Vineyard Wind 1 is an

offshore wind Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the Electricity generation, generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more elect ...

energy project located about south off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind 1 is the first utility-scale offshore wind project under development in the US, featuring 62 fixed-bottom wind turbines, with a combined nameplate capacity of 804MW. At peak production, this provides energy equivalent of powering 400,000 homes. The turbines used are manufactured by GE Offshore Wind, each capable of manufacturing up to 13MW. The $4 billion project, developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in partnership with

Iberdrola Iberdrola, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. It has around 40,000 employees and serves around 30 million customers. Subsidiary, Subsidiaries include ScottishPower (United Kingdom), Ava ...

is leading the charge in offshore wind in the US, and aims to contribute substantially to Massachusetts renewable energy targets while reducing carbon emissions. The

Massachusetts Department of public Utilities The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities is one of two Public Utilities Commissions of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Executive Office of Energy ...

approved the project in 2019, and construction began in November 2021. Power from the first Turbine started flowing into the ISO New England grid in January 2024. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The Onshore cable landing sites is an onshore substation in Hyannis village, positioned next to the existing Eversource substation.

Project overview

The project is jointly owned by

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S ("CIP") is a Danish investment firm specializing in infrastructure investments, particularly wind power. CIP is one of the world's largest dedicated renewables investment firms with €32 billion raised and ...

and

, through a subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables. GE Offshore Wind (a subsidiary of

GE Wind Energy GE Wind is a division of GE Vernova. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE Wind was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. Vic Abate is the CEO of GE Vernova’s Wind busines ...

based in Europe) is supplying the 62 turbines. Windar Renovables is building the foundations. Nexans Group &

Prysmian Group Prysmian S.p.A. is a multinational company with headquarters in Milan, Italy, specialising in the production of electrical cable for use in the energy and telecom sectors and for optical fibres. Prysmian is present in Europe with 48 plants, 23 ...

is providing cabling. Two independent

submarine power cable A submarine power cable is a transmission cable for carrying electric power below the surface of the water.Centerville in Barnstable on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

about 34 miles (some 55 km) away. They feed into the 115 kV

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Space partitioning * Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs ** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...

at Barnstable Switching Station owned by Eversource. The Port of New Bedford has been used as a staging area for the project.

DEME In Ancient Greece, a deme or (, plural: ''demoi'', δήμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, bu ...

is handling some construction and installation logistics. The vessels used must comply with the Jones Act, so feeder barges transport components from port to site. Salem Harbor has also been developed as an offshore wind port in conjunction with the project. During construction a bubble curtain from Thayer Mahan, Inc. is being deployed. A final

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

(FEIS) was released in March 2021. Approval was delayed during the term of U.S.

president Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

, due to concerns regarding fishing and safety. The permission was fast-tracked after

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

took office. Final major federal approval was granted on May 11, 2021. A total of $2.3 billion in project funding was secured in October 2021. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance representing fishing interests filed a federal lawsuit several months later disputing the approval,U.S. fishing group sues Biden administration over offshore wind project
/ref> and a group of Nantucket residents did so in January 2023. Solar competitor Allco Renewable Energy also filed suit. Construction proceeded despite the lawsuits. Electricity from the first turbines began flowing on January 2, 2024, with the final turbines expected to be installed by the end 2024. The developers have agreed to suspend construction during

right whale Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus ''Eubalaena'': the North Atlantic right whale (''E. glacialis''), the North Pacific right whale (''E. japonica'') and the southern right whale (''E. australis''). They are class ...

activity in the area, and

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

monitors their sounds. The project is expected to both reduce

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

and reduce electricity costs for Massachusetts consumers. The wind farm has secured 20-year contracts to sell the power it produces for a fixed 20-year price of $0.09/kWh and has agreed to provide a total of $15 million for a fund to provide battery storage in low-income communities. Six beaches on Nantucket, MA, were closed after a wind-turbine blade from the offshore wind farm broke apart on July 13, 2024, sending fiberglass shards into the Atlantic Ocean and onto the nearby coast.

Development timeline

This timeline traces the development from the project from 2015 to 2025 when the operation of Vineyard Wind 1 is expected begin. It is organized in four distinct phases that the project must go through in order to be complete. The first phase is early development and planning, during which time the

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, established in 2010 by Secretarial Order. On May 19, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed a Secretarial Order dividing t ...

(BOEM) gauges interest in a new lease area, evaluates the environmental impacts that may be imposed on it by construction, and conducts an auction to select a developer for a new offshore wind project. During the second phase, environmental review and permitting, the developer must submit a plan for how they will build, operate, and decommission the project. In response to this, BOEM must conduct an environmental analysis to assess the impacts of the plan, and consider comments submitted from the public regarding the public. In the third phase, record of decision and approvals, BOEM along with other implicated agencies must consider the environmental analysis and make a final decision on whether or not to approve the project. If approved, the project moves to the final phase during which is the action construction and installation of the wind farm.

Lease Area

Location

Vineyard Wind 1 is located in federally controlled water on the Commercial Lease Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)-A-0501, which is approximately 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard and 12 nautical miles from Nantucket. The lease area comprises 166,886 acres, and only the Northern section will be occupied by Vineyard Wind 1 project.

History of Lease Area

In 2009, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) initiated the renewable energy program (authorized under the

Energy Policy Act of 2005 The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems ...

), which provides a structure for regional planning and analysis, lease issuance, site assessment, and construction and operations. BOEM is required by the

Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act {{Short pages monitor