Page 18 - Cape Wind News Today

New Bedford aspires to light the world once again with offshore wind energy many years after exporting whale oil for lamps.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — New Bedford was once the city that lit the world, exporting vast quantities of whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s. Workers packed the docks, unloading casks of oil that had been extracted at sea from whale carcasses and brought in by a fleet of hundreds of whaling ships.

The first ship carrying offshore wind towers from Europe pulled into a fishing port in Massachusetts on Wednesday, ending a 20-year wait for some residents.

The U.S. does not have a single commercial-scale offshore wind farm, but it will soon.

The United States does not yet have a single commercial-scale offshore wind farm. But it will soon.

Nearly two centuries after providing the world with whale oil for lamps, New Bedford aspires to light the world again. The city plans to use offshore wind turbines to produce energy.

Once assembled out on the water this summer by developer Vineyard Wind, the turbines will stand more than 850 feet high.

New Bedford aspires to light the world once again with offshore wind energy many years after exporting whale oil for lamps.

New Bedford aspires to light the world once again with offshore wind energy many years after exporting whale oil for lamps.

On Wednesday, the vessel UHL Felicity bringing wind turbine tower sections from Portugal reached the Port of New Bedford.