Wind Project News

The Interior Department has now approved more than 19 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.The Biden-Harris administration today announced the approval of the SouthCoast Wind Project – the nation’s 11th commercial-scale offshore wind energy project approved under President Biden’s leadership. With today’s approval, the Department and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have approved over 19 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy from offshore wind energy projects – enough to power more…

RWE and TotalEnergies have selected the port of Eemshaven in the northern Dutch province of Groningen as the base for turbine assembly and construction work for their joint offshore wind project OranjeWind in the Dutch North Sea.The OranjeWind joint venture has signed an agreement with Buss Terminal Eemshaven, with the pre-assembly and offshore construction of turbines to be carried out in 2027.Construction activities at the offshore wind site will start in early 2026. Buss Terminal Eemshaven will facilitate the offloading…

Iberdrola has received a production license from the Portuguese Directorate-General for Energy and Geology of Portugal (DGEG), taking another step towards the construction of the largest wind farm in Portugal.Located in the districts of Vila Real and Braga, in northern Portugal, with a total investment of around €350 million, this project reinforces Iberdrola's commitment to environmental goals, being the first to combine wind and hydro energy. This implies sharing of the connection point and the evacuation line of electricity produced…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan for the Maryland Offshore Wind project.This is the final approval needed for the project from BOEM following the Department of the Interior’s September 2024 Record of Decision. This significant milestone advances the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.“I am pleased to announce BOEM’s approval of our nation’s tenth commercial-scale offshore wind energy project.

Norwegian offshore wind vessel owner Edda Wind has launched its Vard-built Commissioning Service Operation Vessel (CSOV) in Vietnam, which will be put to its maiden job at offshore wind project in Taiwan following delivery scheduled for 2025.The vessel, NB967, was launched from a floating dock on December 1, 2024, ensuring the process was controlled and slow.Prior to the launch, the yard held a ceremony in accordance with the traditional Vietnamese blessing of the vessel.The vessel…

GE Vernova’s offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant has fired or suspended several workers in Quebec after a company investigation found they took shortcuts on quality control, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.GE Vernova launched the probe at the factory in Gaspe, Quebec, after one of the 107-meter-long turbine blades it made shattered at the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts in July. Shards of fiberglass littered the beaches and forced the project…

Seaway7, part of the Subsea7 Group, has secured a ‘substantial’ contract from ScottishPower Renewables for the transport and installation of the inter-array cables of the East Anglia TWO offshore wind project.Seaway7’s scope of work for East Anglia TWO includes the engineering, supply and installation of the 64 inter-array cables.Execution of the scope will be led from Seaway7’s Aberdeen office in the UK, with offshore activities scheduled to commence in 2027.Although the exact value of the contract has not been specified…

Dominion Energy has installed 78 monopile and four offshore substation foundations for as part of the first offshore construction campaign for the 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.CVOW, the largest offshore wind project under construction in the United States, will consist of 176 turbines that will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 homes and is expected to generate fuel savings of $3 billion for customers during the first 10 years of operation.With the completed first installation campaign…

Amidst sensational headlines and questionable policy decisions from Washington, D.C., the U.S. offshore energy sector stands resilient. This vital industry not only powers our nation with reliable energy but also enables hundreds of thousands of jobs across all 50 states and strengthens national security. From the Gulf of Mexico to the burgeoning offshore wind farms along the East Coast, the resilience and innovation of this sector are critical to driving economic growth and ensuring our nation’s energy security.The Gulf of Mexico has long been a cornerstone of U.S.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has approved the Atlantic Shores South project plan to construct and operate two wind energy facilities.The Atlantic Shores South Offshore Wind Projects 1 and 2 have the potential to generate up to 2,800MW of renewable energy—enough to power nearly one million homes.“Securing these critical approvals enables New Jersey’s first offshore wind project to start construction next year and represents meaningful progress in New Jersey achieving 100% clean energy by 2035…

The U.S. Interior Department on Monday announced an offshore wind energy lease sale on Oct. 29 for eight areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.If fully developed, these areas have a potential capacity of about 13 gigawatts of clean offshore wind energy, which could power more than 4.5 million homes.Earlier this month, Interior announced final approval of a wind project off the coast of Maryland, bringing the U.S. halfway to its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of the clean energy technology by 2030.The Department has held five offshore wind lease sales…

Van Oord’s new cable laying vessel (CLV) Calypso is gearing up for its debut at RWE’s 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK.The inter-array cables have been loaded onto Calypso CLV at the Port of Blyth in the UK, ahead of its first job at RWE’s biggest offshore wind, according to Van Oord, which secured the contract for the installation of monopile foundations and cables back in 2021.Built by Vard, the vessel is 130 meters long and has a beam of 28 meters.The DP2 Calypso is equipped with a below-deck cable carousel and a second carousel on deck…

President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced final approval of a wind project off the coast of Maryland, bringing the U.S. halfway to its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of the clean energy technology by 2030.The project is the 10th approved by Biden's Interior Department. He has made offshore wind a cornerstone of his climate change agenda.The Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which is being developed by US Wind, could one day generate enough electricity to power 718,000 homes, Interior said in a statement.

The first 11 MW Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbine, out of total 65 planned, has been installed at Ørsted’s 704 MW Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in the United States.Once in operation, Revolution Wind will have the capacity to generate 400 MW of clean power for Rhode Island and 304 MW for Connecticut, enough to power more than 350,000 homes and bring both states closer to reaching their climate targets.Meanwhile, offshore construction crews continue to make steady progress installing the foundations for the turbines…

GE Vernova on Friday said recent turbine blade failures at two offshore wind farms in the United States and the United Kingdom are unrelated.The statement comes as the company has been grappling with fallout from three separate blade accidents in four months.The most recent occurred on Aug. 22 at the Dogger Bank wind farm off the coast of Yorkshire in the North Sea, a little over a month after a blade fell apart at the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts and sent…

Mainstream Renewable Power, the pureplay global wind and solar company majority-owned by Aker Horizons, has announced that KF Wind, a 1,125MW floating offshore wind project being developed off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea, has secured the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval from the Ministry of Environment for the totality of the two-phase project. The Award of the EIA is a key milestone for the development of the two-phase floating offshore wind project, advancing towards construction.The EIA comprises the first phase…

GE Vernova's shares fell nearly 7% on Friday following a turbine-blade failure at an offshore wind farm in the UK, the latest in a string of incidents involving the power service firm's equipment.The incident was reported at the Dogger Bank A project, located more than 130 km off the northeast coast of England, according to a statement from the project authorities.GE Vernova said no injuries were reported and that it was investigating the blade failure, without giving details.The…

The cost to construct the United States' first domestically built wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), Charybdis, has risen to $715 million, Dominion Energy revealed in its latest quarterly results, marking another snag for the fledgling U.S. offshore wind industry.The first-of-its-kind vessel — the only WTIV being built in the U.S. to comply with the Jones Act — was originally slated to cost about $500 million when U.S. power company Dominion ordered it from Brownsville, Texas shipbuilder Seatrium AmFELS (then Keppel AmFELS) in 2020.

A federal agency has ordered a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts to stop power production and construction until an investigation determines whether a blade failure affects other turbines, it said on Wednesday.Vineyard Wind's offshore wind project was shut down by federal authorities after a turbine blade failure on Saturday that caused pieces of fiberglass to fall into the water.Wednesday's suspension order from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement prevents Vineyard Wind…

Dominion Energy has installed the 50th monopile foundation its the 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project located 33 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.The project is on schedule to hit the company's target of 70-100 monopiles set into the sea floor during the first of two installation seasons that run through the end of October.The monopile foundations, which are being staged at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, are single vertical, steel cylinders manufactured by EEW SPC.

Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova on Friday released a plan outlining the steps to be followed after a turbine blade failure last month at the Vineyard Wind offshore project off the coast of Massachusetts, which left potentially dangerous debris on beaches on the island of Nantucket.Vineyard Wind, the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, was shut down by federal authorities after the turbine blade failure.The plan outlines the steps to be followed to recover the remainder of the blade on the turbine. It has been developed in consultation the U.S.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday announced the availability of its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed wind project offshore Maryland.US Wind is seeking approval for its proposed Maryland offshore wind project, which includes three planned phases. Two of those phases, MarWin and Momentum Wind, have received offshore renewable energy certificates from the State of Maryland. If approved, this project could generate between 1,100 and 2,200 megawatts of energy for the Delmarva Peninsula, and power up to 770,000 homes.

Early 2024 saw a group of financial deals that have implications, in a broad sense, for how offshore wind projects may be financed. While offshore wind projects might be thought of as being in the ‘utility finance’ basket, they are ultimately high-risk deals that might better suit the portfolios of ‘infrastructure investment’ which, in recent years, has taken a shift towards tolerating more uncertainty when it comes to cash flows.A 2022 article from consultants McKinsey, titled “Infrastructure investing will never be the same”…