Developers who want to build the nation’s first large-scale wind farm in ocean waters south of Martha’s Vineyard saw strong support and also some criticism at a public hearing before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday night.

The award of offshore wind contracts with state utility companies has been delayed until May 23.

The Trump administration will expand wind energy leases off Martha’s Vineyard, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior announced Friday.

One of the largest land-based wind energy developers in the country has acquired a major stake in a wind farm being developed south of the Vineyard.

Public opinion is beginning to heat up on the Cape and Islands over a proposal for a private alternative energy project that envisions a giant offshore wind farm anchored across some 28 square miles of Nantucket Sound.

The Martha's Vineyard Commission will host a public hearing on the project on Tuesday, Jan. 15, in the lower level of the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. The hearing begins at 6:30 p.m.

The purpose of the hearing is to gather public comment, although the commission has no formal jurisdiction over the project.

Pentagon officials are calling for additional studies to determine whether the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound would impair a crucial missile detection radar system located on Cape Cod.

In a special congressional report released last week, the U.S. Department of Defense found that wind turbines located within the line of sight of military radar can adversely affect its ability to track aircraft and other aerial objects. The results were based largely on military tests conducted by the U.S. Air Force and United Kingdom Ministry of Defence between 2002 and 2005.