US marks power milestone
Turning blades send first commercial wind-generated electricity onto national grid
NEW LONDON, Conn. — Off the coast of eastern Long Island, an 800-foot tall turbine has begun sending electricity onto the U.S. grid from what’s set to be the country’s first commercial offshore wind farm.
It’s a milestone many years in the making and, at the same time, a modest advance in what experts say needs to be a major buildout of this type of clean electricity to address climate change.
On Wednesday, Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource announced the first electricity from what will be a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind, 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York. It will be New York’s first offshore wind farm.
Ørsted and Eversource met Wednesday with New York officials to celebrate this “first power” milestone, in East Hampton, New York, where the wind farm connects to the onshore electric grid. They say the achievement builds a foundation for other large U.S. offshore wind farms that will follow.
So far, two of the 11-megawatt turbines are up. The second is undergoing testing, then it can begin producing power too. When the other 10 are spinning and South Fork opens by early next year, it will be able to generate 132 megawatts of offshore wind energy to power more than 70,000 homes.
The first power announcement is “an incredible moment in the American clean energy story,” said Stephanie McClellan, executive director of the nonprofit Turn Forward, which advocates for offshore wind. She said South Fork will be a source of clean, reliable, domestically-produced energy.
“This is just the beginning of what offshore wind can do,” she said in a statement.
Offshore wind is central to New York’s plan to transition to a carbon-free electricity system by 2040. The state aims to install 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.
Large offshore wind farms have been making electricity for three decades in Europe, and more recently in Asia. The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. The application was submitted to the federal government in 2001. It failed after years of local opposition and litigation.
Turbines began turning off Rhode Island’s Block Island in 2016. But with just five of them, it’s not a commercial-scale wind farm.
Two commercial offshore wind farms are under construction in the United States: South Fork Wind and Vineyard Wind. Vineyard Wind will be a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. It has not started generating power yet, the developer said Monday. They’re installing and testing five turbines first.
At State Pier in New London, Connecticut, blades and massive tower sections for South Fork are lined up, ready to leave port for the sea where they’ll be erected in the coming weeks. The nacelles that house the generator for each wind turbine are there too.
On Monday, a barge carrying three blades and a nacelle for the third turbine left port. As Jeff Martin of Eversource watched, he said it was a “joy” to see the industry finally move from concept to fruition in the United States, to help reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.