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On July 13, 2024, Vineyard Wind 1’s installed blade at Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) AW-38 failed, resulting in the release of blade debris into the environment. Emergency notifications and measures, including emergency consultations with state and federal agencies, were activated to contain and retrieve the released debris.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) exercised its oversight authority and suspended further blade installation and power production until certain conditions were met. A root-cause analysis of the blade failure was conducted by the manufacturer and installer (GE Vernova), which found that the failure was due to a manufacturing deviation.
BOEM requested that the lessee submit a revised Construction and Operations Plan (COP) to BOEM. Vineyard Wind 1 submitted a COP revision addendum for BOEM’s review on Dec. 5, 2024, which describes the activities that would be involved with removing the blades installed on up to 22 wind turbine generators before the July 13, 2024, blade failure.
On Jan.17, 2025, BOEM completed its review and approved Vineyard Wind 1’s COP revision. On the same day, BSEE lifted its suspension order.
The documents for this COP revision are available below:
In May 2021, the Departments of the Interior and Commerce announced the approval of the construction and operation of the first large-scale, offshore wind project in the United States, located offshore Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 Offshore Wind Energy Project will be located approximately 12 nautical miles offshore Martha's Vineyard and 12 nautical miles offshore Nantucket in the northern portion of Vineyard Wind’s lease area (OCS-A 0501).
On May 10, 2018, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the Site Assessment Plan (SAP) for Lease OCS-A 0501 (Vineyard Wind). The SAP approval allows for the installation of up to two Fugro SEAWATCH Wind LiDAR metocean buoys. For additional information, please find the approved SAP below:
As part of the COP submission, Vineyard Wind conducted a number of archaeological resources identification surveys onshore, in state waters, and on the Outer Continental Shelf. Vineyard Wind prepared multiple reports documenting this work and reporting the locations of these archaeological resources to BOEM, in partial fulfillment of BOEM's compliance with 36 CFR 800. Summaries of these reports are now available to the public.
Vineyard Wind requested a 1-year extension for submitting its SAP, which BOEM approved. Vineyard Wind initially filed the SAP in March 2017, followed by revisions in July, October, and November 2017. BOEM deemed the SAP complete and sufficient on November 21, 2017.
COP REVISION
On Dec. 5, 2024, BOEM received a COP revision from Vineyard Wind 1. The COP revision describes the activities that would be involved when removing the blades installed on up to 22 wind turbine generators before the July 13, 2024, blade failure at Wind Turbine Generator AW-38.
BOEM’s review of the COP revision encompassed both technical assessments and evaluations of the previous Vineyard Wind 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). BOEM also reviewed the COP revision for compliance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by completing a Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) based on the environmental analysis that was completed in the Vineyard Wind 1 FEIS.
On Jan.17, 2025, BOEM completed its review and approved the Vineyard Wind 1’s COP revision. The documents are available below:
On December 7, 2018, BOEM published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Vineyard Wind. As part of this process, BOEM held public hearings from February 11-15, 2019 in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The public comment period closed on February 22, 2019.
The input received via this process will be used to inform preparation of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).
Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement
On June 12, 2020, as a result of the comments received during the National Environmental Policy Act process, and in coordination with cooperating agencies, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was supplemented. The supplement analyzes reasonably foreseeable effects from an expanded cumulative activities scenario for offshore wind development. It also considers previously unavailable fishing data, a new transit lane alternative, and changes to the Construction and Operations Plan since publication of the Draft EIS. This supplement was informed by comments from a wide variety of stakeholders including state and local governments, federal agencies, industry, and the public.
BOEM has completed the environmental review of Vineyard Wind's proposed offshore wind project. Please find the four volumes of the Final Environmental Impact Statement below:
On December 1, 2020, BOEM received a letter from Vineyard Wind withdrawing its Construction and Operations Plan.
On January 22, 2021, Vineyard Wind submitted a letter rescinding its temporary Construction and Operations Plan (COP) withdrawal and requesting that BOEM resume review of the 800-megawatt wind energy project offshore Massachusetts.
Vineyard Wind had paused the Department’s consideration of its proposal while it reviewed whether the use of Haliade-X turbines warranted any modifications to their COP.
In February 2021, BOEM resumed the environmental review of the Vineyard Wind Project and proceeded with the development of a Final Environmental Impact Statement.
On March 30, 2018, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Vineyard Wind LLC (Vineyard Wind) that would allow it to construct and operate an 800 megawatt (MW) wind energy facility offshore Massachusetts.
The publication of the NOI opened a 30-day public comment period, which closed on April 30, 2018. Comments on the NOI can be found here. During the 30-day public comment period, BOEM held five public scoping meetings.
BOEM prepared a scoping report to review and catalogue the information and materials provided to BOEM during the scoping period for the proposed Vineyard Wind project. This report identifies substantive comments for consideration in the development of the EIS, and categorizes them based on the applicable resource areas or NEPA topics.
As part of the COP submission, Vineyard Wind prepared visual simulations of what their project would look like from various locations. These simulations were prepared as part of the larger Visual Impact Assessment which is Appendix III-H.a of the COP. For easier access, please find the project area of potential effects (APE) as well as visual simulations from Nantucket below.
In addition, Vineyard Wind prepared a night time video simulation and (Summer, Fall) daytime video simulations to show what the proposed offshore wind facility would look like under various conditions.
These video simulations were developed based on the draft Construction and Operations Plan submitted by Vineyard Wind in 2017. Note that this plan did not include mid-tower lighting on the turbines.
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