On a chilly June day, with the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard just over the distant horizon, a low-riding, green-hulled vessel finished hammering a steel column nearly 100 feet into the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the beginning of construction of the first giant wind farm off the United States coast, a project with the scale to make a large contribution to the Northeast power grid.
The $4 billion project, known as Vineyard Wind, is expected to start generating electricity by year’s end.
“This has been really hard,” said Rachel Pachter, the chief development officer of Vineyard Offshore, the American arm of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Danish renewable energy developer that is a co-owner of the wind farm.
To bring a big energy project to this point near population centers requires clearing countless regulatory hurdles and heading off potential opposition and litigation.
Persons:
”, Rachel Pachter
Organizations:
Vineyard, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
Locations:
Massachusetts, Martha’s, United, Copenhagen, Danish