Wind Power

‘Steel in the water’ as Vineyard Wind starts offshore construction work

‘Steel in the water’ as Vineyard Wind starts offshore construction work
(Wind turbine blades for the offshore Vineyard Wind project arrive at New Bedford, Mass., in early June 2023. Credit: Orsted)

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said that work installing the first monopiles and transition pieces has started on the 800 MW offshore wind farm.  

The heavy lift vessel Orion will work with a team of ships throughout the summer to install 62 foundations in the wind development area some 15 miles off of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

“We can finally say it – as of today, there is ‘steel in the water,’” said Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller.  

The first turbine blade components arrived earlier in port at New Bedford, Massachusetts. 

As part of the installation process, Vineyard Wind has also deployed the OSV Atlantic Oceanic and the Northstar Navigator to deploy a primary and secondary bubble curtain.  

A bubble curtain is comprised of large, perforated hoses and specialized air compressors, and is designed to absorb and dampen sound during foundation installation. The hoses are placed on the seafloor around the monopile before being filled by compressed air. Once the hoses are inflated, the air escapes through the perforations and creates a barrier of bubbles that reduce noise.

The project is also using a Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) system comprised of fixed buoys. Up to four PAMs will be used for real-time underwater acoustic monitoring during pile driving in an effort to characterize the presence of marine mammals by detecting vocalizations.  The buoys will be retrieved before moving to the next foundation location.

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