When power sources are close to maxed out during New England’s cold winters, offshore wind projects could lower the risk of demand-driven power outages by more than half, according to a new analysis.
The Union of Concerned Scientists used wind speed data from the 2024-2025 winter season to explore what may have happened had two offshore wind projects been fully online — Vineyard Wind 1 and Revolution Wind.
The result, the new study found, is that high wind speeds during the cold season would have sent enough extra power to the grid to cut the number of days that the grid experienced elevated risk of an energy shortage by 55 percent.
“There were long stretches — multiday periods — when these projects would have been operating at their maximum output,” said Susan Muller, who authored the study and is a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit that advocates for action on climate change.
