Another milestone in Vineyard Wind project - Martha's Vineyard Times
Another milestone in Vineyard Wind project - The Martha's Vineyard Times
Updated Feb. 27
Massachusetts is now receiving more renewable energy through Vineyard Wind.
Avangrid, the company that owns half of Vineyard Wind, announced last week that the first five turbines of the offshore wind project have been installed and are delivering electricity.
The project is now providing around 68 megawatts to the New England grid, which Avangrid says equals about “30,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts.” The announcement was made in a press release issued on Thursday, Feb. 22.
“Every milestone we achieve on Vineyard Wind 1 is special, but powering up these first turbines stands apart as an exceptional achievement for Avangrid, Massachusetts, and the nation,” Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said in the release. “Each rotation of the blades, and every megawatt flowing to homes across Massachusetts, is a testament to the years of perseverance and partnership that have defined this trailblazing project.”
Avangrid states that offshore wind is a “critical energy resource” for the Northeast region and is positioned to meet the peak winter power demand in New England. According to the release, ISO New England, which oversees the region’s power grid and wholesale electricity market, released an assessment in 2018 saying 800 Megawatts of offshore wind energy during a two-week cold snap would have saved ratepayers between $40 million and $45 million, alongside avoiding over 108,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.
“Large-scale offshore wind resources are critical to meeting the commonwealth’s decarbonization goals and supporting the region’s clean energy transition while helping to minimize the impacts on customers of volatility in the seasonal cost of natural gas, which is used to produce roughly half of New England’s electricity,” Eversource spokesperson Priscilla Ress said. “In addition to helping meet clean energy public policy objectives and reducing the region’s dependence on natural gas, customers should also see lower supply costs as more wind projects like Vineyard Wind come online in the future.”
As for the impact of Vineyard Wind for ratepayers, this winter was still too soon to tell.
“It is too early to speculate about supply costs for customers given the dynamic nature of energy supply markets and the relative potential impact of a single project,” Ress said.
Electricity from Vineyard Wind is distributed to a regional New England grid.
Once fully operational, Vineyard Wind will be the largest renewable energy facility in New England, delivering 806 megawatts of power and providing electricity to 400,000 homes and businesses in the state, according to the release. The project delivers power to the New England grid through a connection in Barnstable transmitted by underground cables connected to a substation further inland on Cape Cod.
“This marks a turning point in the clean energy transition. After many decades of advocacy, research, policymaking, and finally construction, America’s offshore wind industry has gone from a dream to reality,” Gov. Maura Healey said in the release, also saying the project will “make the air we breathe safer and healthier, save customers money, and bring us one step closer to achieving net-zero emissions.”
Vineyard Wind delivered five megawatts of power from one of its turbines into the grid in early January. The project then provided power from each of the first five turbines intermittently as its operations ramped up, the release states. Additionally, power will be delivered to the grid sequentially as each turbine completes its commissioning process.
Developers have installed nine turbines so far with a tenth currently in the install phase; preparations are underway to transport an eleventh turbine to the project site. There will be 62 wind turbines once the project is completed.
“This marks a historic moment for Massachusetts, and indeed the nation,” State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said in the release. “Vineyard Wind is now delivering clean energy to the grid and our homes[,] produced right off our shores! This milestone is a testament to the achievements we can reach through collaboration, persistence, and dedication to a green future. Cape Codders and Islanders are proud to pave the way for continued advancement of a clean energy future in Massachusetts powered by offshore wind, one that’s critical to saving our planet and coastal communities.”
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.