The U.S. offshore wind industry reached a historic milestone late Friday, with the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project completing construction and a second project starting generating electricity.
Vineyard Wind officials said the final blades have been installed on the 62-turbine project located in southern Massachusetts. Minutes later, Revolution Wind announced it had begun transmitting power from its 65-turbine project to customers in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The news marks the culmination of a 20-year effort to build offshore wind farms in shallow waters off southern New England. The plan comes amid fierce resistance from President Donald Trump, who has sought to halt construction on both projects, and rising energy costs have become a focus for voters.
The milestone represents a major victory for the New England state, which has struggled to build renewable energy projects despite having some of the most ambitious climate goals in the nation. The two wind farms quickly became the largest operating renewable energy projects east of the Mississippi River. Once fully operational, it will generate enough electricity to power 750,000 homes.
“With the installation of the final blade Friday night, Vineyard Wind completed its offshore construction program. Vineyard Wind continues to provide power to the New England power grid,” Vineyard Wind spokesperson Craig Gilvarg said in a statement.
Vineyard Wind won a power sales contract to Massachusetts in 2017 that became the cornerstone of the Bay State’s efforts to reduce global warming pollution and curb its reliance on natural gas. The deal comes within months of Cape Wind, an ambitious project that became a lightning rod for opponents, who abandoned a 20-year effort to install 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. The plan faced high-profile resistance from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, conservative businessman Bill Koch, and news anchor Walter Cronkite, all of whom opposed the idea of investigating offshore turbines.
Vineyard Wind ushered in a new era of offshore wind power in America. Unlike Cape Wind, which was planned for the area between Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod, it will be located in the south of the island, where fewer people will see it. They also had significantly lower rates, with average prices around $70 per megawatt hour and 20-year power sales contracts. The deal sparked a wave of proposals to build offshore wind projects up and down the Atlantic coast. The Biden administration later adopted these plans as part of its efforts to green the economy and create a new generation of clean energy jobs.
New England leaders hoped the two projects would usher in a new chapter for the six-state power grid. Natural gas provides about half of the region’s electricity, but New England’s limited pipeline capacity has raised concerns that a winter surge in gas demand could lead to shortages. Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind will have a combined capacity of 1,500 MW, roughly matching the 1,700 MW of onshore wind capacity currently installed across the region.
“This is a critical moment in our state’s clean energy landscape, which we have been working on for more than eight years, since the beginning of a multistate offshore wind procurement effort,” Chris Kearns, acting commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Energy Resources, said in a statement. “Revolution Wind will provide a valuable new resource to our energy system, deliver important emissions reductions and further diversify the state and region’s energy generation portfolio.”
Amanda Dash, chief development officer for Ørsted, which is building Revolution Wind, said the project will increase electricity supply in a region with growing demand for electricity.
“Revolution Wind is adding affordable, reliable, American-made energy to New England’s power grid, meeting growing energy demand and helping reduce consumer costs,” she said. “By producing more electricity domestically, we reduce our dependence on imports, create local jobs and support long-term economic growth.”
Vineyard Wind’s permitting dragged on into President Trump’s first term. Near the end of President Trump’s term, the project withdrew its application when it appeared that the Department of the Interior would deny the permit. It was later approved by the Biden administration. The start of construction was celebrated by Biden officials in 2021, but the project was later hit by a longshoreman strike and a turbine accident in which a blade broke off and crashed into the ocean.
Construction delays worsened the economic environment for wind power development. Inflation has increased the price of raw materials such as steel, making projects more expensive. Rising interest rates have made financing new projects more expensive. New England power company Eversource Energy responded by selling its stake in Revolution Wind to a subsidiary of BlackRock. The other owner, Ørsted, has been repeatedly forced to write down the value of planned projects along the East Coast by billions of dollars, including a $306 million writedown on Revolution Wind. Mr. Orstead canceled a project off the coast of New Jersey and shelved another he had planned near Maryland.
Trump then won re-election. The president promised to cancel offshore wind projects during his campaign and sought to make good on that promise shortly after taking office. Interior issued two orders halting construction of Revolution Wind, claiming the project was a national security concern. Both orders were overturned in court. A Friday deadline for the Trump administration to appeal the second ruling passed, but the appeal remained unaddressed. Vineyard Wind also had construction halted due to national security concerns raised by the Trump administration, but resumed construction after challenging the decision in court.
A combination of high costs and President Trump’s opposition to offshore wind makes it unclear whether additional projects will be completed. Massachusetts has repeatedly delayed decisions to finalize contracts in 2024 for two projects with tentative power deals. Connecticut has completely halted contracting for new offshore wind projects.
Vineyard Wind has been gradually increasing its power generation in recent months, even before all of its turbines were installed. The project had 44 turbines in operation by the end of 2025 and tripled its power generation to 410 gigawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2025. Energy consultant Wood Mackenzie said the plant then produced strong electricity during the bitterly cold snap at the end of January, operating at 40 to 75 percent of its operating capacity.
It was not immediately clear how many turbines are generating power at Revolution Wind. Ørsted spokeswoman Megan Wims declined to say how many turbines were in operation, but said the project “will ramp up power generation in the coming days and weeks.”
