EGN NEWS DESK
America’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm is lastly completed, marking an vital milestone in what’s shaping as much as be a busy 12 months for the rising U.S. business.
On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) introduced the completion of South Fork Wind, a 132-megawatt undertaking by Danish vitality big Ørsted and Boston-based utility Eversource. All 12 of the wind farm’s towering generators are actually in place and producing sufficient clear electrical energy to energy roughly 70,000 houses in Long Island, New York.
“With extra tasks within the pipeline, that is only the start of New York’s offshore wind future,” Hochul stated at an occasion within the waterfront city of Southampton, which was additionally attended by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Construction on South Fork Wind final 12 months represented a uncommon brilliant spot for the in any other case embattled U.S. offshore wind sector. Financial hardships and logistical challenges in 2023 hammered undertaking builders, together with Ørsted, resulting in the delay or cancellation of round 12,000 megawatts (12 gigawatts) of offshore wind farms.
Experts say the setbacks make it more and more unlikely that the nation will meet the Biden administration’s purpose of putting in 30 GW of offshore wind by the tip of this decade. To date, the U.S. has put in simply over 240 MW of capability — together with from the South Fork Wind Farm, plus handfuls of generators spinning off Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia.
Still, the business appears to be gaining its footing this 12 months, notably as rates of interest enhance and supply-chain logjams begin to clear.
“I see each indication that there’s developer confidence within the sector,” Theodore Paradise, an legal professional specializing in offshore wind on the regulation agency Ok&L Gates, instructed Canary Media.
Two different tasks are at present underneath building: Avangrid’s 806 MW Vineyard Wind farm in Massachusetts, which is already producing energy from 5 generators, and Ørsted’s 704 MW Revolution Wind farm, which is able to provide electrical energy to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Meanwhile, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are planning to collectively solicit proposals for as much as 6 GW of offshore wind capability, probably later this month. Those three states — together with Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — are additionally working to develop regional transmission infrastructure that serves a number of tasks, as an alternative of the present, costlier follow of constructing transmission traces for particular person wind farms.
