Vineyard Wind has selected GE Renewable Energy as the preferred turbine supplier for the first U.S. large-scale offshore wind project.
Vineyard Wind 1 will feature the GE Haliade-X units, the most powerful offshore wind turbine in operation to date.
As a part of reaching this milestone, the developer has also decided to temporarily withdraw its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from further review by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to allow the project team to conduct a final technical review associated with the inclusion of Haliade-X into the final project design.
“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 U.S.,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen .
“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. We intend to restart the BOEM process from where we left off as soon as we complete the final review.”
Vineyard Wind expects its review to take several weeks, after which it will resume the Federal permitting process with BOEM. With buffer built into the project schedule, the company still expects to reach financial close in the second half of 2021 and to begin delivering clean energy in 2023.
Back in 2018, MHI Vestas was selected as the preferred turbine supplier for the 800 MW project. However, the deal is said to have been canceled due to the project’s permitting hold-up.
The joint venture company of Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) is developing the wind farm 56km off the coast of the Massachusetts mainland.