August 12, 2014
Massachusetts, Rhode Island

Federal officials postpone Nantucket meeting on offshore wind

By Patrick Cassidy | August 12, 2014 | www.capecodonline.com

A series of meetings planned by the federal agency for permitting offshore wind energy projects to show what turbines in areas off Martha’s Vineyard and Rhode Island might look like and to answer questions have been postponed.

The meetings, including a session on Nantucket originally scheduled for later today, were postponed due to “unforeseen scheduling conflicts,” according to a notice from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The meetings would have included visual simulations in the form of panoramic photographs and short videos of modeled offshore wind turbines, according to the original announcement from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Last year, federal officials auctioned off leases for 164,000 acres of ocean southwest of the Vineyard for $3.8 million to Deepwater Wind New England LLC, which has proposed building 150 to 200 wind turbines there.

And last month the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management opened an area, starting 12 miles off Martha’s Vineyard, covering 742,000 acres that could support 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts of wind energy if fully developed, although that is unlikely, according to officials.

Officials hope to reschedule the meetings, which were planned for Nantucket, Vineyard Haven, Block Island in Rhode Island and at the University of Rhode Island over the next two weeks, next year, according to the notice.

[rest of article available at source]


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/08/12/federal-officials-postpone-nantucket-meeting-on-offshore-wind/