Ørsted and Eversource eye 2023 operations for South Fork US offshore wind farm after key decision

The US Department of the Interior (DOI) has given a key environmental approval to the proposed 132MW South Fork South Fork (132MW) Offshoreoff Long Island, New York, USA, North America Click to see full details offshore wind farm east of New York, paving the way for construction to start in early 2022.

South Fork Wind, a joint venture of Danish energy firm Ørsted and US utility Eversource, stated that plans to start construction on the 12-turbine, 132MW wind farm as soon as all permits are received early next year. The companies aim to start producing power at the end of 2023. 

The DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) gave its Record of Decision to the project on 24 November – a key hurdle for the project which will ultimately supply 70,000 homes in Long Island. The decision followed a final environmental impact statement in August. The final stage is approval of the construction and operations plan, which is expected in January.

South Fork is due to be New York state’s first operational offshore wind farm. The joint venture stated that it will start with onshore work on the project’s underground transmission line, while fabrication of the project’s offshore substation is already under way.

Installation of the twelve 11MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines is set to start in summer 2023, South Fork stated.

Ørsted’s CEO for offshore North America David Hardy said: “With the achievement of this critical federal permitting milestone, construction of this historic wind farm is expected to begin in the weeks and months ahead.”

Ørsted and Eversource set up their alliance in 2016 and have more than 4GW of offshore wind capacity in development, including the South Fork, 704MW Revolution Wind Revolution Wind (704MW) OffshoreRhode Island, USA, North America Click to see full details and 924MW Sunrise Wind Sunrise Wind (924MW) Offshoreoff Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA, North America Click to see full details wind farm projects. Ørsted operates the 30MW Block Island Block Island (30MW) OffshoreNew Shoreham, Rhode Island, USA, North America Click to see full details wind farm, the US’s first offshore wind farm. Both firms are committed to carbon neutrality — Ørsted by 2025 and Eversource by 2030.

The US in May gave approval to the first large US offshore wind farm, the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 project off Massachusetts, which is also due to start producing power in 2023. It broke ground this week. It will feature up to 84 turbines, with GE Renewable Energy named as preferred supplier to provide its Haliade-X turbines for the project.

The US is targeting 30GW of offshore wind power capacity by 2030.