For the first time in the United States, turbines are sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind farms.

For the first time in the United States, turbines are sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind farms.

The joint owners of the Vineyard Wind project, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, announced Wednesday the first electricity from one turbine at what will be a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast of Massachusetts.

Five turbines are installed there. One turbine delivered about 5 megawatts of power to the Massachusetts grid just before midnight Wednesday. The other four are undergoing testing and should be operating early this year.

Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource announced last month that their first turbine was sending electricity from what will be a 12-turbine wind farm, South Fork Wind, 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. Now, a total of five turbines have been installed there too.

  • SeaJ
    4•9 months ago

    I think they look awesome. But they cost quite a bit more per kWh compared to land based ones.

    • partial_accumen
      13•9 months ago

      I think they look awesome. But they cost quite a bit more per kWh compared to land based ones.

      Agreed. Offshore wind costs as much as 3.5x the cost of the same wind on-shore in the USA. However, the expensive offshore wind is still cheaper than nuclear power.

      • on-shore wind $1,718
      • off-shore wind $4,833-6,041
      • nuclear $6,695-7,547

      source

      edit: corrected label

      • SeaJ
        3•9 months ago

        Absolutely. Nuclear does have the benefit of being able to scale up and down fairly easily though. I don’t recall if offshore + battery backup is cheaper or not. I know it is cheaper for onshore + battery vs nuclear.

        • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
          1•9 months ago

          Nuclear does have the benefit of being able to scale up and down fairly easily though.

          Can you expand on this?

          • SeaJ
            4•9 months ago

            Sure since it was poorly worded. It is good for baseload and being able to increase or decrease output based on demand. Wind can’t do that without a battery.

            • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
              1•9 months ago

              being able to increase or decrease output based on demand

              Can you provide a source for this claim? My info is that this isn’t accurate.

        • partial_accumen
          2•9 months ago

          It was yes. Thanks for catching that. I’ve edited to correct it now.