September 10, 2019 — Construction of the country’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm off Massachusetts’ coast will be delayed until at least next year while the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management determines the cumulative effect of construction of multiple wind farms in the region, the agency said in a recent update.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Copenhagen Investment Partners and Avengrid Renewables, is developing the 800-MW, $2.8 billion project. Five other offshore wind projects are planned adjacent to the site.

The developers had expected to begin construction before the end of the year to take advantage of a significant federal tax credit for renewable energy that expires on Dec. 31.

BOEM’s original timeline was to release a final environmental impact statement in July, but that timeline was delayed when BOEM said stakeholders and cooperating federal agencies requested “a more robust cumulative analysis.” It anticipates completing the supplement to its draft EIS “late this year or early next year,” with a public comment period and public meetings to follow.

Read the full story at the Engineering News-Record

September 3, 2019 — Plans for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm remain on hold, and state leaders and environmental groups are calling on the Trump administration to speed it along.

Vineyard Wind, a $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm planned 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, was delayed last month by federal regulators amid concerns about the impact on commercial fishermen. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said additional review is needed in light of the concerns raised by “stakeholders and cooperating agencies.”

Vineyard Wind would generate enough energy to power more than 400,000 homes, representing about 20% of electricity consumed in the state, according to its designers. A law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016 requires the state to have at least 3,200 megawatts of electricity provided by offshore wind by 2035 as part of a shift to renewable energy sources.

Baker, who recently met with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in Washington, D.C., to push for the project’s movement, told reporters Wednesday that he remains confident about its future. The Republican said he believes the federal government is committed to a March 2020 deadline to wrap up its review.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

August 19, 2019 — Connecticut Public Radio reported over the weekend that a final decision to approve the Vineyard Wind Project may not occur until the end 2020, adding a layer of doubt about when the offshore wind power project would actually start.

Last month, National Fishermen reported Vineyard Wind could miss its planned construction start of later this year due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s delay in reviewing the 800-megawatt wind farm off the Massachusetts coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

August 16, 2019 — Offshore energy develop Vineyard Wind backpedaled this week from its earlier warnings, saying it intends to carry forward with plans for building 84 turbines in New England waters, even as a revised environmental review raises more questions about its future.

“Company shareholders have affirmed a commitment to deliver a proposed 800-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, albeit with a delayed project schedule,” Vineyard Wind announced in statement days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would undertake a sweeping reassessment of environmental impacts.

That assurance stood in contrast to the earlier reaction from Vineyard Wind, when company officials learned BOEM would not be finalizing an environmental impact statement as they had hoped for by mid-July.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

August 15, 2019 — With the federal tax credit for offshore wind projects about to expire, every day counts.

So you can understand the concern around town when it became clear the country’s first major offshore wind farm would likely miss a crucial deadline for the tax credit, a key element in the project’s financing. The reason? The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it needs more time to review Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, to properly weigh the cumulative impacts of similar offshore projects in the pipeline.

As a result, developer Vineyard Wind on Monday said it would revise its $2.8 billion project, with a delayed schedule. The vague statement from the developer, a Massachusetts venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, didn’t say much. But these revisions likely mean one thing: Construction on the 800-megawatt project planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard would no longer start in time to deliver electricity by the end of 2021.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe