Cape Wind is proposing 130 offshore wind turbines.

In a shallow area of water toward the center of Nantucket Sound called Horseshoe Shoal (see map).

The wind turbines will be arrayed in a grid pattern of parallel rows. Within a row, the wind turbines will be .34 nautical miles apart (about 6 football fields), the rows will be .54 nautical miles apart (about 9 football fields).

The towers, from the surface of the water to the center of the blades, will be 258 feet tall. The lowest blade tip height will be 75 feet above the surface of the water and the highest blade tip height will be 440 feet above the surface of the water. The base of the wind turbine towers will be 16 feet in diameter.

Each wind turbine will be mounted to a single monopole foundation which is a hollow steel pipe that will be driven 80 feet into the sandy seabed.

Cape Wind will be rated to produce up to 468 megawatts of wind power as each wind turbine will produce up to 3.6 megawatts. Maximum expected production will be 454 megawatts. Average expected production will be 170 megawatts which is almost 75% of the 230 megawatt average electricity demand for Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Yes. The manager of the electric grid, the Independent System Operator of New England, has stated that New England will need additional electrical generation sources as soon as 2006. The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) has stated that Cape Wind’s electricity is needed for electric reliability in Massachusetts (more on the EFSB decision).

Cape Wind will be 5.2 miles from Point Gammon, a private island in South Yarmouth, 5.6 miles from Cotuit, 6.5 miles from Craigville Beach on Cape Cod. Cape Wind will be 9.3 miles from Oak Bluffs and 13.8 miles from the town of Nantucket. Cape Wind will be farther away from the nearest home than any other electricity generation facility in Massachusetts.

From the closest beach on Cape Cod, in clear conditions, the wind turbines will appear one half-inch above the horizon. Daytime visual simulations are available here as well as in the US Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Cape Wind is a project being developed by Energy Management Inc. (EMI). EMI is a Massachusetts-based energy company with an over 30-year history of developing some of the cleanest energy generation projects in New England including six natural gas and one biomass projects. EMI has also worked in the fields of energy conservation and pollution control technologies (more about EMI).