Offshore wind holds massive promise for our economy, for home-grown energy and for the planet. As a Conservation Law Foundation attorney working on clean energy , my work with climate change can sometimes feel so big, so abstract. So when a boat took me out to the recently completed South Fork Wind project off Rhode Island, I was overcome to see this clean energy solution up close, firsthand.
South Fork is now the first fully operational commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. To see it is to be overcome by both the immensity of the wind turbines themselves, and the reality that projects like this will change our future, and our children’s lives. Each turbine is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. One single spin of the turbine generates enough electricity to power a whole house for 24 hours or more. South Fork’s dozen turbines spinning in the strong Atlantic wind generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes and businesses in New York.