~ The Old Sachem ~ A new electric system

By Bill Stewart

Slowly but strategically, we turn to electricity to advance the environment while dismissing or at least reducing oil usage and its contamination. We have rooftop solar panels, auto electric provision stations, electric automobiles and now we have wind farms to generate electricity.

Vineyard Wind and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and the Conservation Law Foundation entered into an agreement with Vineyard Wind to create electricity for Massachusetts’ South Shore from its wind turbines located offshore. In addition to creating electricity, they are committed to preserving the protection of marine habitats, such as for fish, whales, turtles and bird species. They have committed to a relationship with the offshore fishing industry of Massachusetts. In 2010, they worked with representatives of the fishing industry to ensure that industry fishermen would have a strong voice in relation to the projected installation.

The wind farm will be located 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and will create clean, renewable and affordable electricity for over 400,000 homes and businesses within the Commonwealth while reducing carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year. The turbines will be located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket; the location was determined by a multiyear, intergovernmental task force, in a process that considered scientific data along with public input. This area is located in an area that consists of powerful and reliable wind speeds, an ideal area for wind turbines.

Vineyard Wind 1 will consist of 62 wind turbines located one nautical mile apart on east-west and north-south positions. The turbines are General Electric Haliade-X turbines, each having the capability of generating 13 megawatts of electricity. The electricity generated will be collected by an off-shore substation prior to being transmitted to the shore station. It will generate 800 megawatts of electricity, with a capability of providing to 400,000 sites, the equivalent of removing 325,000 vehicles from Massachusetts roads. Two submarine cables will be installed along a carefully studied route from the substation to a point on Covell’s Beach in Barnstable. Geological surveys determined the route to avoid sensitive habitats of sea and land animals. The cables are to be buried six feet underground beneath public roadways in Barnstable and will follow under roadways to Hyannis, adjacent to an existing Eversource substation.

Currently, the project is generating electricity for about 30,000 sites. When completed it will generate 806 megawatts and will cost about $4 million for customers of three major electric utilities. The project is a joint venture of Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, who are also creating another project as a smaller wind farm, the South Fork project developed by Orsted and Eversource to provide electricity to Long Island in New York. At least nine of the Vineyard 1 turbines have been installed, and work is continuing to eventually fulfill the dream of providing clean electricity and reducing gas emissions.

The future is now for changing our world to a more hospitable measure of energy.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, who is better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column about sports – and sometimes he opines on current or historical events or famous people.)