By JENNIFER McDERMOTT, Associated Press
November 24, 2021 | 2:59 PM

The Biden administration approved an offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island on Wednesday as part of a plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced it approved the construction and operations of the South Fork Wind project, the department’s second approval of a commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project in the United States. Last week, the department marked the groundbreaking off the coast of Massachusetts for the first commercial-scale offshore wind project.

Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts of the U.S. and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced last month by the Biden administration to build infrastructure, create jobs and address global warming. Deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy would generate enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.
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The South Fork Wind project will be located about 19 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. It’s expected to provide roughly 130 megawatts, enough power for about 70,000 homes.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm opened off Block Island in 2016. But at five turbines, it’s not commercial-scale. Orsted, the Danish energy company, acquired the developer, Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind, and now operates that wind farm.

Orsted is developing the South Fork Wind project with utility Eversource. The Interior Department approved up to 12 turbines. Rhode Island coastal regulators gave the project critical approval this spring over the objections of the fishing industry and some environmentalists.....................

Read more here: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/11/24/interior-departme...

also

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/24/interior-department-approves...

Northeast grid rules could make or break clean energy

Energy Wire - Miranda Willson - November 23, 2021
Energy Policy Transmission Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont

ISO New England’s draft plan aims to strike a middle ground. While the grid operator’s working proposal eliminates the automatic price floor for subsidized resources, a similar calculation should still “be applied in certain situations,” ISO New England explained in a presentation to stakeholders in September. “In June, when we launched the effort to remove the MOPR from the capacity market, we made clear that we will do so in a way that doesn’t jeopardize either power system reliability or competitive pricing in the capacity market,” Matt Kakley, senior communications specialist at ISO New England, said in an email.

New England’s grid operator is considering an overhaul of regional power market rules that could determine whether Northeast states meet their clean energy goals, creating uncertainty in a region pivotal for reaching President Biden’s push for 100 percent clean electricity.

With no fossil fuel production and broad interest among the states in advancing clean energy, New England could be a case study on how to develop a multistate carbon-free power market, observers say.

And yet the Northeast is rife with competing interests — from progressive state leaders to power producers to grid planners charged with keeping the lights on — that are complicating the energy transition in an area reliant on natural gas. The outcome of how the grid operator navigates those viewpoints — and how quickly it does — could make or break whether New England remains a leader in weaning itself off fossil fuels and reducing emissions.

States in New England have long been frustrated by what they describe as a mismatch between their own clean energy goals and the rules set by ISO New England, which oversees the six-state power grid with the primary goal of electric reliability.

Continue at:

http://www.windaction.org/posts/52984-northeast-grid-rules-could-ma...

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