Despite headwinds, Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind come fully online
BROOKE KUSHWAHA/The New Bedford Light
Two of the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farms
are now fully operational, the developers announced this week, promising to
power a combined 750,000 homes in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
Vineyard Wind became fully operational on Oct. 29,
spokesperson Craig Gilvarg confirmed in an email to The Light Friday. On
Thursday, another project, Revolution Wind, announced it had also come fully
online after three years of construction.
Both projects finished installing their wind turbines
earlier this year, Vineyard Wind in March and Revolution Wind in September. The
new milestone means that all of the projects’ turbines are fully functional and
capable of delivering power to the grid.
Both projects also faced considerable
stops and starts from an adversarial federal government, including an
attempt last month to
pull permitting for Revolution Wind after the project had already been
completed.
Green energy advocates celebrated the milestone, which they
said would eliminate 1.6 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually — the
equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the road.
“A fully operational Vineyard Wind means New England
families have another clean, affordable, local source of energy being delivered
to their homes through the coming winter season,” Conservation Law Foundation
Staff Attorney Anxhela Mile said in a statement Friday. “Federal and state
leaders should be preparing to build out more of these projects to help lower
energy costs and keep our air clean.” Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine wind farm
roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, delivers power to Massachusetts.
Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine wind farm south of Block Island, delivers power
to Rhode Island and Connecticut. The projects are key to the states’
clean-energy goals, given New England’s lack of open space for large-scale
solar or onshore wind projects.
Although both projects just became fully operational, both
have been delivering power to the grid for much longer, albeit at a reduced
capacity.
Vineyard Wind produced 336,382 megawatt-hours between July
and September of this year, according to recently released Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission data. The Light’s analysis finds that’s enough to power
approximately 193,300 Massachusetts homes. The project’s developer says it will
power 400,000 homes once fully operational.
Revolution Wind is on a similar track. The project delivered
314,321 megawatt-hours between July and September of this year, roughly 22,000
megawatt-hours less than Vineyard Wind. The developer says it will power
350,000 homes once fully operational. Averages don’t tell the full story,
however. Roger Williams University engineering professor Gordon Stewart
cautioned that wind energy is cyclical and generally less predictable than
other forms of energy. For example, power generation is generally expected to peak
in the winter months when winds are stronger, and slump again in the summer.
This pattern held true for Vineyard Wind, which produced approximately 410,400
megawatt-hours from October through December 2025 compared to 323,600 from
April through June 2026.
But just because there is wind doesn’t mean that all the
turbines are capturing it — and private companies tend to be secretive about
engineering setbacks. Vineyard Wind, for example, took 7½ months to go fully
online after completing
construction, compared to 1½ months for Revolution
Wind.
Vineyard Wind’s lawsuit against GE Vernova earlier this year
seemed to blame the turbine supplier for the project’s struggles to reach full
capacity. In May, Vineyard
Wind said in court filings and hearings that the project was producing
“less than half of its expected capacity,” and that 36 of the 62 turbines were
not spinning. The lawsuit sought to prevent GE Vernova from exiting its
contract to service and maintain the turbines before final commissioning work
was complete. The parties settled
in September after GE Vernova withdrew its notice of contract termination.
For this reason, next quarter’s data — as New England enters
its windiest season — will be all the more revealing, Stewart said.
“It’ll be interesting to see if (the projects) are fully
operational,” Stewart said. “And I think we’ll be able to see that.”
Capacity a key factor
Even when everything goes right, wind farms aren’t expected
to operate at 100% efficiency — no energy project is. As Stewart calculated
for a previous Light analysis of Vineyard Wind’s output data, the
developer’s estimate that the project will power 400,000 homes roughly
corresponds to a 50% capacity factor; in other words, the wind farm is only
going to be 50% efficient on average.
Most offshore wind farms have a capacity
factor between 40% and 50%. Onshore wind farms tend to have a lower
capacity factor, because the turbines are smaller and wind is generally less
powerful on land, Stewart said. Nuclear power plants, meanwhile, have a capacity
factor of 90% or more, and coal plants average
around 42%, according to federal data.
Vineyard Wind’s Gilvarg did not answer The Light’s question
about how many turbines were operational as of Sept. 1. Federal data indicates
that Vineyard Wind operated at closer to 25% capacity this past year as it
worked to get up and running.
“My gut feeling looking at these numbers is that roughly
half of their turbines were operating at any one time,” Stewart said.
A third completed wind project, South Fork Wind, 35 miles
east of Long Island, offers a glimpse into Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind’s
potential future. The 12-turbine wind farm, completed in 2024, generated
roughly one-third of the power that Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind produced
despite being one-fifth the size. That means South Fork Wind reached a capacity
factor nearly double that of the two in-progress projects.
Walmart revives plans for new Waterbury store near Cheshire town line, I-84
Walmart is again pursuing plans to build a store on a nearly
20-acre site off Interstate 84 in Waterbury, on the city line with Cheshire.
A Nov. 6 filing in Waterbury’s land records confirms the
retail giant’s renewed interest in the property at 3800 East Main St., which
was previously considered for a Walmart supercenter and, later, an Amazon
last-mile delivery center.
The filing, submitted by a limited liability company that
owns the property, seeks an extension of traffic easement rights needed for the
Walmart development. The LLC traces to Massachusetts-based real estate
development and investment firm Shearwater Cos.
The filing states that Wal-Mart Stores East LP intends to
enter into a ground lease for the site and identifies an access route to a new
Walmart store.
The filing is the clearest confirmation yet of Walmart’s
renewed interest in the property.
Waterbury Economic Development Director Joseph McGrath said
he has been working with Walmart representatives for about two years on plans
to develop the property.
“I’m thrilled to hear they are moving ahead,” McGrath said
Monday, after being informed of the recent land records filing. “It will be
grand list growth through new development of a vacant lot. It’s a win-win
situation.”
A Walmart spokesperson, in an email response to an inquiry
about the site, did not confirm or den
“We’re always looking for opportunities to expand and better
serve communities,” reads the statement “We have no additional information to
share at this time.”
Shearwater put the property up for sale in late 2023 with a
$7 million asking price, under real estate services firm Colliers
International.
Nicholas Morizio, Colliers president in Hartford and New
Haven, said the property has been under contract for nearly a year, but remains
on the market until a deal closes. He could not disclose the potential buyer.
The site has a history of attracting interest from major retailers and developers, although previous proposals have failed to advance.
In 2016, the Connecticut Department of Transportation
approved a traffic permit for a mixed-use subdivision at 3800 East Main St.
that included a proposed Walmart store.
The site was subsequently considered for an Amazon last-mile
distribution center, but those plans also fell through.
Walmart currently operates a store and auto center on
Wolcott Street in Waterbury, a busy commercial corridor near the Wolcott town
line.
The proposed East Main Street location would give Walmart a
presence along another major corridor, with this site benefitting from two
nearby interchanges with Interstate 84.
Plans would tie the new Walmart location into an access road
network of major retailers such as Costco, Kohl’s and Restaurant Depot.
Shearwater acquired the nearly 20-acre East Main Street
property for $5 million in September 2022, citing its relative affordability
compared with similar development sites in Massachusetts and a welcoming
reception from Waterbury officials.
The property was once a steep, rocky hillside, but gravel
excavation over the years reduced it to a relatively flat development site.
At the time of the acquisition, Shearwater partner Jamie
Ciffolillo acknowledged that the property would still require substantial site
improvements before construction could begin, including a significant retaining
wall and utility connections.
Attempts to reach Shearwater for comment Monday was not
immediately successful.
A major project on the Milford Parkway starts Monday. Here’s what to expect
Periodic lane closures are expected on the Milford Parkway starting
Monday, Nov. 9, as a major project gets underway to upgrade
the highway that connects Route 15, Interstate 95 and Route 1.
“Motorists should be aware that closures and lane shifts
will continue through November 2028 as the project moves forward,” said state Department of
Transportation spokesperson Eva Zymaris.
The work includes paving the Milford Parkway, also known as
the Daniel S. Wasson Connector, in both directions as well as “improving
drainage, extending acceleration and deceleration lanes, revising lane
configurations and pavement markings, upgrading roadside safety barriers (and)
replacing overhead sign structures,” according to DOT.
The bridge that carries the highway over East Rutland Road
in Milford will also be rehabilitated as part of the project.
The construction is expected to cost about $18 million,
Zymaris said on Wednesday, with an 80% to 20% funding split between the federal
government and the state. Terryville-based Richards Corp. was awarded the
contract for the job.
In a public
notice, DOT said the project will be completed in stages, with temporary
barriers put in place to “maintain traffic flow and minimize disruptions to the
traveling public.”
Work will take place during the day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Mondays to Fridays and at night from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Mondays to Thursdays.
The project aims to improve safety, reduce congestion and
extend the service life of the parkway’s infrastructure, DOT said.
About 60,000 vehicles travel on the Milford Parkway each
day, according to a public
presentation DOT gave last year. From the beginning of 2021 to the end of
2023, there were 189 reported crashes in the project area, with 68% classified
as rear-end crashes, the presentation said.
CT makes fuel cells that power data centers. Here’s what to know
Connecticut is playing a quiet role in powering the global
build-out of data centers through the development of fuel cell power stations.
The global fuel cell market is expected to grow to around
$30 billion in revenue by 2030, more than ten times the $2.8 billion in revenue
reported last year, according
to research firm Rystad Energy. Demand is largely coming from data centers,
which require the kind of continuous, on-site power generation fuel cells
provide.
While Connecticut has yet to experience widespread
development of hyperscale data centers, it is home to two of the world’s
leading manufacturers of fuel cells: Fuel Cell Energy in Danbury and Torrington
and HyAxiom — a division of Doosan Group — located in South Windsor.
But what are fuel cells, and why are they suddenly of
interest to data center developers?
How do fuel cells work?
Simply put, fuel cells create energy from a chemical
reaction involving air and another fuel, usually hydrogen. The reaction
produces water, electricity and heat.
From there, the process works similarly to a battery, with
negative (anode) and a positive (cathode) ends surrounding an electrolyte
layer. Hydrogen is delivered to the anode while air is sent to the cathode.
Electrons travel through a circuit between the two ends, creating electricity.
Unlike a battery, fuel cells can operate around-the-clock
without the need to recharge.
Fuels cells powered by natural gas must first break down
methane into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, but they emit a lower volume of CO2
than traditional power plants that burn fossil fuels. (Fossil fuel-burning
power plants also emit other air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides and
sulfur.)
For this reason, proponents tout fuel cells as an effective
way to cut emissions while still providing essential power to homes,
businesses, factories and, increasingly, data centers.
“That’s the biggest value piece of where fuel cells bring a
real differentiator,” said Eric Strayer, the global head of sales at Fuel Cell
Energy. “You don’t have a loud turbine combusting and, you know, vibrating at
your site. It’s a quiet, electrochemical conversion of that natural gas into
electricity and heat.”
Some critics, however, point out that fuel cells do rely on
fossil fuels and related infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines.
How are they used?
The basic technology behind fuel cells has been around since
the mid-1800s, a short time after the invention of batteries. A century later,
Pratt and Whitney made hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells that were used to power the
Service Module on NASA’s Apollo space missions.
Since the 1970s, the development of fuel cell technology has
been driven by rising energy prices and the push for cleaner forms of
electricity, according
to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition to providing electrical
power, fuel cells can be used to power vehicles and heavy machinery.
Honda and Toyota both began selling hydrogen-fuel cell
vehicles in the early 2000s. However, that technology has not become more widely available due to the high cost and
limited availability of hydrogen refueling stations.
There are also different fuel cell designs based on the type of electrolyte used to
produce the chemical reaction.
Fuel Cell Energy, for example, manufactures a
molten-carbonate system with a minimum output of 1,250 kilowatts. Doosan,
the parent company of HyAxiom, produces a 440-kilowatt
solid-oxide fuel cell system.
What does the future hold?
Power fuel cells can be built small enough to fit on top of
a tractor-trailer, allowing them to be transported and located nearly anywhere.
That’s made them attractive option for energy developers
seeking to build in dense, urban communities or on former brownfield sites.
Bridgeport, for example, is home to four different
fuel cell power stations.
In addition, modular designs allow fuel cells to be scaled
to provide much larger quantities of power — one of the principal demands of
data centers.
For example, developers behind proposed data center projects
in Beacon
Falls, Colchester and Cromwell have all pitched using fuel cells to power
those facilities instead of relying off the local power grid. So far, none of
those projects have received approvals from state or local officials.
Elsewhere, the rush to construct and power new data centers
is having local economic effects. At its manufacturing facility in Torrington,
Fuel Cell Energy is currently hiring a around 100 workers as part of a ramp-up in production to
meet the demand from data center developers. Just a few years ago, Strayer
said, the plant’s production capacity was about 40 megawatts of fuel cells
annually. The current ramp-up will increase production to 100 megawatts a year.
In addition, the company is investing more than $200 million
to expand its manufacturing facility in hopes of producing up to 500 megawatts
a year by mid-2028.
In October, South Windsor Town Manager Michael Maniscalco
announced at a public meeting that HyAxiom was looking to “double in size”
its facility within the town, adding about 200 jobs.