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South Fork Wind powers up a new era for US clean energy
20/3/2024
The first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in US federal waters has been commissioned, with all 12 offshore wind turbines delivering power to Long Island and the Rockaways, offshore New York. Meanwhile, the US government has approved country’s first offshore wind project, Empire 1, to connect directly into the New York City transmission system.
Developed by a joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource Energy, the 130 MW South Fork Wind project is the first utility-scale wind development to be commissioned offshore the US. It aims to address a growing reliability challenge for Long Island’s electrical grid, while also supporting progress towards the New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install 9 GW of offshore wind by 2035. The Act mandates a target of zero emission electricity by 2040, including 70% renewable energy generation by 2030, as a move towards carbon neutrality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85% from 1990 levels by 2050.
South Fork Wind is expected to eliminate up to 6mn tonnes of carbon emissions over the life of the project, according to Ørsted.
The project also includes the first US-built offshore wind substation, fabricated by Kiewit Offshore Services at its Ingleside facility near Corpus Christi, Texas.
The wind farm ‘marks a historic milestone’, according to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul. She continued: ‘With more projects in the pipeline, this is just the beginning of New York’s offshore wind future.’
President Joe Biden’s goal is to deploy 30 GW of wind energy capacity offshore the US by 2030.
Meanwhile, the US government recently approved the Empire 1 offshore wind farm grid connection. According to developer Equinor, the large generator interconnection agreement (LGIA) executed between the project, the New York independent system operation (NYISO) and Consolidated Edison Company of New York marks the first Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for any offshore wind project to connect directly into the New York City transmission system.
Empire Wind 1 will connect through the Sunset Park onshore substation at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) into the New York City electrical grid at Con Edison’s Gowanus substation.
The project’s two phases, Empire Wind 1 and 2, have a potential capacity of more than 2 GW (810 MW + 1,260 MW).
Equinor reports that Empire Wind stands to ‘play a critical role in establishing New York as a world-class hub for the offshore wind industry’, including the transformation of the SBMT into an offshore wind industry assembly facility, as well as an operations and maintenance (O&M) base.
