(Courtesy: Avangrid)Nacelles have arrived in New Bedford, MA for the 800 MW Vineyard 1 offshore wind project, marking the final delivery of components for the project’s turbines.
The nacelles will sit on the GE Haliade-X turbines, with a capacity of 13 MW each. The larger turbine capacity has allowed the project to reduce the total number of turbines from 108 to 62 while still delivering a total capacity of 800 MW. The project is expected to begin delivering power to the grid this year.
Vineyard 1, a joint project between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners located 13 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, became the first commercial-scale wind project to begin construction in the US after its groundbreaking in November 2021. The project closed on $2.3 billion senior debt financing in September of that year.
The project began laying undersea transmission cables in September 2022. The offshore export cables are 220–275 kV AC cables while the inter-array cables are 66 kV AC cables. Offshore export cables are 10-11 inches in diameter and the inter-array cables are 5-6 inches in diameter.
Avangrid said a “groundbreaking” project milestone would also be announced in the coming days.
