In mid-May, Network staff had the opportunity to visit the first completed offshore wind project in the United States, South Fork Wind, which announced the completion of construction on March 15, 2024. South Fork Wind is only the beginning of a 115,000 MW at-scale clean energy transition that is beneficial to both to the environment, and the American industrial economy that builds it. The 12-turbine project generates 132 MW of clean electricity and delivers it to the Long Island grid, enough to power over 70,000 homes and jumpstart New York State’s march to its 9,000 MW offshore wind goal.
The project is also a test case for the potential offshore wind has to be America’s next great industry. Building the modestly-sized project required a supply chain that stretched across at least 19 states sparked nearly $1 billion in new investments from upstate New York and Connecticut to the Gulf Coast supporting it and other near-term projects. The Network has identified 173 supply chain contracts associated with the South Fork Wind project, ranging from engineering and survey work to vessel construction and operation. From those investments and contracts, the Network can track at least 2,000 Americans who worked in manufacturing and construction jobs alone that supported the project – a total that does not include the long-term operations and maintenance jobs created to support the project’s two-decade lifespan, or the hundreds of planning, development, or lower tier supply chain jobs. American unions are serving as the backbone of these projects and filling many of the jobs with locals who supply labor for port redevelopment, component manufacturing, turbine installation, and maintenance work.
As was the case with America’s first test project, Block Island Wind Farm, the Gulf of Mexico played an outsized role, leveraging its offshore construction expertise to give new opportunities to legacy oil and gas suppliers.
On May 10, industry leaders and government dignitaries, like U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (LA-02), came together in New Orleans for the launching of the first new-build SOV in the U.S., the ECO Edison. The $100 million vessel put 600 individuals to work at the Edison Chouest shipyard in Southern Louisiana and yielded a supply chain reaching 34 states. While constructed in the Gulf, the Edison will operate more than 1,500 miles away, safely housing and transporting workers during weeks-long deployments for Ørsted’s Northeastern projects, such as South Fork Wind and its under-construction big brother, the 704 MW Revolution Wind.
The May 2024 christening of ECO Edison, the first new-build SOV in the U.S., constructed at the Edison Chouest shipyard in Louisiana. (Courtesy: Edison Chouest)
Further west, Texas’ Gulf Copper retrofitted an existing barge that operator Crowley used to transport the turbine blades — as long as a football field — and massive nacelles from port to the South Fork installation site. In Corpus Christi, Texas, Kiewit Offshore Services manufactured the first American-made offshore wind substation with the help of 350 workers in the Gulf and in Kansas. Gulf operators like Otto Candies and Guice Offshore also brought vessels out of the Gulf to support installation activities. In the case of Otto Candies, their vessels were even retrofitted in the Gulf to better serve the offshore wind industry.
South Fork Wind also featured the first American-manufactured offshore wind components. Export cables, which carry power from the American-made offshore substation to shore, were manufactured near Charleston, South Carolina in Nexans’ new $200 million facility that employs 200 locally (and exports globally). Long Island’s Haugland Group put 100 to work building the onshore transmission system that linked the export cables from the shore to the grid, and Roman Stone provided the concrete mattresses that protect the cables. In western New York, Ljungström invested $10.7 million to revive an ailing steel mill and hired 200 more people to meet the demand from offshore wind. The facility provided the steel for Riggs Distler’s $40 million plant in the Port of Providence (ProvPort) where more than 100 trades workers manufactured huge internal steel cages and external platforms that allow workers to access the foundation and tower base.
Offshore wind’s need for port space and access is immense, and the development of South Fork Wind helped inject hundreds of millions in new investments into northeastern ports, such as Port Jefferson in New York where the Eco Edison will be stationed. To support installation activities, $310 million went into redeveloping the New London State Pier in Connecticut, which yielded an estimated 400 jobs and a world-class offshore wind marshalling port where towers, blades, and nacelles are housed as they await transit to the wind project. Now complete, the pier will support at least two more wind farm installations –– Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. In Rhode Island, ProvPort has been transformed into a vital hub for the industry by providing manufacturing, storage, and general operations services for the industry as it supports installation activities off New England. On the day the Network visited, the Cade Candies — a vessel out of Louisiana and retrofitted to work on offshore wind — was docked. This is a common occurrence at ProvPort where dozens of Gulf assets have already called.
Above: The substation at South Fork Wind, the first of its kind manufactured in the U.S. It was built in Corpus Christi, Texas by Kiewit Offshore Services.
Further down the bay, the Port of Davisville is undergoing its own $200 million redevelopment in part to support its role as an operations and maintenance hub for South Fork Wind and other projects. At the neighboring airport, HeliService USA has transported up to 180 workers per day by helicopter to perform installation and maintenance activities at northeast projects. By water, WindServe Marine and American Offshore Services are operating five Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) for project developer Ørsted’s northeastern projects, all manufactured at nearby Rhode Island shipyards Senesco Marine and Blount Boats; Senesco has on hundreds of workers to support manufacturing of these and other offshore wind vessels. Each of these companies are employing scores of workers who will be transporting turbine technicians and operators out to project sites for decades to come.
South Fork Wind provides a window into the economic opportunity offshore wind presents the nation. Just readying the U.S. to build this 12-turbine project sparked hundreds of millions in new investments and put at least 2,000 people to work in manufacturing and construction jobs. Harder to quantify are the hundreds that supported the project by performing engineering and survey work — such as Haley & Aldrich, Inspire Environmental, Keystone Engineering, or Woods Hole Group — or local supply businesses like Red Ironworks and Miller Marine, who provided critical construction support.
The U.S. market is now accelerating deployment with three projects, all multitudes larger than South Fork Wind –– the 704 MW Revolution Wind project that will heavily rely on the supply chain developed by South Fork Wind, the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1, which is primarily based out of Massachusetts, and the 2,587 MW Coastal Virginia project. Many more projects are in the development pipeline as U.S. states have already collectively set goals for more than 115,000 MW of offshore wind.
