New York is days away from having its first offshore wind turbine. The first wind turbine components for the South Fork offshore wind farm have been loaded onto a barge and the installation vessel Aeolus is already in the project site area.
The South Fork team has loaded out the components for the first wind turbine – the tower sections, blades and the nacelle – onto a barge at the State Pier Terminal in New London, Connecticut.
The @SouthForkWind team was hard at work this weekend preparing the project's first wind turbine tower, blades and nacelle for transit to the wind farm site! Soon the components will sail out and be installed at New York's first offshore wind farm ? pic.twitter.com/SDtnCWWE3x
All monopile foundations and the project’s offshore substation were installed this summer, and the wind turbine components started arriving in New London around the same time.
According to a recent post by South Fork Wind, a project company owned by Ørsted, Van Oord’s installation vessel Aeolus arrived in the US last week and stopped in Rhode Island for inspection before heading to the offshore wind farm site.
The vessel’s AIS currently shows Aeolus in the project site area.
Ocean State stopover! #SouthForkWind 's turbine installation vessel, the Aeolus, arrived this week for inspections before heading out soon to the project site offshore. Exciting work ahead for New York's 1st offshore wind farm! pic.twitter.com/3cywhHoaii
The 132 MW South Fork offshore wind farm is located some 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and around 56 kilometres (35 miles) east of Montauk Point, New York.
The project, the first offshore wind farm in New York, will comprise twelve Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines and is expected to produce its first electricity by the end of this year.