The Biden administration approved a new wind project off the Massachusetts coast Tuesday that is large enough it will provide more electricity than the state’s former coal-fired generating station.
Avangrid’s New England Wind is the United States’ eighth large offshore wind project to be greenlit and is tied for the largest ever approved, but will probably be smaller.
Avangrid says it will be smaller than the 129 turbines that won approval, and each wind turbine will be smaller as well, so the actual output will be closer to 1,900 megawatts than the maximum 2,600. Those 1,900 megawatts could power up to 1 million homes and businesses in southern New England.
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a 2,600-megawatt project, to be built east of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The last operating coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, Brayton Point, closed in 2017 as environmental groups pushed for cleaner sources of