In mid-2023, company executives projected the wind farm would be fully operational in 2024. But with one month left in the year, only about one-third of the turbines appear fully installed.
Much of the delay comes from a blade failure in July, after which federal regulators halted project installation before allowing it to proceed under restrictions.
Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller, talking to reporters at a Nov. 18 event in New Bedford, would not give a new date for projected completion. He estimated that the project — including onshore infrastructure — was about “80% done.”
But The Light’s boat trip to the lease area on Nov. 20 showed that only a third of the turbines are completed. The other two-thirds need work: foundations, towers, or blades.
Vineyard Wind said it aims to get its last turbine foundations installed by the end of December. But with a recent lease extension at the New Bedford staging terminal, work on turbine towers and blades will continue into early 2025 — and the beginning of a new, less friendly federal administration.
What The Light saw out at sea
When Light reporters visited by boat on Nov. 20, roughly half of the planned 62 turbine towers were standing in the Vineyard Wind lease area; about two-thirds of those towers had blades and about one-third had none. One tower, AW38, still had the broken blade nub poking up. That left about half of the 62 towers to install.
The installation vessel for turbine towers, the Sea Installer, wasn’t at the site that day, but the vessel installing the monopile foundations, the Orion, was.
A few spots slated for turbines on Vineyard Wind’s construction map remained empty. Others had monopile foundations installed underwater, according to company maps online. Some turbine locations were marked by a yellow transition piece, a metal component above the surface, with ladders and a platform, that allows workers to board a turbine from the water. The Light saw a few transition pieces without towers on the western edge of the lease.
As of mid-November, nine monopile foundations still needed to be pounded into the seafloor, according to a map posted on Vineyard Wind’s website. A construction update last month stated the remaining monopiles would be installed through the end of December.
Foundation driving needs to wrap up before whale season begins Jan. 1, when a federal permit restricts the activity for the next five months. Vineyard Wind this fall renewed its permit with NOAA Fisheries that governs marine mammal protections; it precludes pile driving of foundations from January through the end of May.
Other construction is allowed to continue during these months. But it may slow down, since winter weather is less amenable for transporting the major components.
Vineyard Wind did not respond to questions from The Light, including a request for an update on the number of monopiles that still need to be installed.
With about half the towers installed, the barges that carry the major components out of New Bedford will need to travel to the site at least 25 more times (or potentially more, as the missing blades will also need to be brought out and installed).
The Vineyard Wind project extended its lease at the New Bedford staging terminal from Dec. 31 through the end of March, a MassCEC spokesperson confirmed. That will allow those barges to continue operating out of the port for at least the next few months.
As of last week, contractors also needed to remove and replace the nub of the blade that broke in July. It is unclear whether Vineyard Wind has removed the longer piece of the blade on the ocean floor, as a spokesperson did not respond to questions before publication. Salvage efforts for it and other debris began last month.
“We are very much focused on the day-to-day business right now,” Moeller said this month. “I can’t give you an exact timeline on the project right now because it’s very dependable on the weather. Now we’re going into another winter season. So we are working on making things very efficient and getting started up again with full turbine installation.”
Once Vineyard Wind is fully operational, its 62 turbines will generate enough electricity to power an estimated 400,000 homes.
Vineyard Wind’s long path to construction
The project’s construction plan was initially submitted in late 2017 and approved in 2021 after a permitting delay under the Trump administration.
The Vineyard Wind project, which branded itself as “forever first,” initially planned to install the first turbine in 2021 and begin generating electricity in 2022, State House News Service previously reported. None of that happened until June 2023, when vessels began installing foundations, and then turbines a few months later.
In January, the project delivered its first power to Massachusetts’ electrical grid. It kept delivering power, as a handful of other towers came online, until July. Since then, the project has been prohibited from generating power under a suspension order from the federal government.
The first suspension order also, temporarily, halted all construction. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has issued several superseding orders since, including an August order that allows installation of towers and nacelles (the power generators of the structures).
The latest order, issued in October, continues to prohibit power production and the installation of blades, but it may allow “specific activities” on a “case-by-case basis” under BSEE’s discretion, which could cover the installation of a single blade.
BSEE did not respond to questions before publication of whether it has approved any blades for installation since October, and when it expects to lift the suspension.
The second Trump administration could slow progress for the industry, which began installing several projects under the Biden administration.
A developer’s outlook for the next four years is likely to be informed by how far along its projects are in the federal permitting process. Projects in the middle of key permitting may face more risk than nearly finished projects, like those under construction, though uncertainty remains over what a Trump administration could do to those.
The Light also reported that a Trump administration could less vigorously challenge some of the several lawsuits against wind projects, including Vineyard Wind. A case against the Vineyard Wind project is pending before the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals (which has jurisdiction in Massachusetts) after a lower court ruled in Vineyard Wind’s favor, E&E News reported.
Unlike other wind projects under construction along the outer continental shelf, Vineyard Wind is operating under stringent restrictions from the federal government as a result of the blade failure. Moeller wouldn’t say whether he expects BSEE to lift those restrictions before the next administration comes in.
“They are a great support, but part of their title is safety,” Moeller said of BSEE. “I’m happy that we are going through some very thorough reviews of all the parts of the project. … BSEE is a close partner and they’re interested in seeing this project move forward.”
The broken-blade incident has been a very visual and tangible example of an industry setback, and those opposed to offshore wind development have cited it in letters and public comments to local and federal authorities. Between the blade breaking and reports that employees at the blade manufacturing plant in Canada cut corners, some people have been calling for the project to be shut down.
The Light previously reported that at least 14 turbine blades built for the Vineyard Wind project have been shipped to France from New Bedford, apparently due to a manufacturing defect that resulted in layoffs and suspensions at the manufacturing plant in Gaspé, Quebec.
Managers at the LM Wind plant may have falsified quality testing data, according to a report from local outlet Radio Gaspésie. Citing unnamed sources, the radio station reported last month that executives at the LM Wind plant may have asked employees to falsify quality control data, favoring production quantity over quality.
Amid the incoming administration and political waves the industry must ride out, Moeller said last week that the company is “very proud to work with all parties in the U.S.”
“We have a very strong relationship with our federal partners,” Moeller said, confirming that Vineyard Wind has been engaging the incoming Trump administration transition team and is interested in hearing what they think. “I know there’s different opinions about offshore wind. But with the history we have, we’re ready to work with everyone.”
Article courtesy of Anastasia E. Lennon and The New Bedford Light. Read more here.
