Permit granted for the 800 MW Wind project in the USA

The Vineyard Wind, theoffshore wind farm located off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, USA, has obtained a permit to connect the project to the regional grid. The project is owned equally between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Avangrid Renewables LLC (US subsidiary of Iberdrola).

Vineyard Wind will have a capacity of 800 MW and the facility will consist of 84 units of 9.5-MW wind turbines that will be capable of generating about 2 gigawatts of wind power, enough to meet the energy needs of 1 million homes.

The future offshore wind farm will eliminate over 1.6 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, the equivalent of taking 325,000 vehicles off the roads, and will ensure the protection of groundwater. When the project becomes operational, it will offer $3.7 billion in energy-related cost savings to the New England region.

The permit was issued by the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) and entitles the developer to build and operate electric transmission and interconnection facilities for the wind farm.

Vineyard Wind became the winner in Massachusetts' first offshore wind bid and obtained the right to negotiate contracts for the construction of the wind park in May of 2018.

The project is still in the permitting stages and needs to undergo federal, state and local approval processes. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has approved the project's long-term power purchase contracts with Massachusetts’ electric distribution companies in April. 

The construction of the farm is planned to start later in 2019 and the commissioning will take place in 2021.

This project is one of the proposals submitted in response to the Green Communities Act, a law that came into force in Massachusetts in 2016 obliging power companies to purchase, within 10 years, up to 1,600 MW of production from offshore wind power facilities.