Ørsted has announced it will scrap plans to build the Ocean 1 and 2 projects offshore New Jersey, US, as part of an ongoing review of the company’s US offshore wind portfolio.

‘Macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically over a short period of time, with high inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain bottlenecks impacting our long-term capital investments. As a result, we have no choice but to cease development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2,’ said David Hardy, Ørsted’s Group Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer – Americas.

Meanwhile, in more positive news, the company announced that along with its joint venture partner Eversource, a final investment decision (FID) has now been taken on the 704 MW Revolution Wind project, offshore Rhode Island. Once complete, Revolution Wind will deliver 400 MW of power to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut, powering more than 350,000 homes across the two states.

Also in the US, New York’s first offshore wind farm, South Fork Wind (another Ørsted/Eversource partnership), has entered the final construction phase with the shipping of the first offshore wind turbine from Connecticut to the project’s site, 35 miles off Montauk, New York. Once completed, it will have a capacity of 130 MW and will generate enough renewable energy to power roughly 70,000 customers.

UK consumer-owned wind farm under construction 
Meanwhile, in the UK, construction of the country’s largest consumer-owned wind farm has begun at the Kirk Hill Wind Farm, in Kirkoswald, Ayrshire.

Managed and run by Ripple Energy, the wind farm will have a total capacity of 18.8 MW, with the potential to power around 20,000 households and businesses. In less than 10 minutes, the site will be able to generate enough electricity to power a home for a year, and will save an estimated 31,760 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.

More than 5,600 members from households and businesses across Scotland, England and Wales part own Kirk Hill. Once operational in early 2024, the average predicted first year bill savings for members is £269.

Blades have begun to be lifted onto the eight turbines at the Kirk Hill wind farm, Scotland

Photo: Ripple Energy 

Offshore wind strategic alliance launched 
In other news, RES, GEV Wind Power, Outreach Offshore and Rix Renewables have launched the Offshore Wind O&M Partnership (OWOP) – a collective of complementary service companies based in the UK – to supply a complete package of operations and maintenance (O&M) services to offshore wind asset owners.

By creating a ‘one stop shop’ for all core O&M services, the partnership claims to offer ‘a coordinated approach that aims to minimise shutdowns and maximise asset performance’. Through one contract, asset owners will have access to all typical turbine, blade, substation and balance of plant operations and maintenance services as well as workboats and digital tools.

New offshore wind plans for Greece  
HEREMA has announced a draft National Offshore Wind Farms Development Programme for Greece. The programme defines eligible areas and estimates the capacity of projects that can be developed, in the mid-term (up to 2030–2032) and long-term (after 2030–2032) horizon. The draft includes 25 areas, covering a total area of 2,712 km² and with an estimated minimum capacity of 12.4 GW. The majority of the proposed offshore areas are said to be suitable for floating wind technology.

Swedish wind capacity increases 
Meanwhile, Vattenfall has taken an investment decision to start building an onshore wind farm in Velinga, outside Tidaholm, in the south of Sweden. Construction will start before the year end, with the wind farm ready to be commissioned in early 2026. Velinga will have an output of 67 MW and an annual production of approximately 173 GWh.

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