Construction Begins At New York’s First Offshore Wind Farm
South Fork Wind has shipped the first offshore wind turbine from the Port of New London, Connecticut, to the project’s offshore site, marking the start of the final construction phase for the New York-first offshore wind farm. The first of South Fork Wind’s 12 Siemens Gamesa wind turbine generators — pre-assembled tower sections, a nacelle, and three blades each longer than a football field — was loaded onto a transport barge destined for the project site 35 miles (56.3 km) off Montauk, New York. The first turbine will be installed later in November.
Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind is making progress toward delivering clean offshore wind power to Long Island in 2023. The wind farm supports New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to develop 9000 MW of offshore wind by 2035 as required by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act).
Hundreds of US workers and three Northeast ports have supported South Fork Wind’s construction, helping to stand up the foundations of a new domestic supply chain that’s creating local union jobs across the Northeast. Once completed, the 130-MW offshore wind farm will generate enough renewable energy to power roughly 70,000 Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) customers, while eliminating up to 6 million tons (5.44 million tonnes) of carbon emissions, or the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road annually over a 25-year period.
“South Fork Wind is a trailblazing project for American clean energy,” said David Hardy, group executive vice president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Americas at Ørsted. “The upcoming installation of this first turbine has been nearly a decade in the making and will stand as a testament not just to our hardworking teams but also to all those who have long supported this historic project. We have busy weeks ahead, but we’re now closer to fulfilling the promise of clean energy for Long Island’s East End and the growth of a new industry for New York.”
“A project like South Fork Wind represents the next generation of renewable energy in the United States and years of hard work by our partners and us to make today a reality,” said Marc Becker, Offshore CEO at Siemens Gamesa. “We look forward to continuing to buildout this project, alongside Ørsted and Eversource, to generate and deliver 130 MW of clean electricity to the people of New York.”
First approved by LIPA’s Board of Trustees in 2017, South Fork Wind began construction in February 2022, beginning with the onshore export cable system that links the project to LIPA’s energy grid. The wind farm reached its “steel in the water” milestone in June 2023 and has completed the onshore substation, and installation offshore of the turbine foundations, advanced foundation components, the first US-built offshore wind substation, and the array and export cables that bring the power to shore.
Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel, the Aeolus, will install the turbines.
Once in operations, South Fork Wind will be supported by US-built crew transfer vessels and eventually by America’s first offshore wind Service Operations Vessel. The wind farm’s construction has already been served by the first helicopters supporting the US offshore wind industry, based out of Quonset State Airport, Rhode Island.
