Ground has been broken on a project dubbed the United States’ “first commercial scale offshore wind farm.”

The construction’s kickoff, which took place on Thursday, represents another step forward for America’s fledgling offshore wind sector. Located in waters 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard, near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, it’s hoped that the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 facility will start sending power to the grid in 2023.

Vineyard Wind 1 is being built by Vineyard Wind LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables. The latter is a subsidiary of Avangrid, which is 81.5% owned by Iberdrola, a major utility headquartered in Spain.

According to Vineyard Wind, Covell’s Beach in Barnstable is “the site where two cables will make landfall and connect to the grid at a substation further inland on Cape Cod.” The wind farm will use 62 of General Electric’s huge Haliade-X turbines, producing electricity for over 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, it says.

The project is expected to cut carbon emissions by over 1.6 million metric tons annually. This represents the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars off the road every year, Vineyard Wind said.

“The US offshore wind industry holds tremendous promise for both job creation and reducing carbon pollution, and today’s ground breaking, while historic, is just the first of many steps the industry will take as it grows,” Christian T. Skakkebæk, who is senior partner and co-founder of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said.  

“CIP is excited to be a part of this first project, and we look forward to continuing to invest in and build out the offshore wind industry in the United States,” Skakkebæk said.

Keep reading on CNBC.com