Passing Martha’s Vineyard, we first spotted them — tiny lines, like pencil scratches, against the horizon. As the waves grew a little rougher, with higher swells, the turbines came into clear view.
Journalists from the New England News Collaborative have been covering offshore wind for years, but few of us had ever had the chance to see it up close.
Vineyard Wind, under construction 35 miles off the mainland, is currently the country’s largest offshore wind project. When finished, it will have 62 turbines and produce about enough electricity for 400,000 homes.
We found a captain willing to take us out to the site, and we invited some experts to come along.
Even up close, it’s hard to describe how big the turbines are, and what they look like. Journalists on the boat tried out words like “flowers” and “statues.” Seeing them in lines, each separated by a nautical mile, it did feel like we had entered a kind of farm. The blades — longer than a football field and some touching the clouds — looked ready to harvest the wind.
On the day we visited, none were turning. On July 13, part of a blade broke off into the ocean. The companies behind the project have been allowed to resume construction, but the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is still not allowing them to produce power.
The industry faces other challenges, among them, concerns about how offshore wind could affect whales.
But it's clear the turbines could one day become a regular sight in New England waters. Last week, the federal government announced new offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine as part of the effort to fight climate change.
