U.S. Interior Completes Environmental Review of Vineyard Wind’s 800-Megawatt Offshore Project

The U.S. Interior Department on March 8 announced the completion of its environmental analysis of Vineyard Wind LLC’s proposed 800-megawatt wind project offshore Massachusetts. Conclusion of the final review marks a key milestone for the project, which is expected to be the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm. In January, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that calls for a review of the siting and permitting process on public lands and waters to increase renewable energy production with a goal of doubling offshore wind energy by 2030.

The assessment incorporates comments received on the draft analysis and a supplemental analysis released in June 2020 after a long delay. In 2019, the agency postponed the final review for the $2.8 billion project, in order to undertake a supplemental analysis to understand the cumulative impacts of multiple projects proposed in the region. The supplemental review assumes that about 22 gigawatts of Atlantic offshore wind development are reasonably foreseeable along the east coast.

The Vineyard Wind 1 project was selected in 2018 to negotiate contracts with Massachusetts’ electric utilities, in accordance with a 2016 state law that called for competitive solicitations to secure long-term contracts for 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind by June 30, 2027. In April 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities authorized power purchase agreements between Vineyard Wind LLC and the state’s electric distribution companies Unitil Corp., National Grid plc, and Eversource Energy for a period of 20 years. Last year, regulators approved long-term contracts executed by the utilities to purchase offshore wind power from Mayflower Wind Energy LLC’s 804-megawatt project selected in the second round of solicitation. The approval fulfills the requirement under the 2016 law.

Vineyard Wind has received relevant permits required by Massachusetts as well as regional and local bodies. The project developer has entered into community partnerships and agreements with Vineyard Power on Martha’s Vineyard, the towns of Barnstable and Nantucket, and fishery mitigation agreements with the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In August 2020, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced lease agreements with Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind to use the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal as the main staging and deployment facility for their offshore wind projects.

The Vineyard Wind 1 project is co-owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola SA’s Avangrid Renewables.