USA offshore


CAPE COD BAY


CAPE COD New Bedford


BUZZARDS BAY


Covell’s Beach


switching station (115 kV)


Barnstable Vineyard Haven


MARTHA’S VINEYARD


NANTUCKET SOUND


After achieving all necessary permits, among them approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and culminating in final authorisation from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Vineyard Wind executed an agreement with ISO New England to connect its generation into the New England electric power grid – at the NSTAR 115kV switch station in Barnstable, Massachusetts – and signed long-term energy sale agreements with Massachusetts electricity distribution companies.


ATLANTIC OCEAN


MAP KEY


Operation & maintenance Construction port Offshore substation


Existing substation Existing submarine cables Vineyard Wind cable corridor Horizontal directional drilling (HDD)


NANTUCKET


Offshore substation


Vineyard Wind 1 Lease area OCS-1 0501


In October 2023, Avangrid and CIP announced that Vineyard Wind I had closed a $1.2 billion first-of-its-kind tax equity package for commercial-scale offshore wind with three US-based banks. Windar Renovables has been responsible for manufacturing the project’s 62 wind turbine foundations at its plant in Asturias (Spain), a contract worth around 100 million euros.


South Fork Wind’s turbines were staged and assembled at State Pier in New London, Connecticut. The project’s foundation components were completed at Ørsted and Eversource’s fabrication hub at ProvPort, in Rhode Island. Crew vessels and the crew change helicopter was based in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. The project includes the first US-built offshore wind substation.


Long Island based contractor Haugland Energy Group LLC installed the underground duct bank system for the onshore transmission line and led the construction of the project’s onshore interconnection. LS Cable installed and jointed the onshore cables with support from Long Island’s Elecnor Hawkeye. Roman Stone, also on Long Island, manufactured concrete mattresses to protect the undersea cables, and Ljungstrom, located in western New York, in partnership with Riggs Distler & Company, provided specialised structural steelwork.


Meanwhile, progress is being made towards bringing the USA’s first large scale offshore wind facility, the 806 MW Vineyard Wind I farm, fully into operation, which is considered achievable by end 2024/early 2025. It will employ 62 GE


World Wind Technology


Vernova Haliade-X wind turbines rated at 13 MW each.


A 50/50 joint venture of Avangrid (member of the Iberdrola Group) and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), first power from Vineyard Wind I, which is located off the coast of Massachusetts –15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 34 miles south of the Cape Cod peninsula – was delivered to the grid in January 2024. Once commercial operation is achieved, Iberdrola will assume responsibility for operation and management of the wind farm under an agreement reached with CIP. Vineyard Wind I has been supported by a $3 billion investment guaranteed through contracts with three key energy providers.


Construction began on Vineyard Wind I in November 2021, the project having reached a $2.3 billion financing agreement with nine global lending banks, the first financial close for a commercial scale offshore wind project in the USA. The financing included a long-term power purchase agreement and an electricity interconnection programme, and allowed construction to begin, with the aim of starting to supply clean electricity to Massachusetts in 2023.


Prysmian Group, after entering into an agreement worth 200 million euros, was responsible for the submarine cabling system connecting the offshore wind farm with the continental US power transmission grid. The project required a total of 134 km of high voltage AC cable. US company Southwire was in charge of the design, manufacture and installation of the more than 51 kilometres of high voltage overland cable.


In July 2023, installation of the offshore substation that will serve the entire Vineyard Wind I project was completed, the first of its kind installed by Iberdrola in the USA. ●


South Fork blade load out (photo: Ørsted) 33


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