Biden administration approves eighth US offshore wind project

Avangrid

02/04/2024 11:00

By Valerie Volcovici
       WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior
Department on Tuesday approved the country's eighth
commercial-scale offshore wind project, which will be built off
the coast of Massachusetts, bringing online electricity to power
more than 900,000 homes.    

    WHY IT IS IMPORTANT 
    The New England Wind Project approval brings the U.S.
one-third of the way to President Joe Biden's goal of permitting
30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 - a key part of
the president's climate change agenda.

    CONTEXT
    The project comes just a week after the Interior Department
approved another offshore wind project in New York. The
approvals this year follow a series of attempts by companies
including Equinor  EQNR.OL , BP  BP.L , Avangrid  AGR.N  and
Shell  SHEL.L , to cancel or seek to renegotiate power contracts
for commercial-scale U.S. wind farms due to supply chain
concerns and high materials costs.
    
    KEY QUOTE
    “The Biden-Harris administration has built an offshore wind
industry from the ground up after years of delay from the
previous administration," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

    THE DETAILS
    The New England Wind project, located around 20 nautical
miles south of the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, is
expected to generate up to 2,600 megawatts of electricity.

 (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by David Gregorio)
 ((valerie.volcovici@thomsonreuters.com;))