The US Department of the Interior has announced that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has completed its review of critical design and installation reports for the South Fork Wind project, clearing the way for the start of turbine construction offshore Rhode Island and New York.
This will be the first commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project to start turbine construction in federal waters in the USA. With BSEE’s completion of the 60-day review of the project’s Facility Design Report and Fabrication and Installation Report, South Fork Wind will now begin with constructing and installing offshore wind turbines on the Outer Continental Shelf, with an estimated completion date of summer 2023. The South Fork project, which was approved by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in November 2021, will directly support approximately 165 jobs over the two-year construction period and approximately 10 long-term jobs during the operations and maintenance period. The offshore wind farm is developed by a 50/50 partnership between Ørsted and Eversource.
