A Massachusetts district court has granted the precautionary measure requested by the offshore wind ‘megaproject’ ‘Vineyard Wind 1’property of Iberdrola -through its US subsidiary Avangrid- and the Danish fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), before the suspension order which was submitted in December by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Marine Energy Management (BOEM).
Thus, this judicial decision leaves free way to the project and will allow the activities of construction, commissioning and production immediately. In any case, the Vineyard Wind company has indicated that it will continue working with the US Administration “for a quick and permanent resolution of the procedure.”
The ‘Vineyard Wind 1’ offshore wind farm is now 95% completed and is found producing energy for New England homes and industries. Thus, it will continue to produce energy and continue with the construction of the remaining 5% of the park as soon as possible, “keeping safety as a key priority, to be able to supply affordable and secure energy.”
A mid januaryVineyard Wind presented a petition in federal court in Massachusetts to obtain this court order against the suspension of works by the Donald Trump administration, which stopped work on five offshore wind farm concessions, including ‘Vineyard Wind 1’.
Mapping the location of Iberdrola’s first offshore wind energy megaproject in the US, Vineyard Wind 1.
A 95% project that already powers 400,000 Massachusetts homes
‘Vineyard Wind 1’, which had already been completing start-up work since the beginning of 2024, had most of its wind turbines already producing energy for months for about 400,000 homes in Massachusetts.
The Iberdrola and CIP project will add capacity to generate 806 megawatts (MW), enough to power more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Along with ‘Vineyard Wind 1’, the parks under construction affected for the decision were ‘Revolution Wind’, 704 megawatts (MW) from Orsted; ‘Sunrise Wind’, 924 MW; ‘Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind’, 2,600 MW; and ‘Empire Wind 1’, 810 MW and from Equinor.
However, the United States Justice had been reversing the decision of the Donald Trump Administration and granting precautionary measures like that of Vineyard Wind and in other cases, such as for example, to Orsted or Equinor.
The first large offshore wind installation in the US
‘Vineyard Wind 1’ is Iberdrola’s first large offshore wind installation in the United States. The project is 50% owned by the Iberdrola Group -through Avangrid Power, a subsidiary of Avangrid- and CIP and its investment amounts to approximately 3,000 million dollars (more than 2.7 billion euros) guaranteed through contracts with the three main electrical companies in the state.
Last month of September Donald’s Administration Trumpwithin your crusade against this type of renewablesalready put two Iberdrola offshore wind projects in focus – New England Wind 1 and 2 – by withdrawing authorization for their construction, although neither of them had started. And the orders to suspend works and the withdrawal of permits, or the threat of doing so, have occurred in various offshore wind farms since the arrival of the new US Government.
