Commercial offshore wind gets steel in US waters as Vineyard plants first foundations
Belgian offshore construction firm Deme's Orion WTIV installed the first 1,900-tonne monopile Tuesday
After decades of starts and stops and two operating pilot projects, commercial offshore wind installation began this week with the driving of the first foundations for Vineyard Wind 1.
The 800MW project off the coast of Northeast state of Massachusetts owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Iberdrola-controlled Avangrid has been under development for around a decade and is the first to be fully approved by state and federal regulators.
“We can finally say it – as of today, there is ‘steel in the water,’” said Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller. “Over the next few months, we’ll be working hand in glove with the Building Trades and our contractors to ensure the work is done safely and efficiently.”
Vineyard plans on installing around half of its 62 turbines this year, when it will begin sending power to the Massachusetts grid.