(NEW YORK) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced the successful delivery of clean power to Long Island from the first operational wind turbine at South Fork Wind, marking a historic milestone of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters to begin “powering up” in the United States.
The project has completed the installation of two turbines, with one operational, approximately 35 miles off Montauk with all 12 turbines expected to be installed by early 2024. Wednesday’s announcement supports progress toward the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.
This milestone, which comes just two weeks after the installation of New York’s first offshore wind turbine, was celebrated in East Hampton alongside joint-venture partners Orsted and Eversource, state, county and local officials, advocates and community members.
When complete, South Fork Wind will generate approximately 130 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power approximately 70,000 Long Island homes. The renewable energy from South Fork Wind will eliminate up to 6 million tons of carbon emissions each year, the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road.
South Fork Wind began construction in February 2022, beginning with the onshore export cable system. The wind farm reached its “steel in the water” milestone in June 2023 with the installation of the project’s first monopile foundation. Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel, Aeolus, is installing the turbines.
South Fork Wind includes the first U.S.-built offshore wind substation. More than 350 U.S. workers across three states supported construction of this offshore substation, a topside structure that collects the power produced by wind turbines and connects it to the grid. New York union workers supported its installation offshore.
“East Hampton has now made history as the first community in New York to receive clean energy from an offshore wind farm,” said David Hardy, Orsted group executive vice president and CEO, Americas. “South Fork Wind is not just a trailblazing project for the state, it’s also one of the foundations of America’s offshore wind energy industry and a testament to our team’s commitment, expertise and hard work. Thanks to the leadership of the Biden and Hochul administrations, and our state and local partners and supporters, South Fork Wind is powering up and setting the stage for a growing American industry.”
“South Fork Wind is a project by New Yorkers, for New Yorkers,” said Eversource Energy Chairman, President and CEO Joe Nolan said. “Clean, renewable offshore wind energy is now flowing to the local grid in East Hampton thanks especially to the hard work of local union workers and contractors who helped us build South Fork Wind’s transmission system and onshore substation. This has been a year of firsts for New York’s offshore wind industry, and there’s a lot more to come in the weeks ahead for this groundbreaking project and the growth of the U.S. offshore wind sector.”
– South Fork Wind
