According to recent reporting from Coastal Point, Maryland’s Public Service Commission (MPSC) will be holding additional hearings concerning two wind projects slated to be built off the state’s Delmarva coast.
Last month, curious attendees were able to voice their questions and concerns regarding the projects at an event hosted at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Md. The results of the event influenced MPSC to offer additional hearings and provide further information regarding aspects of the wind farms’ construction.
These additional hearings will focus on changing the height of the wind turbines that have been selected for the U.S. Wind and Skipjack offshore wind projects, notes the reporting.
Coastal Points goes on to say that the turbines being used for the wind farms would be 12 MW and approximately 850 feet tall. Although there was a strong desire among the crowd to reduce the height and size of the turbines selected, Orsted, the company that is developing the Skipjack wind farm, notes that bigger turbines generate more power than smaller ones. Thus, the company claims, reducing turbine size would require more turbines and more construction area.
The reporting claims that the notice to reopen the wind farm hearings was signed on Feb. 13, 2020, by Maryland PSC Secretary Andrew Johnston. Coastal Point reports the notice as saying, “It is appropriate to conduct an evidentiary hearing regarding impacts related to the change in turbine size selected by Skipjack.”
You can read Coastal Point’s full reporting on Maryland’s proposed hearings concerning wind turbine height, here.
Photo: Orsted’s Block Island wind farm
