The country’s first large-scale wind farms are under design off the coast of Maryland and Massachusetts, while two other large projects in those states are in the early stages of development. Massachusetts utilities in late May issued a request for proposal for 200 MW to 800 MW of offshore wind. That's in addition to the $2-billion, 800-MW project now under development by Vineyard Wind 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Maryland legislation enacted in late May supports the construction of up to 1,200 MW of wind in addition to the 368 MW now under development at a cost of $2.1 billion. Ørsted is developing a 120-MW project for which it will use in-house design professionals. WSP and Wood Thilsted are designing the foundations for Vineyard Wind’s Massachusetts project. WSP is the overall project manager. Wood Thilsted’s foundation design has lowered the cost of offshore energy, co-founder Alastair Wood says. The Vineyard Wind project is one of the largest detailed design contracts ever let for offshore wind, WSP says. Another 600 MW has approval from Connecticut and Rhode Island for the Revolution Wind Farm developed by Orsted and Eversource. Rhode Island approved 400 MW of the project on May 31; on June 7, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.

Sargent & Lundy
NuScale Power
NuScale Power signed an agreement May 23 with Sargent & Lundy to develop the standard plant design for its modular nuclear power plant to give the company predictable cost and schedule performance prior to construction. Under the agreement, Sargent & Lundy will invest in NuScale and provide additional architect-engineer support. Fluor Corp., NuScale’s major investor, is the EPC entity for plant construction and also will work on aspects of the standard plant design. BWXT Technologies is providing design support; Framatome is providing the nuclear fuel design and the fuel fabrication services. The nuclear units can generate 60 MW of power.