Two More New England Offshore Wind Farms Just Got the Green Light

Avangrid (NYSE: AGR) has now received full federal approval for the Construction and Operation Plan (COP) for its New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore wind farms.

The COP approval follows a favorable Record of Decision (ROD) issued by the Biden Administration in April 2024. The milestone approval largely concludes the federal, state and local permitting process for sustainable energy company Avangrid’s 791-megawatt (MW) New England Wind 1 project.

New England Wind 1 and New England Wind 2 will have a combined capacity of 2,600 MW of renewable energy, which BOEM estimates would power more than 900,000 homes per year.

The two offshore wind farms would be located about 20 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and about 24 nautical miles southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The COP includes up to 129 wind turbines and up to five offshore export cables that would transmit electricity to onshore transmission systems in the city of Barnstable and Bristol County, Massachusetts.

In March 2024, Avangrid submitted multiple proposals for New England Wind projects under the Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut Multi-State Procurement for Offshore Wind. The states are expected to announce the winners in August 2024.

Avangrid said New England Wind 1 is the only project in the bidding process that has all federal, state and local permits, as well as the ability to start construction in 2025 and deliver electricity by 2029.

New England 1 will border Vineyard Wind 1 to the south. Last week, Avangrid announced that it had commissioned a total of 10 turbines at Vineyard Wind 1, making it the largest operating offshore wind farm in the U.S.

Read more: Vineyard Wind 1 Just Became the Largest Operating Offshore Wind Farm in the U.S.

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