Cape Wind could sign a lease for the country’s first off-shore wind farm within 30 days and expects to be fully permitted by March now that it has received a favorable final environmental impact statement from the U.S. Minerals Management Service.
The Minerals Management Service oversees offshore energy projects.
The 2,800-page statement concludes that the controversial project slated for Nantucket Sound would be best on Horseshoe Shoal where it is currently planned rather than at alternative locations. The statement also concludes that Cape Wind will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Cape Wind project is expected to generate hundreds of jobs and to produce most of the electricity for Cape Cod and the Islands.
No major impact on navigation, fishing or tourism is anticipated in the minerals management statement.
Cape Wind has been on the drawing board for Nantucket Sound since 2001. A draft environmental impact statement issued a year ago generated 42,000 written public comments. In 2004, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a favorable 3,800-page assessment of the project.
In 2007, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs approved the project after the 2005 approval by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board.
The project is planned to include 130 wind turbines that are expected to produce up to 420 megawatts of electricity.
