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South Fork Wind turbine installation. Photo Credit: South Fork Wind

On Nov. 20, New York completed installation of the first offshore wind turbine for South Fork Wind, to be a utility-scale wind farm in U.S. federal waters. Once completed, the 130-megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm will address a growing reliability challenge for Long Island’s electrical grid, while also generating enough renewable energy to power approximately 70,000 homes, eliminating up to six million tons of carbon emissions, or the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road annually over a 25-year period. The development supports progress toward the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install 9 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2035.

The first of South Fork Wind’s 12 Siemens Gamesa (Zamudio, Spain) wind turbine generators was hoisted into place by the offshore construction team at the project site 35 miles off Montauk, New York. Hundreds of U.S. 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 jobs across the northeast. All 12 turbines are expected to be installed by the end of 2023 or early 2024.

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“We congratulate our partners at Ørsted, Eversource and LIPA as this first turbine at South Fork Wind represents a momentous milestone in our efforts to bring the benefits of clean, renewable offshore wind energy to New York,” Nyserda president and CEO Doreen M. Harris says.

First approved by the LIPA 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 the local energy grid, which was completed early this year. The wind farm reached its “steel in the water” milestone in June 2023 with the installation of the project’s first monopile foundation.

Maritime company Van Oord’s (Rotterdam, Netherlands) offshore installation vessel, the Aeolus, is installing the turbines. Turbine installation involves using a crane to place the steel turbine tower onto the foundation. The nacelle and rotor are then installed on top of the tower. Lastly, the blades are lifted and installed one by one by bolting them to the rotor. 

Once in operation, South Fork Wind will be supported by U.S.-built crew transfer vessels and eventually by the U.S.’ first offshore wind Service Operations Vessel.

The announcement builds on the momentum established by the New York governor’s  earlier this month, which publicized the largest state investment in renewable energy in U.S. history. The conditional awards included three offshore wind and 22 land-based renewable energy projects totaling 6.4 GW of clean energy, enough to power 2.6 million New York homes and deliver approximately 12% of New York’s electricity needs once completed. When coupled with two marquee offshore wind blade and nacelle manufacturing facilities, this portfolio of newly announced projects is expected to create approximately 8,300 family sustaining jobs and spur $20 billion in economic development investments statewide, including developer-committed investments to support disadvantaged communities.

Learn about other U.S. offshore wind project announcements, “U.S. sets offshore energy records with $4.37 billion in winning bids for wind sale.”