Construction begins at America's first commercial scale offshore wind farm

Construction at the United States of America’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm began on Friday; said Vineyard Wind, a project that is expected to save US $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of its operation.

Vineyard 1 is a 800 megawatt  project that is located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. It is expected to generate electricity for more than 4000,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

“This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in a statement.

“The Interior Department is committed to responsibly accelerating our nation’s transition to a clean energy future, and doing so in coordination with our partners, stakeholders, Tribes and ocean users to avoid and reduce potential impacts as much as we can,” said Haaland.

Vineyard Wind, is a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc., and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), said that the project will use 62, 13MW General Electric Haliade-X wind turbines. 

The turbines are connected to an offshore substation, where the power will be transferred to two export cables that will make landfall at Covell’s beach and connect to the grid at an inland substation, the company said.

The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons per year.