3 Questions: Stephen Connors on offshore wind farms
Stephen Connors is director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA) at the MIT Energy Initiative. He is a graduate of what is now the Wind Energy Center at UMass-Amherst and an inaugural board member of the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative. MIT News asked him about the impact of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s announcement on April 28 that it will allow a 130-turbine project called Cape Wind, to be built in Nantucket Sound. The project would be the nation’s first offshore wind farm.Q. How important do you think this decision is in terms of opening the door to a broader development of offshore wind resources in the U.S.?A. Being the first, the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound has been instrumental for getting an offshore wind industry rolling in the United States. When first proposed in 2001, it was not clear whose job it was at...