Avangrid, the project developer, announced this week that the first turbines are expected to begin contributing enough power for approximately 30,000 homes "before the end of the year."

When the project is fully complete, it will consist of 62 turbines capable of generating enough power for an estimated 400,000 homes and businesses.

"We look forward to working through the final technical requirements and flipping the switch to deliver these first green electrons to 30,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, proving that with skill, expertise, and perseverance, the dream of offshore wind in America is real," Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said in a statement.

"It's incredibly exciting that Vineyard Wind is on the verge of generating offshore wind power for regular people. This will forever change how we think about power production in the U.S., unlocking a major source of electricity in the Northeast that can be copied by other coastal regions,” said Joe Curtatone, president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council.

Large, ocean-based wind farms are a linchpin of government plans to shift to renewable energy in populous East Coast states with limited land for wind turbines or solar arrays. The Biden administration aims to power 10 million homes with offshore wind by 2030 and establish a carbon-free electric grid five years later.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. The application was submitted to the federal government in 2001, but it failed after years of local opposition and litigation.

Turbines began turning off Rhode Island's Block Island in 2016. But with just five of them, it's not a commercial-scale wind farm.

This week, an 800-foot-tall turbine from a project off the coast of easter Long Island began feeding power to the grid. That project, called South Fork Wind, is expected to grow to 12 turbines feeding enough power for more than 70,000 homes.