Vineyard Wind 1 offshore project moves one step closer to federal approval

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has published a final Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind 1 to become the first Tier 1 offshore wind supplier in the U.S.

The publication places the project one step away from receiving a record of decision from BOEM, the last approval required for construction on the project to begin.

Vineyard Wind 1 is budgeted at $2 billion and will include 62 GE Haliade-X turbines 15 miles off the Martha Vineyard coast with the capacity to generate 800 MW of electricity through two export cables buried under the Atlantic seabed. The project”™s developer, Vineyard Wind, is a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Orange, Connecticut-based Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partner.

“We want to thank BOEM for all of the work they”™ve done since we submitted the permit application in December of 2017 on this first-in-the-nation project,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said in a press release.

“More than three years of federal review and public comment is nearing its conclusion and 2021 is poised to be a momentous year for our project and the broader offshore wind industry.”

In December 2019, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection”™s  selected the project for providing the equivalent of 14% of the state”™s electricity supply, which would represent the largest purchase of renewable energy in Connecticut”™s history.

The project included an estimated $890 million in direct economic development in Connecticut, including Bridgeport Harbor and the local supply chain, as well as the redevelopment of the waterfront Barnum Landing property for a future turbine assembly and maintenance facility.