Vineyard Wind offshore project changes hands

Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has acquired Offshore MW LLC, the holder of an offshore wind energy lease issued by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management over an area south of Massachusetts.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners describes itself as a fund management company founded in 2012. On August 25, 2016, CIP announced that on behalf of its fund Copenhagen Infrastructure II it had acquired 100% of Offshore MW LLC.

Acquired company Offshore MW LLC is developing the Vineyard Wind project over the Outer Continental Shelf south of Massachusetts.  The site is part of the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area originally designated by BOEM for leasing in 2012.  Offshore MW won the lease rights through a competitive lease auction held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on January 29, 2015, in which it submitted the winning bid for Lease Area OCS-A 0501.  That lease area covers 166,886 acres, or roughly 260 square miles of sea space in federal waters off Massachusetts. 

According to CIP, it will continue with the Massachusetts project's development.  The Vineyard Wind project could receive a boost from recently enacted Massachusetts legislation that will require utilities to purchase about 1,600 megawatts worth of offshore wind energy by 2027.  That law, known as H. 4568, "An Act to promote energy diversity," requires electric distribution companies to issue an initial joint competitive solicitation for offshore wind proposals by June 30, 2017.

DONG Energy proposes Massachusetts offshore wind farm

A subsidiary of Danish energy company DONG Energy has proposed an offshore wind development to be located in federal waters off the Massachusetts coast.  The "Bay State Wind" project would be a utility scale offshore wind farm, located 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard.

Largely owned by the Danish government, DONG is the world’s largest developer of offshore wind projects, reportedly having built over 3,000 megawatts or about a third of all installed offshore wind capacity in the world.  Other branches of the company engage in serving Danish customers, oil and natural gas exploration and production, and thermal power generation. 

Because the Bay State Wind project's site is over the outer continental shelf, it falls under federal jurisdiction for site leasing purposes under subsection 8(p) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.  The wind energy area in question was originally auctioned by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in January 2015.  In that January auction, RES America Developments, Inc. provisionally won the rights to Lease OCS-A 0500 (187,523 acres) with a winning bid of $281,285.  BOEM signed the commercial wind energy lease for the site on March 23, 2015, and the lease went into effect on April 1, 2015.

In April 2015, RES agreed to transfer the lease to DONG.  In accordance with BOEM's process for assigning a site lease, BOEM agreed to assign the lease to DONG Energy Massachusetts (U.S.) LLC on June 12.

According to DONG, full development of the Bay State Wind project might entail 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity.  Its lease area is adjacent to the wind energy area offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts won by Deepwater Wind in 2013 in BOEM's first competitive lease sale for offshore wind sites.

UK opens world's largest offshore wind farm

The United Kingdom has officially opened the London Array, the world's largest offshore wind project. 

Built by a consortium of developers including DONG Energy, utility E.ON, and Masdar, the $2.3 billion project consists of 175 Siemens 3.6-megawatt turbines with a nameplate capacity of 630 megawatts. Each turbine sports three blades with an overall diameter of 117 meters.  The project is located about 20 kilometers off London.

The project is owned by its lead developers.  DONG Energy, Denmark's largest energy company, owns 50%.  E.ON, parent of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility, owns 30%.  Masdar, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company, has a 20% stake in the project.

The addition of the London Array brings the United Kingdom to about 3.3 gigawatts of installed offshore wind capacity.