Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind energy developer vying to build the first utility-scale project off the coast of Massachusetts, has named Lars Thaaning Pedersen as its new CEO and Iain Henderson as CFO.
Erich Stephens, who has led the development of the project since 2014, will become Vineyard Wind’s Chief Development Officer, and will continue his work focusing on the pre-construction development of the project.
According to the company, the executive team additions were part of a long-planned evolution by project owners Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Avangrid Renewables aimed at bolstering the team with industry experts with a long track record of constructing and operating projects in Europe.
Before being named Vineyard Wind’s CEO, Pedersen served as the project director for Vineyard Wind on behalf of Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP), the offshore wind development company of CIP. Prior to COP, Pedersen was an executive at DONG Energy for about ten years, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Market Development & Asset Management.
Pedersen said: “With Erich’s unrivaled experience developing offshore wind in the US, leading the Vineyard Wind project from its inception, and the addition of Iain to our team, we believe we will be able to soon deliver the best possible offshore wind project for Massachusetts. We’re looking forward to building the offshore wind industry here in New England and I am excited to be a part of the team.”
Prior to joining Vineyard Wind, Henderson was the Head of Regulated Transactions for Scottish Power’s Renewables business unit for seven years, while he had been with the company for a total of 18 years. Henderson managed the divestment of offshore transmission assets of the company and managed agreements with joint venture partners.
Vineyard Wind is one of three companies that has acquired lease rights to build wind projects off the coast of Massachusetts.
The project area is located about 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Last summer, Massachusetts required utilities to procure 1,600MW of offshore wind energy within the next decade.
Besides Vineyard Wind, DONG Energy and Deepwater Wind proposed to develop wind projects offshore Massachusetts.