Rhode Island and Connecticut's first utility-scale offshore wind farm, Revolution Wind, just began its offshore construction phase — a major milestone for the project, Electrek reported.
The project is a joint venture between New England-based energy provider Eversource, the group behind the South Fork Wind project that is already providing clean energy for 70,000 New York residents, and Ørsted, the Danish clean energy giant that is responsible for several of the offshore wind projects being built off the coast of the American Northeast.
"America's offshore wind industry is scaling up, and the first steel in the water at Revolution Wind is a tremendous milestone for Rhode Island and Connecticut's clean energy journey," Ørsted executive David Hardy said.
Revolution Wind is expected to come online in 2025, at which point it will provide clean, renewable energy to 350,000 homes across Rhode Island and Connecticut (400 megawatts to Rhode Island and 304 megawatts to Connecticut). It will displace almost 1 million metric tons of planet-overheating air pollution per year, the equivalent of taking 200,000 gas-powered cars off the road.
If we are going to meet the clean energy goals intended to halt the overheating of our planet, offshore wind will have to play a big role. Luckily, large-scale offshore wind projects are finally starting to pick up steam after years of delays.
Those delays were largely caused by misinformation spread by the dirty energy industry, which — using fake experts and logical fallacies — mobilized citizen groups to share the misinformation on Facebook and to dedicate an enormous amount of time and energy to protesting and voting against offshore wind projects.
Fortunately, though many American Facebook users remain convinced that offshore wind energy is an environmental disaster, many of the projects are now moving forward anyway and will soon be providing clean, renewable energy to power those citizens' Facebook-accessing machines.
"It's great to see offshore wind finally getting going in New England and much of the eastern seaboard. There have been so many setbacks, but it is finally starting," one Electrek commenter wrote. "Let's see how soon the West Coast can get going with Floating platforms."
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