Offshore wind companies look to hook up
From Cape Cod Times
FALMOUTH — As three offshore wind energy developers move closer to preparing construction plans for areas south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, each will spend time this summer exploring where to install transmission cables to connect their turbines to the grid.
“We started mobilization last week,” Bay State Wind permitting project manager Pernille Hermansen said Tuesday at a regional stakeholder task force meeting in Falmouth. “That was one vessel, and we just mobilized another vessel yesterday.”
The company has leased 187,000 acres south of the Islands from the federal government, alongside competitors Vineyard Wind, with 167,000 acres, and farther west, Deepwater Wind with 165,000 acres.
Deepwater Wind, which already has five turbines installed and in operation off the coast of Block Island in Rhode Island, is the furthest along the federal regulatory permitting path. The government expects to make a decision on the company’s plans for assessing the lease site by year-end. With that approval, the company could erect meteorological towers or buoys to collect specific information about the area.
Bay State Wind has submitted a complete site assessment plan, which is now under review, and federal officials are reviewing the Vineyard Wind plan for completeness.
Vineyard Wind is estimating 2020 as a construction start date, according to a recent announcement about its new partner, Avangrid Renewables. Bay State Wind will be looking for the best transmission cable corridor this summer, mostly likely at the soon-to-close Brayton Point power station in Somerset.
Vineyard Wind is also looking for the best place to connect onshore. More…