2012

Plans to develop a wind energy area in federal waters south of the Vineyard continue to move forward with the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) releasing an environmental assessment and identifying five different configurations for the area.

At a public hearing last week, bureau representatives said the preferred option would be to develop an 877 square nautical mile area about 12 nautical miles south of the Vineyard, though smaller configurations are also on the table to address concerns about North Atlantic right whales and impacts to cultural resources and view sheds.

Cape Wind, which began more than a decade ago as the nation’s first offshore wind farm and has since been enmeshed in legal battles, political wrangling and untold miles of red tape, is inching closer to the day when 130 wind turbines will be in operation on Horseshoe Shoal in Vineyard Sound.

Cape Wind, the controversial 130 turbine project slated for construction in Nantucket Sound, announced last week that it will purchase property in Falmouth Harbor for its operations headquarters.

Meanwhile, the wind farm’s opposition continued its fight against the project in court.

Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine project slated for construction on Horseshoe Shoal, cleared its final regulatory hurdle this week when the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the project would not pose a hazard to aviation.

On the drawing board for 10 years, Cape Wind is planned to be the country’s largest offshore wind farm, covering 50 square miles in Nantucket Sound.

Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine project slated for construction on Horseshoe Shoal, cleared its final regulatory hurdle this week when the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the project would not pose a hazard to aviation.

On the drawing board for 10 years, Cape Wind is planned to be the country’s largest offshore wind farm, covering 50 square miles in Nantucket Sound.

With Cape Wind hoping to break ground in the coming years and a huge new swath of ocean opened for wind farm development south of the Vineyard, the impact of turbine noise on fisheries is still poorly understood.

“The long-term impacts of these wind farms are just totally unknown,” said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Scott Gallagher this week.

Pages