By Sam Lambert
On a perfect autumn morning, I woke up at dawn to prepare for a long ride down to Rhode Island from my home on the northshore of Massachusetts. After spending the better part of this year supporting our volunteer team working on Offshore Wind, I was excited to be invited to tour the South Fork Wind Farm, New York’s first commercial-scale offshore wind site. After several days watching the destruction of Hurricane Helene, I was worried that this trip was not going to happen, but the storm moved out and we were cleared to travel.
I arrived at the departure site in Rhode Island a mere 2.5 hours after leaving home and was greeted by the Julia Leigh, a 33 meter catamaran ferry with ample indoor and outdoor seating. Nearly 200 passengers would be traveling together to see the completed wind farm and a crowd had already formed near the ramp. It was starting to warm up and I was grateful I had opted for layered clothing. The first thing I noticed after boarding was a small vessel near the dock named the Atlantic Resolute with the words Offshore Wind Farm Support on the side. This was the Crew Transport Vessel (CTV) that was responsible for transporting the staff out to the farm to begin or return from their two week shifts at sea. We would see the ECO Edison, their home at sea, just a few hours later.
It took just under two hours from the dock to the wind farm. All trips to the wind farm have a strict speed restriction of 10 knots during transit and operations, as well as require that a Protected Species Observer be on board to watch for and clear travel based on specific and strict rules designed to protect marine life, including Right whales. This time was filled with educational content and many Orsted employees engaging with participants to answer questions and provide important context. We passed the Revolution Wind site and were able to see the pylons standing ready and, as mentioned above, the very large ECO Edison ship from a distance.
As we approached the South Fork Wind Farm site, I was struck by a feeling of awe. I know how large these turbines are, the blades alone are over 300 feet long, but with the ocean as a scale, it did not feel that way. Yet, you could feel the power generated by the ocean wind, knowing that each full rotation powered one home for 24 hours… it was quite breathtaking to see up close. My attention was soon drawn to the MOTUS wildlife tracking station visible on the turbine closest to us. This tracking system allows for research on seabird and bat migration that has proven challenging in the past by providing a station far offshore that can be paired with data from other on and offshore stations. The data from this and other MOTUS stations are available via a public dashboard. Acoustic monitoring is also used to track nearby birds and bats, paired with several other mitigations, like anti-perch technology.
As for the turbines themselves, they are placed one nautical mile apart from one another. At a distance, it's easy to believe they are clustered rather closely, so it was surprising to realize just how far one nautical mile is in person. One might notice that there are no ladders and wonder how the crew accesses the turbine for service and maintenance? Orsted utilizes the Get Up Safe (GUS) system that employs a pulley to pull the technician up from the boat, eliminating potentially exhausting trips by ladder, especially when a technician is accessing multiple turbines in succession. You can watch a video explanation of the system here. It will be exciting to see what other supporting industries are borne from the development of Offshore wind sites in the United States.
An unassuming structure stood among these giants, the first American-made offshore substation. Though at 60 feet tall, about the height of a six story residential building, it's impressive in and of itself. From that substation, subsea cables run along the seafloor to an onshore cable landing site buried far below the beach. The power then travels via underground transmission cables to connect to an inland substation in East Hampton, NY and then distributed to the larger grid, powering an average of 70,000 homes per year.
As we headed back to port, we passed the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, which also hosts a MOTUS station which triangulates with two others onshore. The differences in these turbines were striking. Closer to shore you got a different sense of scale, but also immediately recognized that these were far smaller turbines. Placed in 2016, the turbines of the Block Island Wind Farm were the first five in the U.S., replacing five diesel generators, and capable of providing 100% of the island’s power needs, with excess power exported to the mainland.
Taking in the fresh air and ideal September weather as we finished out our day at sea, I was filled with gratitude at the opportunity to see the wind farm in person, optimism about the future of our energy transition, and a renewed sense of urgency that we need to to better prepare to take advantage of the opportunities this industry will bring. Engaging communities that will be impacted by construction and operations, providing career training and career transition opportunities, educating based on facts, and working with developers to continue to responsibly site and advance this key technology.
