Avangrid unveils Vineyard Wind 1 offshore substation
Avangrid, a leading sustainable energy company and part of the Iberdrola Group, has unveiled the first offshore wind substation at its Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the US.
Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1 offshore substation will collect power generated by the project’s 62 wind turbine generators and bring it to the onshore power grid through two export cables.
Vineyard Wind 1 is expected to deliver power before the end of this year and, once completed, the facility will generate 806MW of clean, renewable energy to power more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts.
According to Avangrid, the substation is the first one ever installed in the US and the sixth and largest in the Iberdrola Group’s global fleet to date.
So far, Iberdrola has installed five other substations at its West of Duddon Sands (UK), Wikinger (Germany), East Anglia One (UK), St. Brieuc (France), and Baltic Eagle (Germany) offshore wind farms.
Have you read?
Substation automation market to boom to $55.6bn by 2032
Net zero in UK hinges on transmission grid upgrades – Aurora Energy
“This marks another exciting milestone as we move closer to delivering offshore wind power to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Pedro Azagra, Avangrid CEO.
“We’ve been waiting for the opportunity to showcase the hard work our team has been putting in behind the scenes to make Vineyard Wind 1 a reality. This project is pioneering the offshore wind industry for the United States and paving the way for the country’s clean energy future.”
Vineyard Wind has signed a contract with Prysmian Group worth 200 million euros to manufacture, install and commission the submarine cabling system that will connect the offshore wind farm with the Continental US power transmission grid.
According to Iberdrola, the project will require a total of 134 kilometres of high voltage alternating current electric cable.
US company Southwire was selected as the main supplier of terrestrial cables. More than 51 kilometres of high voltage cable was scheduled for installation during the first quarter of 2023. The cable is manufactured at the Southwire plant in Huntersville (North Carolina), and uses avant-garde technology to produce high and extra-high-voltage cables ranging from 69 kV to 500 kV.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.