The final turbine on the 65-turbine wind farm Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm located 12 miles off the coast of Aquinnah, was installed Wednesday, Sept. 17.
An Ørsted spokesperson confirmed that installation is complete, and commissioning of the turbines continued across the project in mid-September. “Revolution Wind continues to progress toward an anticipated commercial operation date later this year,” the spokesperson said.
Construction of the wind farm, which started to deliver power to the grid in mid-March, was halted through a stop-work order by the federal government two separate times last year, and was eventually granted a stay and preliminary injunction by a federal judge. The project, though visible off the coast of the Island, holds agreements with energy utilities in Rhode Island and Connecticut, not Massachusetts. The power generated travels by way of Narragansett Bay through an offshore cable that comes ashore at Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, R.I. Onshore, the power travels to a substation connected to the regional grid.
Separately, Vineyard Wind announced that the company and GE Vernova “reached an amicable settlement to absolve all outstanding litigation,” according to a press release from Vineyard Wind on Sept. 16. The energy company, the project’s general contractor, previously threatened to walk away from the project, which endangered, according to Vineyard Wind officials, the entire project. GE’s plans, however, were thwarted when a federal judge prohibited GE Vernova leave the contract.
The press release said that as part of the agreement, GE Vernova withdrew the notice of termination, and “both parties have agreed to dismiss all pending legal claims.”
“The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential,” the release said.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and seven other state attorneys general sued the Trump administration at the end of September to block two deals that cancel four planned offshore wind projects in exchange for $1.4 billion. The offshore wind projects canceled were supposed to be located in the New York Bight and Gulf of Maine, though would have connected to the regional grid. The lawsuits were filed Sept. 22 and argue that the federal government “unlawfully misused taxpayer dollars and failed to follow the required procedure for canceling any offshore wind leases,” according to a press release from Campbell’s office.
