As of last week, with a fully permitted and financed project, the Vineyard Wind VW1 team are primed and ready to deliver the US’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm.
VW1 is a globally important project. It’s a solid announcement that the US is committing to the global offshore wind industry. It also demonstrates the broader benefits; social, environmental and economic, that the energy transition presents to us all. It will reduce emissions, create jobs and offer positive benefits to communities along the southern Mass coastline and more widely across New England.
At OCA, we have been working to support this project since early 2018, providing technical support and advice on multiple scopes. We’ve been working offshore on the site investigations, planning cable routes and leading the procurement and execution of the Foundations, Electrical Service Platform, Array Cables, and WTG transport and installation scopes. We’ve taken our technical expertise from Europe and adapted it to the specific demands of the US offshore wind industry, learning a new regulatory environment and meeting some amazing people along the way.
But the impact of our investment in the US, driven by VW1, has been much wider than just MA. We’ve grown a US-only team of 5 employees, and trained and upskilled them into the offshore wind market. That team has engaged with local colleges, professional institutions and national bodies to support industry growth. And it has supported offshore wind project clients and partners in OR, WA, NJ, SC and even as far afield as Australia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. This growing expertise base in the US is also part of a new and valuable service industry. It will support the US and global offshore wind markets for many years to come, creating well paid professional and technical jobs, and putting money into local economies, schools and community projects.
We look forward to continuing our support to the VW1 project, and to delivering many other US projects thereafter, supporting the growth of our fantastic offshore wind industry worldwide for many years to come. VW1 is just the start.
