Vestas named preferred supplier for 2.1GW offshore wind in US

Danish manufacturer Vestas has been pre-selected to supply its 15MW turbines for the 816MW Empire Wind 1 Empire Wind 1 (816MW) Offshoreoff Long Island , New York, USA, North America Click to see full details and 1260MW Empire Wind 2 Empire Wind 2 (1260MW) Offshoreoff Long Island, New York, USA, North America Click to see full details projects off Long Island, New York state.

The deal, one of the largest preferred supplier agreements for offshore wind power in the US, covers the supply of 138 V236-15.0MW turbines, which, according to Vestas, will become the largest and most powerful turbine model in the world when a prototype is installed off Denmark in the second half of 2022. 

Vestas has already been pre-selected by utility-developer EnBW to supply its 15MW turbine to the 900MW He Dreiht He Dreiht (900MW) Offshorenorth of Borkum, Germany, Europe Click to see full details project in the German North Sea, where turbine installation is due to begin in the second quarter of 2025.

The 2.1GW Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 offshore wind projects are a joint venture between Equinor and BP, located 15-30 miles (24-38km) off the coast of Long Island. The developers this month filed a request with US energy regulator Ferc to extend the start-up deadline of Empire Wind 1 by 18 months to late 2026.

Equinor executive vice-president Arne Sigve Nylund said: “We are delighted to select our preferred supplier for what will be the largest contract in the Empire Wind project. The turbines have the highest rated capacity available in the market today, which is a great fit for the high ambitions we have in this project.” 

In early 2021, Norwegian state-run energy firm Equinor and oil major BP completed a deal for BP to acquire a 50% stake in Empire Wind and the 1230MW Beacon Wind 1 Beacon Wind 1 (1230MW) Offshoreoff Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA, North America Click to see full details project — situated south of Massachusetts, for $1.1 billion — marking BP’s first foray into offshore wind.

Equinor is targeting 4-6GW of renewables capacity by 2026 and 12-16GW by 2035. BP is aiming to expand its renewable capacity from 2.5GW in 2019 to 20GW by 2025 and to around 50GW by 2030.

The US is aiming to install 30GW of offshore wind power by 2030, with New York targeting 9GW of offshore capacity by 2035.