Timeline key
GREEN — Progress for Vineyard Wind project
RED — Setback for project


🟩 2015 Interior Department holds lease auction, including for the lease area that will become Vineyard Wind 1.

🟩 2016  Vineyard Wind registers as an LLC in Massachusetts.

🟩 2017  VW submits construction and operations plan to BOEM for up to 100 turbines depending on generator size.

🟩 2018 Mass. bids on the VW project — purchasing its power.

🟥 2019 BOEM, under Trump administration, announces delay in project’s permitting, stating it needs more review and analysis.

🟥 2020 VW withdraws its construction and operations plan from BOEM and selects GE as the preferred turbine supplier.

🟩 2021 / May BOEM, under the Biden administration, approves the re-submitted construction and operations plan.

🟩 2021 / July VW signs historic project labor agreement with unions to build the wind farm. ↓

David Araujo, president of a building trades union (seated, left), and then-Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen (seated, right) sign a labor agreement in New Bedford in July 2021 in front of officials including New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, and then-Massachusetts energy secretary Katie Theoharides. Credit: Anastasia Lennon/The New Bedford Light

🟩 2021 / November VW begins onshore construction for substation and cables.

🟩 2023 Project begins offshore installation of turbines.↓

Foundations for three of Vineyard Wind 1’s 62 turbines were visible above the water on Aug. 1, 2023. The foundations are one nautical mile away from each other. Credit: State House News Service

🟩 2024 / January Project starts sending power to the Mass. grid.

🟥 2024 / July A blade fails and breaks, bringing a halt to construction and operations, including power generation.↓

Vineyard Wind turbine blade that was damaged on July 13, 2024, captured by a New Bedford commercial fisherman. Photo courtesy of Anthony Seiger

🟩 2025 / January The Biden administration in its final days lifts the suspension order, allowing blade installation to resume.

🟩 2025 / May Supreme Court rejects petitions to take up cases challenging the project.

🟥 2025 / July GE Vernova, which makes VW’s turbines, agrees to pay Nantucket $10.5 million over blade failure.

🟩 2025 / October VW reaches 50% power production with about half of the 62 turbines operating.

🟥 2025 / December The Trump administration suspends construction at VW and four other offshore wind projects, citing national security concerns.

🟩 2026 / January A federal judge allows VW to resume construction.

🟩 2026 / March VW finishes installation, attaching the final blades to the 62nd turbine.


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1 Comment

  1. How about a timeline on how our Electric Bills have risen since Vineyard Wind started? Wind has done nothing to help this problem. We need new Political Leadership in Massachusetts and it has to start in the Governor’s Office. Time to vote Maura Healey out of office.

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