US approves 800-MW Vineyard Wind as its first major offshore wind farm

Source: Nick Lavars · NEW ATLAS · | May 12, 2021

Source: A prototype of GE's Haliade-X turbine, which will be used in the US' first large-scale offshore wind farm

The US federal government has given the green light to the country's largest offshore wind farm to date, and one that will greatly expand its capacity to generate this form of renewable energy. The Vineyard Wind 1 project will feature dozens of the world's most powerful offshore wind turbines, which will work together to generate enough electricity for up to 400,000 homes.

The approval follows steps taken this year by the Biden administration to ramp up offshore wind projects in the US, which ultimately work towards the target of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. Such an achievement is expected to generate enough power for more than 10 million American homes, and negate 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

As it stands, the US is home to almost 70,000 wind turbines generating around 120 GW, though only a fraction of that comes from offshore facilities. The newly approved Vineyard Wind 1 project off the coast of Massachusetts marks a massive expansion of this by adding 800 MW, and is expected to create around 3,600 jobs in area.

The approval clears the way for the construction of 84 turbines around 12 nautical miles (13.8 mi or 22 km) off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, an island in the Atlantic. As we learned late last year, turbines for the Vineyard Wind 1 project will be Haliade-X turbines from GE Renewable Energy, which stand 853 ft (260 m) tall as the world's largest and most powerful.

Because of their output, Vineyard Wind says only 62 of these turbines will be required to generate the 800 MW. These turbines will be spaced at least one nautical mile (1.8 km or 1.1 miles) apart and will be installed in an east-west orientation in line with US Coast Guard guidelines.