South Fork Wind

Wind Project Site

Title: South Fork Wind

Status:

In Operation

Project Manager:

Eversource, Ørsted

Turbine Developer:

Siemens Gamesa

Website:

External Link

Construction Start:

January 1, 2022

Info Last Updated:

March 18, 2024

Contact:

Info
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Details

Technology:

Fixed Offshore Wind

Project Scale:

Commercial Farm

Turbine Model:

SG 11.0-200 DD

Hub Height:

100.9-143.9 m

Rotor Diameter:

150-224 m

Number of Turbines:

Capacity per Turbine:

6-12 MW

Installed Capacity:

132 MW

Support Structure:

Monopile

Inter-Array Cables:

34.5-66 kV

Export Cables:

AC, Buried Seafloor Cables

Export Cable Voltage:

138 kV

Number of Export Cables:

Cable Landfall:

Horizontal Directional Drill

Physical Site:

Shallow Water (<60m), Marine, Soft-Bottom Habitat

Water Depth:

33-41 m

Distance from Shore:

56.3 km

Country:

United States of America

State:

New York

Description

South Fork Wind is New York’s first offshore wind farm with 12 turbines and a state-of-the-art transmission system that will generate enough clean energy to power 70,000 average homes. South Fork Wind is a 50/50 partnership between Ørsted and Eversource. The underground transmission line will deliver power to the local grid in the Town of East Hampton, NY. Construction on the wind farm started in January 2022 and was completed in mid March 2024.

Location

The South Fork Wind Farm is located in federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in BOEM Renewable Energy Lease Area OCS-A 0517, about 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York. It's also about 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island.

Licensing Information

January 2023: New York Public Service Commission, Notice to Proceed with Construction
2022: Approval of COP, pursuant to BOEM regulations and the National Environmental Policy Act
2022: Issuance of Individual Permit, pursuant to Section 10, Rivers and Harbour’s Act
2022: Issuance of OCS Air Permit, pursuant to the Clean Air Act
2021: Approval of Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA), pursuant to the Marine Mammals Protection Act
2021: Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need was issued
2018: Article VII submission filed to the New York State Public Service Commission
2017: BOEM approved the Site Assessment Plan (SAP) for Lease OCS-A 0486
2017: Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), First approval

Project Timeline

15 May 2024: Construction Completed
6 December 2023: first energy delivered to the grid
August 2023: Substation construction complete
June 2023: First foundation installed for substation
May 2023: Onshore cable installation and road restoration work were completed
February 2022: Onshore construction began
2022: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the Construction and Operations Plan (COP)
2021: BOEM published a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
2021: Essential Fish Habitat Assessment with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Trust Resources submitted to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
2021: Biological Assessments for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NMFS
2020: Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan
2018: BOEM published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

Key Environmental Issues

South Fork Wind has signed an agreement with leading environmental organizations to further enhance measures designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale during construction and operation of the offshore wind farm. South Fork Wind will adopt a suite of monitoring measures to help ensure right whales are not in close proximity to the construction site during construction activities, implement mitigation to reduce noise during piling, and evaluate other new monitoring technologies as part of the agreement. To guard against vessel strikes, the agreement also includes a 10-knot speed limit for all project-related vessels unless an effective adaptive speed management plan is in place. In addition to these mitigation measures, South Fork Wind will test advanced technologies that detect and have the potential to track whales, including thermal cameras, acoustic sensors, and data integration software.

South Fork Wind’s added mitigation measures and work to advance new technologies will serve as a trial to safeguard whales and other marine wildlife. South Fork will install bird deterrent devices on all wind turbines to minimize attraction and collision. The agreement with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), NRDC (Natural Resources Defence Council), and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) expands on the commitment from Ørsted, the leading U.S. offshore wind energy partner, and Eversource, New England’s largest energy provider and experts in regional energy transmission, to responsibly build clean energy projects while minimizing and mitigating impacts to marine wildlife and critical habitat.

Metadata Documents

South Fork Wind: Conditions of Construction and Operations Plan Approval (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2022)
South Fork Wind Farm and South Fork Export Cable Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021)
South Fork Wind Farm Construction and Operations Plan (Ørsted and Eversource 2021)
ABS to class first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind service operation vessel (WPED Staff 2021)
South Fork Wind Farm and South Fork Export Cable Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021)
Protected Species Observer Technical Report for the Ørsted New England IHA, BOEM Lease Areas OCS-A 0486, OCS-A 0487, and OCS-A 0500; 2019–2020 (Smultea et al. 2020)
South Fork Wind Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan (South Fork Wind and INSPIRE Environmental 2020)
South Fork Wind Farm Atlantic Cod Spawning Survey (Gervelis and Carey 2020)
Scientists Collecting Data on Commercial Fish Species in Wind Energy Lease Areas (NOAA Fisheries 2020)
South Fork Wind Farm COP Appendix P2: Animal Exposure Modelling (Denes et al. 2019)
Northeast Offshore Wind Regional Market Characterization: A Report for the Roadmap Project for Multi-State Cooperation on Offshore Wind (Grace et al. 2017)

Phase	Stressor & Receptor	Design and Methods	Results	Publications	Data
Baseline	Invertebrates	Ventless Lobster Survey Ten stations per survey area were randomly selected for sampling, which was conducted twice per month from May – November 2021 with target soak times of five days. One trawl of ten traps (six ventless and four standard vented) were sampled at each station, with abundance and detailed biological data collected on lobsters, Jonah crab, and all bycatch species caught.	Complete Overall, the eastern control area had the highest abundance of lobster, Jonah crab and rock crab, while the South Fork area had the lowest abundance of all three species.	South Fork Wind and INSPIRE Environmental 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Acoustic Modelling for Pile Driving Acoustic fields were modelled for the sound sources expected to contribute to the noise produced during construction of the wind farm. Impulsive noise from impact pile driving of the monopile foundations was modelled for: hammer type, pile type, pile schedule (hammer energy/number of strikes), season, geographic location, and implementation of sound attenuation measures.	Complete As an overall impact-producing factors (IPFs), underwater noise has the potential to cause minor to major impacts on marine mammals, sea turtles, and sturgeon; however, noise produced from impact pile driving, vibratory pile driving, vessels, and turbine operations may have differing impact potentials ranging from negligible to major. Therefore, each of the noise sources were all assessed even if any of the individual sources produced negligible impacts only, they are still addressed in this Appendix due to their contribution to the overall underwater noise impact assessment.	CSA Ocean Sciences Inc 2021, Denes et al. 2019	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Physical Environment	Benthic Habitat Mapping Acoustic and ground-truth data were reviewed in an iterative process to delineate benthic habitats within the project area.	Complete The proposed project design for the South Fork Wind Farm aims to avoids areas with high densities of boulders. The majority of the foundations are sited within areas of Sand and Muddy Sand combined with Coarse Sediment - <5% Cobble/Boulder and very low boulder density.	INSPIRE Environmental 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Reptiles	Acoustic Modelling for Pile Driving Acoustic fields were modelled for the sound sources expected to contribute to the noise produced during construction of the wind farm. Impulsive noise from impact pile driving of the monopile foundations was modelled for: hammer type, pile type, pile schedule (hammer energy/number of strikes), season, geographic location, and implementation of sound attenuation measures.	Complete Due to the placement of noise attenuation devices and general construction activities, no physiological exposures are expected for sea turtles from impact pile driving.	CSA Ocean Sciences Inc 2021, Denes et al. 2019	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Bats	Bat Community Characterization Data for this assessment included regional bat acoustic studies conducted from coastal, island, vessel, or offshore structure locations and regional telemetry data from recent studies focusing on listed species.	Complete Several bat species may occur in the project area. Bat activity was found to be the highest during the migratory seasons (primarily spring and early fall). Weather was also found to influence bat activity and flight height. Bats are more likely to be attracted to WTGs than to avoid them as they may provide new roasting areas and foraging opportunities, which could lead to collisions.	Stantec Consulting 2018	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles	Protected Species Survey From 26 September 2019–25 September 2020 2 survey boats equipped with Penetration Depth Seismic Source, Protected Species Observers (PSOs), passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) operators, and IR cameras preformed offshore and near shore protected species surveys.	Complete The grand total of 103,186 km of Monitoring Effort occurred over a combined total of 15,919 h. The were 591 Mysticete detections, 1369 odontocete detections, and 50 sea turtle detections.	Smultea et al. 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Avian Community Characterization Data were collected during the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (OSAMP) surveys from 2009 to 2012, regional telemetry data from recent studies, pre-construction visual observation surveys conducted for the Block Island Wind Farm, and preliminary results from the first year of post-construction monitoring surveys at the BIWF.	Complete The groups of birds that are likely to occur in the SFWF and SFEC include: •Waterbirds – loons and cormorants •Seabirds – shearwaters, fulmars, storm-petrels, gannets, jaegers, gulls, kittiwakes, terns, and alcids •Waterfowl – seaducks and diving ducks •Shorebirds – primarily plovers, sandpipers, and phalaropes •Terrestrial birds – passerines and raptors	Stantec Consulting 2018	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Atlantic Cod Spawning Survey Hook and line surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2019 to assess the presence of Atlantic cod spawning activity around the proposed SFWF work area.	Complete Surveys confirmed the presence of spawning cod in and around the SFWF work area, though no spawning aggregations were identified within the work area as part of these surveys. Overall, the survey season catches were lower than expected based on previous years’ experiences.	Gervelis and Carey 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Ventless Fish Pot Fisheries Surveys This survey started in June 2021 and is designed to determine the spatial scale of potential impacts on the abundance and distribution of structure associated finfish species due to the construction of wind turbines and the new structure they may provide. Sampling is conducted once per month June through December and will continue through 2026.	Ongoing Fish collected in each pot will be identified to species, weighed, and enumerated. The following data elements will be recorded for each fish pot; total biomass and total number of organisms caught, number and biomass caught for each species, number of species, and length for species caught.	South Fork Wind and INSPIRE Environmental 2020	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Assessment Data from the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and NOAA Habitat Conservation EFH Mapper were reviewed to determine areas of essential fish habitat within the project area.	Complete 41 species of finfish and invertebrates have designated essential fish habitat for various life stages within the project area. Minor impacts to EFH are generally associated with species that have demersal/benthic life stages, while negligible impacts to EFH are generally associated with species that have pelagic life stages.	South Fork Wind 2019	No data publicly available.
Operations	Collision Bats, Birds	Avian and Bat Monitoring Program Acoustic monitoring devices for birds and bats will be installed on turbines.	Planned Results of monitoring will be submitted in an annual report to BOEM.	Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2022	No data publicly available.
Operations	Collision Birds, Fish, Marine Mammals, Reptiles, Sea Turtles	Vessel Crew and Visual Observer Vessel operators and crew members maintain a vigilant watch for marine mammals and sea turtles, and reduce vessel speed, alter the vessel’s course, or stop the vessel as necessary to avoid striking marine mammals or sea turtles. All vessels transiting to and from the SFWF must have a trained lookout for North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) on duty at all times, during which the trained lookout must monitor a vessel strike avoidance zone around the vessel. The trained lookout must maintain a vigilant watch at all times a vessel is underway and, when technically feasible, monitor the 500-meter Vessel Strike Avoidance Zone for ESA-listed species to maintain minimum separation distances.	Planned Results pending	Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2022	No data publicly available.
Construction, Operations	Noise Marine Mammals	Passive Acoustic Monitoring Deployment Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) devices to record ambient noise, marine mammals, and cod vocalizations in the SFWF during all construction activities, and for at least 3 calendar years of operation following construction. The archival recorders must have a minimum capability of detecting and storing acoustic data on anthropogenic noise sources (such as vessel noise, pile driving, and WTG operation), marine mammals, and cod vocalizations in the SFWF.	Ongoing Results pending	Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2022	No data publicly available.
Construction, Operations	Noise Marine Mammals	Passive Acoustic Monitoring Deployment Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) devices to record ambient noise, marine mammals, and cod vocalizations in the SFWF during all construction activities, and for at least 3 calendar years of operation following construction. The archival recorders must have a minimum capability of detecting and storing acoustic data on anthropogenic noise sources (such as vessel noise, pile driving, and WTG operation), marine mammals, and cod vocalizations in the SFWF.	Ongoing Results pending	Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2022	No data publicly available.