Statement: America’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm breaking ground is historic

Vineyard Wind I construction leads the way for more projects to follow

Environment America

BOSTON — The nation’s first commercial scale offshore wind project broke ground Thursday, during a ceremony in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland attended the event with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and other Massachusetts offshore wind champions such as Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Bill Keating. 

This is the first large-scale project in the United States to reach the construction phase in offshore wind history. The project will be the first to contribute to the Biden administration’s goal to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind generation by 2030, which would be enough to power over 10 million homes. It will also contribute to Massachusetts’ state goal of 5.6 gigawatts by that same year. 

Vineyard Wind I is a 62-turbine project. It’s slated to generate 800 megawatts of electricity annually — that’s enough to power more than 400,000 homes. The project begins with onshore construction work, which will entail starting on the two transmission cables that will connect the offshore facility to the mainland. 

Environment Massachusetts is an affiliate of Environment America. 

In response, Jolie Jaycobs, Environment America’s Offshore Wind associate, released the following statement: 

“ It’s exciting to see the first commercial scale offshore wind farm begin construction. It’s historic. Every time Vineyard Wind I crosses a new threshold, it sets the standard for more projects to follow. But it must only be a start because we are going to need all the clean power we can get in order to reach our goal of fully running on renewable energy. We look forward to many more groundbreakings on projects like this one in states across the nation.”

In response, Ben Hellerstein, Environment Massachusetts state director, released the following statement: 

“With offshore wind, we have a practically limitless source of clean energy just off our coast. Vineyard Wind is an important first step to tap into this resource, and there’s so much more we can do. Going big on offshore wind will bring us closer to a cleaner, healthier future powered by 100% renewable energy.”