledging $200 m in new port developments, as well as investing in projects to mitigate concerns about offshore win such as impacts on bird and fish populations.