The offshore wind industry in Connecticut, United States, is still at its early beginnings. Developing wind farms is one of the viable ways to cut greenhouse gases and deliver clean, renewable energy to the state. Park City Wind Farm is one of the first steps to growing the United States offshore wind energy industry. This will be the first offshore wind farm in Connecticut when it goes live in 2026.
Where is Park City Wind?
Park City Wind Farm is in the Atlantic Ocean, 22 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. It is adjacent to the lease area of the Vineyard Wind farm, an 800 MW wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Park City Wind’s lease is also referred to as OCS-A-0534.
The export cables from the offshore substation will make landfall at Barnstable, Massachusetts.
Who owns the Park City Wind project?
Avangrid renewables, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, owns 100% of the project.
Initially, two developers joined forces together as Vineyard Wind LLC: Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The joint venture has expanded its portfolio with future offshore wind projects in the Atlantic and buying more lease areas.
In September 2021, Vineyard Wind LLC restructured the partnership. Avangrid became the sole owner of Park City Wind after making a $167.5 million payment to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
What are the economic benefits of Park City Wind?
Park City Wind has partnered with local organizations and funded $26.5 million of direct investments into the community.
Avangrid Renewables also signed a host community agreement with the community of Barnstable. The company will pay $16 million in host community fees above the taxes the wind farm will pay.
Avangrid’s investment will transform Barnum’s Landing in downtown Bridgeport. The port will become the headquarters for the Park City Wind project and simultaneously act as the staging area for storing and assembling the transition pieces.
Once the project is commissioned, Avangrid Renewables plans to use 3 acres of Barnum landing for the operations and maintenance hub of the project.
The project is the start of several offshore wind projects slated this decade to create thousands of local construction and staffing jobs.
How much energy will the Park City Wind project generate?
Park City Wind farm will deliver 804 MW of clean wind energy to the grid of Connecticut. In 2021, wind energy only accounted for 0.03% of the entire electricity mix of Connecticut, with an installed capacity of 5 MW. All of the current wind electricity in Connecticut are from onshore wind farms.
Park City Turbines
Avangrid has not made the final turbine decision as of July 2022, though we think they will go with 84 of the Vestas 9.5 MW turbines. This will give a total wind farm capacity factor of 798 MW
How many phases will Park City Wind farm have?
Park City is the first phase of the OCS-A 0534 lease area, while the second phase, called Commonwealth Wind, is slated for a 1.2 GW installed capacity.
Lease area OCS-A 0534 will be developed in two simultaneous phases. One is Park City Wind Farm, and the other is Commonwealth Wind.
When is the first power of Park City Wind Farm?
Construction will commence in 2024 and is expected to power the grid in 2026.
Expansion Plans
The second phase of the project in lease area OCS-A 0534 is called Commonwealth Wind farm. Geotechnical investigation work is ongoing on the proposed wind farm.