Biden Admin Approves First Commercial Offshore Wind Power Installation

The Biden administration has approved the construction on the first utility-scale offshore wind project based in U.S. coastal waters.

What Happened: The Vineyard Wind 1 is a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Orange, Connecticut-based Avangrid Inc. AGR and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partner, a fund management company focused on investments in energy infrastructure assets.

The project is budgeted for $2 billion and will incorporate 62 GE Haliade-X turbines to be set 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The installation will have the capacity to generate 800 MW of electricity through two export cables buried under the Atlantic seabed.

Vineyard Wind 1 is projected to provide electrical power for 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts while creating 3,600 jobs. Construction on the project is scheduled to be completed by 2030.

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Why It Matters: “Today’s offshore wind project announcement demonstrates that we can fight the climate crisis, while creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our competitiveness at home and abroad,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a press statement.

Wind energy generates 8.4% of U.S. power, the highest percentage by a renewable source. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, biomass generates 7.3% and solar only 2.3%.

Vineyard Wind 1 will be the third offshore wind installation along the East Coast. Rhode Island’s Block Island Wind Farm is a five-turbine, 30 MW project-based 3.8 miles from Block Island and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a two-turbine, 12 MW project located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

(Photo courtesy SnappyGoat.com.)