New York’s First Offshore Wind Farm Marks ‘Steel in the Water’

New York’s first offshore wind farm has reached a significant milestone with the start of offshore construction.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that South Fork Wind project has marked its first “steel in the water” with the installation of the project’s first monopile foundation. In the coming days, crews will install the project’s U.S.-built offshore substation.

The project remains on-track to become the first utility-scale offshore wind farm to be completed in U.S. federal waters when it begins operations by the end of this year. It is being developed by a 50/50 partnership between Ørsted and Eversource.

Once completed, the 132-megawatt (MW) wind farm, consisting of 12 wind turbines, will generate enough renewable energy to power roughly 70,000 homes.

The project’s construction will support hundreds of U.S. jobs and involve three Northeast ports, including New London, Connecticut and New Bedford, Massachusetts, through late fall. Foundation components for South Fork Wind were fabricated in Providence, Rhode Island.

Foundation installation is being performed by Boskalis’s Bokalift 2, a Cyprus-flagged DP-2 crane vessel. During the construction phase, construction and transport barges, tugboats, crew vessels, and protected special observer monitoring vessels will be active at the offshore construction site approximately 35 miles east of Montauk, New York.

“New York is leading offshore wind development and building a green economy that will support hundreds of good-paying jobs and benefit generations to come,” Governor Hochul said. “This progress on building the first utility-scale offshore wind project in the country cements New York as a national hub for the offshore wind industry.”

First approved by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) in 2017, South Fork Wind was selected under a 2015 request for proposals to address growing energy needs on the east end of Long Island.

The South Fork Wind milestone follows the first steel in the water at the larger Vineyard Wind development earlier this month. Located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, the 800-megawatt  project will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. The project is expected to begin full operations in 2024.

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