Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc., and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), has announced that Jan De Nul Group, together with its subcontractor JDR Cable Systems part of the TFKable Group, had been selected to supply and install the roughly 130 miles of inter-array cables for the Vineyard Wind 1 project. The 66kV inter-array cables connecting 62 GE Haliade-X turbines will transfer electricity to an offshore substation for transmission to the grid, according to the company's release.
Part of the contract calls for installation support and subsea training to individuals with an electrical background, creating approximately 40 new full-time jobs in Massachusetts to ensure skilled labor is available locally to support the project and its ongoing maintenance, as well as the US wind industry.
Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and will be the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. The project will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will create 3,600 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) job-years over the life of the project, including the more than 500 union construction jobs covered by the recently announced Project Labor Agreement.