August 15, 2019 — With the federal tax credit for offshore wind projects about to expire, every day counts.
So you can understand the concern around town when it became clear the country’s first major offshore wind farm would likely miss a crucial deadline for the tax credit, a key element in the project’s financing. The reason? The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it needs more time to review Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, to properly weigh the cumulative impacts of similar offshore projects in the pipeline.
As a result, developer Vineyard Wind on Monday said it would revise its $2.8 billion project, with a delayed schedule. The vague statement from the developer, a Massachusetts venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, didn’t say much. But these revisions likely mean one thing: Construction on the 800-megawatt project planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard would no longer start in time to deliver electricity by the end of 2021.