Developers of the South Fork Wind farm have completed the offshore installation of the project’s advanced foundation components, which were prefabricated in western New York and assembled in Rhode Island, on the wind farm’s 12 turbine foundations.
The components include internal and external platforms and the underwater anode cages that prevent corrosion.
Ljungstrom, a company in Wellsville, N.Y., shaped steel and prefabricated pieces of the massive components. The company, which traditionally built equipment for coal and gas plants, is now supporting the American offshore wind industry and has recently hired 150 new employees.
From Wellsville, the pieces were delivered to the Port of Providence, where Riggs Distler has built a facility to assemble them into the full advanced foundation components that were loaded and shipped to the wind farm site, approximately 35 miles off Montauk Point.
Orsted, the Danish energy company developing South Fork Wind, acknowledged last month that several of its other offshore wind farm projects have been affected by supply-chain delays, higher interest rates, and uncertainty over investment tax credit qualifications.
But “we remain committed to progressing our projects, investing in the American offshore wind supply chain, and working with partners to find solutions to continue growing this industry,” Ryan Ferguson, head of corporate communications for the Americas region, said in a statement.