BP’s proposed testing of suction bucket foundations on its 2.43GW Beacon Wind projects off Massachusetts has passed environmental review.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) found that the proposed testing would not cause significant impacts to environmental resources.
Suction bucket foundations allow installation of turbines without pile driving.
Beacon Wind’s proposal is to conduct 35 deployments and removals of a single suction bucket foundation at 26 locations for the two-phase Beacon Wind.
Use of the technology could minimise underwater noise from installation and allow for more flexibility around supply chain constraints, BOEM stated. Underwater noise can temporarily disturb marine mammals.
Suction buckets have previously been installed elsewhere, including at wind farms off Denmark, Germany and the UK.
The two proposed Beacon Wind projects are to be 31.5km south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and 96.3km east of Montauk, New York.
A local US offshore wind supply chain is in its infancy.
In 2o23, Ørsted cancelled two offshore wind projects – one of them, Ocean Wind 1, in part because a foundation installation vessel was delayed on another project and no other suitable vessel was available anywhere. Ørsted said it would have had to delay project by at least two years.
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