September 25, 2020
Massachusetts

Falmouth Conservation Commission approves testing for undersea cables

By Carrie Gentile | Falmouth Enterprise | www.capenews.net

An offshore wind farm project located 26 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard will be testing two possible sites in Falmouth to bring the energy to shore.

The 804-megawatt project from Cambridge-based Mayflower Wind is located on the Atlantic Coast Outer Continental Shelf.

The company is looking at several paths to connect the energy to the power grid, with Falmouth being on the short list.

“We’re still in early stages, and we are exploring alternative routes,” Christopher Hardy, Mayflower’s external affairs manager, said.

The company is eyeing Surf Drive and Falmouth Heights beaches. If Falmouth becomes the landing spot, the underwater cables would connect the turbines to an offshore substation that will connect to an onshore one in Falmouth. The location of this substation has not been determined. This onshore substation will feed into a transmission station at Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne.

“We still need to perform geotechnical surveys, perform soil analysis,” Mr. Hardy said. On September 16, the Falmouth Conservation Commission granted permission for the tests to take place.

According to the application, 100-foot-deep boreholes will be drilled into the Surf Drive and Falmouth Heights beach parking lots. The work is anticipated to take three days. Surface restoration will included grouting, restoring the borehole area and patching the pavement.

When the testing will occur is not known yet.

In December 2018, Mayflower Wind won the rights to develop a lease area that can supply up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind. The power purchase agreement that Mayflower Wind signed with the electric distribution companies is for the development of 804 megawatts.

The project requires federal, state and local approvals, including from the US Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, US Coast Guard, Federal Aviation Administration, both the US and Massachusetts Environmental Protection agencies, and the Energy Facilities Siting Board.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/09/25/falmouth-conservation-commission-approves-testing-for-undersea-cables/