Offshore Wind Market USA: First Wind Turbine in First Commercial US offshore Wind Farm Vineyard 1 in Place

New Bedford, USA - The offshore wind industry in the United States still lags behind developments in China or the United Kingdom.

But the Biden-Harris administration has ambitious plans to expand offshore wind, and a number of projects have already been approved. The goal is to build 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

The Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm project, located about 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, is currently under construction as the nation's first utility-scale offshore wind project. It will use 62 Haliade-X 13 MW wind turbines manufactured by GE Renewable Energy.

After the first turbine was shipped from the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal to its location off the coast of Cape Cod in early September 2023, another milestone has now been reached with the installation of the first turbine. Due to inclement weather, construction had initially been delayed.

During 2023, geotechnical investigations were previously carried out and cables were laid for the project. Furthermore, a substation was recently completed and some of the monopiles have been installed to date.

When completed, Vineyard Wind 1 is expected to generate with a capacity of approximately 800 MW wind power for more than 400,000 homes and businesses across the state, while reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 1.6 million tons per year. It is also expected to create approximately 3,600 full-time equivalent jobs. Over the first 20 years of operation, CO₂ emissions are expected to be reduced by more than 1.6 million tons per year.

The first commercial offshore wind energy project in the USA is being built by Vineyard Wind. Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the company is 50 percent owned by funds from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50 percent owned by Avangrid, Inc.

Source: IWR Online, 19 Oct 2023