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Aug 20, 2023

Final piece — ‘the heart of the turbine’ — arrives in New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD — Wind power nacelles from France reached the port early Monday morning — marking the arrival of the final complements to the massive wind turbine blades and towers that have aggregated at

NEW BEDFORD — Wind power nacelles from France reached the port early Monday morning — marking the arrival of the final complements to the massive wind turbine blades and towers that have aggregated at the Marine Commerce Terminal over the last two months.

No nacelles were visible on the ship, but a Vineyard Wind spokesperson said Monday that there were a few on board, and that they may be unloaded Tuesday.

The nacelle — which can be as big as a small house — sits atop the turbine towers and contains the machinery that converts wind energy into electricity, which is set to reach Massachusetts as early as October, according to wind officials.

“The nacelle is the heart of the turbine because it’s where the rotary motion gets turned into electrical power,” said Eric Hines, a professor who directs an offshore wind energy program at Tufts University. “The ones being installed in Vineyard Wind right now are the largest offshore wind turbines on either side of the Atlantic.”

“It’s going to be very good for people to understand what it is that’s being built and how it works,” he said, noting the hurricane barrier is a great place to see the wind turbine parts up close.

Just as with other transits by major carriers, Portuguese-flagged UHL Fame (the sister ship of UHL Felicity) glided through the narrow hurricane barrier opening, and was assisted by two tugboats while navigating to the terminal.

Ships from Portugal, Canada and now France have been calling on the Port of New Bedford, and will continue to do so through the fall as Vineyard Wind ramps up construction of what is slated to be the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.

The nacelles for Cape Wind, a failed project that was set to be the first tenant of the New Bedford terminal years ago, would have been 3.6 megawatts, with 130 in total. In less than a decade, turbine technology has grown in capacity and size: the GE Haliade-X nacelles for the Vineyard Wind project are 13 megawatts, and number at 62.

Now that the three main components have arrived at the New Bedford staging site, Vineyard Wind will soon start shipping out partially constructed turbines one-by-one atop barges for offshore installation.

As of early August, at least 21 blades (enough for seven turbines) and several tower components could be seen on site — and from afar.

Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller previously told The Light that the 30-acre terminal has enough space to hold just under 20 full turbines. Sending components to the lease site for installation will open space for more parts to arrive from international waters.

Under the Jones Act, passed in 1920, only U.S.-flagged and built ships are permitted to move cargo, such as turbine parts, from one point in the United States to another.

As a result, unlike the shipping in of components from overseas that used foreign-flagged vessels, the shipping out of the turbines must utilize U.S.-flagged feeder barges from Foss, a company building a wind terminal just north of the Marine Commerce Terminal.

At the lease site offshore, the barge will meet the Sea Installer, a foreign-flagged, specialized jack-up installation vessel, equipped with a crane that will remove the parts from the barge. The ship has four legs that stretch to the seabed and keep it fixed.

Turbines the height of 70-story skyscrapers will soon tower over East Coast fishing grounds. But government regulators with ties to offshore wind developers are downplaying the danger to the marine ecosystem and fishermen’s livelihoods.

It will install the tower, then the nacelle, and then the three blades, according to a DEME spokesperson, the company behind the installation vessel. The process from loading the barge in New Bedford to installation and sailing back to port with the empty barge is expected to take four to seven days.

The offshore installation vessel, which has a gym, recreation room and helideck, can accommodate about 90 people, including engineers, electricians, the project team, riggers, and representatives from the turbine manufacturer.

Crew aboard may work four to six-week shifts offshore. In total, they will install 62 turbines spaced one-nautical mile apart and about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Initially, the project will send power generated by six turbines to the state’s electrical grid, with plans to ramp it up to between 200 and 300 megawatts by the end 2023, and to the full 800 megawatts by mid-2024, State House News Service reported this month.

Mayor Jon Mitchell in a statement said the arrival of the nacelles is a project milestone and a “historic first” for New Bedford: “It is a further demonstration of the Port’s robust capacity to support the staging of the full range of turbine components, from tower sections and transition assemblies, to blades and, now, nacelles.”

A GE Vernova Offshore Wind spokesperson said they are focused on staging the components in New Bedford so they can be sent to the lease site and installed in the coming weeks and months.

Email Anastasia E. Lennon at [email protected].