The specialized ship that will install the offshore wind turbines for Vineyard Wind arrived in Massachusetts on Tuesday.
The Sea Installer docked in Salem to prepare for work on the wind farm. It was recently outfitted with a larger crane to handle increasingly larger wind turbines, including the General Electric Haliade-X model used by Vineyard Wind.
The ship is owned by Belgium-based maritime infrastructure company DEME. It will not stop in New Bedford. At more than 430 feet long and about 150 feet wide, it is too large to pass through the hurricane barrier.
Instead, it will head to the site of the wind farm, 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Once there, the ship will jack itself up on four hydraulic legs to create a fixed platform.
Local barges will ferry the turbine parts out from New Bedford, and workers will use the crane to install the parts on foundations that are already in place.
The work is expected to begin within a few weeks.
Vineyard Wind 1 hopes to be the first large-scale offshore wind farm to generate power in the United States.
Another offshore wind farm, South Fork Wind, is under construction southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.
