United Heavy Lift transported the first nacelles for Vineyard Wind 1 from France using its UHL Felicity vessel.
The offshore wind farm will feature 62 GE Haliade-X 13 MW turbines to be installed by DEME for which the company will use its vessel Sea Installer.
The installation of wind turbines offshore Massachusetts is the first work Sea Installer will perform after its recent upgrade that saw the vessel being fitted with a new 1,600-tonne crane.
The wind turbines will be installed out of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal in Massachusetts, where the first shipment of turbine components arrived in May and the first blades came in on board the Rolldock Sky heavy load vessel in June.
The units that will spin at Vineyard Wind 1 will have a 220-metre rotor, 107-metre blades and will be 248 metres high.
The project is being built by Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), some 24 kilometres off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
With the first of the total of 62 wind turbines to be erected soon, Vineyard Wind 1 is expected to produce first power by mid-October.
Once fully operational next year, the 806 MW offshore wind farm will provide enough electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million tonnes per year.
