offshore wind

The tower, three blades and nacelle weigh more than 1,700 tons.

As a golden sunrise lights up New Bedford’s commercial fishing fleet, an unusual passenger ship is steaming out of the harbor toward Vineyard Wind.

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.

They are the third and last major component — along with tower sections and blades — to arrive before the first turbines can be installed.

Commonwealth parent company Avangrid sought to renegotiate the contracts last year, saying costs had risen too high. But the state refused.

The Conservation Commission hearing will deal with the company’s plan to tunnel electrical cables under the west end of Craigville Beach and the Centerville River.

Workers stacked the blades three high on the far side of the offshore wind terminal, where they will wait to be ferried out to the wind farm starting this summer.

The action by SouthCoast Wind follows Commonwealth Wind, which made the same decision late last year.

Dignitaries gathered at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal on Thursday to celebrate the arrival of wind-turbine components for Vineyard Wind.

This week: Vineyard Wind takes delivery of the very first pieces for its very first offshore wind tower. The machine gun range gets a hearing with the EPA. And now we know what’s in the water that nuclear plant owner Holtec wants to dump into Cape Cod Bay. A big week in news!