Vineyard Wind Statement on BOEM’s Decision to Resume Federal Review Process

(NEW BEDFORD, MA) – Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), today released a statement following the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) announcement that the agency intends to resume the review process.  

“We’re very pleased that BOEM has decided to move forward with the permitting process for our Vineyard Wind 1 project,” said a company spokesperson. “We look forward to working with the agency as we launch an industry that will create thousands of good paying jobs while also taking meaningful steps to reduce the impact of climate change.”

In December, Vineyard Wind announced the selection of GE Renewable Energy’s industry leading Haliade-X wind turbine generators, the most powerful turbine currently available to developers.  With this selection, GE Renewable Energy is poised to play a pivotal role in the development of offshore wind power in the U.S., which will be a major source of investments and job creation up and down the supply chain in communities across the region. 

As a part of reaching this important milestone, Vineyard Wind decided to temporarily withdraw its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from further review by BOEM in order to conduct a final technical review associated with including the Haliade-X in the final project design, work that has now concluded. On January 25th, the company announced the completion of this technical review, with no changes to the COP, and that it had requested BOEM to resume review.

Vineyard Wind still expects to reach financial close in the second half of 2021 and to begin delivering clean energy to Massachusetts in 2023.

Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800-megawatt (MW) project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and is slated to become the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States.  The project will generate cost-competitive electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, create 3,600 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) job years and is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million tons per year.  

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