Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and US Iberdrola subsidiary Avangrid have closed a $1.2bn investment in the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore project.
CIP said that this was the largest single asset tax equity financing and the first for a commercial-scale offshore wind project. It was provided by three US-based banks – J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
Vineyard Wind 1 began on-site construction in late 2021, achieved steel-in-the-water in June 2023, and completed the nation’s first offshore substation in July 2023. In July 2021, Vineyard Wind signed the first project labour agreement for an offshore wind project in the United States, which provides for the creation of 500 union jobs through the project.
It is an 800 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and will be the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. The project will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts under its long-term power purchase agreements with National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil.
The project is expected to save ratepayers $1.4bn over the first 20 years of operation and to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6m tons per year.
“Closing on a tax equity package has always been central to achieving financial success for the first-of-its-kind Vineyard Wind 1. With this investment, Vineyard Wind 1 moves Massachusetts closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030,” said Tim Evans, partner and head of North America for CIP.
