Loading the first jacket foundations for Block Island offshore wind farm onto a barge that will ship them to the installation site started on Friday, according to social media posts by Deepwater Wind’s CEO Jeff Grybowski.
Subject to weather conditions, the barge is expected to arrive to the offshore construction site by mid-July. All five foundations are scheduled to be installed in the following two months.
The five steel jacket foundations were constructed by Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc., which started working on them in January 2015 at its facilities in Houma, Louisiana, with Rhode Island-based Specialty Diving Services in charge of additional fabrication work on components of the foundation substructures.
Block Island wind farm will feature five Alstom’s Haliade 150 6 MW offshore wind turbines.
The first U.S. offshore wind farm, for which the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club said is an “ Apollo moment “, will be operational in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Offshore WIND Staff; Image and video: Deepwater Wind