Proposed Cape Cod Wind Farm

Situated on the Atlantic Ocean and an hours drive south-east of Boston is a slice of paradise known as Cape Cod. The Cape is home to some of the most spectacular beaches on the east coast, and it comes as no new surprise to why it is regarded as the most popular tourist destination in New England. But it soon may be known for something else. This is because a private developer is pushing for the creation of a massive offshore wind farm.

Being from Massachusetts, I’ve personally spent a lot of summers on the Cape. Many days were spent casting my fishing lures into the surf along Nauset Beach in hopes of catching the big one. So when the news first surfaced years back about a potential wind turbine farm being located off the southern coast of Cape Cod, I became very opposed. I believed at the time that the construction of such a thing would bring great visual harm to the environment. My opinions of the proposed project stayed this way for a while.

Fate would have it that while in school, I had an assignment to research a current public project in the United States. The first thing that came to my mind was the Cape Cod Wind Farm. I spent numerous hours researching the topic, reading into the plans, looking at similar projects around the world etc. Then once I began to write my paper, my initial strong opposition to the project began to ease. There were pictures online of similar offshore wind farms in Denmark which showed the majestic beauty of these wind turbines working. I thought to myself ‘Imagine that: clean and renewable energy’.

When I came up with the idea of this blog, I knew that this was certainly worth talking about. This case is really good to share with people (who might not have otherwise heard of it) because of the potential impacts it will have on future possible offshore wind farms around the country since it will be a first. In addition to this, I thought it was important to highlight a renewable energy source case in which there was both a strong support and opposition for.

The Cape Cod Wind Farm as described above has two defined groups involved. Cape Wind Associates being one of them and the other The Alliance To Protect Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind Associates is the company proposing the wind farm and The Alliance To Protect Nantucket Sound is an organization that is trying to stop the proposed wind farm. I personally believe that most of the opposition is derived from the insecurities in people in that these turbines will somehow disrupt the current picturesque landscape. It is also thought of as nothing more than a Not-In-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) scenario.

If the plan goes forward and the wind farm gets built, then there will be the following:

•  130 Wind Turbines
•  420 Mega-Watts Maximum Electrical Capacity
•  170 Mega-Watts Average Electrical Output (This is enough to power roughly three-fourths of the Cape and Islands electrical needs, or roughly four- hundred thousand homes).
•  Estimated Reduction of nearly 750,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year.
•  Estimated Reduction of over one-hundred million gallons of oil used per year. (This is the estimated amount of oil which would be used instead of creating energy from the wind turbines).

I encourage all readers to look into this project and read both sides of the story. For further information please check out the Cape Wind    The Alliance To Protect Nantucket Sound   and the Clean Power Now websites by clicking on each name.

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