Developer hedges bet on future US offshore wind projects after Vineyard

Iberdrola’s executive chairman Ignacio Galán acknowledged that construction of its US subsidiary Avangrid’s Massachusetts-bound offshore wind array is not assured amid Trump’s war on the industry.

Avangrid’s 2.6GW New England Wind in the Massachusetts wind energy area (WEA) has all federal permits in hand as well as offtake for 791MW awarded by the Bay State last September.

The project, along with Ocean Winds’ 1.2GW SouthCoast array, has so far failed to finalise contracts with local utilities, however, “due to ongoing uncertainty caused by federal level activities”, attorneys for the developers and utilities told the state regulator.

Speaking during the company’s earnings call last week, Iberdrola’s Galán said: “New England Wind 1 wind farm will continue to qualify for tax credits, if it’s in operation by 2033, if we decide to go ahead with construction.”

The series of 'if’s' highlights ongoing uncertainty in the US sector and diminishing prospects for projects not already in advanced construction.

Research consultancies BloombergNEF and Wood Mackenzie both see the industry with only 5.9GW of operational capacity in the five projects already in construction, far short of the 19GW approved by former President Joe Biden's administration.

President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day anti-industry memorandum along with multiple executive orders leave little room for optimism that other projects – including New England Wind 1, will advance during the remaining three and half years of the Trump presidency.

Trump's actions are throwing state energy and decarbonisation targets into disarray.

Massachusetts mandates 5.6GW of offshore wind under contract by 2027 to meet its 2050 net zero goals, which may ultimately require nearly 20GW of sector capacity.

Vineyard Wind

Vineyard Wind 1, a joint venture of Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is among those contracted to Massachusetts that is also well into construction.

So far, 23 out of a total 64 turbines are fully installed at the 800MW wind farm located some 15 miles (24 km) off Martha’s Vineyard, with 17 feeding the local grid.

“At the end of July the windfarm is exporting 30% of the energy [and is] expecting to reach full COD [commercial operations date] at the end of 2025,” Iberdrola said in its presentation.

Known by its slogan, “forever first”, Vineyard Wind has been in development for over a decade.

Originally permitted during the first Trump administration, its environmental approval was withdrawn at the end of the President’s term.

It was then picked up by the Biden administration as the first fully permitted array in the spring of 2021, becoming a standard bearer for the former President's energy transition ambitions.

Turbine OEM GE Vernova started installation of the array’s 64 Haliade-X 13MW units in 2023. Its early progress was derailed though after a blade collapsed in July last year, spewing debris onto beaches in Nantucket.

This led to a work stoppage as an investigation revealed manufacturing deviations at GE’s Canadian plant. This in turn led to multiple other Canadian-made blades being dismantled and replaced with those made in France, adding to costs and delays.

Vineyard Wind along with the Dogger Bank in the UK are the only two projects that will see the double-digit GE Vernova turbines as the OEM has indicated it would not be seeking future orders in the sector until the economics make sense.

GE Vernova has previously stated it would complete installation of Vineyard Wind by the end of this year, although it recently revealed that Dogger Bank would go through the end of 2027.

Iberdrola declined to comment for this article. Avangrid has not yet responded.