Vineyard Wind has extended APEM’s contract to complete a second year of monthly surveys for the company’s lease area off the coast of Massachusetts.
The 800MW JV between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in due to come on stream in 2023.
In 2019 APEM was commissioned for a year of monthly wildlife surveys which were delivered on time despite facing challenging circumstances brought about by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Vineyard’s director of environmental affairs Matt Robertson said: “We are pleased to extend our relationship with APEM for an additional year.
“The APEM team has been a pleasure to work with and continue to deliver on time while keeping safety the first priority.”
Expected to be the first commercial offshore wind project in the US, Vineyard Wind is located south of Martha’s Vineyard and will provide power more than 400,000 homes.
The monthly surveys provide high quality baseline information on the species that utilise the area to be used in environmental assessment reports.
The images generated are of the highest quality and provide sufficient detail to allow the identification to species level of separate groups such as terns, according to APEM.
APEM president Dr Stuart Clough said: “It has been a very challenging period given travel restrictions resulting from CV19, and our primary focus has been to ensure the safety of our staff and subcontractors.
“I am proud that the team has been able to safely and successfully continue to deliver our surveys, and I’m looking forward to continuing our successful working relationship with Vineyard Wind for a second year.”
Vineyard Wind decided to temporarily withdraw its Construction and Operations Plan from further review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in December.
The move was to allow the project team to conduct a final technical review associated with the inclusion of the Haliade-X into the final project design.