Federal lawmakers have approved what will be the first American commercial scale offshore wind farm. The Vineyard Wind project will be located off the coast of Massachusetts and generate enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. It’s part of President Biden’s larger climate agenda to increase renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, and to move away from polluting-prone fossil fuels.
Ethan Coffel, Assistant Professor
Ethan Coffel, Assistant Professor of Geography and the Environment in the Maxwell School, explores this power and climate struggle in the Environmental Research Letters research paper, “Thermal power generation is disadvantaged in a thermal world.” Prof. Coffel has talked extensively about how warming temperatures will impact every part of our power infrastructure.
Related to the recent news about the approval of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, Coffel says:
“Increasing the amount of zero-carbon electricity generation – like wind and solar – is one of the most important things we can do to reduce emissions that warm the climate.
“In recent years the prices of wind and solar electricity have rapidly fallen, making both renewable technologies economically competitive, if not cheaper, than fossil fuels. To limit warming to the Paris target of 2°C or below, we need to convert the majority of electricity generation to zero-carbon sources in the next few decades.
“This relatively large 800-megawatt wind installation is the type of investment in clean energy that will help get us there.”
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