As the only New England state without an ocean coastline, Vermont isn’t at the top of “states seeking offshore wind power” lists. They’d like to change that.
SevenDays, the excellent independent news source i n Vermont, reports that the state “has struck a three-year deal with the government of Nova Scotia to explore the possibility of bringing wind power to New England through the Green Mountain State.” Full story is here
Nova Scotia, which has a lot of coastline and plenty of wind, has big plans for offshore wind farms and will need to export much of the power, since they’ve only got about 1 million people, fewer than New Hampshire. “It could choose to deliver the power generated by the offshore turbines to Massachusetts via an undersea power cable. Or it could opt to send that power into the Canadian grid and route it to New England through Vermont,” the article notes.
Vermont already has a high-voltage connection to Canada and is looking at upgrading it. If this deal goes through, the connection (the Highgate Converter) would have to be enlarged quite a bit.
