The first commercial offshore wind farm in the US has decided to adopt the 12MW large wind turbine Haliade-X by GE Renewable Energy, where offshore wind turbines measuring at 260m in height can be seen from the offshore area of Massachusetts, which provide 2 days of electricity for one household from merely a single spin.
Located at the offshore area of Massachusetts, the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm is currently the largest offshore wind farm in the US at an installed capacity of 800MW, and is expected for grid construction in 2023 that will provide electricity for approximately 400K households in New England that comprises of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
The Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm will adopt the large offshore wind turbine by GE Renewable Energy, which is the Haliade-X with an installed capacity of 12MW, and measures at roughly 260m in height (about 85 floors). The wind turbine is able to achieve an annual power generation of 67GWh under optimal conditions, and the wind turbine blade that measures at 220m in diameter will provide two days of electricity for a single household from one single spin, despite consuming 45% less energy compared to those on the market. The wind turbine first generated electricity in November 2019 in Scotland.
John Lavelle, President and CEO of GE Renewable Energy, commented that it is an honor to be working with Vineyard Wind on contributing to the offshore wind farm projects of the US, and that being selected as the first choice of wind turbine supplier is a sense of trust and support for the technology of the team and the employees. Lavelle also said that he looks forward in dedicating to the important development of US offshore wind farms in the future, and that GE Renewable Energy has the opportunity in creating numerous job opportunities and investment for the upstream and downstream sectors of US offshore wind energy, which coincides what GE had previously said about partial segments returning to US for manufacturing.
Vineyard Wind is a company co-funded by CIP and AvanGrid, and is currently waiting for the construction approval of the BOEM, though the construction and operations plan (COP) has been temporarily suspended due to changes. In order to avoid further administrative postponement, an overall schedule will be drafted as soon as possible, and the BOEM process will reinitiate from the suspended section upon the completion of the final review.
(Cover photo source: GE)