The first US-built offshore wind substation is sailing to New York

The first US-built offshore wind substation is complete and headed to South Fork Wind – a major milestone for the US offshore wind industry.

Offshore substations collect and stabilize power that the wind turbines generate, preparing it for transmission to shore. South Fork Wind’s 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall substation was designed and engineered in Kansas, and built near Corpus Christi by Kiewit Offshore Services, the largest offshore fabricator in the US.

The first US-built offshore wind substation left Kiewit’s factory on a ship late last week. It’s going to cross the Gulf of Mexico and then sail up the East Coast for installation off Long Island in a few weeks.

David Hardy, group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted, said:

The completion of South Fork Wind’s offshore wind substation is yet another first for this groundbreaking project and moves us one step closer to the project’s first ‘steel in the water.’

South Fork, which is being jointly developed by Danish wind giant Ørsted and energy provider Eversource, is expected to be operational by 2023, when it will become the first completed utility-scale offshore wind farm in US federal waters.

Cable laying is currently under way, and the installation of monopile foundations will begin in coming weeks.

The 132 megawatt (MW), 12-turbine project will produce enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes in New York.

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Read more: The first US-built offshore wind service ship reaches a milestone

Photo: Orsted