• 
  The Vineyard Wind has announced that one of its wind turbines, located 15 miles off of the coast of Massachusetts, contributed the first electricity to the grid.
  
• 
  Avangrid’s CEO Pedro Azagra says that this is a historic day for the U.S. Offshore Wind Industry, as it brings clean energy to the Massachusetts Grid.
  
• 
  The offshore industry in the U.S. is facing challenges including cancellations of projects due to concerns about financial feasibility.
  

Two large offshore wind farms in the United States are now sending electricity into the grid.

Avangrid, a joint owner of Vineyard Wind, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners announced on Wednesday that the first electricity was generated by one of the 62 turbines at the wind farm, which will be located 15 miles off of the coast Massachusetts.

There are five turbines installed. Just before midnight on Wednesday, one turbine supplied about 5 megawatts to the Massachusetts grid. The four other turbines are currently undergoing tests and should begin operating in early 2019.

A DEVELOPER ABANDONS 2 MAJOR WIND PROJECTS TO FALL IN LINE WITH BIDEN’S GREENENERGY GOALS

Last month, the Danish wind energy developer Orsted, and utility Eversource, announced that their first wind turbine, South Fork Wind was sending electricity out of what will be an 12-turbine windfarm, South Fork Wind. This windfarm is located 35 miles east from Montauk Point in New York. Five turbines are now installed in the area.

Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra stated that 2023 would be a landmark year for offshore winds, with “steel on the water and workers at work. Today, we start a new chapter to welcome 2024, by delivering clean offshore wind energy to the grid in Massachusetts.” Avangrid, an energy company with its headquarters in Orange Connecticut, is a global leader in renewable energy investments. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a global leader in renewable energies investments and a large fund management company, is the largest fund manager.

Azagra released a statement on Wednesday that said, “We have arrived at a momentous watershed for climate action in America and an dawning for the American offshore industry.”

At the COP28 last month, nearly 200 countries pledged to stop using fossil fuels that are harmful to our planet. This is the first time in decades of U.N. Climate talks that they have made this important commitment. Offshore wind is crucial in meeting the deal’s goal of tripling renewable energy.

BIDEN OUTS DOMESTIC GREEN ENERGY AGENDA BY PROMOTING STRUGGLING OVERSEAS COMPANY

The industry has been going through some tough times in recent years. The East Coast has seen several developers cancel projects because they are no longer economically viable.

Equinor, BP and BP Energy announced a “reset”, citing a change in economic conditions across the industry, on Wednesday. It is not canceled but will take more time to complete the project and participate in future offshore wind solicitations. The first phase, which was to build an 800 megawatt wind farm on the same lease area as Empire Wind 1, has not been changed.

Since the 1980s, large offshore wind farms in Europe and Asia have produced electricity. Vineyard Wind was created to introduce offshore wind power in the United States and show that it wasn’t as dead as many thought.

Cape Wind was to be the first U.S. off-shore wind farm. The federal government received the application in 2001. After years of local opposition, litigation and local opposition, the project failed. Turbines started spinning in Rhode Island’s Block Island as early as 2016. It’s not commercial scale wind farm, but with only five turbines.

Vineyard Wind submitted plans for a wind farm offshore to the state and federal government in 2017. Massachusetts committed to offshore winds by requiring that its utilities solicit proposals up to 1,600 Megawatts of offshore power by 2027.

Vineyard Wind will be located significantly further offshore than Cape Wind, and it is the first utility-scale wind energy development in federal waters.

Federal regulators could have dealt Vineyard Wind a potentially fatal blow by delaying the release of a critical environmental impact statement for 2019. William Keating, a Massachusetts Democratic Representative at the time, said that the Trump Administration was trying to stymie this renewable energy project as it was about to be realized.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION BLASTED AS ‘HYPOCRITE’ FOR OFFSHORE WINDS AS IT SCRAMBLES IN ORDER TO PROBE WHALE DEATHS

In 2021, the Biden administration will sign off on this project. Construction started in Barnstable Massachusetts. Massive tower sections from Portugal arrived in the Port of New Bedford this spring to be assembled on the water.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell called Wednesday’s announcement a “great start to 2024.”

The 800-megawatt wind farms will provide power to more than 400,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey stated that this clean, affordable energy was made possible by many advocates, public employees, union workers, and business leaders who have worked for decades to achieve this achievement.