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US Iberdrola subsidiary Avangrid is facing stiff opposition over the company’s proposal to land New England Wind 2 power cables on the beach of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
The town’s councillors have voted to oppose Avangrid’s proposal to land the 1.8GW offshore wind project’s cables on Dowses Beach arguing environmental concerns.
Residents advocating against the proposal said that the wetlands surrounding the area were too fragile of an ecosystem for such a large project.
The vote has now placed a firm stance of the town against the project. However, the measure is not binding as a future council could change the policy.
If the townspeople successfully argued to the federal government that this landing should not be allowed, there would be no infrastructure or additional high-voltage duct banks in residential neighbourhoods and no massive substation on top of the sole source aquifer.
In this manner, Barnstable is joining other communities and states that have opposed developers and the government on offshore wind development.
On top of this, representative Kip Diggs from Barnstable added an amendment to the Climate Bill that is another roadblock to Avangrid’s proposal for landing the power cables at Dowses Beach. The amendment requires the Department of Energy Resources to conduct a comprehensive study of all potential landing sites on Cape Cod. This puts further development at Dowses Beach on hold and opens alternative locations for consideration.
Avangrid received full federal approval of the construction and operations plan for the New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore projects in July. Together, the two projects are set to have a total capacity of up to 2.6GW and power over 900,000 homes annually. Development is set to bring $8bn in direct investment to the region.
The two projects are actually two phases of one project, which will be located some 37 km south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, near the first major US offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind. |
