It has been far from plain sailing for the USA’s fledgling offshore wind sector in recent times, with cost escalation, supply chain problems, impairments, write-downs and cancellations, latterly due to GE Vernova deciding to pull back from its 18MW offshore turbine offering and to focus on its 15.5MW machine (upgradeable to 16.5MW).
Amidst the turbulence, it is worth noting one important milestone, achieved in March 2024, the completion of South Fork Wind, about 35 miles off the coast of Montauk, described by its developers as the USA’s first commercial-scale and/or utility-scale offshore wind farm. With an installed capacity of 132MW, employing twelve SG 11.0-200 DD wind turbines supplied by Siemens Gamesa, it is at the low end of the commercial/utility scale, but nevertheless a significant achievement.
Speaking of the project’s successful completion, National Climate Advisor to President Biden, Ali Zaidi said, “Instead of denying climate change, the Biden-Harris Administration is building the infrastructure that allows us to take on this crisis.”
South Fork Wind has been developed and constructed as a joint venture of Ørsted (which operates America’s first offshore wind farm, the 30MW, five-turbine Block Island facility) and Eversource. In February 2024 Eversource announced that it had executed a definitive agreement to sell its 50% ownership share in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
First approved by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) Board of Trustees in 2017, South Fork Wind entered the construction phase in February 2022, beginning with the onshore export cable system that links the project to the Long Island electric grid. The wind farm reached its “steel in the water” milestone in June 2023 with the installation of the project’s first monopile foundation, and its final turbine was installed in February 2024.
South Fork Wind’s completion supports progress, albeit a relatively modest step, towards New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requirements, which target 70% renewable energy by 2030 and the installation of 9 GW of offshore wind by 2035.
South Fork Wind’s turbines were staged and assembled at State Pier in New London, Connecticut. The project’s foundation components were completed at Ørsted and Eversource’s fabrication hub at ProvPort, in Rhode Island. Crew vessels and the crew change helicopter was based in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
The project includes the first US-built offshore wind substation.
Long Island-based contractor Haugland Energy Group installed the underground duct bank system for the onshore transmission line and led the construction of the project’s onshore interconnection. LS Cable installed and joined the onshore cables with support from Long Island’s Elecnor Hawkeye.
Roman Stone, also on Long Island, manufactured concrete mattresses to protect the undersea cables, and Ljungstrom, located in western New York, in partnership with Riggs Distler & Company, provided specialised structural steelwork.
Meanwhile, progress is being made towards bringing the USA’s first large-scale offshore wind facility, the 806MW Vineyard Wind I farm, fully into operation, which is considered achievable by the end of 2024/early 2025??. It will employ 62 GE Vernova Haliade-X wind turbines rated at 13MW each.
A 50/50 joint venture of Avangrid (member of the Iberdrola Group) and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), first power from Vineyard Wind I, which is located off the coast of Massachusetts –15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 34 miles south of the Cape Cod peninsula – was delivered to the grid in January 2024.
Once commercial operation is achieved, Iberdrola will assume responsibility for the operation and management of the wind farm under an agreement reached with CIP.
Vineyard Wind I has been supported by a $3bn investment guaranteed through contracts with three key energy providers.
Construction began on Vineyard Wind I in November 2021, the project has reached a $2.3bn financing agreement with nine global lending banks, the first financial close for a commercial-scale offshore wind project in the USA. The financing included a long-term power purchase agreement and an electricity interconnection programme, and allowed construction to begin, with the aim of starting to supply clean electricity to Massachusetts in 2023.
After achieving all necessary permits, among them, approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and culminating in final authorisation from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Vineyard Wind executed an agreement with ISO New England to connect its generation into the New England electric power grid – at the NSTAR 115kV switch station in Barnstable, Massachusetts – and signed long-term energy sale agreements with Massachusetts electricity distribution companies.
In October 2023, Avangrid and CIP announced that Vineyard Wind I had closed a $1.2 billion first-of-its-kind tax equity package for commercial-scale offshore wind with three US-based banks.
Windar Renovables has been responsible for manufacturing the project’s 62 wind turbine foundations at its plant in Asturias (Spain), a contract worth around 100 million euros.
Prysmian Group, after entering into an agreement worth 200 million euros, was responsible for the submarine cabling system connecting the offshore wind farm with the continental US power transmission grid. The project required a total of 134 km of high-voltage AC cable.
US company Southwire was in charge of the design, manufacture and installation of the more than 51 kilometres of high voltage overland cable.
In July 2023, the installation of the offshore substation that will serve the entire Vineyard Wind I project was completed, the first of its kind installed by Iberdrola in the USA.
This article first appeared in Modern Power Systems magazine.
