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The United States is poised for the birth of a brand new industry, one that will invest tens of billions of dollars in our economy, reshape our coastal communities, and one that could be one of the sharpest knives in our fight against climate change: offshore wind.
The federal Government has sold lease areas from Massachusetts to North Carolina and states have passed laws to finance the construction of more than a dozen major offshore wind farms
CREDIT: SARA PLOURDE
It may also represent the first time truly massive companies have retooled their entire business models to train their sights at the climate problem. And that last point raises sticky questions about how capitalism - which, you could argue, got us into this whole climate mess - could be the best path out of the worst impacts of climate change.
This is the story of a promising renewable energy technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s the story of an organized opposition and how the failures of the past define future success at a time when the government is poised to take real action on climate change. Ultimately, this is a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.
Middelgrunden offshore windfarm CREDIT: EWEA
Episode 1: Sea Change
Picture this: thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast, each one taller than the Washington Monument. Offshore wind is seen as an essential solution to climate change, and it’s poised for explosive growth in the United States. How did we get to a moment of such dramatic change?
Featuring Henrik Stiesdal, Bryan Wilson, and Bob Grace.
Wondering how a wind turbine works? Check out this video
Because they don’t need to be transported on trucks or highways, offshore wind turbines are much bigger and more powerful than their onshore siblings. CREDIT: SARA PLOURDE
Save Cape Wind rally, Boston 2015
CREDIT: PETER BOWDEN
Episode 2: Please Let Me Finish, Mr. Kennedy
Ten years ago, a Kennedy and a Koch shared the same goal: stop Cape Wind, America’s would-be first offshore wind farm.
Despite nearly two decades of effort, Cape Wind was never built, and its failure had huge consequences for the offshore wind industry. But it also laid the groundwork for the next wave of offshore wind and the explosive growth to come.
Featuring Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Jim Gordon, Sean Corcoran, Beth Daley, and Audra Parker.
CREDIT SARA PLOURDE
A scallop boat motors out of New Bedford carrying scientists to gather data about fish habitat prior to the installation of Vineyard Wind.
Episode 3: Squid Pro Quo
The promise of the nascent American offshore wind industry meets an unlikely foe: squid fishermen in Rhode Island. Forces collide — like the enduring symbol of the American blue-collar worker, the big money of global energy interests, and the volatility of American politics. We ask: what is the nature of power?
Featuring Joe McNamara, Norbert Stamps, Josiah Dodge, Kevin Sullivan, Jason Jarvis, Meghan Lapp, Lars Pederson, Nicola Groom, Ben Storrow, Kevin Stokesbury, David Monti, David Bernhardt, and Gina Raimondo.
Click on the Circle and Slide
The federal government began drawing up lease areas for offshore wind nearly a decade ago. Before a wind-farm is ever proposed, the public can provide feedback that resulted in a smaller area. Here’s how the leases off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island changed thanks mostly to feedback from the scallop industry.
Ziven Drake is with the Boston pile driver’s union, who will hammer in the foundations of the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farms
Episode 4: Port of Departure
Billions of dollars in investment will rain down on the cities that are best positioned to launch America’s offshore wind industry. But not every city can become the “wind capital of America.” Where is it gonna drizzle, and where is it gonna pour?
Featuring Ziven Drake, Dana Rebeiro, Jesper Bank, and Lars Pederson.
CREDIT SARA PLOURDE
A mural in New Bedford, MA pays tribute to the city’s history of unionized labor.
Episode 5: The Just Transition
To be profitable, the offshore wind industry requires vast sums of money only accessible to some of the world’s biggest companies. But is the environmental movement ready to welcome oil majors and devoted capitalists into their ranks? Ready or not, here they come.
Featuring: Henrik Stiesdal, Nat Bullard, Jason Jarvis, and Mijin Cha.
Click on the circle and slide
When the Trump administration announced it would delay Vineyard Wind, the five developers working on projects off the coast of Massachusetts agreed to a uniform layout of their turbines. However, the fishing industry wants wider transit lanes through the wind farms, which the wind companies have said would be too expensive.
Credits
Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik
Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown and Jack Rodolico
Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico
Executive Producer: Erika Janik
Production and Mixing: Taylor Quimby and Justine Paradis
Fact-checking: Sara Sneath
Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Mitch Scacchi, and Hannah McCarthy
Music: Ben Cosgrove
Additional Music: Blue Dot Sessions
Theme Music: Breakmaster Cylinder.
Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde
Special thanks to Sarah Mizes-Tan and WCAI for the audio of the Block Island Wind Farm Tour, and to Miriam Wasser of WBUR and Craig Lemoult for audio of Lars Pederson and David Bernhardt.
Thanks also to Vincent Schellings, Walter Musial, Michael Taylor, Dan Shreve, Beth Daley, Sean Corcoran, Bettina Washington, Richard Andre, Christa Bank, Jean Flemma, Andrew Gill, David Bidwell, Henrik Lund, John Mitchell, Callie Tansill-Suddath, and the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies.