First power from Vineyard Wind sent to NE grid

Wind power from south of Martha’s Vineyard was delivered to the New England grid late Tuesday night — a step Governor Maura Healey hailed as “a historic moment for the American offshore wind industry.” It’s a development nearly 20 years in the making, ever since the ill-fated Cape Wind project was first proposed. The breakthrough from the Vineyard Wind project happened at 11:52 p.m. on Tuesday evening, according to Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, the developers of the project, when roughly five megawatts of power from one turbine was sent to the grid via a connection point in Barnstable. When completed later this year, the project will have 62 turbines and a total generating capacity of 806 megawatts, enough to power about 400,000 homes. It’s one of several planned offshore wind projects that makeup a cornerstone of the region’s plan to shift its electric grid from fossil fuels to renewable energy. It hasn’t been an easy road to get here, with delays during the

Trump administration shaving years off the planned timeline. And the road ahead doesn’t look easy, either. Over the past year, the offshore wind industry ran into several speed bumps, as inflation and supply chain issues sent costs for planned projects soaring. Developers of several projects terminated agreements, which they plan to rebid at a higher rate this year. That includes both SouthCoast Wind and Commonwealth Wind — two massive projects planned for Massachusetts waters that together would add enough electricity to meet 15 percent of the state’s power demand.