Vineyard Wind stops COP after GE turbine selection

Vineyard Wind, the developer behind the first major US-based offshore wind farm, has temporarily withdrawn its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from further review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to conduct final due diligence.

The move comes after it selected GE as its preferred supplier of wind turbine generators for its Vineyard Wind 1 project.

In a statement, the joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has decided to utilise GE Renewable Energy’s industry leading Haliade-X wind turbine generators – the most powerful in operation to date – for its project, the first utility-scale offshore wind installation in the United States.

“The selection of GE as our preferred turbine supplier means that a historic American company will play a vital role in the development of the first commercial scale offshore wind power in the US,” says Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen.  

“This is a huge moment not only for the future of our project, but also for the future of an industry that is poised for exponential growth in the coming decades.”

With this selection, GE Renewable Energy will be playing a pivotal role in the development of offshore wind power in the US, which will be a major source of investments and job creation up and down the supply chain in communities across the region.

“GE Renewable Energy is proud to partner with Vineyard Wind for the first major offshore wind project in the US,” says John Lavelle, President & CEO, Offshore Wind at GE Renewable Energy. “To be selected as the preferred supplier is an important sign of confidence for our proven technology and for all our employees around the world. We look forward to making this important contribution to the growth of offshore wind in the US.”

Following the agreement, the decision from Vineyard Wind to temporarily withdraw its COP from further review by BOEM was formally communicated to the Bureau, the statement adds. The move will all the project team to conduct a final technical review associated with the inclusion of the Haliade-X wind turbine generator into the final project design, Pedersen says.

“While the decision to pause the ongoing process was difficult, taking this step now avoids potentially more federal delays and we are convinced it will provide the shortest overall timeline for delivering the project as planned,” continues Pedersen. “We intend to restart the BOEM process from where we left off as soon as we complete the final review.”

The company adds that it expects the review to take several weeks, after which it will resume the Federal permitting process with BOEM. With buffer built into the project schedule, Vineyard Wind says that it still expects to reach financial close in the second half of 2021, and to begin delivering clean energy to the state of Massachusetts in 2023.

Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800MW project 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, which is slated to become the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the US. The project will generate cost-competitive electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million tons per year.