Windar Renovables has manufactured and loaded the final batch of transition pieces (TPs) for the 806 MW Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm in the United States.
In 2019, Windar Renovables won a contract to manufacture, certify, assemble, inspect, store, and deliver TPs for the offshore wind project, being developed by Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Iberdola’s US subsidiary Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
The Spanish company has manufactured a total of 62 structures at its facilities in Avilés, with the first unit being rolled out in December 2022.
The completion of the transition pieces was marked by a visit from Iberdrola’s president, José Ignacio Sánchez Galán, and Windar’s CEO, Orlando Alonso. They bid farewell to the ship, which is now setting sail for the east coast of the United States.
DEME Offshore US is responsible for the transportation and installation of the units.
The Vineyard Wind 1 project is located 15 miles (24 kilometres) off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and will feature 62 GE Haliade-X 13 MW turbines.
Recently, a blade failure occurred at the project site which was caused by a manufacturing deviation, GE Vernova’s CEO Scott Strazik revealed during an earnings call on 24 July. Following the incident, GE Vernova will reinspect all the offshore wind blades made at its factory in Gaspé, Canada, where the one that was installed on a Vineyard Wind 1 turbine was produced, according to Strazik.
Wind turbine installation began in September 2023 and the wind farm started generating power in February.
By the end of June, ten turbines were supplying over 136 MW of electricity to the grid in Massachusetts, making the project the largest operating offshore wind farm in the US.
In addition to the Vineyard Wind 1 project, the collaboration between Iberdrola and Windar Renovables continues with the production of 95 TPs for the East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm in the UK.