Biden administration approves major offshore wind project
BOSTON
The Biden administration approved a new wind project off the Massachusetts coast on April 2 that is large enough it will provide more electricity than the state’s former coal-fired generating station.
Avangrid’s New England Wind is the United States’ eighth large offshore wind project to be greenlit and is tied for the largest ever approved, but will probably be smaller.
Avangrid says it will be smaller than the 129 turbines that won approval, and each wind turbine will be smaller as well, so the actual output will be closer to 1,900 megawatts than the maximum 2,600. Those 1,900 megawatts could power up to 1 million homes and businesses in southern New England.
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a 2,600-megawatt project, to be built east of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The last operating coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, Brayton Point, closed in 2017 as environmental groups pushed for cleaner sources of electricity. It was the largest coal-fired generating station in New England, pumping out 1,600 megawatts of electricity for local homes and businesses. That site will now be used to support the offshore wind industry.
The Interior Department has approved more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects in less than three years, enough to power nearly 4 million homes.
The nation’s seventh large offshore wind project, Sunrise Wind, east of Montauk, New York, was approved just last week.
