The first major US offshore wind project is up and running

By Benjamin Storrow | 03/14/2024 01:42 PM EDT

The South Fork Wind farm has 12 turbines capable of collectively generating enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.

South Fork Wind offshore wind farm is pictured

South Fork Wind, pictured here in the Atlantic Ocean 35 miles east of Long Island, New York, announced it was fully operational Thursday making it the first utility-scale offshore wind farm built in the U.S. South Fork Wind

The first major offshore wind project in the United States is complete.

South Fork Wind’s 12 turbines are spinning and sending power to the New York electric grid, the project’s developers announced today.

The announcement marks a win for the Biden administration and New York officials, who are banking on offshore wind projects built along the coast to generate large quantities of carbon-free electricity needed to combat climate change. Its completion follows a protracted legal and political battle, which saw a concerted effort by the cosmetics billionaire Ron Lauder to sink the project, and comes on the heels of a year that saw the offshore wind industry rocked by supply chain bottlenecks and rampant inflation.

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“South Fork Wind is about the birth of offshore wind at scale,” said Jennifer Garvey, who helped spearhead development of the project for the Danish developer Ørsted. “People really recognized this as a trailblazing project that needed to succeed, that it was a harbinger for the industry and all of the clean energy opportunity that people wanted to see be realized.”

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