MVC approves Tisbury maintenance building for offshore wind farm

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission unanimously approved the construction of the Vineyard Wind 1 maintenance building at 69 Beach Road in Tisbury at its meeting on Thursday. 

The building will be paramount in facilitating the offshore substation and wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1, and is one of a handful of Vineyard Wind–related projects currently in the works. 

The 36-foot-tall maintenance structure will serve as a headquarters building for Vineyard Wind operations, and will feature solar panels on a galvanized metal rooftop, and a wood panel exterior. 

Tisbury-based construction company Sourati Engineering Group LLC will be responsible for the construction of the 36,000-square-foot combined office, storage, and parking structure.

The building will be raised to allow for a ground-level, open parking lot, in order for stormwater from the coast to flow underneath the building, which is located within a FEMA velocity flood zone. Per zoning compliance, the site will allow for flowing stormwater to be contained to prevent flooding abutters by increasing permeability of the site. 

The offshore substation will be capable of generating and transferring a total of 800 megawatts each year, and consist of a wind farm with 62 General Electric Haliade-X turbines. 

Vineyard Wind 1 will be located 15 miles south of the Island coast, and will provide energy to more than 400,000 homes — “an equivalent of removing 325,000 vehicles from the roadways,” according to Vineyard Wind’s mission statement.

The project is expected to create 56 on-Island jobs —12 year-round onshore jobs, and 44 offshore jobs, 24 of which will be year-round. 

Prior to their approval, commissioners mulled over the housing offers submitted by the applicant, ultimately deciding to defer the housing conditions placed on the project to the MVC’s Land Use Planning subcommittee, as the full commission did not find the existing proposal adequate.