Rhode Island Fast Ferry has partnered with Deepwater Wind to build a new transport vessel for technicians working on the country’s first offshore wind energy project, located between Block Island and the Vineyard.
While Island kids slid joyfully down snow-covered hills last week, Cape Wind continued to have rough sledding.
The Island-owned energy cooperative, along with a partner, was awarded a provisional lease to develop an offshore wind farm in federal waters off the Vineyard.
Vineyard Power, the Island-owned energy cooperative, is preparing to partner with a private developer in bidding for leases early next year in the federally owned wind energy area 12 nautical miles south of the Vineyard.
Developers will bid on 25-year leases on one or more of the zones at a federal auction Jan. 29.
The Island energy cooperative is entering the next phase of its plan to build a 40-megawatt wind farm south of the Vineyard, and has reached a clear turning point in its young history, president Richard Andre said at the fifth annual meeting Saturday.
Some 742,000 acres of ocean south of Martha’s Vineyard will soon be available for commercial wind energy leases, Gov, Deval Patrick announced this week. A public meeting about commercial offshore wind energy leases is scheduled for Monday on the Vineyard.
