(Reuters) – The Biden administration is on Tuesday set to approve the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, according to two sources with knowledge of the process.
Final approval will be announced by the Department of Interior, which hopes to launch a new domestic energy industry along the U.S. East Coast that will help create jobs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Inc, a unit of Spain’s Iberdrola, and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is expected to power to more than 400,000 Massachusetts homes once its turbines are installed 15 miles (24 km) off shore.
In March, the Biden administration unveiled a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 by opening new areas to development, accelerating permits and boosting public financing for projects.
The Trump administration had canceled the Vineyard Wind permitting process late last year, but Biden has made clean energy a key component of his climate agenda and had promised to quicken the approval process.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Susan Heavey; editing by John Stonestreet)
