Vineyard Winds is poised to power Massachusetts.
Construction began in June on an offshore wind farm that has the potential to contribute a sizable amount of power to the Massachusetts power grid, The New York Times reports. Located fifteen miles off Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Wind is a $4 billion project and the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States.
The location of the project is ideal for wind energy generation, with high wind speeds and a shallow seabed. The farm will consist of sixty-two turbines, each about 850 feet tall with 350-foot-long blades. Cables will convey electricity generated by the turbines to a beach in Barnstable on Cape Cod, from which the energy will then make its way to Massachusetts consumers, powering up to 400,000 homes. The project will be up and running as soon as the end of 2023.
Vineyard Wind has overcome a series of hurdles to get to this point, including regulatory slowdowns, opposition from special interest groups, and the Trump administration’s halting of studies necessary for the continuation of the project in 2019. The Biden administration gave Vineyard Wind the green light in 2021.
There are currently only a couple of smaller wind farms off the coast of the United States, but more are in the planning phase. Vineyard Wind, a beacon for what is to come in offshore wind infrastructure, is bringing the US one step closer to the Biden administration’s goal of installing offshore wind farms capable of producing thirty gigawatts of power by 2030.
