March14 (newbedfordlight.org) A crew of Americans and Europeans, assisted by a heavy lift crane and high-tech bolting tools, hoisted and secured the 186th and final blade at Vineyard Wind on Friday, closing the lengthy chapter on the project installation, and cementing the “Forever First” project as the second but now largest commercial-scale offshore wind farm to power American homes.
Though South Fork Wind beat it to full power, Vineyard Wind was the first to go through some of the key regulatory processes. The project, which began with a lease auction in 2015, was marked by high-profile incidents and wound up not once, but twice, subject to a presidential administration that really doesn’t like it.
Its development spanned a whopping four presidential administrations, illustrating the industry’s significant vulnerability to the swinging political pendulum that can upend anything from permitting to tax subsidies.
After costly suspensions and delays, Vineyard Wind in recent weeks has been racing to get its final blades in the water before losing its installation vessel on March 31 — and before any final court action was taken in its pending lawsuit against the Trump administration over alleged national security concerns.
The final blade was installed early Friday evening, a worker on the project told The Light.
Though the wind farm is physically installed, a few more boxes need to be checked before it pushes the lever to full operation. An unknown number of turbines, the last to be installed, will have to undergo commissioning and testing before they can be brought online.
Vineyard Wind did not respond to questions. In a statement Friday night, spokesperson Craig Gilvarg confirmed the project “completed its offshore construction program” and continues to deliver power to the grid.
Mayor Jon Mitchell, whose championing of offshore wind dates back more than a decade, highlighted the city’s central role in the project.
“The completion of the Vineyard Wind project represents the closing argument of the case we have been making for years: that New Bedford is well-suited to be a center of the offshore wind industry,” Mitchell said in a written statement. “No matter when the next projects are ready to proceed, we and our many partners have shown that the industry can successfully compete and operate projects from here while working cooperatively with the fishing industry.”
Read full article: https://newbedfordlight.org/vineyard-wind-completes-installation/
Brazil Energy Insight 
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