US in commercial offshore wind first

Once final tests are completed in the coming weeks, South Fork Wind in New York state will be providing 132 MW of green electricity to the grid, enough to power more than 70,000 homes and businesses.

“The US offshore wind industry now enters a new phase with its first operational commercial-scale wind farm,” said Liz Burdock, founder and chief executive of Oceantic Network, the member-network dedicated to promoting offshore wind in the US.

“Now the question is no longer if we can, but how fast we can.”

A joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource, the project features important firsts for the US market – export cables manufactured at a South Carolina plant, an offshore substation fabricated in Texas, and the first US service operation vessel which will soon launch in Louisiana.

A new facility produced offshore turbine components in Rhode Island, and turbines were assembled at a rebuilt port in Connecticut. Dozens more companies provided services such as stevedoring, engineering and construction.

The completion of South Fork brings the total offshore wind capacity in the States to 242 MW (accounting for five operational turbines in Massachusetts).

With the completion of Vineyard Wind, that number will rise to 974 MW. A further 8,300 MW has been approved for installation and states have entered contracts for over 16,000 MW of offshore wind power generation.