Iberdrola breaks ground on Vineyard Wind 1, the United States' first large-scale offshore wind farm
Monday 22 November 2021
Iberdrola is starting work on the United States' first large-scale offshore wind farm. The project will be 25 times the size of the country's only existing offshore facility, located in Rhode Island.
Vineyard Wind 1 will be operated by Vineyard Wind, a company 50 % owned by the Iberdrola group -through AVANGRID subsidiary Avangrid Renewables- and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
The 800-megawatt (MW) project is located 24 km from the coast of Martha's Vineyard, and will generate enough wind power to cover the needs of 400,000 households. It will also reduce tariffs by $1.4 million in the first 20 years of operation, while preventing the emission of more than 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent or taking 325,000 vehicles off the roads. The other offshore wind farm in Rhode Island has 30 MW installed capacity and supplies clean energy to 17,000 homes.
A ceremony to mark the start of the construction of Vineyard Wind 1 was held in Barnstable county, Massachusetts. The event was attended by Deb Haaland, the United States secretary of the interior, the governor of the State of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, and other state and local officials. Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen; main partner and cofounder of CIP Christian T. Skakkebæk; and the managing director of AVANGRID, Dennis V. Arriola also attended on behalf of the project partners.
“Vineyard Wind 1 is on a par with the most ambitious offshore developments globally, including those developed by the Iberdrola Group. Not many countries have the ambition to launch their first project at a scale that will power 400,000 homes and create 3,600 jobs,” said Ignacio Galán, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola and Chairman of AVANGRID. “With 15 years of offshore wind leadership, Iberdrola and Avangrid are more than ready to help the US benefit from the substantial opportunities of offshore wind including economic investment and job creation. Our offshore developments in New England and North Carolina/Virginia could represent a total investment well above $15 billion in the coming years.”
Under the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the Southeast Massachusetts Building Trades, the work being done on site is using local union labor. The PLA ensures that at least 500 of the jobs created during the construction phase of the project will be filled by local tradespeople and includes aggressive hiring targets for women and black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC).
“This is the kind of investment from Vineyard Wind that will allow Massachusetts to keep leading the nation towards a clean energy economy,” said Massachusetts senator Edward J. Markey, who took the opportunity to congratulate everyone involved in this unprecedented project.