Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind development company, has notified the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that the company is rescinding its December 2020 request to withdraw the construction and operations plan (COP) for Vineyard Wind 1, allowing the federal permitting process to resume.
“We have completed our final review and determined that no changes to the COP are necessary as a consequence of selecting the GE Haliade-X turbine for the project,” says Lars T. Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind. “Since there are no changes required to the COP, we expect that BOEM can finalize their review based on the extensive analysis and studies of the project over the last three years. We look forward to completing the permitting phase of the project and to finalizing the engineering, contracting and financing of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S.”
In December, Vineyard Wind announced the selection of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X wind turbine generators, the most powerful turbine currently available to developers. With this selection, GE Renewable Energy says it is poised to play a substantial role in the development of offshore wind power in the U.S. – a major source of investments and job creation up and down the supply chain in communities across the region.
As a part of reaching this important milestone, Vineyard Wind says it decided to temporarily withdraw its COP from further review by BOEM in order to conduct a final technical review associated with including the Haliade-X in the final project design, work that has now concluded. Vineyard Wind still expects to reach financial close in the second half of 2021 and to begin delivering clean energy to Massachusetts in 2023.
Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and is slated to become the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. The project will generate cost-competitive electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the state and create 3,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) job years.
Original source: North American Wind Power