Vineyard Wind 1

Wind Project Site

Title: Vineyard Wind 1

Status:

Under Construction

Project Manager:

Avangrid Renewables, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP)

Turbine Developer:

General Electric Company

Foundation Manufacturer:

WINDAR Renovables

Website:

External Link

Construction Start:

November 18, 2021

Info Last Updated:

April 25, 2025

Contact:

Vineyard Wind 1
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Details

Technology:

Fixed Offshore Wind

Project Scale:

Commercial Farm

Turbine Model:

Halide-X

Hub Height:

109-144 m

Rotor Diameter:

220 m

Number of Turbines:

Capacity per Turbine:

13 MW

Installed Capacity:

806 MW

Support Structure:

Monopile

Inter-Array Cables:

66 kV

Export Cables:

AC, Buried Seafloor Cables

Export Cable Voltage:

220 kV

Number of Export Cables:

Cable Landfall:

Horizontal Directional Drill

Physical Site:

Shallow Water (<60m)

Water Depth:

35-60 m

Distance from Shore:

24-56 km

Country:

United States of America

State:

Massachusetts

Description

Vineyard Wind 1 is the first commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States that is being developed by Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind development company 50% owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50% owned by Avangrid Renewables.

Location

Vineyard Wind 1 is located in federal wind energy area OCS-A-0501, 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and 35 miles from mainland Massachusetts. The location was determined through a multi-year, intergovernmental task force process, which carefully considered scientific data and public input. Two submarine cables were installed along a carefully sited route from the offshore substation to the landing point onshore at Covell’s Beach in Barnstable. The route was selected after extensive geological surveys of the area to avoid sensitive habitats.

Licensing Information

2021: BOEM, Record of Decision
2021: BOEM, Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
2019: Cape Cod Commission (CCC), Development of Regional Impact (DRI)
2019: Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), Development of Regional Impact (DRI)
2019: Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB), approval of transmission cables and connection to grid in Barnstable
2019: Conservation Commissions for towns of Barnstable and Edgartown, approval of subsea transmission cables to ensure compliance with state’s Wetland Protection Act. Town of Barnstable approved the project, Town of Edgartown’s review was subject to appeal and approved by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
2019: Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR)
2015: BOEM, awarding of lease area OCS-A-0501

Project Timeline

January 2025: BOEM approves COP revisions, and BSEE lifts its suspension order
December 2024: revised COB submitted for review to remove blades from 22 turbines
July 2024: Blade failure resulting in the release of blade debris into the environment
June 2023: Offshore installation of turbines expected to begin
October – November 2022: Offshore cable installation
May 2021: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) releases Record of Decision (ROD). Onshore site preparation begins in Barnstable
March 2021: BOEM releases Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
June 2020: BOEM completes cumulative impact review and issues Supplement to Draft EIS
Spring 2020: State, regional, and local permitting completed
May 2019: State board EFSB approves Vineyard Wind 1 transmission
February 2019: Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) issues certification of Draft EIS
December 2018: Vineyard Wind submits FEIS to MEPA. BOEM issues Draft EIS. Vineyard Wind obtains second lease area, OCS-A-0522.
April 2018: Vineyard Wind submits plans for state review, initializing environmental review
March 2018: BOEM holds public meetings in advance of preparing an EIS
December 2017: Vineyard Wind 1 submits state and federal plans for Vineyard Wind 1 in lease area OCS-A-0501, including Construction and Operations Plan (COP) and transmission plans
January 2015: Department of Interior holds public auction for lease area OCS-A-0501, which Vineyard Wind obtains
2010-2014: Federal siting review for development of offshore wind energy on the outer continental shelf off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island

Key Environmental Issues

Vineyard Wind is committed to ensuring the protection of marine habitats and minimizing any impacts to the fishing industry. Federal and state agencies have extensively studied the Vineyard Wind area examining the presence of endangered whale, turtle and bird species, as well as fisheries and important seafloor habitats, since 2011. These studies helped guide the appropriate design of the Vineyard Wind project. Find more details here.

In January 2019, Vineyard Wind 1 and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation, and Conservation Law Foundation entered into a landmark agreement to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The agreement calls for restricting vessel speeds, limiting construction noise, work-stop measures, and no construction during migration season. This agreement laid the foundation for important mitigation measures that regulators have since incorporated directly into project permit requirements. Learn more here.

Geophysical and geotechnical surveys were conducted over several years to map out the least impactful corridor in which to install subsea cables up to 6 feet beneath the seafloor. The cable corridor for Vineyard Wind 1’s two subsea cables avoids sensitive benthic habitats and eel grass beds. The use of a jetplow minimizes the trenching area, minimizes sediment dispersion, and reduces or eliminates dredging while achieving target burial depths.

Vineyard Wind, with the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology and the New England Aquarium Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, implemented long-term studies of species within the Vineyard Wind 1 lease area. The studies include gathering pre-construction baseline data to evaluate changes in the wind energy areas over time. Learn more here.

Metadata Documents

2020 Drop Camera Survey of Benthic Communities and Substrate in the 501N Study Area and an adjacent Control Area (Vineyard Wind) (Stokesbury et al. 2022)
Vineyard Wind Demersal Trawl Survey Winter 2022 Seasonal Report (Rillahan and He 2022)
Vineyard Wind 1 Construction and Operations Plan (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021)
Vineyard Wind 2020 Survey Season Annual Report: American Lobster, Black Sea Bass, Larval Lobster Abundance Survey, and Lobster Tagging Study of the 501N Study Area (Stokesbury et al. 2021)
Vineyard Wind 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021)
Biological Opinion for Vineyard Wind's Offshore Wind Energy Project (National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 2020)
Vineyard Wind Demersal Trawl Survey 2019/2020 Annual Report (He and Rillahan 2020)
Assessing Potential Impacts of Offshore Wind Facilities on Regional Sea Scallop Laval and Early Juvenile Transports (Chen et al. 2020)
Highly Migratory Species Report 2020, Vineyard Wind (Kneebone and Capizzano 2020)
Vineyard Wind American Lobster, Black Sea Bass, Larval Lobster Abundance Survey, And Lobster Tagging Study of the 501N Study Area, 2019 Survey Season Annual Report (Stokesbury et al. 2020)
Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Construction of the Vineyard Wind Offshore Wind Project (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2019)
Flight Activity and Offshore Movements of Nano-Tagged Bats on Martha’s Vineyard, MA (Dowling et al. 2017)
Abundance and Distribution of Seabirds off Southeastern Massachusetts, 2011-2015 (Veit et al. 2016)

Phase	Stressor & Receptor	Design and Methods	Results	Publications	Data
Baseline	Fish	Trawl Survey A total of 160 tows were completed throughout four seasonal trawl surveys in the 2020/2021 survey year. 20 surveys each per season were performed in the survey area and a control area.	Complete The five most abundant species (little skate, scup, spiny dogfish, winter skate, and silver hake) accounted for 77% of all species observed in the control area and 78% in the study area.	Rillahan and He 2021	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Trawl Survey A total of 160 tows were completed throughout four seasonal trawl surveys in the 2019/2020 survey year. 20 surveys each per season were performed in the survey area and a control area.	Complete The four most abundant species (spiny dogfish, little skate, silver hake, and red hake) accounted for 78% of total catch weight in the study area and 71% of total catch weight in the control area.	He and Rillahan 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	CTD Tagging Fishermen were surveyed between August 2019 and March 2020 investigating their fishing methods in the survey area. Also CTD tagging data and responses to the National Marine Fisheries Service Large Pelagics Intercept Survey from 2002-2018 were compiled and analyzed.	Complete A total of 12,537 and 2,313 tagging events occurred from 2002-2018 in two survey areas. The majority of tagging events were blue sharks (~70%) and bluefin tuna (~20%). Survey results show within the Vineyard Wind lease area, fishermen target bluefin tuna, shortfin mako, and ‘any tuna species’ with trips originating primarily from Massachusetts and Rhode Island.	Kneebone and Capizzano 2020	No data publicly available
Baseline	Invertebrates	IBM modeling An FVCOM ocean model was developed for the lease area and coupled with a Scallop-IBM model.	Complete Scallop Larval settlement show significant interannual variability. Large amounts of larvae were found to settle near the lease area when modelling the year 2010.	Chen et al. 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Invertebrates	Lobster Vented and Ventless Trap Survey Lobster, black sea bass, and plankton were sampled randomly within the lease area. Lobster samples were taken and plankton tows were conducted twice per month between June and October 2020.	Complete 921 lobsters were sampled between both study areas and trap types, and average size recorded. Jonah crab were also reported.	Stokesbury et al. 2021	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Invertebrates	Lobster Vented and Ventless Trap Survey Thirty string traps were deployed on July 8, 2019, split equally between the study area and control area. Each string contained 6 lobster pots, alternating between vented and ventless. A single unbaited commercial sized sea bass pot was attached at one end of each string.	A total of 351 lobsters were sampled between both study areas and trap types: 214 in the 501N study area with an average size of 90.75mm and 137 in the control area with average size 91.25mm. Jonah crab were reported independently.	Stokesbury et al. 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Literature Review, modeling Existing documentation of Marine mammals appearing in the US Atlantic EEZ is compiled, and the species are along listed with their special status, likelihood of occurrence in project area, seasonality, and abundance.	Complete 26 marine mammals are identified with varying likelihoods of occurrence. 16 species are identified as not likely to occur.	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2019	Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Modeling The JASCO Animal Simulation Model Including Noise Exposure was used to predict probability of exposure of marine mammals to sound arising from Vineyard Wind’s pile driving operations.	Complete The number of marine mammals exposed to pile driving noise are identified for conservative, average, and maximum attenuation scenarios. Additionally, mitigation strategies such as seasonal restrictions and sound reduction technology are proposed.	Pyć et al. 2018	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Bats	Telemetry Five northern long-eared bats, three eastern red bats, two big brown bats, and three little brown bats on Martha’s Vineyard were tagged with radio tags and tracked over 5-39 nights.	Complete No offshore movements were recorded for long-eared bats. Offshore movement was recorded for the little brown bats and eastern red bats, indicating equipment could detect offshore movement.	Dowling et al. 2017	No data publicly available
Baseline	Physical Environment	Drop Camera Stations were placed in two areas to take images with high resolution cameras. Images were recorded in July/August and October 2020 using a commercial scallop vessel to deploy the sampling pyramid.	Complete The dominant benthic community was recorded and included sand dollars, hermit crabs, among others. Substrate was dominated by sand with no gravel, cobble, or boulders observed.	Stokesbury et al. 2022	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Aerial survey 38 aerial surveys of seabirds south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, MA, were completed between 22 November 2011 and 14 January 2015.	Complete Two “Hotspots” of seabirds were identified – near the western edge of the Nantucket Shoals (Long-tailed Ducks and White-winged Scoters in winter, Common and Roseate Terns in spring), and in the Muskeget Channel area (scoters, eiders, loons, and terns).	Veit et al. 2016	No data publicly available
Baseline	Reptiles	Modeling The JASCO Animal Simulation Model Including Noise Exposure was used to predict the probability of exposure of sea turtles to noise caused by pile driving during construction of Vineyard Wind.	Complete Expected exposure of several species of sea turtle to injury caused by noise was identified for conservative, average, and maximum attenuation scenarios.	Pyć et al. 2018	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Trawl Survey One trawl tow was made in each of 20 sub-areas within the lease area. The same subdivision was applied to a control area of equal size. Trips were made in January and February 2022, and were conducted during daylight hours.	Complete 19 species were caught in the study area over the duration of the survey. The five most abundant species (Atlantic herring, little skate, Atlantic cod, alewife, and longhorn sculpin) accounted for 97.8% of the total catch weight.	Rillahan and He 2022	No data publicly available.