Geotechnical survey work starts at Massachusetts offshore wind site

Fugro has started geotechnical site drilling in the southern portion of the OCS-A-0534 lease area offshore Massachusetts, owned by Avangrid, a US arm of the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola.

The company, using the vessel M/V Regulus, will be performing the work from 3 June until 31 August 2022, according to a Notice to Mariners.

The lease area OCS-A 0534 includes Park City Wind, an 804 MW project which will deliver energy to Connecticut, and Commonwealth Wind, a 1,200 MW project selected in the third Massachusetts offshore wind competitive solicitation.

Park City Wind would be built immediately southwest of Vineyard Wind 1, which is now under construction, while Commonwealth Wind is located in the remainder of the southern part of the lease area.

This southern part of the lease are is also where Fugro is conducting drilling work as part of the geotechnical site investigation, according to the information from the project’s notice.

Avangrid took over the lease rights for the two offshore wind projects in 2021, as the company and its partner Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) restructured their 50/50 joint venture in the United States, which owned several offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 5.3 GW.

The 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, America’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, remains a 50/50 joint venture between the companies, while Avangrid Renewables took full ownership of the lease area OCS-A 0534.

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