January 4, 2024 — About 7½ years after state policymakers began seriously pursuing the cleaner generation source and following a bumpy road full of delays, the grid that powers Massachusetts received the first electrons generated by offshore wind late Tuesday night.
One turbine of the Vineyard Wind 1 project delivered about 5 megawatts of power at 11:52 p.m. Tuesday, project co-owners Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) announced Wednesday morning. Eventually, the wind farm about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard is expected to have 62 turbines capable of generating just more than 800 MW of power. The project’s energy comes ashore at a grid interconnection point in Barnstable.
The transmission of “first power,” as limited as it was and coming later than had been expected, was roundly celebrated Wednesday by elected officials, clean energy advocates and others. Gov. Maura Healey called Wednesday’s announcement “a historic moment for the American offshore wind industry.”
“Soon, Vineyard Wind will be producing power equivalent of over 400,000 Massachusetts households,” she said. “As we look ahead, Massachusetts is on a path toward energy independence thanks to our nation-leading work to stand up the offshore wind industry.”
Massachusetts now is the second state in the country, following New York, to get electricity from a major offshore wind development.