offshore wind

The new industry will require the installation of miles of undersea electrical cable and hundreds of massive turbines. Vineyard Wind recently announced $2.3 billion in funding for its first project. "If we really are serious about doing something about the racial wealth gap, this is a key opportunity to do more than talk," said Peter Hurst.

Offshore wind means building more than just massive turbines in the ocean. It means building a workforce. But what will those jobs look like? Will the industry produce stable careers—or construction boomtowns?

Decades in the making, the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm could begin construction as early as this week on the Cape.

Beachgoers had a chance to ask questions of Vineyard Wind on Wednesday at Covell’s Beach in Barnstable — the beach where the company plans to bring electrical cables ashore from its first offshore wind farm.

Previously, it was thought that the critically endangered whales were only present in high numbers in waters off Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard from late winter to early spring. But new research, published July 29 in Endangered Species Research, has revealed that dozens more individual whales are using the area in the fall and summer — and the numbers are increasing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded the company an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA), effectively allowing for unintentional harm to marine mammals during the construction period from May 2023 through April 2024.

Critics say Massachusetts isn't offering as many incentives as other states for developers to locate jobs here.

In a day long-awaited by clean energy advocates, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that it has approved construction and operation of Vineyard Wind 1, the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind project. It will be built about 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and it is expected to be the first of many coming to the East Coast.

Many eyes are on offshore wind this week as Vineyard Wind is expected to receive final approval from the federal government anytime between now and mid-May. Meanwhile, the second company to win a Massachusetts contract for offshore wind, Mayflower Wind, is preparing for its own permitting process.

Vineyard Wind is nearing the end of the federal permitting process after federal regulators issued a final environmental impact statement Monday on the proposed offshore wind farm.