Martha News

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday approved the country's eighth commercial-scale offshore wind project, which will be built off the coast of Massachusetts, bringing online electricity to power more than 900,000 homes.The approval for Avangrid’s New England Wind Project brings the U.S. one-third of the way to President Joe Biden's goal of permitting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030—a key part of the president's climate change agenda.The project comes just a week after the Interior Department approved another offshore wind project, Orsted's Sunrise Wind, in New York.

The Biden administration on Tuesday gave final approval to Orsted and Eversource's Sunrise Wind offshore wind facility, which is expected to provide power to more than 320,000 homes in New York.The announcement was the latest positive development for the project, which Denmark's Orsted warned just months ago could fail without a new contract that would cover soaring costs for equipment and financing.Orsted and Eversource said separately that they had taken a final investment decision…

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will initiate an environmental review of Vineyard Northeast’s proposed offshore wind energy project, located 29 miles offshore Nantucket, Massachusetts at its closest point. BOEM estimates the proposed project would generate up to 2,600MW of electricity, enough to power more than 900,000 homes with clean renewable energy. The approximately 132,370-acre Lease Area is located some 29 miles (mi) from Nantucket and approximately 39 mi offshore Martha’s Vineyard…

There is no denying that 2023 was a challenging year for the U.S. offshore wind market. Citing macroeconomic factors including high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks, Ørsted announced on October 31 that they were ceasing the development of the Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects, which were scheduled for construction off the coast of New Jersey. Unfortunately, the troubling news has continued into the new year, with Equinor and BP announcing on…

Renewable energy firm Avangrid and fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said on Thursday their joint venture, Vineyard Wind 1, has begun operations at five of its wind turbines, supplying 68 megawatts (MW) to the New England grid.Currently, the project has successfully installed nine turbines and is in the process of installing the 10th, with preparations underway to transport the 11th turbine to the offshore project site.Offshore wind projects in the U.S.

Canada's Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Jean-Yves Duclos, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Diane Lebouthillier, announced a contract award following a competitive process, valued at approximately $44 million (including taxes) to Ocean Industries Inc. for the vessel life extension of the CCGS Griffon.Scheduled to take place from June 2025 to October 2026, the vessel life extension work entails refurbishing and repairing the main propulsion motors…

The U.S. offshore wind industry reached an important milestone on January 2 when Vineyard Wind 1, the country’s first large scale project, supplied first power to the Massachusetts grid.“As the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm this is a fairly momentous event,” Ken Kimmell, Chief Development Officer for Avangrid, the Iberdrola subsidiary co-developing the project with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), told Reuters Events.The turbine will be joined by 61 additional turbines to provide 806 MW of power to the grid by the end of the year…

Franklin, La. shipbuilder Gulf Craft in December delivered WINDEA Intrepid, a new crew transfer vessel built for WINDEA CTV, a partnership between Hornblower Wind and MidOcean Wind.Designed by Incat Crowther and classed by Bureau Veritas, the 30-meter-long aluminum catamaran has capacity to carry 24 technicians, plus six crew. It is powered by four Volvo DI13 main engines that drive quad Volvo IPS propulsion units. The vessel is described as "hybrid-ready", meaning it has been…

Palatka, Fla. shipyard St. Johns Ship Building announced it has delivered WINDEA Courageous, the first of three Jones Act compliant crew transfer vessels (CTV) ordered by WINDEA CTV, a partnership between Hornblower Wind and MidOcean Wind.The 30-meter-long WINDEA Courageous and its sister vessels are designed by Incat Crowther and each have capacity to carry 24 technicians, plus six crew. The Bureau Veritas-classed vessels will be propelled by quad Volvo IPS propulsion units driven by Volvo DI13 main engines.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid said on Wednesday their joint venture Vineyard Wind began generating power for the first time, supplying five megawatts (MW) to the New England grid.The project is expected to have five turbines operating at full capacity in early 2024, the companies said.The announcement comes after offshore wind projects in the United States faced financial troubles in recent months on account of soaring inflation, interest rate hikes and increased project costs due to supply chain issues.The 806-MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, offshore construction of which began

A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial…

American Cruise Lines introduced its first new Coastal Cat, American Eagle, during a christening ceremony in at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy campus on Buzzards Bay last week.Carol Robertson, wife of American Cruise Lines’ founder the late Charles A. Robertson, served as godmother for the ship and christened the 100-passenger American Eagle with one of her handmade, ribbon-wrapped champagne bottles. The American Eagle is named after the first American Cruise Lines’ ship, which the couple launched in the 1970s.The ceremony began with remarks from Robertson…

France-based CMA CGM, the world’s third largest shipping container company, will pay $165,000 in penalties as part of its settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over claims of violations of EPA’s Vessel General Permit issued under the Clean Water Act. “The Vessel General Permit is a key element of the Clean Water Act. When companies and their ships don’t comply with this permit, the quality of our nation’s already-challenged waters can be seriously impacted,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman.

Bath, Maine shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works on Saturday christened the U.S. Navy’s newest guided missile destroyer, the future USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124). The ship is named for Col. Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism on the battlefield during Operation Harvest Moon in the Que Son Valley during the Vietnam War.The ceremony's speakers included Gov. Janet Mills, Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Angus King and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who was the principal speaker. Martha E.

While piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has been declining since 2021, concerns have been raised about staffing, equipment and finance needed to continue anti-piracy efforts in the region.There are several challenges holding back the full operationalization of the Yaoundé Architecture, said Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs - Department of Peace Operations at the United Nations, while speaking to the United Nations Security Council meeting on June 22.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) said it has started offering its Global Wind Organization Basic Technical Training (GWO BTT) course to community members, opening the door to those on Martha’s Vineyard interested in a potential career in the offshore wind industry.Massachusetts Maritime Academy is one of the first institutions in the Northeast to offer this type of training. The goal is to help broaden the landscape of local job opportunities in the fast-emerging offshore…

The installation of the first monopiles and transition pieces has kicked off for the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States - the Vineyard Wind 1.“We can finally say it – as of today, there is ‘steel in the water,’” said Klaus S. Moeller, CEO of Vineyard Wind, the company developing the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm, located in a federal wind energy area 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and 35 miles from mainland Massachusetts.Vineyard…

Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola said this week it was making progress in the construction of Vineyard Wind I, the largest commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, with the receipt of the first shipment of components for the 62 wind turbines that will make up the farm at the port of New Bedford. Specifically, the shipment consisted of the tower sections, manufactured in Portugal. The components arrived in the U.S. aboard the heavy load carrier UHL Felicity.The…

U.S. offshore wind farm developer Vineyard Wind will deploy and test a secondary bubble curtain noise mitigation system during foundation installation at the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, the first commercial-scale wind farm installation project in the U.S.For this, the company is investing in ThayerMahan, a firm that specializes in seabed surveys, acoustic mitigation and monitoring, and other maritime-related services, with facilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The $5 million in funding comes from Vineyard Wind's Industry Accelerator Fund…

With travel and tourism nearing pre-2020 levels, and transit systems benefiting from a return to work, passenger vessels have seen renewed activity. In its year-end review, John Groundwater, Executive Director of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA), which advocates for the sector in Washington, D.C. wrote: “As we are nearing the end of the calendar year, we are delighted to report that our industry, and our members, are reporting far and wide that they have experienced very…

Cable installation has kicked off at Vineyard Wind, the U.S. first commercial scale offshore wind farm, at a site located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Vineyard Wind, the company developing the namesake wind farm, also announced that it expects to begin nearshore cable work off the south coast of Cape Cod in the coming days. The work is being conducted by Prysmian Group, the subsea cable manufacturing and installation firm based in Italy.Prysmian recently announced plans to build the first U.S.-based offshore wind subsea cable factory in Somerset…

St. Johns Ship Building recently awarded AdvanTec Marine, parent company of Freeman Marine, an order for cast-aluminum hatches to be installed aboard two new-build crew transfer vessels (CTV) that the Palatka, Fla. shipyard is building for WINDEA CTV. Freeman’s 2400 series hatches, with knife-edge seals and integrated quick-acting handles, meet USCG emergency-egress requirements. The hatches also ensure maximum watertight protection required for tough offshore working environments.

Palatka, Fla. shipyard St Johns Ship Building this week held a keel laying ceremony for the second vessel in a series of new Jones Act compliant crew transfer vessels (CTV) it is constructing for WINDEA CTV to operate in the U.S offshore wind industry.WINDEA CTV, a partnership between Hornblower Wind and MidOcean Wind, earlier this year announced orders for three CTVs, including the two being built at St Johns Ship Building, plus another at Gulf Craft in Franklin, La.In the years ahead…