Vineyard Wind has submitted a draft environmental impact report to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office for the 800MW offshore wind farm to be built off the state’s coast.
Image: Vineyard Wind moves forward with 800MW Massachusetts offshore wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of John Nyberg/FreeImages.com.
The draft report advances its proposal to build the offshore wind farm, which will be located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.
Vineyard Wind expects to begin construction on the wind farm in 2019 and start operations by 2021.
Upon commissioning, it can reduce carbon emissions in the state by over 1.6 million tons per year, which is equivalent of removing 325,000 cars from the state roads.
Vineyard Wind chief development officer Erich Stephens said: “Vineyard Wind’s early timeline is on schedule to maximize the abundant environmental, economic and energy benefits associated with utility-scale wind energy for Bay State residents and businesses.
“The Draft Environmental Impact Report is an essential part of the permitting process and extensive environmental review that is currently underway. The process will ensure that Vineyard Wind provides substantial quantities of clean energy resources to Massachusetts while protecting the Commonwealth’s natural resources and being responsive to stakeholder input.”
By taking into account additional comments from regulators and stakeholders, the company intends to continue to refine the project design and approach.
Vineyard Wind is one of three proponents competing for long-term contracts with Massachusetts’ electric distribution companies (EDCs).
Separately, Vineyard Wind’s shareholders secured contracts in Germany and Taiwan for offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of more than 1,350MW.
The contracts have been awarded to Iberdrola, the majority shareholder of Vineyard Wind partner Avangrid Renewables, as well as Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and partners.
Iberdrola won rights to build two offshore wind farms in the German part of the Baltic Sea with a combined capacity of 486MW.
The projects – 476MW Baltic Eagle and the 10MW Wikinger Süd offshore wind farms – were awarded by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) to the Spanish energy company during Germany’s second public tender for offshore wind energy.