Vineyard Wind asks US government to reopen permitting

Developers Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners had paused permitting after changing turbines at the pathfinder 800MW offshore wind farm off Massachusetts

Using GE's Haliade-X turbines do not necessitate further changes to Vineyard's construction and operations plans

The developers of what could the US' first utility-scale offshore wind farm have called for the government to resume its project permitting process.

Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have rescinded their request to temporarily withdraw their construction and operations plan for their聽800MW Vineyard Wind project 鈥撀(806MW Vineyard Wind 1 and {{Vineyard Wind 1 phase II-4295d688-7517-6f16-9892-d9a758c9ae2a}}).

The developers had paused permitting to carry out a technical review of the project after changing turbines. Last month, they announced that GE Renewable Energy would supply its Haliade-X turbine to the offshore wind farm located 24.1km off the coast of Martha鈥檚 Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Avangrid and CIP had initially chosen MHI Vestas to supply 9.5MW turbines, but then opted for GE鈥檚 Haliade-X machine, which has a power rating of 12-14MW. It is not clear which power rating will be used at Vineyard Wind.

The offshore wind project had been repeatedly delayed, in part due to concerns its turbines would interfere with commercial fishing.

CEO of Vineyard Wind, Lars Pedersen, said that聽no further changes to the construction and operations plan were needed聽following the company鈥檚 final review.

He said: 鈥淪ince there are no changes required to the construction and operations plan, we expect that BOEM can finalise their review based on the extensive analysis and studies of the project over the last three years.鈥澛

He added: 鈥淲e look forward to completing the permitting phase of the project and to finalising the engineering, contracting and financing of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the US.鈥

The developers still expect to reach financial close in the second half of this year and to begin commissioning the project in 2023.

If built, Vineyard Wind could be the US鈥檚 first utility scale offshore wind farm, according to 搖錢樹娛樂城 Intelligence, the research and data division of 搖錢樹娛樂城.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has been contacted for comment.聽