“This is just the beginning.”

The United States marked a major milestone in the development of the vast potential of offshore wind energy: our first electric power from a commercial offshore wind project came ashore in New York.

Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource announced last Wednesday that the first electricity from the project had entered the U.S. power grid. Developers named the wind farm South Fork Wind, which is 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York. Furthermore, Ørsted plans to make the farm a 12-turbine wind farm by the end of the project.

Stephanie McClellan, executive director of Turn Forward, called this announcement “an incredible moment in the American clean energy story.” Positively, McClellan said South Fork will be a source of clean, reliable, domestically-produced energy. “This is just the beginning of what offshore wind can do.” 

New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) President Julie Tighe agreed. “With Governor Kathy Hochul’s bold leadership and with smart and innovative companies like Orsted and Eversource that are committed to developing — and are capable of delivering — large-scale renewable energy projects, we know this is just the beginning.” 

We look forward to the day that South Atlantic offshore wind projects begin providing the same clean, reliable, renewable energy directly to the power grid in North Carolina.

How NC wind development could be an answer to project cancellations

Recently, various companies canceled wind projects because their contracts require them to supply power at rates too low to recover their costs. That situation does not apply to the North Carolina projects, which are at an earlier stage of development. Contract rates for the wind energy purchase would be able to take inflation-adjusted current construction costs into account. Thus, North Carolina could become instrumental in helping the U.S. meet its wind energy goals. Read more here!