Power up: Vineyard Wind delivers ‘historic’ charge to grid
Minutes before midnight, power from an offshore wind farm 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard was delivered to the New England grid for the first time.
A wind turbine in the massive Vineyard Wind project generated five megawatts of power at 11:52 p.m. Tuesday, a feat that officials described as a “historic” and “watershed” moment for the American offshore wind industry.
Officials on Wednesday expressed excitement and confidence about the project even after the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm failed twice to meet the “first power” target set by leaders.
“This is clean, affordable energy made possible by the many advocates, public servants, union workers, and business leaders who worked for decades to accomplish this achievement,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “As we look ahead, Massachusetts is on a path toward energy independence thanks to our nation-leading work to stand up the offshore wind industry.”
Leaders expect the roughly $4 billion project to have five turbines operating at full capacity early this year, with additional testing happening both on and offshore in the coming weeks.
In total, Vineyard Wind will feature 62 wind turbines generating 806 megawatts, an amount officials say will be enough to power more than 400,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses.
A spokesman for Avangrid, which along with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners makes up the Vineyard Wind 1 joint venture, said the turbine generated power Sunday evening but more testing was required before any wind power could be transmitted to the grid.
“2023 was a historic year defined by steel in the water and people at work. Today, we begin a new chapter and welcome 2024 by delivering the first clean offshore wind power to the grid in Massachusetts,” Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said in a release. “We’ve arrived at a watershed moment for climate action in the U.S., and a dawn for the American offshore wind industry.”
Vineyard Wind submitted state and federal project plans to build an offshore wind farm in 2017. Massachusetts had committed to offshore wind by requiring its utilities to solicit proposals for up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027.
In what might have been a fatal blow, federal regulators delayed Vineyard Wind by holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement in 2019.
The Biden administration signed off on it in 2021. Construction began onshore in Barnstable. Last spring, massive tower sections from Portugal arrived at the Port of New Bedford to be assembled out on the water.
“I congratulate Vineyard Wind on this important, hard-won milestone, demonstrating yet again that offshore wind in America is real, and that the Port of New Bedford well-suited to support the industry,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said in a release.
The project is expected to create 3,600 full-time jobs, save customers $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the road annually, according to officials.